Let me have your attention for a moment. So you’re talking about what? You’re talking about, bitching about that M2M sale you shot, some son of a bitch that doesn’t want to buy, somebody that doesn’t want what you’re selling, some rep you’re trying to buy and so forth. Let’s talk about something important. Is everyone here? @Glaude @RussP @McGilli @NCRich @Logixa @repmaster1234 @BabaNJ Well, I’m going anyway. Let’s talk about something important.   Put. That. Coffee. Down!   After acquiring a BP Daydate in a great M2M bargain, I felt I had ticked the my Daydate box. I mean, look at it! Pretty snazzy blue dial! And as @bdnica agreed, the Daydate is extremely addictive. Power is addictive. Power.   The Watch The Rolex Day-Date was first released in 1956, with it’s complex (back then) day and date function. By the late 1970s, Rolex had added a quickset to the date and double quick-set in the late 1990s, making it easier to set both day and date. The Day-Date is well known as the “President” because many American presidents owned one. The watch has always been part of the higher-end offerings by Rolex. The watch is available in white gold, yellow gold, rose gold and platinum, never stainless steel. It’s generally considered to be the watch for people who have made it to the top.   The Rep Here is my all yellow gold RKF Day-Date.   Pretty spectacular sight, the watch is reminiscent of the 18038 (late 1970s)or 18238 (late 1980s) model of which the going rate is between GBP 9,000 to GBP 12,000. However, as this watch has double quick-set, it’s a closer match to the 18238. Excuse the photo quality, one of the supermodels who was in a state of passion and ecstasy accidentally knocked the cocaine platter onto the watch, hence all the specks.     Dimensions The gen 18238 is 36mm in diameter Mine measured out to be: Case Diameter: 36mm Case Height: 12.55mm Lug-to-Lug: 45.25mm Lug Width: 20mm   The other day, as I was walking through my neighbourhood. It’s a pretty posh one with private roads. All the residents pay in to keep the poverty out. And it’s not just about buying your way in. The neighbourhood association had their own criteria for accepting applications, which you can’t even apply for without two references. Anyway, I digress. I was walking down this street one afternoon when I saw this man by the pavement, admiring his car. As I walked past him, he turned around to greet me. He stood at least two feet shorter than me. I glanced down at him. I loomed, towering over this cretin. I was taller so that meant I was better than him. There was a cheap, tacky shine to his car. He looked at me, almost bursting with pride for some reason. Ever the gentleman, I offered polite conversation. “New car?” He beamed, a pathetic smile from cheek to cheek. “Yup, got it today!” It was a rather shit car. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how our residential security did not stop the car from coming in here, lowering the property value. I will have to lodge a formal complaint with the association. This will not do. This guy had to be put in his place. What was he doing here with this shit car? Probably trying to case a house. So I flashed my watch at him. “You see this watch?” He nodded, in awe of the shiny gold. “You see this watch? That watch cost more than your car. I made $970 last year. How much you make?” The cretin lowered his head in shame, he took out 75p from his pocket and stared at it sheepishly. I grinned. Called it. “You see, pal, that’s who I am. And you’re nothing. Nice guy? I don’t give a shit. Good father? Fuck you, go home and play with your kids. You wanna live here? Close. You think this is abuse? You think this is abuse, you cocksucker?” At this point, this “man” was crying. Tears running down those shameful cheeks. “You can’t take this, how can you take the abuse you get at work? You don’t like it, leave. I can go out there tonight with the car you got, make myself fifteen pounds. Tonight. In two hours. Can you? Can you? Go and do likewise.” At this, the cretin took off, running down the street, sobbing. Pathetic dog. He even left his car behind. How irresponsible! Littering on our clean streets. Twat.   Dial It's very rare that a pure yellow gold colour dial would impress me. The dial appears pretty dinged up, probably to resemble a watch that is a few decades old. All the white specks you see is actually cocaine on the dial, not on the crystal.... The day wheel overlay does not have the best alignment... Random pube by the date wheel overlay.  Rather impressively, the T SWISS MADE T looks as per gen! The applied baton indices and lume dots are quite similar to gen. It also comes with a chapter ring including latin numerals. The hands are pretty scratched up for some reason.... Overall, a very striking dial!     Movement The watch houses an A2836 movement. Nothing to shout about. I forgot to take a photo after my cocaine-fueled orgy, so you can have a look at the caseback.   