Hello to all. I am a lurker around this forum, this is my first post.
It's nice to meet all of you as well as viewing many of the members excellent projects.
This was a very special project for me that I have been wanting to take on for about 5 years. the timing was never right and this project just kept being pushed back and back etc..
I have few vintage Rolex's in my collection. All of them are Gen, This goes for all of the watches I own.
I have seen few posts here of members who have built their own custom Rolex Milsubs with ETA movements that are actually very nice.. The only thing that bothered me is that the cases and movements were not rolex original.
I mean who in their right mind would hack up a real Rolex 5513 to create the ultimate 5517? Well that person would be me.
For awhile I was set out to find the right vintage 5513 rolex with strong lugs in original condition with a strong rolex powerhouse 1520 caliber.
I finally found the right one and the project began..
I have been working with watches for some time, I have many tools, most of them being the finest bergeon tools you can get. So I advise no one to try this themselves unless you have much experience. Otherwise you could end up with a few thousand dollar rolex you have to toss in the trash.
First, I did a lot of research to see how I would set out to do the fixed bars..
I contacted member Bonesey for some advise on the fixed bars so special thanks to him for taking the time to give me some info. Standard fixed bars for Rolex Milsubs are 2mm. I decided to go with 1.8mm 316L stainless round bar as I did not want the bar to intrude too much into the chamfers and would ensure the case could handle many years of polishing's and abuse without the Lugs being compromised from the metal getting too thin on the outer lug area. that .2mm makes a big difference.
anyways, after dropping the movement from the watch, I began to hand drill the current spring bar lug holes to the desired 1.89mm. It's important you drill the holes out perfectly straight or else you will end up with uneven holes..
finished fixed bars
I then gave the lugs a polish as I like the high polish look some of the vintage milsubs have. After the buffing out the watch but keeping some of the light marks and dents as character, I reinstalled the movement back into the watch. You can see the original tritium glossy dial with WG surrounds and matching tritium hands.
As you can see on the side of the lug, the fixed bar is pressure fit into the watch case. No epoxy, or weld was used. The bars were pressed into the case and are not going anywhere.
Next I set out to find the right right Dial and hands. Many aftermarket dials I have seen from many different company's did not have the right font on their milsub dials.. Either the font was too thin, or not placed properly and some, the markers did not look accurate.
Now this watch was not made to try and fool anyone into thinking it is real. This was made as a fun conversion keeping it as rolex original as possible.
I knew this would be such a fun watch to wear and to have without paying the 100k price tag, it will pretty much be the same as the real 5517. All the MOD did was get batches of rolex 5513's, they would mod them added fixed bars in the same way I did, they would print up aftermarket dials and hands and bezel inserts and swap the parts, then DONE. A military spec rolex.
anyways, after a long 8 week battle with a company I will not name trying to get the dial which I special ordered with just a couple small changes to my request. The dial markers are inactive and do not glow. They have a nice cream patina. The hands were ordered through a different vendor out of Geneva. I did not want the hands to perfectly match the dial, I wanted them a shade off as the real vintage milsub hands were produced by different vendors than the dials and they age differently causing the colors to be slightly off from the dials in most cases but not all.
the hands I ordered are cream patina. SO... Once I got the dial, hands and milsub insert, I started to install everything.. The insert tritium pearl was transferred from the Gen insert to the new mil insert. The insert I used was not a cheap 30 dollar insert you find on the bay.. it's a good quality insert. It's important you buy a good quality insert because it will snap in the bezel like the Gen's do and hold a strong pressure fit with no glue required. Same goes for the pearl, It will hold the pearl nice and snug like a gen Rolex insert. I spot the inside of the insert with a dab of epoxy just for good measure to really secure the pearl down.
So all and all, the only things that are aftermarket on this watch are the Insert, dial and hands.. Oh yea and the fixed bars of course.. I ordered a brand new gen rolex tropic crystal for this build and installed that as well.
I wanted everything to look very clean.
The dial was a pain in the butt to install. A couple mods had to be made to fit it to the 1520 movement.. I wish it was plug and play but it simply is not.
once everything was installed properly, I let the watch run down for 48 hours.. This 48 hours the watch is considered in critical care, if anything is going to go wrong, it will happen within this time period. I actually had to calibrate the movement to compensate for the heavier hands.. So once the watch was now keeping time like a chronometer should, the gasket was oiled and the case back sealed.
A few phoenix nato straps were ordered for the watch. For most of you who don't know about Phoenix nato's.. They are the exact company that supplied all the nato straps for the British military watches and still do from this day. They are made and shipped out of the UK. excellent straps and I highly recommend them. This was a very expensive project, as well as a real pain, but the finished product is so worth it. This is an Authentic Rolex 5513 converted to 5517 and probably one of the most accurate you will ever see. It was truly a labor of love. I did not want to replicate the army numbers engraved on the case back for obvious reasons.. Dial installed super clean, no dust, no dial scratches/marks, hands are flawless with no marks, installed using nylon tweezers. Any dust seen is on top of the crystal. I'm a stickler when it comes to dial dust or installation marks on the hands.
So enough talk.. Without further ado, here is the finished product.
