Former RWG Mod

[freddy333]

I am a long-time amateur watchmaker (NOT accepting any new work, sorry) & collector of both gens & reps, among other things. I was an early member of multiple gen & rep forums (including RWI, but ended up spending most of my rep forum time on RWG, where I was conscripted (by the Admin) into the Mods).

For a variety of reasons, around 2012, my attentions were drawn away from watches only to have my passion renewed a couple of years ago when I dropped my secs @ 6 7750-powered 116520 & began searching the web for ETA parts. By sheer happenstance, I stumbled on an RWI thread discussing Daytona & 4130 clones, which blew my mind. After days of reading some of the lengthy threads on the subject, I ordered a 116520 clone from my old friend, Andrew (trustytime), & was dumb struck (in the best of ways) upon the watch's arrival. Not only did The Big Kahuna exceed my expectations, but it single-handedly renewed my PASSION in watch collecting & returned me to my tweaking bench to see about improving the few relatively minute issues the clone had out of the box.

I am now on my 4th clone project (116710LN -- described elsewhere) & ruminating over a 5th.

 

[tripdog]

A lot of progress has been made in reps over the last 10 or so years.

 

[freddy333]

A lot of progress has been made in reps over the last 10 or so years.

You can say that again! Truly a case of if you snooze, you lose.

I remember when we had to literally MANUFACTURE the parts to craft together a reasonable facsimile of a 6542. Today, you can pick up very reasonable copies from just about every TD.

Here is that original 6542 (2008 - center) along with its gen (sans bezel insert) sister (2010-ish - right) --

 

[QueTip]

Hello again man! It’s been a while!

 

[tripdog]

You can say that again! Truly a case of if you snooze, you lose.
I remember when we had to literally MANUFACTURE the parts to craft together a reasonable facsimile of a 6542. Today, you can pick up very reasonable copies from just about every TD.

Yes, I remember reading threads like yours on those watches and tried building a couple of them myself, though things are a little simpler now, thankfully.

[SOLD] - 1959 Rolex 6542 GMT Red Depth.

1959 6542 GMT Red Depth. A great deal of time and effort has gone into this watch in order to create an authentic looking 6542 GMT. No one part of the watch is in its original state, every part has been modified in some way in order to achieve the desired result. The dial is customized to give...

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