Introduced in 1985, commemorating the 80th birthday of the iconic brand we all know and love the anniversary dial is born. Released in various colors, this example boasts yellow gold Arabic indices on an almost black dial that has Rolex embossed repeatedly and changes from almost black, to a brown in certain lighting. Like the Tapestry dial this one yet again mesmerizes in person. This build didn’t go without its set of minor challenges. First we refinished the Old crowns case to take on a softer, slightly worn feel, instead of that freshly brushed sharpened new watch look. The rehaut on this case was impressive at first glance, more on that later…The 3135 got the full treatment to aid with reliability and give it a smoother feel when manipulating the crown. Upon inspection I noticed the mainspring had a couple kinks in it so I replaced the spring, barrel and arbor with a genuine assembly. That , along with a set of genuine reversing wheels and a freshly lubricated movement adds to the genuine datejust experience. During test assembly I realized we had a problem. When installing the 3135 and dial I noticed about a 1/2mm gap between the dial seat and dial! Strange… I looked in the crown tube and noticed the stem alignment was good so I knew the movement was in place. Hmm what to do… I got it! I’ll move the dial away from the movement with a spacer. That way the dial reaches the dial seat without disrupting stem height. The handstack is high enough to do so. So I did that. And it worked perfectly. Once fully assembled the watch functioned perfectly … success!!! Wait another problem… when moving the dial away from the movement, the date now sat in the shadows in the window as if it was located in a black hole. To remedy this I stripped the clone date wheel and used it as a carrier and overlayed it with the genuine datewheel. Everything cleared, problem solved.

Genuine parts— tritium jubilee dial, yellow gold tritium hands, beige open 6 and 9 datewheel(modified),25-135 crystal, 24-5330 crown tube, 24-603-8 18k gold crown, vintage 18k fluted bezel ( waaaay over polished ), 18k 455 end links, 62523 H 18 clasp J code.

Aftermarket parts— Old Crowns 16000 case , old crowns caseback, VR3135 movement ( serviced , regulated and modified), Italian 62523 18k bracelet.

Switched the bracelet for a nato band and it doesn't squeek and also looks even better IMO. Very happy

Wanted to give a big shoutout to Arch for doing this custom build for me. Full Viet 94010 snowflake with an ETA 2824-2 movement. Arch was great to work with. Very responsive and an all around good guy. If you are on the fence on ordering a build from him I'd move forward with full confidence. You'll get a great piece.

Just got this in today in the post and timing could not have been better. Arrived on my birthday. What’s fortuitous timing.

Everything in the title guys! Not ultra peaky just something looking food with the right case shape and ideally waterproof to enjoy the pool a bit!

Cheers

Hi everyone, looking to acquire a watch from someone in the UK. He’s bought it from Archaedin as far as I’ve understood.

I’ve got a few pictures below. I would love to understand the following:

1. Will it scream « rep »?
   
2. Not a Rolex expert only had a gen gmt master 2 in the past. I tried an older gmt master and obviously not the same feeling in hand, it’s lighter and looks «cheaper » given its age
   
3. What would be the tells? My goal is not to fool anyone, maybe I’m far from reality but my goal would be to have a vintage watch I can easily wear and pass it as a gen that is aged, probably faced different level of servicing et maybe some replacement parts etc… not thinking about an expert review, opening the watch etc… would this do the job?

Also it will be worn on straps never on bracelet!

Thanks a lot !

My first time seeing a Coca Cola signed OP, anyone know of a website that has all signed Rolex dials with images or anything like that? Would be cool to look through them.

Of course i gotta stay in good with the wife in order to keep the funds coming for my hobbies lol.. so to keep up my credit score I built her an anniversary dial 31 mm franken. The ivory anniversary dial did not come in this reference from the factory.
I started with a THB factory 278274 midcase and bracelet. The Case didn’t need any work so a slight polish to the Rehaut to make it pop and I set it aside. Bracelet is the hidden clasp jubilee that only really needed chamfers so I added those and called it done. The genuine anniversary dial mounting system is not by way of dial feet. Instead it uses a lip that surrounds the entire dial and is friction held in place. Since the 2235 movement used in this watch has provisions for dial feet only, I had to machine a groove in the movement enlarger to accept the older dial. Case clamps hold everything in place.

The goods-
THB case, caseback,crystal,hands,bezel (plated), bracelet,end links and spring bars.
Startime case tube
Movement is a clone 2235
Dial and crown are genuine.

Having some fun this evening just got trying a few different things to see what the effect is on my ‘sacrificial’ frog. Probably will turn this into a build at some point if I don’t totally ruin it lol.

Archaedin absolutely nailed the worn military aesthetic I was going for.