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Hey brother I'm right there with you. To my feeble way of thinking I blame most of this not on Covid, but in what was done to us using Covid as an excuse. We've been lied to, we've been intentionally misled, we've been hyped up, we've been ridiculed, we've been called troglodytes for failing to "follow the science", when no two scientific bodies can agree on what the "science" even is, and we've ridiculed our brothers for wanting to have opinions different than ours. This last year and a half has torn families apart, it's torn deep friendships apart, it's torn apart the national pride and sense of trust that many of us hold dear. It has shaken us to our core and we are now divided. Left refuses to talk to right, red hates blue, country hates city, up hates down, in hates out ... we have been masterfully divided into smaller and smaller groups, and pitted against each other. Social media has become a cancer on society as we stand back and hurl anonymous rocks at our neighbors. We can now justify animosity toward "the other guys" because dammit, they hurt me or said bad things about me and I'm just not going to take it anymore. So we justify our behavior. What did Bill Maher call it the other day? The "dorm room bitch session" the internet has become? He's right. We are so focused on the meaningless minutia that we've lost sight of what matters. It's hard to feel admiration for the long, sensual beauty of the lugs on a Big Crown. It just feels... wrong. Superficial. Our minds are spinning with the latest statistics or the latest "facts" or the latest talking points or the latest news... looking for anything to justify our anger. Raw beauty is covered up with the dust of a crumbling society. Our attention is in all the wrong places and it's eating us up from the inside. Sure, a Lamborghini is enough of a sensual hit that it breaks through the fog for awhile. But a guilloche dial? Too easy to skip over. So what do we do? #1 - Turn off the damn TV. Quit visiting the political websites. STOP IT. Their goal is to make you angry enough that you'll click on headlines and satisfy your hunger for more adrenaline. It's all clickbait and they are spinning you up. They have you hooked. STOP. #2 - Go outside and play. Leave your phone home. That's right. Put it away. You'll live. See if you can turn it off and leave it off for 24 hours. Find a place and sit down and just look. Be still. Listen. Smell. FEEL. Do it for an hour. It's a lot harder than you think. Try writing down what you experienced at the end of the hour. See how much you can recall. #3 - Find another living being and share an afternoon with them/it. Take your dog for a walk, some place HE wants to go. Try to be as pure and simple and enthusiastic and "in the moment" as he is. Take your best friend or wife or someone special and go do something new with them. See them in your surroundings with new eyes. Smell. Listen. FEEL. Take it all in. #4 - Do something kind for someone else. Do it so they'll never find out it was you. As you're doing this kind thing, plaster a big dumb smile on your face and keep it there whether you feel like it or not. You'll discover the smile will make you happy, not the other way around. It always works, get in the habit. #5 - Pray. Meditate. Close off your distractions and spend half an hour with your "higher power", whomever you like to think that is. Express gratitude for how good your life is. Think of your friends and think something positive about each of them, and give thanks for each one. Feel gratitude. Speak thanks. There are lots more good steps I could list, but these are the biggies for me. They help keep the important things important, and push the nagging irritations to the back. They shut down the noise in your head and let you just .......... be. Pretty soon you'll start to treasure that sense of peace and it will slowly become important to you again. And when it does, simplicity and appreciation for simple beauty will follow. You'll realize your focus has shifted completely away from the craziness in the world, you'll appreciate leaving your phone at home when you go out, and you will have broken the hold this frantic world had on you. Be an oasis. Welcome people into your small, calm world. Refuse to react. Smile. Feel gratitude.

