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hello guys , recently bought it from kuvarsit at exorbitant price 😞, but is the one without the word s&l on the dial and better plot lume indices . the bezel is black/red . coming soon with some light mod: i think switch to 2846 low beat, shorten the lug , add some scratch on the case and faded the bezel. for now some pics with homemade guarantee certificate paper and tag..

There has been a lot of interest lately in domed Tropic crystals, so I thought I'd do a quick photo comparison. I attempted to show what they look like from low oblique angles and then slightly higher, so you can see how the distortions change with viewing angle. All of these are genuine vintage tropic crystals except the CWP tropic 19 on the Frosty Flake. The 1665 Sea Dweller wears a tropic 39 "Superdome", the 6538 Big Gonzo wears a tropic 17 "Superdome", and the 6536/1 Mini-Gonzo wears a tropic 16 "Dome". To start off, here's a group shot with the Frosty Flake down front, then left to right, the Mini-Gonzo, the Big Gonzo and the SD. At this point the only crystal that looks fake is the genuine 39 on the SD. Next up is the tropic 19 vs. tropic 39, from a low angle and then higher. Next is the tropic 19 high dome vs. the tropic 16 low dome. Now lets look at the tropic 19 vs. the tropic 17. Tropic 19 vs. tropic 39 again. And now in one smooth sweep from low to high, all four together. Compare the distortions at different angles. Et voila'. I hope this will help you decide which tropic to choose for your build, and will show the optical properties of each.

Following in Hologramet's footsteps, here is a piece that's near to my heart. I was given this by a Navy SpecOps diver to whom it was issued back when it was new. It was for timing missions and as a form of currency so he could sell it if he needed to, to get back home. Years later he died and his widow asked me to come to the funeral. At the end she gave me a rolled up towel with this in it. It was missing the bezel, he used to complain that it came off and he was tired of replacing it. It turns out, the bezel was still there, so worn down that the inserts wouldn't stay on. [/img] The lume and hands were horrible, it looked like someone had done the job with a paint roller. Yes, he could see it in the dark, but it was beyond nasty: So I made friends with Tom Nesbitt in Seattle (Rolex guru) and started the long process of restoring it to its original condition. It made a few trips to Ziggy and got a top notch relume, he had to scrape the old lume off the dial and hands as they were flaking into oblivion: and my dear friend Ubi sent me a gorgeous insert and pearl: ...and offered to install a gorgeous Brevet crown: Finally after about 20 years of sourcing parts, I got her back to where she belongs: My birth year Rolex.

wow nice watch

Here's my very similar Smiths Astral Diver from the same era...

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I have been around in this rep game since 1991 when I was working part time for a cobbler that changed watch batteries in the quartz watches. From time to time we got customers asking to attend to mechanical watches which needed attention and some even left them to us as a trade for a cheap time teller which is all they really wanted. one afternoon a gentleman asked me to look at his late fathers omega presentation watch from GM that had been water damaged. It was an automatic and wanted a feasible fix just to get it working, not caring about if I could replace the internal guts with anything that would make it tick. Then it struck me that I would put in a quality quart mvt from a citizen dress watch where I was able to use the case ring and hands. A few modifications and presto, he had a working heirloom watch. I then got the idea to do the same with all the DJ cases that were coming up for sale with their original dials, so in my spare time, I bastardised them (term I used before Franken watch became the norm) by fitting eta 2783 mvts from your generic unknown brand watches such as Lator for example. I did this with a couple of date justs, and fitting quartz mvts into good looking watch cases from other vintage timepieces that deserved a second chance in life. Then I discovered the internet replica forum (one that is now no longer active) and the rest is history! The owner from the presentation watch still recognises me in the streets of the city centre and when he stops to say hello, he brings the subject up all the time having last mentioned that his daughter has given the watch to her son as he loves the watch so much. What a pleasure it gives me to put on a smile on someone's face even from some 30 years ago! I don't want to overlook any artisan modder here, but I wished people like zingy and even jackjo were still as active as before as I have had some great bespoke work done that the term replica watch would be an insult to the masterpieces created!

I've been here for over 11 years now. Hard to believe it's been that long. My first rep was an Eddie Lee 3717, although I din't buy it directly from him. I have a DW cased 6263, a WM9 16610 LV from BK and bought/sold pieces and parts from a lot of the "old timers" here. Wish Ubi was around more (although he still stops by now and then). His builds were legendary. Also wish The Zigmeister was still doing work. Great craftsman. I consider myself fortunate to have a piece he worked on in my collection.

Nobody would ever, EVER in a million years notice any difference on the wrist or in the hand. Even blown up to 500x in macro it's virtually identical! Nice dial!