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Sadly quite a bit of a let down. Doubt there will be a v2 sadly

I was graciously donated a couple of dials to continue practicing lume work - a 1680 and 6538. The 1680 is a standard Cartel dial, relumed with a creamy offwhite tone. Of particular note, studying gen dials, it appears the lume should be fairly flat with only a slight pillowing. I’ve tried to capture that aesthetic here. In addition the hands were aged in Pacific Ocean saltwater with a touch of organic apple cider vinegar. The 6538 is a faux gilt dial. Again, studying dial examples, the lume pillows but isn’t overly chunky. In this instance I experimented with a two tone line process. First applying a thin layer of lighter lume then adding a dollop of darker shade in the middle. Unfortunately I didn’t contrast quite enough. Next go around I’ll sharpen the difference. Like the first, the hands were aged in a custom crafted solution of Pacific saltwater and organic ACV. Enjoy! @xpanzer88x

Hello guys, I searched on the forum trying to find something similar but couldn't. The question is, can you love a Casio? Or a cheap watch in general? I own a gen vintage rolex, from the 80s, a datejust to be precise, a G-shock and a few reps. The datejust is fully gold and despite many people thinking full gold isn't ''classy'' I just love it. Up to now I had never owned a gold plated watch, but a few months ago while I was walking to work I stopped to look in one of the tens of ''tourist shops'' as they call them here and saw they had at least 150 different casio watches. I saw this gold plated blue dial casio and wrote down the model number. I discovered on Casio's website that they use gold Ion plating that is supposed to be durable. Well in the end I bought the watch for 50€ and I literally love it! It is 6 months old and has got more wrist time than the datejust recently. We've gone scuba diving (14m) and it takes a beating everyday at work (I don't work in an office so No desk diving). Now I realized that I love it. How is that possible? I suck at taking pictures, I'm sorry. I'm reading the guide to photography in the forum and I swear I'll get better. When is the plating going to come off?

Great pics !!! But as I still prefer mine ... because I have it on my wrist ... just now BTW ... mine has a nice engraved caseback too

I agree.. Dial and hands finishing is quite subpar, original parts are next to impossible to source (and expensive).. One might as well buy the genuine one.

Still on my wrist today as I can't get if off I didn't got any time to take good pics (I'll try next weekend) so I post those. At the least one can see the custom bezel (fully rotating) with "german silver" upper part, the fixed bars and (barely visible but there it is) tiny gap between the rehaut and the dial.

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15% more than you paid as a finders fee. [emoji6] I do t think the stem height will work with my JMB caseset otherwise I would have one hella cool Franken 6350. [emoji1362] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have a good one gents [emoji6] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Some rep vs gen

Nice! What’s the source? Does it have the correct case back too? You could ask [mention=50989]SSTEEL[/mention] for servicing support, he’s based in Finland I believe.

@HaydenM you couldn't be more right. When you find yourself happily throwing $1,000 at someone for the chance to own the grail part you've been seeking, you know you're in trouble. Then it happens a second time. Then a third time. Pretty soon you're lying to yourself and trying to make it all seem reasonable somehow. It's all so very unhealthy and yet the finished pieces look SOOOOO good. "Hello my name is Nanuq. I have a watch problem."

Also c keeping an eye out for this brother. It’s a much better size for me than the 41-43mm versions