Case & Bezel The case consist of plated yellow gold. Extremely shiny and a cocaine magnet! The watch came with a classic fluted bezel. Slim case. The lugs and end links proportions are slightly off though.   Bracelet & Clasp A nice close-up to look at a major flaw. Either the lugs or the end links have to be longer to match each other. Otherwise, the bracelet has a nice flimsy look to it. Very odd to see "nice" and "flimsy" used in the same sentence.  Reminds me of my performance after cocaine use. The main drawback of a plated bracelet is the inevitable risk of the plating wearing off.  But for now, we can sit back and appreciate the half moon president links... The classic hidden clasp on the President bracelet.     Function Just like my BP Day-Date, the 2836 gives an instantaneous day and date change at midnight. Extremely satisfying!   Of course, there is a double quick-set feature in this rep. In terms of lume, the watch is stellar in this department @McGilli   Accuracy You penny-pinching bean-counter. With this watch, you're at the fucking top. You can hire teams to do the accuracy work for you. You're the captain of the fucking ship. The great helmsman. You focus on the broad strokes; tiny details are for the tiny men to figure out.  Napoleon didn't have to figure out logistics in Russia. Bush didn't have to trouble himself with Iraqi politics before dismantling the Ba'athist security apparatus. Everything will fall into place.   Overall In conclusion, the RKF Day-Date has a close to genuine 18238 dial, reliable A2836 which allows instantaneous day and date change. The main drawbacks are the odd lug-end link proportion and easily scratched plated bracelet. This concerns about wearing out the plating is balanced by the fact that this is no beater watch. By wearing this on certain occasions, the plating will last longer. Indeed, being a well-known watch, it can only be worn on certain occasions, as it would pull a lot of unwanted attention in the wrong circumstances.   What is RKF? I’m sure you think you have heard them all. Noob, VRF, BP, ARF, JF. The ones in the know will recognise RF. But who is RKF?   RKF refers to Repkea Factory Lovely watch parts, ready for assembly. I collected a gen dial, all other parts are Raffles parts with a brand new A2836. Credits to @NCRich, @repmaster1234, @BabaNJ @Logixa for their advice /input through this build! The initial challenge identified was setting up the overlays. The standard A2836 has an inner day wheel overlay and outer date wheel overlay. Whereas the Day-Date has the day on the outer to the date. The new Date overlay doesn't sit perfectly on the base date overlay; it actually overlaps onto the base day overlay. I've taped the new day overlay onto the base day overlay, using 2 layers of tape to give the new day wheel some "height", to provide clearance between the date and day so that they don't catch each other as much. Alignment is also another big pain! It took me ages to get the alignment 85% tolerable. By the time I was satisfied with the alignment, I found the inside of the crystal and the dial covered in dust cocaine. My advice to avoid this is a pretty simple ABC: Always Be Closing That would save a lot of trouble down the line, avoiding all the cleaning hassle. Once everything was set, aligned, and reassembled. I popped the crown and stem back into the movement. It clicks and I pulled the crown out to adjust the time. The insert comes gliding out effortlessly. Mocking me. Fuck the keyless. Seriously. After loads of frantic googling and some trial & error, I successfully reset the keyless works. And then I reset and realign the overlays, replace the dial, replace the hands, clean the dial and hands, clean the crystal, remove the crown stem and pop the case back on and reinsert the stem. Keyless is fucked again.  Fuckity fuck. Most of my time was spent assembling and disassembling the watch to reset the keyless. Another unforeseen issue was measuring and cutting the stem to size. I ended up cutting it too short and had to order more stems.  Overall, it has been a very rewarding journey in furthering my tinkering skills. Upon reflection, I suspect the more efficient sequence with minimal risk of screwing up the keyless(for an amateur) would be: 1)Modify either dial feet or movement holder to fit dial onto movement. 2) Without putting on any dial or hands, fit the movement with the movement holder into the case and trim the stem at this point. Any mistakes removing or inserting the stem at this point, no problem. It is very easy to access the keyless to reset. 3) Set and align the new overlays. 4) Place the dial, place the new hands. 5) CAREFULLY remove the stem and put on the case. 6) PRAY TO ALL THE GODS and reinsert the stem 7) Celebratory wank. 8) Post a review that tries to shoehorn references to an obscure 90s film. Golden wristshot. For sure the last Rolex build for me...