Bike Mike

Talked to him on Friday

My good friend owns a Rolex Service center and he this thinking about getting out of it because he spends more times dealing with Rolex's and their policies then what it is worth. Every worn or bad part needs to be sent back to Rolex. They showed up unannounced at his shop this past Saturday to verify that his new refinishing equipment meet their requirements. They actually measured the speed of both his buffing machines. 3450rpm for the hi-polisher and 740rpm for the satin buffer

I am sooooo far from being old, or even close to middle age. It was on a Pro II Diver, which is a very nice strap. Nice deployment like the OR, without the OR retro look. I thinking Breilting is trying to be more Revolution then Evolution with some of their time pieces. They seem to be doing it more with their lower volume selling pieces then their popular ones. I really do like the new dial they have come up with for the BlackBird.

AD had a Red one today. Liked the watch in the pictures and that is where it ends for me. Did not like the watch in person at all! The bezel should have had the numbers machined it and not printed on. The hands are too long on their "short" side. Having the minute hand long enough to actually be lumed was a big mistake in my opinion. The numbers and hour markers are WAY TOO BIG for the dial. The watch does look very sporty, but is slipping away from the traditional Breilting style. The new Chrono Log is great. For what ever reason they did not include the B01 in it. But it now has more of the Limited Edition Models. The new Black/Blue dial on the BlackBird is really sharp! And the new ChronoSpace seems to be a nice replacement for the out going Airwolf at 47mm!

My $0.02...the Gen is dead sexy!

Updated link

I see what he is saying is installed backwards

The ETA site just shows the assembly sequence and what oil to use where. Not how much or exactly how to place the oil. This would be too difficult to show in a video and the lubricants used are mostly transparent so you could not see them applied. As Jkay said, this is a huge step for a Newbie. Servicing a watch is NOT like taking apart a lawnmower cleaning it up and putting it back together. You need to have massive amounts of patience, understanding how a watch works, and a ton of dexterity. Services watches is 60% mechanical and 40% artist. If you have never serviced any watch movement before, you will become very discouraged very quickly working on Asian movements. They are very temperamental and subject to some pretty stupid anomalies that you just don’t see in the Swiss movements. Read my post here: This was on one of my first A7750 movements and I had a Rolex Auth. Service guy looking over my shoulder. I have since done 25+ A7750 movements and learned some thing different on each. I spent 3 hours reseting jewels on one movement because they were chocked every which way but right. I had another movement that would stop every time the chrono was engaged. Everything within the chono gear train was perfect. After about a hour of inspection it turn out to be the 60s chrono shaft support that is pressed into the main plate was chocked ever so slightly the it caused the 60 chono shaft/wheel to bind between the jewels that support it. If you want to attempt working on movements, take a look at some of the online classes at TZ that start with your base pocket watch. Very simple, large parts and easy to work on. If you attempt a 7750 with little to no experience, you will just be sending the pieces out to The Zigmeister , myself or a few others around here with about $200+ asking us to fix it.

I know exactly what you are talking about as I have seen this on a couple watches that I recently serviced. One issues seems to be the piece that engages the cam can be too short on the Asian movements. The other issue I have seen is relative to the pivot points. I just finished a Pam Ferrari a few weeks back because it would not run. The "fork" piece that engages the cam had busted off and lodged itself into the balances assembly. I replaced the 2-Funtion Lever with 3 different Asian spare levers I had from part. 2 of the levers did not work properly. Would engage the cam to start the chrono, but would not engage to stop the chrono. The 3rd lever worked, but barely and felt terrible. So I Installed a Swiss ETA 2-Function Lever (~$30) and the issue when away and the chronos started & stopped flawlessly. Worked much, much smoother then the Asia pieces too! Did some measurements and found some pretty big differences between the Asian and ETA pieces. The more I wok on these Asian movements, the more I find how superior the Swiss movements are. I was going to do a write-up about this, but I have not had the time lately.

NASCAR style numbers

Beautiful. The timeless design of the Windrider series...Don't know what B was thinking with the B01....

Very unlikely going to happen. Breitling, Rolex. Omega, and all the other big Swiss watch brands are starting to really crack down, even more, on the availability of service parts. Right now several of the manufactures require the Service Centers to return the replaced/worn parts from the watches they serviced. My good friend that owns a certified Rolex Service center just received a invoice from Rolex last week for all the parts he has ordered from them in the last year that have been unused. Standard service items, like crowns, stems, gaskets etc that he keeps on hand, need to be accounted for and reported back to Rolex. Every time he replaces a part the replaced part goes back to Rolex. Rolex will no longer send bracelet links, dials, crystals or movements out to service centers. If it needs to be replaced, it need to be shipped to them. Give it a little more time, and the Gen dials that are avialable now for the Avengers will be gone for good.

Love the Graham piece. Have a OS Diver and Overlord MK III. Been looking at getting this one for a while, just dont know if I am going to like the light weight of the Ti. Waiting for the OL MK IV to be rep'd. The AR on my 2 Grahams are phenomenal. Best I have seen in the rep World. Funny how the best factory AR jobs seem to be on the less popular models. The straps vary by factory. My OS Diver is nice and deep, the OL MK III just plain sucks, very shallow, but has been replaced with a croco strap from our very own BlackBard.

Read above. Leo is out of the game unfortunately. Glad I got mine when I did, they are phenomenal pieces of work!

Unfortunately, I don

Hmmm...Black one does not thin...Pre 2008 Blue one (Post 2008) thickens from .135" at the tang to .180 at the lug. Can .045" cause that much of a problem?

Which rubber strap? Pro Diver (Breitling Wording) or the Ocean Racer (Holes) You can get a Pro Diver from a AD for $100 or so. Might be your only choice as I have not seen them from our dealers. Really the SA is too big for the Pro Diver and is much better suited for the OR.

I just had to suffice with drooling all over the new Chrono Log. Awaiting stock

Oh I want a grey one

Since we have some Star Wars ones and Airplane is a all time classic

Fav all time movie.... Pure adrenalin, right?! The ultimate rush. Other guys snort for it, jab a vein for it -- all you gotta do is jump. - Patrick Swayze - Point Break, 1991 "You gonna jump or jerk off" - Keanu Reeves - Point Break, 1991

You can't tell. That is just it. Not unless have someone test it. Remember, unlike Breitling, Rolex is using 904L and not 316L. So what is the 316F going to look closer to in the Breilting World, a Rolex?

I am looking at both my Gen SA''s (White and Blue) and the Batons are the same distance apart. The white just gives the illusion that they are further spaced apart. Part of this illusion is the angle at which the marker rises up from the dial on.

Here we go with 316F again

Wow! Typically Breitling wants this stuff back. It is like pulling teeth to get any of this stuff from dealers when they are removing the Breitling brand from their stores.