"Ruby reply today , 1680 case is 680$+50$ custom engraving+shipping." Just for fun, here are some of my cases with prices from the past: March 2011 - like new Yuki 1680 case...$420 from 'Stilty'. Traded it for a like new Phong 1655 case/dial with a member. Still have the 1655 case...stalled out for a long time by GMT movement parts search. Finally have all the parts...around $2500 so far including 1575 movement/GMT parts etc. August 2011 - used DW 5513 case, no case back...$50. Put a 'River' case back from sapphire Exp II and Clark bezel kit on it. Had a 1520 with Yuki dial in it for a while. Put the mvt in an MBK 5513. Still have the DW case. March 2012 - two new MBK 1680 watches from Narikaa...$800 for the pair, delivered. Put a 1575 and Yuki dial in one case for a while, other watch is still complete. One had a nice 93150 bracelet with hollow mid links, other had 93150 with solid mid links. Dials were Ok but had been roughly ground down to fit in 26.0mm dial seat. Machined the dial window for the 26.5mm 1680 dial. 2011/2012 - about 10 new assorted DW cases, some 5513, some 1680, some unmarked. Paid $150 to $200 for them. All are 1680 spec. Still have them. A lot of posts probably still up about them. September 2013 - one new IG44 1680 case from a member, $300. Best finished case of them all (that I have). The lugs have a slight 'canoe' shape (side view). Have a no hack 1575 and early genuine 1680 dial for it...the mvt/dial combo is in a DW case now. May 2014 - one 5513 and one 5512 case from Yuki plus one 'free' dial...$1100 for it all. Very good cases. Still have them. January 2017 - complete new MBK 5512 watch with 2836 etaclone and bracelet (oyster with riveted on side plates and solid links) from RWG member...$400. Put a Yuki dial and rolex 1570 in it. Notes: All MBK cases (5512/13, 1680) that I have are genuine rolex 1680 spec except they are made for a 26.0mm dial. If you make a 5512/13 with rolex 15xx movement you will need to use a 1575 date calendar spacer, center wheel, and cp. All DW cases (5513, 1680) that I have are genuine 1680 spec and all have a dial seat/window made for a 26.5mm dial. If you make up a 5512/13 you will have to use the date parts same as with an MBK case and there will be a space between the outer edge of the dial and case because of the 1680 spec 26.5mm dial and 26.0mm 5512/13 dial. I have seen pictures and read about early genuine 5512 with a space showing. Someone could make up a pretty good early 5512 with the dial gap and PCG and the rounded sides would add to the character. http://www.network54.com/Forum/207593/thread/1468292473/last-1468326320/View+All DW cases are high quality but the sides are rounded like a DJ, not flat, giving them an 'aged' look. The lug holes may be a hair too close to the lug tops when drilled out to 1.3mm or so. The case necks are a hair too small and it is hard to find a 1680 crystal that fits exactly. Making up a 5512/13 is not as bad because T19 crystals come in many sizes (GS crystals for example). DW watches came with 'spring wire' bezels and need a Clark, ST etc. bezel kit. The engraved numbers are Ok but many are unmarked. Some DW cases have undersize case back threads...oem is 30.9mm, some DW are 30.4mm. This is Ok as long as you have a set. MBK cases are very high quality but have laser engraving. In my experience Yuki cases are first class quality, same goes for my one Phong 1655 case. IG44 is hard to beat but IG44 is looong gone. I would spend the $$ on a good case if you want a watch to keep. Get one that is OEM spec so if you decide to put a genuine movement in it now or later. A Yuki etc. case with good dial and genuine movement will probably cost between $2200 and $2700 now because of jacked up prices. You could start out with an ETA 2846 or something and dial made for an ETA then go with a genuine movement later if you want something to wear while looking for a genuine movement etc. Be a good idea to stay away from 'big crown' projects with 1030 base rolex movements because of high $$ parts. The rolex 15xx parts situation is not too bad...yet. ETA is a LOT cheaper. Here is the info on one of my MBK 5513 projects a few years ago, 2011 or 2012 iirc (I have posted this before). It ended up costing about $1300. I still have it but it is apart. $300 or less for case (can not remember exactly) $102 for Yuki dial $25 for TC tube and crown $12 for ST hands $650 for 26 jewel rolex 1520 mvt $20 for mainspring etc $0 for c/o (did it myself) $85 for fake 358 hoods and put together '93150' bracelet, also have a folded oyster from 'Mary' that adds up to about the same $12 for GS crystal $68 for ST bezel kit (better fit than MBK bez with the GS crystal that was used) $25 misc...springbars, gaskets, case screws etc Had to use a 1575 date center wheel/cp and calendar spacer on the 1520 because the MBK 5513 case is made to 1680 spec, not 5513 spec. Extra cost is included with movement. The center sweep sec pivot is the same on 1520 and 1575, the 1575 second hand has a longer tube.

