Siew is a very good friend of mine in the milwatch collecting world and he over time has taught himself watchmaking. And I've watched him grow to handle pretty much any possible watch out there with ingenuity and OCD to detail only a collector would understand. And he's pretty much become a great watchmaker period. From time to time I talk him into (read: blackmail) a watch or two of my own that needs special attention.

So maybe from my constant Rolex blithering besides military watches or most probably the iconic design of the Rolex Submariner he finally took a foray into vintage (non-military) Rolex. And to me he couldn't have chosen a better example. So I asked him quickly to document his work for everyone to enjoy and see the step by step process. I told him I'd help him source a NOS crystal and whatever part he needed. But he couldn't wait, and did this in two days that he received it.

So here we go together into the restoration of a vintage 1967 “meters first” Rolex Submariner Model 5513 with Siew breaking it down for us as he restores his Submariner himself.

First imprerssion, very nice, not serious issues from the external apperance. Zut Alors is it DIRTY!! Looks like it has been neglected for decades! But something pleasing about finding a watch this watch with dirt in every place possible.