I still remember when the release of a new watch of a certain brand would send my heart rate into unhealthy territory and inject serious amounts of endorphins in my blood stream. At first trying to satisfy my need for a fix by perusing countless pictures of said object online and then finally rushing to a store or watch show to see it in the flesh or - yes it could really happen - actually hold it in my own hands and feel the perfection of the steel between my fingertips. And the love for the more mature pieces and the never ending pursuit of the best possible build of the rarest of rare timepieces. Will I ever forget the moment when my eyes caught sight of a certain case shape between a mountain of worthless junk during the visit to a flea market in Germany which turned out to be an original Rolex GMT 6542 case with case back and original ghost dial completely devoid of any lume markers ..... I found the grail. And then the ensuing hunt for the right GMT movement from the original manufaktur to fill the missing link and the countless sleepless nights considering the sacrilege of actually re-luming this piece of history despite the fact that it was barley legible even in the brightest of lights. What happened to this passion that seemed to fill every free hour of the day? Or to the excitement of making a hand-stitched strap for the latest vintage Panerai from that perfect piece of old cow hide ripped from a dilapidated suitcase or well worn boxing speed bag? Why do I know seem to miss the logic in buying literally dozens of different endlinks to finally get the perfect fit for this vintage rivet bracelet for that Tudor build. Boxes of parts stare at me repeating the question: What happened? Was it the pandemic's fault, that gripped so many of us with it's subconscious depression and tried to pull us down? Why did I not make better use of these months where all economic activity had stopped and do something with this most valuable asset? Learn a new language, go out and surf, unlock that last thing that makes my golf swing still suck. Build some watches out of all these parts piling up in my work studio. Anything would have been better than wasting hours - which added up to days, if not weeks - watching depressing youtube videos or calculating the newest Worldometer numbers of new cases and COVID deaths for the next 24, 48 or 120 months... yes I really did that! But no. I think it had started before the news of the first cases started coming out of China. Somehow that light of passion for watches that had been glowing so strong and for so long had started to flicker already some time ago. But why? Was it because I had seen it and done it all? Barely. Why is it that the Tudor Black Bay 58 which should be right in my wheelhouse just gets a nod of deference with a snidely comment about it's chubby side profile compared to it's ancestors or that basically nothing in the current Rolex lineup even gets a second look. Panerai has already lost me a while ago with it's endless sequence of ever more identical looking models hidden in their model number salad. Have I become that jaded? I know my other passion, the one for four wheeled pieces of art is still going strong like always. Maybe it's because living in the Third World most of it needs to be satisfied online and only the occasional trip to Puerto Banus will get me a car fix strong enough to hold me over for a while. But shouldn't this also be the same for watches...? After all watch spotting there is a real treat in comparison to the fields of Nicaragua. But somehow the new Porsche GT3 Touring or the new Ferrari 296 GTB or the recreated Lambo Countach can do to me what neither a new Daytona nor Nautilus seem to be able to... Maybe I am just in a phase of reorientation .... having worn my Seiko Turtle every day for the last several months seems to point that way. Something that seemed unthinkable a couple of years ago especially considering the other pieces collecting dust in the watch box. And I am wearing it on the same strap all the time! And I didn't even make it! It's a ridiculously expensive Eulit perlon strap (worth very penny though if I am honest). I still enjoy making watch bands for other people though, but even there I have to admit that the creative challenges are getting harder to find between those orders for AP hornback or Hublot croc belly straps. Maybe I am just getting old? Maybe I need a change of scenery? Maybe I need a project? Maybe I need to see a shrink, because technically I have nothing to complain about. So why did I just type all this? I really don't know but I suddenly had to do it. Maybe to just get it off my chest. Thank you for allowing me to do so. Maybe, just maybe ( a lot of "maybe-s" for someone who usually doesn't have a problem making even tough decisions) you have an idea? Donerix

To be clear, when Nanuq says this he's suggesting someone gifts me a watch More seriously, definitely understand this feeling and don't have the answer. Maybe partly ennui, maybe the diminishing returns on adding another watch. Price rises and speculation have changed part of the hobby. Social media too has changed it. That being said, I'm very eager to be inspired by a new watch challenge, and love most the watches with a story or a bit of a mission behind them regardless of whether the watch was rep, gen, franken or microbrand. Maybe we can all trade inspiration?

Buy the Swiss ETA cannon pinion and swap them over.

If someone wants to steal my Rolex, I just hope it's one of my fakes. But regardless, I'm giving them the watch and keeping my mouth shut.

"My 1655 attempt with low budget." It does not look low budget to me. My 'shortcut' 1655 is also low budget except for the movement. The watch I started out with had a DG 3804 in it. It was oem spec inside the case and I already had most of the movement parts so the project took off from there. First time I tried the 1575 movement in the cartel case it would not slip into the case but a day or two later I tried again and it went right in. I did not have the movement level the first time and it stuck in the case. "Also for the Vietnam bezel is necessary shave down the cartel and also the gen spec plexi sternutz or whatever the name is..." I will probably end up using an aftmkt crystal that fits the case neck properly and polish the OD of the crystal down so the 'too tight' bezel will slip down over it. I have a few crystals that fit this description and I will mount them on an empty case and sand and polish the OD down to fit. I mount an empty case in a lathe with the crystal pushed down over the case neck and sand/polish it while it spins. The crystals almost always fit the case neck tight enough to stay on but if the crystal is too loose on the case neck, I can put a piece of watch paper between the case neck and crystal to tighten it up a little bit so it will not come off. I decided sanding the crystal OD down is easier and better than machining the ID of the bezel. Rule #22: "Make the part fit the watch, not the other way around." Ha! I have a Phong '1655' case and there is really not much difference at all between the two cases except the cartel case has the slightly oversize dial and dial opening in the case...and the very good engraving on the Phong case. All I did to the cartel case is clean out the case tube threads, put a new case tube in it, drill the lug holes out, and change the crystal/bezel. The crystal that came on it did not suit me so I changed it out and got in a mess matching the crystal/bezel set to fit. From a previous post: "I just build a 1655 with BP Base watch and inside is engraved 1675." I have an Abay '1655' from 15+ years ago and it has '1680' between the lugs and inside the case back. It also uses a 127 spec crystal, 26.5mm dial, and has too much space around the 6mm crown. Back then they used any case that was handy. Most of them came with new swiss ETA 2836 and non adjustable china 24 hour conversions. Two of mine had new ETAs and one had a used ETA. All the sapphire GMT II I got back then had new swiss ETA 2836 with non adjustable china 24H conversions. The GMT cases were properly sized and laser signed. 'Replica Classics' Ha!

A lot of passion here , I’m not so expert so I can’t really appreciate all of your tale.. I know only that my father still today talk about his old Ducati 200 elite or sport He don’t remember exactly .. He talk that they lower the handlebars for a sport posture they put a tartan blanket over the tank for lean the body over . They attached leather fringe to the seat. Trouser with the same fringe and stud . I think was a kind of rockers sure not a mods Here some sample: His first motorcycle Moto Guzzi - Guzzino 63cc or 73cc but that tuning to 100km /h Here my little contribution my first motorcycle 1978circa Italjet 50cc