That self-winding perpetual-movement monstrosity strapped to your forearm is accurate across a hemisphere's worth of time zones. But no matter how extravagantly handcrafted or precisely engineered your Rolex is, it'll never be as accurate as a cheap digital gas station watch. Here's why. The earliest known pocket watch was devised by German locksmith Peter Henlein around 1505. These small, globe-shaped mechanical brass clocks, known as "taschenuhr," were worn as accessories and trinkets by the upper class, much as Chihuahuas are employed today. Besides acting as Plague-era bling, these wearable clocks marked the first use of spiral mainsprings, metal torsion ribbons that store the potential energy that drives a timepiece. The energy stores in a mainspring keep a watch ticking, but they're not limitless. Eventually, they get used up countering oscillation-impeding inertia and friction. And therein lies the problem. See, mechanical clocks rely on an oscillator—the watch's inner movement, or a grandfather clock's pendulum, say—to control the system's frequency, which is how the clock maintains accurate time. But friction robs this oscillator of a tiny bit of energy on every stroke. Minute by minute, that adds up; as the oscillations slow, the timepiece's can lose a few seconds of accuracy a day. A mainspring's purpose is to counterbalance that effect, continually adding stored energy to the system to keep things on track. Winding a clock, either with the watch crown or a key, adds to the mainspring's potential energy. And you need to do it every 40 hours or so to stay current. In addition, the mechanical watch's reliance on minute, delicate, fail-prone parts that are easily affected by temperature fluctuations and magnetism demands regular and often costly readjustments, making analog watches more expensive and less accurate than their digital successors. Then there's electronic movement, or crystal oscillation, which leverages a vibrating hunk of piezoelectric quartz to generate an electrical signal with a specific frequency, rather than rely on a series of gears and pendulums. Piezoelectric materials create electrical currents when stressed—in this case, the material is expanded and contracted. Conversely, the same piezoelectric material will vibrate when exposed to an outside current. The crystal's size and shape determine the frequency it produces—known as the resonant frequency—typically in the kilohertz to hundred megahertz range. Early devices relied on naturally occurring quartz; however, the use of synthetic quartz is nearly universal these days. High-stability frequency crystal oscillators—those suitable for clocks—were developed in 1928 by Warren Marrison of Bell Telephone Laboratories and have since become the most widely-used means of telling time in the world. Losing just one lost second every 30 years, quartz movement is orders of magnitude more accurate than mechanical designs. As such, more than two billion quartz oscillators are manufactured annually for use in personal timepieces, electronic circuits, and radio transceivers. While crystal oscillators are susceptible to temperature, humidity, pressure, and vibration fluctuations, even inexpensive watches are designed to minimize these environmental detractors. The oscillator is shaped like a tuning fork and designed to vibrate at exactly 32,768 Hz (that's 2^15 cycles per second, from which a steady, second-counting 1Hz signal is derived). In addition, many watches feature inhibition compensation. That is, they're intentionally built to run fast, and programmed to a set number of crystal oscillation cycles at a regular interval. This allows the manufacturer to measure and store the timing information in non-volatile memory on the chip, rather than expend the cost of cutting the crystal precisely. So, just as mechanical clocks overtook the sun dials and water clocks before them, they too have been eclipsed by a more accurate method of counting seconds. And who knows? Digital watches giving way to something even more precise can only be a matter of time. [Wikipedia 1, 2 - How Stuff Works - NIST - jecka / Shutterstock] Entire text