Bike Mike

I have a freind from Toronto who's wife is a teacher and trevels to Cuba to educate...she brings down things that are useful to the people like katchup packets and crayons for the childern...but rep watches? Serves no purpose to them....

Ti casebacks are difficult to get on due to Ti against Ti just does not like to play nice. Ti is not really hard, it is easier to gull up the threads then SS. I find it best to run some Rodico over the threads on both the caseback and case. Place the caseback onto the case and I will grab the the caseback wtih my finger nails across the flats and lightly turn it against the case...less pressure is your friend here. Once the threads grab just a little you will be set....unless your threads are FUBAR, then they will need to be cleaned up with a stone or file. Good luck buddy...give me a call if you need help.

Molding seams...These are called parting lines. They are where the core, cavity or any mold action comes together. Typical for some rep rubber and plastic parts will have this as thee tool manufactures are not going to spend a lot of time benching these surfaces together to make them blend nicely.

@Ronin, You are correct it was tried...the issue is, unlike cars, watch manufactures have so many models that do not share a lot of the same parts...so aftermarket parts do not make sense unless the watch is high volume such as a Rolex Sub.

You hang with Flava Flav?

I disagree with this. Faster then the manufacture…sure...cheaper as well…however the ability of any repair shop to service gen timepieces is becoming more and more difficult each day. Many manufactures now require any service facility to be approved before they will even sell parts to them. Rolex for example, requires the watchmaker performing the service to have certifications such as CW21 (here in the States), and certain equipment that must be inspected and evaluated by Rolex prior to their official approval. Once you are approved then you can order parts, but to order parts Rolex wants the watch serial number and old/bad parts returned to them. Rolex, Omega, Tag, Breitling and several other brands are doing this. My buddy just had Omega come in at certify his facility. They looked at what tools he was using…he was required to buy a Horotec screw driver sharpener to hollow grind his blades…absurd! I was at his shop working when Rolex came in…they as well looked at everything even going as far as to measure the RPM speed of his polisher and brush wheels! Nuts! Rolex goes one step further…any typical on hand service parts such as gaskets, crowns, stems etc that are not used to service their watches within a year, need to be sent back to Rolex, just so the shop owner can buy them back as the increased price! Manufactures are now taking control of the service industry so that their products retain their level of "Excellence" as well as preventing Gen parts from finding their way into the rep World. If repair shops want to stay in business repairing high end timepieces they need to make the investment to do so.

Left for me since this is the hand I use to steer a car with while the right is on the wifes leg...this way I can admire what is on my wrist that day.

This is R's trademark rep watch winding move.

Looks like it is not running right buddy...it needs a trip to the mad scientist for some work.

Very nice. I am starting to want one of these.

Beautiful...A brushed bracelet would look really good I think. Also, i think you mean Pro-Diver II strap and not OR. The OR has the holes in it.

Sure it is possible as Andy said with money and time...or you can get it for free! Showing not running 4 Seconds fast per Minute You can have my 7750 gear train if you want it as I have replaced it after this little trip.

I can attest to this set as I had a guy show up at the shop with this set. Screw drivers are better used a little pry-bars. The blades spin inside of the handles. The case back opener bits are softer then cream cheese. The link pin drivers are okay but bend pretty easy. The hammer is about the best tool in the set. Like anything you pay for what you get. Much better off getting a set from Offshore here.

HBB Evo Ice Bang HBB Tourbillon Pam 177 AP Volcano Gen Pam 347

Wow! Very original! I like that a lot! Keep them coming.

Now I have some thing to do at work all day.

My Pam172 project I just wrapped up. Oxidized Ti case, Z lumed dial/hands, Gen OP XI movement.

I would think this is more due to the fact that the 292 is ceramic and not coated. Good to know about the case backs. Still on the fence about doing one simply for that fact that if I ever sell it I am sure the new owner is not going to want my name engraved on the case back. Not worried about the crystal. Nothing needs to be perfect for me…to me this was a fun rep project. I have noticed that and I am liking the piece more and more each day! As I said, once the piece was fully assembled, my jaw hit the floor! Phenomenal job again Z!!!

