r/retrotime

I’d like to share my very first relume job with you all.
I had half an hour of free time during the day today after receiving my first Noctilumina kit, and well… I simply couldn’t wait until the evening. I had to give it a try.
I had a set of worn hands, so I quickly removed the old lume from them and started my very first attempt. I watched quite a few videos to get an idea of what the ideal consistency should look like after mixing the binder and pigment. I managed to get a pretty good mix, so I quickly used the remaining time to do all three hands.
Unfortunately, because I was rushing, there was still a tiny bit of the previous lume left in the hour hand, which is unfortunately visible…
They now need 72 hours to fully cure. After that, I’ll polish them to correct the areas where the lume slightly went over the edge onto the visible surface.
I’ll share a photo of the final result in the comments once they’re finished.
But enough talking — here is my very first amateur relumed set of hands in my life.
Have a great evening/day, everyone!

Coming soon !!

Same classic Big Red look, built for three different budgets:

• Cartel bezel — entry level
• Milk bezel — step it up
• Viet bezel — go all in

Different price points, same goal

Classic Buckleys !

Thoughts?

Liquidation of Dials

BPF Aged 1675 GMT Master Dial - Aged - £20
2836 GMT Feet / 27.9mm / Matte

Raffles Aged 'Tiffany' Submariner Dial - SOLD
2824 Feet / 28.5mm / Matte

ARF 16610 Submariner Dial SOLD
3130 Feet / 28.3mm / Gloss

BPF 16618 (Gold) Submariner Dial SOLD
3130 Feet / 27.7mm / Gloss

Raffles Aged Albino Submariner Dial £15
2824 Feet / 28.9mm / Matte

BPF 16710 GMT Master II Dial £25
3185 Feet / 27.5mm / Gloss

All prices plus postage of your choice.

Payment via Paypal f&f, Revolut or Bank Transfer

Hey all,

I’ve got some goods for sale for a nice Franken. Got kids coming soon so have to change priorities haha.

Genuine 16610 Pointed 4 Bezel with ARF Case, Hands, Dial, Crown, and Bracelet ($400)

Genuine 16610 Dial (Fits 3135) ($1000)

Feel free to negotiate.

Left the house at 5 to catch the train for an all day of meetings. Rocking the 16800 and remembered is open 9 day 😂 first time putting in the NATO. Why didn’t I do this earlier lol Have a great day!

I am slowly clearing out some projects and parts as I want to consolidate, hopefully around a few gens. My loss is your gain! Feel free to make offers.
Shipping from Netherlands. NL -> 7 EU, Europe -> 15 EU, WW -> 40 EU

1. GEN explorer ii bezel with the original gen crystal (without cyclops, but I can send a raffles crystal to be donor). Condition on this is tough but can be just right for those looking for a worn look. Looking for 125 EU, that includes the crystal and donor raffles cyclops.

2. OC 16710 case w/ lug holes and tube (not pictured). Paid 360, anything above 300 EU is good for me

3. GEN fadede coke bezel: 100 EU

4. GEN 295 crystal used but good condition: 75 EU

5. Datejust Build: NEEDS WORK - too many shots at the VS3135 keyless. Either you can fix it or need to throw in a new 3135, so I’m selling it cheap. Raffles base, Alix hands and crown, gen dial with erosion in the center (personally I like it). Looking for 150 EU. Will also include a free raffles fluted bezel!

6. DrVintage / Natas 5513 dial. Bought new on RWI. These two legends made a batch of these dials 3-4 months ago voor 80 EU. Can sell for 60.

Have more stuff coming that I am getting fixed or need to photograph, so feel free to ask :)

Welp…posted this baby for sale, and it didn’t go anywhere. So, I decided to modify it more to my liking.
Mods since sales post:
- Genuine bezel ring and click spring to go with the gen retaining ring - the mechanism now is amazing!!
- Gen 16800 Blue Tritium insert
- Steel Reef adjustable link (really nice to have the micro adjustment)

Last pic is the before. Love this build, and now I’ll keep her.

Clearning out my parts drawer, these were all bought at one time or another and I've not ended up using them so here they are..

Prices are in GBP as i'm UK based but I can post world wide and do a deal if you want a few parts. Shipping I can get a cheap rate usually, DM me your country and i'll work it out.

GEN 703 Tube - NEW, never used - 45 GBP

GEN 533 Tube - NEW, Blistered, opened but never used, includes all seals - 45 GBP

GEN Vintage DJ dial, lovely champagne patina 145 GBP

GEN 3035 date disc, open 6 & 9 - 40 GBP

VIET 1675 fuscia faded insert, fat font serif, gorgeous 50 GBP

OC 1675 Blueberry insert, faded - 20 GBP

Nice 16610LV Insert, good quality, unknown source. Much better than the shitty 4 dollar ones off aliX - 10 GBP

Raffles case and bracelet, VR3135, ewatchpart hands, and a genuine silver T Swiss T dial. Rebrushed the bracelet as well.

Had an old white Roman dial from Ken in it while I decided what gen dial to go with - landed on this silver with slight yellow tint and black line markers.

Pleased with the result. Gen dial looks 10x better than the Raffles one.

Since I usually overestimate my abilities, this was quite a roller coaster ride. I had never worked with a watch before.

- BP 16600
- Gen 14060 insert
- vs3135
- Gen spec 25-285 crystal (thus gen height ~14.8mm)
- crown Guards reshaped
- bracelet chamfered
- slight aging on case and bracelet

Had 2-3 Breakdowns due to the bezel construction and a lost fixation screw of the movement but eventually quite happy with the result.

Female 5.75” suck. Only 5 links to remove :(

Hi All,

Just a quick one. If I wanted to either buy or build a decent replica of the above... Where would I start? I found (completely off and not octagonal) Militado homages on Ali, which I could use for a fantasy model... But there may be a better choice... (?)

Does anyone have information about how to take appart the bp 16610 bezel? I want to do some mods. I am not sure if its worth it since the bezel movement is so of compared with the gen. Iam using the rep as a daily to save the 1999 16610 swiss only. Let me know if you have any info.

I wanted to show you the build i made this evening, it is a full custom build with gen parts and has a very high quality dial 😁

Speaking about vintage Daytona, there are many reps and very huge quality differences…

A lot of them are simply stock reps with a bad plastic bezel and low quality parts, many of them are stock reps just light reworked with a new dial and better glass and crown, some of them are stock reworked and reshaped, with better bezel, dial and overall better quality…

But only very few of them are a really state-of-the-art watches, and they are not meant to be just a simple replicas bought and used sometimes, but are meant to be loved as a very special timepiece for people who really care about details and really wants to own one of these extraordinary watches…

It’s because of these last ones that I take care of every little detail, the quality of all the parts used, the aging of the dial with real oxidation, the aging of the case to show like a real 60 years old watch, the hands exactly the same as the valjoux ones with short lumes, the reluming of lumedots and hands with tritium-like colour, the pushers that needs to be in the correct positions and coming out from the same height, exactly like in the gen, details that are impossible to achieve starting from the stock cartel case…

I always try to reach this level, always search for better components, always try to improve the quality of the works, and that big passion leads me to big satisfactions ❤️

But most of all, the passion that I feel when I am in my lab, with all my tools around me, after a full 10 hours day of work, while my children are screaming all around the house, I feel like I’m into a bubble 🫧 a bubble made of ticking and filled with the smell of steel, and I love it…

I want to thank you, all of you for the friendship and the support you gave me through these last two years in this wonderful journey 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