Rolex 1500 crazy vintage build (Nobody told me this is impossible to do, so i did)

[HootschiGootschi]

Hey peeps....

As some of you may know, I’m really into Rolex and had a lot of up’s & down’s in the last two decades with the reps & gens i bought, owned & sold.
Being here as a member since last year, i learned quite a lot more about the efforts & ideas of other members, which demands me a lot of respect.
Such a huge amount mods, Frankens, etc. is amazing.

Saying that, i want to let you be part of one of my „crazy“ projects, which i started while I’m getting bored about corona.

It’s about a Rolex 1500 vintage.....
The 1500s are vintage Rolex’s with 34mm case size, plastic crystals & get quite often cannibalized for their vintage 1570 movements.

So what’s the story?

I friend of mine sold a 1500 case with crystal, dial, hands & caseback for 350€ some time ago & after short consideration i decided to buy it for this project.

Here is what i got as base:

Originally my idea was to make use of it with an ETA 2824/36 ..
Unfortunately I discovered soon that this wouldn’t work because of the different Stem height.
That was the moment when i asked myself: why not use an 3135 instead?

Crazy idea, i know.
but nobody told me, so i did.

I milled the case a bit to make space for the 3135:

Discovered lately that i need to have an open 6 & 9 champagne or gold datedisc for 3135, which doesn’t exist.
So i build the datedisc by my own...
https://forum.replica-watch.info/fo...r-what-happens-when-you-get-bored-till-corona

beside the date part i customized the genuine hands to fit onto the 3135 movement.

some pics of the actual state:

In summary i have an genuine vintage Rolex 1500 from the 60s with original patina and an VR3135 movement ticking inside... haha..

Guess i will make use of a simple leather bracelet at the end...

We will see..

 

[James2020]

Damn, that’s looks good! Congrats on successfully fitting the 3135 inside the case...

 

[Docrolex]

Great job, how did you modify the hands to fit the movement?

 

[HootschiGootschi]

Great job, how did you modify the hands to fit the movement?

You need the right tools for smoothing the boreholes of the hands...
Tricky job to do, as hour, minute & seconds hands from a 1570 movement have overall different boreholes than 3135.
as 3135 is bigger in size, so it’s doable

 

[Dylan32]

wonderful, you are a good master

 

[Katarsis]

Very impressive. Nice machine to have access to.
​​​​​

 

[HootschiGootschi]

At least..
the wrist shot...

 

[Docrolex]

Im loving those small rolex watches, have several of them and i like wearing wearing them. I have a spare 1500 complete case, dial, hands and crown, could you provide the exact bore and depth of bore? Hope my lathe is not too large for the small watch head. I even think I should have a 15000 dial and hands, those should fit the movement without changes. I have fitted a gen. 16xxx case with a VR3135, and the rotor was hitting the caseback. Did you have to machine the caseback for the rotor to move freely?

 

[HootschiGootschi]

unfortunately I didn’t took measurements all the way.
It was more a question of try & error (& try again)
that takes some time...

My starting point was to fit the 1500 dial to the 3135.
(you need to be aware that the 1500 dial is smaller than the 3135 movement in diameter)

After this, i milled the 1500 case down to the 3135 default case diameter & in a way that dial & movement sit perfectly together.

And yes, there is only a few micrometers left between the rotor and the caseback.

I assume that in some cases you may need to minimize the rotor somehow because of the case tolerances

 

[trailboss99]

That sir is very cool indeed. Nice work.

 

[HootschiGootschi]

That sir is very cool indeed. Nice work.

Thank you....

 

[HootschiGootschi]

& finally a video & pic from the timegrapher...
(this is how a vr3135 could work)

 

[Voo-doo]

Very nice !! Im trying to build myself a 1500. Have everything except the date wheel for a 2824 -_- any ideas?

 

[Tione12]

Wow! This is such a hard work. Congrats mate

 

[HootschiGootschi]

Very nice !! Im trying to build myself a 1500. Have everything except the date wheel for a 2824 -_- any ideas?

That doesn’t work with an 2824 because of the stem height

 

[Voo-doo]

That doesn’t work with an 2824 because of the stem height

What if I cut the stem? Will that work. Because I have a these parts laying around ????????

 

[HootschiGootschi]

What if I cut the stem? Will that work. Because I have a these parts laying around ????????

Nope....

Cutting the stem is related to it length, but has nothing to do with the stem height.
This is the distance between the dial & the center of the stem.

However,
2824 wouldn’t work

 

[Voo-doo]

Ah it's like that. Darn haha sitting around with a bunch of parts ????????????

 

[sophia93]

That's a awesome watch! Can you show me some store to buy?
Do you want to find a suitable car? Visit IM BANNED BECAUSE I SPAMMED now!

 

[deadpan]

That's a awesome watch! Can you show me some store to buy?

Raddave