RickHiC

There's no harm in keeping the chrono running if you always want the center seconds. How about something like a rad 288.

Mine popped out as well, except I lost the parts. No worries, I just use spring-bars from panatime for that watch.

No no no no. No. I haven't bought a rep in almost a year. Now I am ruined. Wife is going to be [censored]...

Hey at least you have a desk lamp! I wish...

I don't disagree at all on having realistic expectations. It's the rep game after all. And loctite is of course a great idea, but I have several clasps/etc. of cheap steel that wear out very fast, and then what do you do? All that said, I think I have maybe 90% of my watches wearable at any given time which isn't bad. But dammit I need a friggin crystal gasket! or two or three.

This drives me crazy too. RIght now I have an omega planet ocean I can't wear due to screw missing from bracelet, a panerai base with a new crystal but destroyed gasket (and those seem impossible to get), a PAM 127 with missing CG screws that seem to be some oddball size, the list goes on. And my wife is mad at be because her favorite FM crazy hours now has a clasp that won't stay shut. Ok, I will stare at the 029M on my wrist and take deep breaths. That gets me calm pretty quick.

Yes, yes. It was the bus. So you keep telling your wife.

I think the chopped seconds "time-bomb" is a little overblown as well. I'm not disagreeing with Zig, I'm just saying a $200 purchase that could possibly only last a few months but still might run a very long time is not quite what I could call a "time-bomb" in the grand scheme of things. Having a watch that stops ticking is a little different than getting blown up in Afghanistan. I've got a couple of $30 sterile 6497s sitting in a drawer right now. If my 112 stops, I'm not afraid to try hacking on one of those to try to get it working again. Or, heaven forbid, I'll just wear a different watch. Or buy the new model that will undoubtedly be released by then that makes my current one look like crap. Just have fun with it

My asian movt one runs a little fast but has one of the smoothest sweeps of any of my reps. No complaints here at all. If it ever dies (and I have a couple asian 2836 w/GMT reps around that are still running after a couple years), I'll just drop in another movement. No worries.

Damn I like the shoe too! Between all of the watches between us, my wife's crazy hours gets the most comments by far. It seems without fail that we'll go out to a nice restaurant and somebody will give a quick glance at whatever AP/Panerai/Hublot/IWC/etc. I've got on, and then proceed to ask her all about her watch.

This is interesting info, but personally I would prefer the double-sided AR. I know that's not gen-like, but it just looks so damn good. I haven't had much of a problem with scratching either, but I suppose you have to be careful.

I would say DO NOT try to sand it by hand. You will end up with a more rounded pin than you started (and you'll nick the CG all over the place). I don't have anything fancy like a lathe, but I get decent results doing the following: Push out pin and carefully place in the chuck of an electric drill (you'll need a decent one with no wobble). Then I run the drill very lightly against a very flat surface with sandpaper on it (a plate of glass or tile works well) being super careful to keep it at 90 degrees (if I had a drill press I would be using that). I start at 600 grit, then to 1200. By then it's should be looking pretty flat and shiny with a very square edge. You could probably stop there, but since I have them, I move to 3M abrasive films all the way down to 0.3 micron. At that point, if I've been steady and careful, it looks like a mirror, flat and spotless, even under my 20x microscope.

I kept it on deployant. As far as quality, it's nice. I don't think it's worth that price, but you don't have much choice. Probably still a lot cheaper than a gen rubber strap.

Ok managed to get a pic off my phone. It's not very quality, but you get the idea.