Just wrapped up a Pam005 to 195 conversion...less a Jakob case back which I am still on the fence about. Started life as a Pam005 that HackR tracked down for me. Case PVD'd by The Zigmeister Hands and Dial Lumed by The Zigmeister as well Swiss ETA6497-1 full service, H3 Pinion Set and regulated by myself. Assembled by myself Strap is Camel Suede Gator from my personal strap slave...Blackbard. The PVD is just plain phenomenal that Z has sourced. More of a dark graphite grayish black then straight black. Much closer to the gens if not to the gens. I was kind of really not liking the PVD finish as fist as I thought it was too light. After I got here together with the black dial, everything darkened right up. This is now one of my favorite Pams and favorite straps. What do you guys think?...Oh FYI I am not a Pam-Rep-Freak...I don't care that the CG is not correct or the Pin is not perfectly flat or the Gen has a 7750 movement. To me this is more about the fun having with modding reps. then making them even close to perfect.

Where did you find a picture of me in my prime?

Alright The Zigmeister chimed in ...This was my original thinking. But then I figured if that was the case, how are the gears even meshing because the diametral pitch would be off with either the Wheel to the Escape or the pinion to the Third wheel, not allowing the movement to run. Maybe I just got lucky, so I took the ETA Second Wheel out and install another Asian second wheel that I had with a busted second hand post and I got the same results. 4 seconds/minute fast. So I decided that I would go blind and start counting teeth between the movement giving me the issues and a spare set of gears I had form a scrapped movement....I made it through the main spring barrel, great wheel and third wheel. Some number of teeth on the movement I had vs. my spare parts. Looked at the second wheel and said "Sh*t I threw out the original second wheel! F**K!!!" However given the spare Asian Second wheel gave the same results as the ETA one, I assumed the teeth were the same...So I said, "To hell with this, I am replacing the entire gear train!" No doubt this should fix my problem as I believe it is in the gear ratio...but I just can't get past the fact, that if it was indeed the gear ration... 1.) The differences between the ETA second wheel and the Original Asian, should have prevented the movement from functioning due to the difference in diametral pitches. But say I got lucky some how and the stars were in alignment that leads me to point #2. 2.) The spare Asian second wheel I have yielded the same results as the ETA one...given this, it seems there are 2 gear train ratios of 28.8K Asians movements. One ratio would be the same as the ETA ratio. The other ratio will be what is in the current movements I have the problem in.

Not unless you want to drop $500 every 2 years for battery replacement and transponder recertification.

Beat checked...28.8K Magnatism...I always de-mag. the balance before install and after assembly. Balance hair spring...Concentric, no twists and level. Perfect in everyway. Clutch...I agree on the clutch, if it was slipping the hands would be slower but it is not even engaged. I have the movement torn down to the base gear train. I have the second hand on the 2nd wheel post. The second hand rotates once about every 56 seconds. As Andy said, this would be easily seen on the timing machine. I have seen before a pallet stone was just a little too short. The escape wheel would just hit the "cut" face of the stone causing a beat to register on the timing machine. This created noise and caused the movement to run really fast...both stones on the fork have good engagement. Thaks for the link...this is where I ended up after today. I discussed it with my mentor and he actually called his mentor and long time teacher in for tomorrow to look at my movement. We did discuss that maybe some thing in the train has the wrong tooth count. Which is feasible, but the gear pitch would possibly not mesh. The second wheel is a brand new ETA second wheel. If it had a different tooth count then the original, then the gear mesh would be off. I did count the teeth on the new second wheel and it had the same number of teeth on the old one. So if this issue is coming from extra teeth in one of the wheels (which I am leaning towards as everything else has checked out okay) this is showing 2 things. 1.) The Asians are making 2 sets of gear trains that have different gear ratios through the train to escapement. 2.) They have done it in a way to keep the gear pitch the same meaning that worn parts will be harder to swap and you would have to replace every wheel in the train or you end up with the issue as I do. I love finding this stuff out with these Asian movements. Looks like I am doing a bunch of teeth counting tomorrow. Thanks for the input guys!

I have to say, I like this direction for Breitling over the B01 and other models that have adopted the "Tron" numerals, all though, this piece is kind of plain. I would like to see more movement spin-offs from the B01. The movements was designed to be modular, so it could be used across many lines of the Breitling collection.

More then likely needs a service. With the extra gears moving the running seconds from 9 to 3, there is more drag on the movement. Crack it open and hit it with a shot of Honda HP4...oh wait, that movement might require the Moly, so better make it HP4M!