DJ in da house.............

marcus1971

There have been a few posts over the past few weeks...Want to buy the fiance a watch as an engagement present..... Want to buy a classic watch for everyday and formal wear etc. etc. etc......

And for most of these threads I have been on (and on and on and on)about the Rolex classic lines like the Submariner - Datejust - AirKing.
But for all my talk about how good the Datejust is, how classic it is, how it doesn't look small at 36mm when compared to a lot of todays bigger watches and how its one of those watches that has and will last through the decades virtually unchanged and recognizable to anybody that hasn't really got much interest in watches at all..... I don't have one!!!

Time to fix that. but..... I'm right in the middle of selling my house to move back to Ireland, selling the cars, getting rid of all the crap I dont want to have to lug back as well as trying not to spend on stuff I don't need, so it has to be cheap.

There are a few cheap(er) DJs to be had on eBay, nothing that would take your fancy, the nicer ones - the dials that reach out and grab you are, as always, a little bit pricier than the rest. So if the one I want is more than I want to spend but I dont want to buy whats in the budget, there is only one option......Make One!!!!

so far I'm 10 days into the build and thats just waiting for parts to arrive it is almost ready and has come in waaaaay under budget. The ingredients so far:

1x Rolex Datejust 16030 case (no bezel and scruffy plexi) $155
1x Rolex DJ Silver florentine (linen) Dial with white gold markers $90
1x Eta 2836-2 Sealed package $149
1x Set silver Tudor hands suit Eta $14
1x Set 20mm DJ springbars $5
1x Clarks Rolex Cyclop Plexi DJ 36mm $5
1x Generic Jubilee bracelet with Rolex clasp $20
1x Datewheel overlay from cubic works $20
1x genuine fluted bezel from a no reserve auction $25
I made my own movement spacer from a ring in my spare parts box but a suitable movement ring is available for $20
And thats it !!

Eta inside Rolex Datejust, brand new serviced movement up and running in about 3 hours for the grand total of: $485 or for those of you in Euroland:
340 Euro!!!!!, less than the cost of a service at a Rolex service centre

(I was going to use a DG2813, which would have been easier to put together and would have been 100Euro cheaper, so it could have been done for 240 Euro)

Just finished putting it together today - still waiting for the Jubilee to come in so its on a crappy black leather at the moment, all seems good so far, haven't regulated it yet but so far it seems bang on.

To start it all off:

The 2836 movement is needed because its thicker than the 2436 and that allows the stem to line up perfectly with the case tube, but the difference between the 2836 and the 2436 is that the 2836 has a day disk and that has to go....popoff the circlip that holds it on and its off, easy

Next the date disk has to come off, a little bit more tricky, but still easy nontheless.....date disk needs to be sanded down to remove the numbers and paint underneath, this allows more clearance for the date overlay that is needed to center the numbers in the date window.

Now its time to mix a small amount of 10 minute epoxy and put pin drops around the bottom edge of the dial spacer....this keeps the dial above the date disk and prevents it rubbing, place the dial spacer over the movement and allow to cure.

Next the datedisk is reinstalled and more epoxy mixed for the datewheel overlay to be fitted...line the numbers up opposite the stem and center it on the disk, next lay the dial over it and check its centered....cycle through the dates and check the dates on opposite sides of the wheel for centre....allow the epoxy to cure.

Mix more epoxy and apply tiny dots all around the surface of the dial spacer and fit dial making sure the movement is centered through the hole in the middle.....allow the epoxy to cure.

Press on the hands and check for clearance.... the minute and seconds hand needs to be slightly bent upward for clearance over the markers, but it is not noticable once the crystal is fitted as the acrylic crystals on older Rolex have a bit of distortion built in anyways.

Fit the dial/movement to the case and fit the movement spacer, screw it in with 2 case clamps as per the position on the movement.

Do a trial and error snip on the stem, take a little off at a time and fit to the crown, once at the right length pop it in and screw down the crown.......

Pop on the crystal, center the cyclops over the date and press on the bezel......good tip for fitting the bezel to a Rolex is to sit the bezel on top of a lightbulb for a few minutes, once its hot and has expanded a little pick it up with a rag/gloves whatever and sit it ovet the crystal and press on with something the right circumference, I have a load of pvc pipe fittings from the hardware store there is usually something there to suit, place it over the bezel and press it home with a clamp/crystal press
3 hours work and a franken DJ is born!!!


If anyone wants to try this out and needs the ingredients and recipe, I can suggest where to get the bits n pices, no problem.

ronnie3585

Wow, you've been busy!

Please post some pics!

marcus1971

Pics:

























Not perfect, the dial is off by a couple of degrees, but only noticeable in macro shots and easily fixed in about 20 mins.

I'm happy enough with it considering the cost, still waiting for the Jubilee to arrive when that comes I'll be happy to call this one finished and move on to the next project.

Much like Peasant and his pocket watch conversion, there is more reward in doing something that requires a little bit of thinking out of the box as opposed to just buying a kit on eBay and putting it all together....although there is nothing wrong with that either, all part of the hobby.

Eoin

Fantastic, I'd love to be able to do something like that.

Bullseye1

Very cool.

marcus1971

Got the Jubilee bracelet in the post a couple of days ago, put it on and then the only two issues I had with the watch became glaringly obvious with the center link on the jubilee as a reference to the crown at 12.....

The dail was off by a couple of degrees and the cyclops was ever so slightly too low in relation to the date window from a head on perspective, so I decided to take it all apart and try again....

Stripped it down, cleaned everything, removed the datewheel overlay, repositioned the overlay to be 100% center to the date window, the reason I installed the dial slightly angled was to compensate for the datewheel being misaligned, it wasn't at all obvious when it was on a leather strap.
As long as the dial was out I decided to polish each of the hour markers and the coronet, gently cleaned the surface of the dial, now the dial looks mich better as it catches light reflections.
Put it all back together, to make the replica Jubilee bracelet fit like the real thing I did a bit of filing to get the curve in the endlinks just right.

Now I'm 100% happy with the watch....I'll be looking out for a vintage Jubilee at the right money on eBay, but honestly the $20 Replica Rolex one is with the exception of the clasp as good as any well worn Rolex version

Pic:


Edit: The movement was keeping to within 5 seconds a week with no regulation whatsoever, seems to still be the same after the rebuild.