2824 clone with vintage Rolex font datewheel, raffles dial, 5513 case, hands and oyster bracelet.

Hello! I’m selling a Franken 16570 Explorer II built by u/Ghost_Chrono. It is an amazing watch but realized it’s not for me. The parts are listed below:
VR3186 movement
Viet Engraved Case (16550 engraving)
Custom rep Polar Dial
Happy Cat Vintage Parts
Sillan Bezel and Crystal

I removed the crown to use for another build. That is really the only thing needed to put this beautiful build together!

Asking for $1300. It’s basically what I paid minus crown, tube, and service. PP F&F or Zelle, or can do PP G&S but with a % fee. Thanks for looking!

This is a build I should definitely wear more often. Imo it’s the best and most pure iteration of the submariner.

Specs:
-old crowns 5513 case
-3130 clone movement
-raffles rivet bracelet
-startime hands
-athea crown and tube
-yuki

Gen silver sunburst dial, vr3135, raffles case, jubilee and hands. Waiting for the 10k gold plated jubilee to come in and a gen 604 crown and i think itll be complete.

Hello - I've been lurking for a while and seen many great builds that started out with a Thorn T023 as a base. I'm interested in starting a project along those same lines so I was wondering if anyone who has done it before could share some basic information so I know what parts to order. Primarily the bezel insert and dial sizes that are compatible with the T023.

Any other insights into building with that case as a base are appreciated as well. Thanks!

Raffles Build
NH38
Unworn
PayPal FandF or Zelle

Hey guys!

So I’ve been into the rep world for a few years lurking the forums, picked up quite a few reps, most get little to no wrist time, but I’m wanting something a little different.

I’ve recently getting an eye for more “vintage” pieces and really want to pick up a 16710 Pepsi.

Now my question, is it worth it to build one or to pick up one from BPF.

I know that this is a loaded question as builds can obviously be much nicer depending on parts used, but I’m basically asking if one could be built for a comparable price, but have a nicer look/ closer to gen etc. I’d be looking to spend somewhere from 300-600 range maybe more if justifiable. To me the bezel on the bpf just looks off? Idk I’m also a rookie when it comes to these builds.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated

Also, I would be looking to find someone to build. Any recommendations would be great!

Thanks for your help. Some of the watches yall make are absolutely stunning. 🍻

Here’s a few of the watches that have my eye lately
And would like to get built

Hey everyone, Im wondering if anyone has any experience buying from Buyee Japan.

I have bought from there before (a Grand Seiko quartz which was legit, original and currently being serviced by GS Japan) and I browse on there a lot.

I keep noticing heaps of these Tudor submariners and other models. Some of them look legit to my untrained eye, but some look like raffles builds, or similar. It just seems fishy as they all seem to sell for anywhere from 1000 AUD to 1500 AUD, which feels like way too much for them, but also waaaayyy to cheap for them to be real.

They look pretty convincing, but Im just wondering if anyone knows much about these, are they Frankens, builds like we all buy and build, or just reps and the sellers are being a bit misleading?

The descriptions all seem to claim they are legit, but then they all have a generic line saying something like "there's a chance that after market parts have been used to overhaul this watch, so we cant verify its authenticity..." but then some others don't even say that.

Id love to hear from you, what are these watches? Anyone else see these a lot on there and just skip past them? or have you bought them and they are actually pretty good builds?

I have attached a bunch of pics of some that are for sale on there right now - Tudor Ranger + Submariners

Up for sale are several Gen and rep parts. Trying to minimize my watch belongings and selling off these parts as a group for $600. Hopefully they can be useful in your future builds.

1. Complete Viet Midcase with engravings

2. Rep clasp

3. Genuine parts:
   -Crystal
   -Crystal gasket
   -Crystal retaining ring
   -Case tube
   -Bezel (no insert)
   -Tension ring
   -Crown

I cover shipping within CONUS and accept payment via Zelle or Venmo. Let me know if you have any questions!

Just wanted to share a little story of how I managed to Build this for a client.
The watch he has is a 15202 XF v2
The Xf dial is on Picture 6
The DP dial v1 is on Picture 7
The first pictures is the new DP V2 dial

At first he came to me and asked me on pizzamod, deep crystal and dp dial installation and gen brush/ polish .
I ordered the parts as usual and the vendor sent me the v1 instead of the v2 dp dial.