I hope you all like it and would love to hear what everyone has to say about this project. :cheers:
It's nice to meet all of you as well as viewing many of the members excellent projects.
This was a very special project for me that I have been wanting to take on for about 5 years. the timing was never right and this project just kept being pushed back and back etc..
I have few vintage Rolex's in my collection. All of them are Gen, This goes for all of the watches I own.
I have seen few posts here of members who have built their own custom Rolex Milsubs with ETA movements that are actually very nice.. The only thing that bothered me is that the cases and movements were not rolex original.
I mean who in their right mind would hack up a real Rolex 5513 to create the ultimate 5517? Well that person would be me.
For awhile I was set out to find the right vintage 5513 rolex with strong lugs in original condition with a strong rolex powerhouse 1520 caliber.
I finally found the right one and the project began..
I have been working with watches for some time, I have many tools, most of them being the finest bergeon tools you can get. So I advise no one to try this themselves unless you have much experience. Otherwise you could end up with a few thousand dollar rolex you have to toss in the trash.
First, I did a lot of research to see how I would set out to do the fixed bars..
I contacted member Bonesey for some advise on the fixed bars so special thanks to him for taking the time to give me some info. Standard fixed bars for Rolex Milsubs are 2mm. I decided to go with 1.8mm 316L stainless round bar as I did not want the bar to intrude too much into the chamfers and would ensure the case could handle many years of polishing's and abuse without the Lugs being compromised from the metal getting too thin on the outer lug area. that .2mm makes a big difference.
anyways, after dropping the movement from the watch, I began to hand drill the current spring bar lug holes to the desired 1.89mm. It's important you drill the holes out perfectly straight or else you will end up with uneven holes..
finished fixed bars
I then gave the lugs a polish as I like the high polish look some of the vintage milsubs have. After the buffing out the watch but keeping some of the light marks and dents as character, I reinstalled the movement back into the watch. You can see the original tritium glossy dial with WG surrounds and matching tritium hands.
As you can see on the side of the lug, the fixed bar is pressure fit into the watch case. No epoxy, or weld was used. The bars were pressed into the case and are not going anywhere.
Next I set out to find the right right Dial and hands. Many aftermarket dials I have seen from many different company's did not have the right font on their milsub dials.. Either the font was too thin, or not placed properly and some, the markers did not look accurate.
Now this watch was not made to try and fool anyone into thinking it is real. This was made as a fun conversion keeping it as rolex original as possible.
I knew this would be such a fun watch to wear and to have without paying the 100k price tag, it will pretty much be the same as the real 5517. All the MOD did was get batches of rolex 5513's, they would mod them added fixed bars in the same way I did, they would print up aftermarket dials and hands and bezel inserts and swap the parts, then DONE. A military spec rolex.
anyways, after a long 8 week battle with a company I will not name trying to get the dial which I special ordered with just a couple small changes to my request. The dial markers are inactive and do not glow. They have a nice cream patina. The hands were ordered through a different vendor out of Geneva. I did not want the hands to perfectly match the dial, I wanted them a shade off as the real vintage milsub hands were produced by different vendors than the dials and they age differently causing the colors to be slightly off from the dials in most cases but not all.
the hands I ordered are cream patina. SO... Once I got the dial, hands and milsub insert, I started to install everything.. The insert tritium pearl was transferred from the Gen insert to the new mil insert. The insert I used was not a cheap 30 dollar insert you find on the bay.. it's a good quality insert. It's important you buy a good quality insert because it will snap in the bezel like the Gen's do and hold a strong pressure fit with no glue required. Same goes for the pearl, It will hold the pearl nice and snug like a gen Rolex insert. I spot the inside of the insert with a dab of epoxy just for good measure to really secure the pearl down.
So all and all, the only things that are aftermarket on this watch are the Insert, dial and hands.. Oh yea and the fixed bars of course.. I ordered a brand new gen rolex tropic crystal for this build and installed that as well.
I wanted everything to look very clean.
The dial was a pain in the butt to install. A couple mods had to be made to fit it to the 1520 movement.. I wish it was plug and play but it simply is not.
once everything was installed properly, I let the watch run down for 48 hours.. This 48 hours the watch is considered in critical care, if anything is going to go wrong, it will happen within this time period. I actually had to calibrate the movement to compensate for the heavier hands.. So once the watch was now keeping time like a chronometer should, the gasket was oiled and the case back sealed.
A few phoenix nato straps were ordered for the watch. For most of you who don't know about Phoenix nato's.. They are the exact company that supplied all the nato straps for the British military watches and still do from this day. They are made and shipped out of the UK. excellent straps and I highly recommend them. This was a very expensive project, as well as a real pain, but the finished product is so worth it. This is an Authentic Rolex 5513 converted to 5517 and probably one of the most accurate you will ever see. It was truly a labor of love. I did not want to replicate the army numbers engraved on the case back for obvious reasons.. Dial installed super clean, no dust, no dial scratches/marks, hands are flawless with no marks, installed using nylon tweezers. Any dust seen is on top of the crystal. I'm a stickler when it comes to dial dust or installation marks on the hands.
So enough talk.. Without further ado, here is the finished product.
I hope you all like it and would love to hear what everyone has to say about this project. :cheers:
