sfa437

Hmmmmm...

What's the serial number?

Ya know I have been wondering the same thing for the past day or so....

Odd that a guy off the Risti had a gen 270 stolen from your home and was told he'd be getting bupkis because your insurance didn't cover the loss.

just sayin....

Well my method seems to have worked.

Took it onto my diving board and tossed it into the deep end of the pool for an hour, dredged it out and it's fine- no delam issues. For s**ts and giggles I also tossed it into the output strainer basket on the pool filter for 30 min with no ill effects (25 psi and rushing water).

Might not be correct (flat xtal) but it looks pretty damn good and keeps the water out.

Win in my book

double post

Well Alan I got my crystal press (VERY good buy) and slapped together a 3.0 and 1.5 MG.

Right now I got it seated in the case and the watch put back together. Of course there's a teeny tiny smudge on the inside of the effing crystal Never fails!

I took a slightly different tack on the problem though.....

I lightly sanded the edges once the UV glue hardened. I then took a bead of Hypo around the join and did a putty knife impression with a razor. I then sanded again lightly.

Prior to installation I VERY lightly greased not only the gasket but the sidewalls of the case. Crystal pressed in with a tad less effort than it took to get it out (1" dowel and a claw hammer). Haven't tested for water resistance yet- kinda scared to

How about pressing in the MG one and then using the UV glue to affix the sapphire?

The MG gets preloaded and you drop the sapphire over it.

Might be worth a shot.....

Oh hell man- I NEVER would have thought humidity would have caused the darn thing to delaminate!

Best fix for this would most likely be a bead of jewelers glue (kind of like a thick gel cyanoacrylate) around the joint followed by a sweep with a razor- kind of like sealing a joint in drywall/gypsum board. Then before it sets, seat the crystal.

This way you're not extending the diameter of the crystal and you're also adding a second bond by gluing the crystal in the case.

This is of course assuming the effing thing hasn't delaminated on you to begin with

Thanks OS- you are a god amongst men!

I'll be posting a tutorial on how to disassemble and relaminate these things as soon as the bits come in.

I'm going to try to repair mine.

Got the sandwich of crystals split and cleaned although my mineral part is scratched. Have a 3.0 x 28.9 mm crystal coming in from Offshore and I am going to rebond the two using a UV cured adhesive from Ofrei.

Going to have to wait until my crystal press comes in though- broke my old one trying to get the crystal out LOL

Donerix' started coming apart-

That makes it 13 guys so far

The cost of a run of 4.5mm thick sapphire is cost prohibitive.

The Ploprof rep crystal is a simple 28.9 x 4.5 mm round flat bonded crystal consisting of a 1.5mm sapphire layer over a 3mm mineral layer.

I've now seen 8 Plopros with delaminating crystals so this seems to be somewhat problematic for this issue of the watch. I would still HIGHLY recommend keeping them away from water unless you are comfortable enough with repair to bind a new crystal and press it in.

Couple different ways I have been thinking about attacking this:

The 21j crystal is solid mineral and supposedly the same size

Buying a 2.5mm mineral and a 2.5mm sapphire, bonding them and sealing the seam with Hypo cement

Finding a 5mm thick sapphire (yeah good luck- I know)

Not quite sure which way I'm gonna go with it yet

Here's what it looks like with the laminate structure obvious:

Here's the measurement of the crystal for those worried about the same thing happening

Seems to be 29.5mm x 5mm My calipers took a shlt so I couldn't get a spot-on measurement

Well you're all aware of my neverending story watching my crystal delaminate. Never got the SOB to separate but I did manage to clear up some of the delamination with a little bit of Wahl Machine Oil.

I also managed to get the thing out of the case without removing the bezel. An old watchmaker once said "If you're forcing it, you're doing it wrong". I said "Eff him" and took a 1" wooden dowel and a claw hammer to the thing and got it out after 3 solid whacks

Here's what it looks like with the laminate structure obvious:

Here's the measurement of the crystal for those worried about the same thing happening

Seems to be 29.5mm x 5mm My calipers took a shlt so I couldn't get a spot-on measurement

Good news is that it is simply a round crystal and not like the gen construction and should be easy to source!

That's mad! How exactly did you get yours wet?

Mine was rainwater and it was nearly three days ago now and still seems good...

Fishtank for a photo shoot. Nothing but fish & water

The adhesive has to be water based otherwise it wouldn't be dissolving like it is.

Worst part is I can't figure out how to get the damn bezel off to pop the crystal. Seems the construction of the crystal is two flat pieces of differing diameter with the larger being on the bottom under the bezel.

If I wasn't enjoying the march of what looks like Shrek's fingerprint across the damn crystal I'd just centerpunch it an remove it in bits and figure out where to go from there LOL

Pat as far as I know the crystal can only be removed if you also remove the bezel. I remember someone mentioning this in RG on some thread, I can't seem to find it now though.

Bleech-

That is not what I wanted to hear

Here's what it looks like now- delamination is increasing....

Been trying to get the damn crystal out and I think it's in there with epoxy

Either that or it's somehow retained by the bezel.

Not gonna say that EVERY one will do this but until I can figure out what is going to work as far as a replacement- why take the risk.

Took mine close to 18 hours to delaminate from the time it got wet.

Right now I am looking into seeing if the 21j crystal from Hont will swap out. It is mineral but at least it is solid and will not have this issue.

Do NOT get your Ploprof wet.

The crystals are of laminate construction- sapphire on top mineral on bottom. This has been confirmed by two dealers.

The adhesive is apparently water soluble based on the delamination.

I thought this was important enough news to post here to make sure the word got out- don't want anyone's looking like mine...

The bezel just has fingerprints but the concentric circles of the crystal de-laminating have spread since these photos were taken.

I think the poor thing looks like it actually was used by Daniel Craig

From RG:

My UPO Torture Test

Well maybe a 3 month test would be better but this poor thing has seen it all.

First off this is an out of the box UPO. The only thing that has been done is the rotor was reaffixed after it came loose. Other than that it is 100% bone stock straight from Andrew.

So far it has held up despite being down 100 or so feet during an active dive, lived through a 120mm rocket impact 25m away (what I think initially loosened the rotor), being bounced across concrete along with me after afrementioned impact, been knocked about inside a HMMWV on some of the worst roads in Iraq, made it through a sandstorm (13 SEP IVO Samarra) that got sand into places I wasn't aware existed on my body, withstood being on my wrist through 3 months of actions on drills, took recoil forces from 5,000+ rounds of .45 ACP hardball, a 220V shock and hours upon hours of 130+ degree heat.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this watch to ayone who likes to beat the bejeezus out of things. Better than some crappy Timex, the UPO truly takes a licking and keeps on ticking (and looks great doing so)!

Here's the wristie. Sorry for the poor quality but it was taken at overspeed on MSR Tampa somewhere in Iraq

It was also submerged into a semi trailer full of diesel fuel for the better part of an hour while we tried fishing it out and withstood an active dive to my personal record of 120 feet. here's a few more photos of her from when I was in-country and it took another year of abuse before the crown stripped which was the ONLY problem I ever had with it.

UPO with Beretta M-12S Subgun

UPO with M1911A1

Again thanks to Pug for doing the work- you can see why this watch means so much to me. Gonna be something I pass onto my son and hopefully nobody will have to stick it up their a$$

Some demotivationals I made just to lighten things up:

Gives ya an idea of what this poor thing lived through.

Got my UPO back from Pugwash and it once again resides firmly on my wrist.

I have to say this thing came out GREAT! The gen crown & tube are solid as a rock and she's still waterproof (I tossed it into the deep end of my pool).

IMO I like the way it looks now vice when I first unpacked it. The little marks and nicks all have a story behind them and this watch is part of my history.

I'd like to thank Pugwash for the exacting repair to this watch. I love the way it came out and he did an outstanding job fixing her for me

OK enough babbling- here's the pics

Just chilling on the BBQ slab:

Pulling a Luca Brasi

A couple shots post pool retrieval:

And the obligatory wristie

The advances in replica watch production are INSANE!

This Rolex Sub was bought circa 1985-86 on Canal St in NYC. At the time it was the top-of-the-line with an automatic where 99.9% of the other reps were quartz powered.

That being said- I can even begin to start describing the "tells" on this one. Everything is wrong from the stainless steel plated case to the non-magnifying cyclops. Rather than point everything out here are some photos for you guys to have fun with

Here it is opposite the Rolex Super Seadweller:

So the next time you're complaining about a wokky rehaut or incorrect date font- refer back here to see how bad things used to be!

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