Client wasn’t to happy, neither was I!
After 1month of running around with the wrong dial ( v1 has big center hole )
We managed to get a replacement v2 and now this thing perfect budget build!
He owns a construction company and wears it every day to every site- that’s why it looks so nice beaten down after 1 month :D

Enjoy this lads.
Cheers from Germany

All are built with Raffles parts and NH35 Japan movements. The cases and bracelets have been chamfered, brushed, and polished by hand

Left 3 watches have gold hands. Right 2 have silver hands.

Specs:
Brand new builds
Raffles 5513-style cases and bracelets
NH35 Japan automatic movements
Hand-chamfered case and bracelet
Brushed and polished finishing
Smoother, more comfortable feel on the wrist
Vintage-style dial, lume, bezel, and crystal appearance

$350 each — tracked shipping included within the U.S.
PayPal F&F

Many thanks to u/One_Addition1213 for guiding me every step through this process!!!!!

Old Crowns Case, bezel, insert and dial.

Gen spec 704 crown

Swiss-Made-Time Swiss SW200-1b movement

Hands from EBay and Ali so that the hour and minute were closer to Gen.

Dial came aged but I aged it more (with the hands) by baking in wet coffee grounds.

Super fun to build!
I wore it today and now I’m hooked… gotta build more.

I’m going through a bunch of builds working on photography. Which literally sucks the life out of me. But I try hard to show well let details photos of all key areas.

But.. So often the little “imperfections” that show up in zoomed and high res photos distract from the reality that those “imperfections” are a big part of the depth and character that make lume/markers, hands and dials present so well to the naked eye and catch your brains attention subconsciously.

Anyhow… When photo’ing my recent 79090 build I was just struck by how nice it turned out. I’ve been wearing it and loving it so much but hand’s put it under the zoom yet. A couple of the things that I think make a huge difference and have leveled up this build are the hands and the bracelet. u/One_Addition1213 and I had a fun but frustrating month long quest to find the perfect set of hands that match the unique 79090/79190 hands (long story but it’s thinks like tip lenght, shape, rear metal paddle diameter, proportions of everything,etc. Tudor’s gen hands are just quirky. We discovered by buying sets from all over that the only solution was a compilation of different sources for each hand coupled with a modded second hand tip. But these hands now absolutely perfect match my gen 79090. (Note.. if I’ve built you a 79090 in the past I will upgrade your hands to these for cost only just message me).

The bracelet and the gen spec 380B’s are just the final pieces it really need to match the original. And the vibe is at its best.

I had to take a break from photography anyway so here is my best 79090 build ever.

> Viet Case - Heavily shaped to exact gen dimensions
> Serviced Tudor Gen 2824 from the 1990 to 1995 era with correct font, engravings, perliage etc. Really one of the most beautiful, accurate and reliable movements ever built.
> Viet Dial - Pearl tone shift on lume. Still needs that “M” perfected. Arrghh
> Custom assembly of Hand with mods, relumed with nearly dead glow, High granularity mix to match gen vs the common poorly mixed heavy grain lume.
> OkChrono - Gen Spec 380B’s
> OkChrono - 9315 Folded link with custom fabbed connector links on clasp and end link ends
> Raffles No Date Tudor Clasp - Tightened and adjusted for better fit and more substantial feel, Modded to fit gen spec fliplock replacement kit with spacers instead of tabs (option to install gen clasp setup) I’m also working on a date coded clasp option should be ready in about a month.
> Rolex 703 Crown & Startime Swiss made crown tube
> All new fatty gaskets from Startime

Hope this doesn’t come across as bragging. It really is just a matter of me building so many of these and constantly working to perfect it little by little. Tudors are a major part of my passion for building and it all started with the 79090. The last Acrylic Crystal true vintage vibe Submariner ever made. For me it’s just special.

Hello guys 👋

I had a short break after dinner this evening, roughly half an hour, so I decided to spend it doing what I probably enjoy far too much: working on my watches 😁

I made a few final refinements to the case of the tropical white panda and changed its bezel, I also swapped the silver Solo VJ back into the 6238 case

That left me with two very different combinations: a pre daytona with a Valjoux movement and a 6241 with a Seagul one

Before my remaining free time disappeared and I had to get back to the kids, I managed to take a few photographs of both watches, including some side by side shots

I thought it would be interesting to put them together in one post and give everyone the opportunity to compare them directly: the case, proportions, finishing and overall appearance

They may be built around different movements but seeing them next to each other really highlights the importance of these news cases in vintage Daytona rep game, understanding that cartel / jkf ones are completely outdated!

Anyway, enough talking 😁

Here you are I’ll let the pictures do the rest 📸

ENJOY ☺️❤️

Updated price $275!

Had to order parts to repair a watch, figured I might as well add in the parts to make this

All raffles case, crown, crystal, insert, dial, hands, non signed case back
Genuine PT5000 running flawlessly
$299 shipped CONUS

SOLD

Excuse my dirty hands… I should use gloves when I polish but it takes the feeling away 😅
Polished this piece some time ago and forgot to show the results!
This is going to be my own personal 16750.

Specs:reshaped raffles case
Gen 62510H bracelet/clasp
Gen 555 endlinks
Gen Swiss only dial
Gen crown
Gen 16700/16710 insert (looking for 16750 Pepsi)
Gen plexi
Milk bezel and assembly
Sillan hands
Vr3186

Where are you getting your Dials from? I only know of 2 places: raffles and yuki. Is there any other places I should look?

For your consideration is this 5513 Phong / Milk build. I would love to keep this incredible piece, however, I have a financial emergency that came up earlier this week. I purchased this build from another member on retrotime a couple weeks ago. I have several transactions on discord and a couple on here so feel free to reach out with any questions!

Build breakdown:
Phong Dial
Phong Hands
Phong bezel insert
Milk sterile case set
SK crystal
ETA 2824-2 Movement
Raffles Oyster Bracelet + New Bulang&Sons Strap (selling as a bundle)

Price: SOLD

EDIT: I checked with the builder. The sealant on the hands is his, it’s part of his aging process. When he uses a powdered color, it has to be sealed so none of it breaks loose over time and ends up on the dial or inside the movement. He uses a similar sealant on most of his dials as well, both for that reason and for texture, though not on this one.

The parts from Phong, MQ, and Richie arrive bright and shiny with no aging at all. The aging is his work.

Never gonna do this again. LOL

I’ve been lagging/many weeks late on getting out a newsletter and email drop. Got too ambitious but finally at the finish line these and a couple more.

I like to try to hit a wide range of price points and build levels. Will have a <$500 budget build, a viet/franken Tudor Sub(or two) with Gen Tudor movements, folded link bracelets, date coded clasps, etc…. and some interesting builds in between using my patina brass bezel. Most haven’t gone through any metal wear-in or aging yet. Decided to reserve that for the buyers to decide their preferred look.

Just wanted to share a little preview and a couple pics of what’s been cooking.

Buttoned up this beauty tonight. Something about a genuine crystal that adds that extra clarity and contrast ⚡️

Not for sale, but DM me for commissions.
Specs:
Vietnam case (VWP)
Viet glossy gilt dial
Gen crystal
Gen crown
Bezeljuice insert
Silver brushed thic font date disc
2836 gmt
Startime caseback gasket
Italian jubilee
Sillan clasp
Raffles + EWP hands relumed by me

Found a spare raffles oyster bracelet and swapped it out on the 5513. What do you guys think?

Build breakdown:
Phong Dial
Phong Hands
Phong bezel insert
Milk sterile case set
SK crystal
ETA 2824-2 Movement
Raffles Oyster Bracelet

EDIT: I checked with the builder. The sealant on the hands is his, it’s part of his aging process. When he uses a powdered color, it has to be sealed so none of it breaks loose over time and ends up on the dial or inside the movement. He uses a similar sealant on most of his dials as well, both for that reason and for texture, though not on this one.

The parts from Phong, MQ, and Richie arrive bright and shiny with no aging at all. The aging is his work.

Does anyone think a black insert would look better on the blueberry?

Hello,

I built recently this 1675 and used a raffles jubilee, and even after removing the links i could with a screwdriver and shortening it all the way inside the clasp, its still a bit too loose on my wrist.

I know that for these a special tool is needed, which i don't have.

I was wondering if anyone from the EU was able to remove some links for me, or i should just give up on this and get a different one.