sssurfer

Sharkskin bands, of which I have a couple, are naturally waterproof but exposure to water will change the grain somewhat. The one's I have had were almost a suede type surface when brandnew. After exposure to sweat, water, and what not, the suede type texture flattened out and now it almost appears like a finished leather. And the colors when new can be a little wild but they will get more subdued once the grain flattens out. The only leather I've not seen affected very much by wear has been stingray.

Same experience here.

Suede shark is not waterproof -- just water-resistant, at best.

'Normal' (non-suede) shark is better.

Stingray is even better (but the leather on the back side is not).

I see no vantage with respect to a normal screw-type pin remover.

6 hours is damn too short. Sorry, but something's wrong on that 7750 unless you have a Parkinson's disease.

(BTW, the movements I am pleased most about PR are the Asian 21J).

Nice addition to my PAM horrors gallery. Thanks.

Congrats...don't forget to post some pics when you've got it!!!

Very funny.

Really thanks, The Zigmeister and Brian, for your reply. The Zigmeister's choice is important to my decision.

What are you saying, I won the auction!!!!!!

Very funny.

By the way, I know it is the Angelus of the poor, but some time ago I won this one.

Now the seller is saying that he lost the watch and he will send me a refund.

Good. I'll never tell this sort of things anyone anymore.

I'll keep all my sources secret.

Until I have the item in my pocket at least.

Yes, a great watch.

You may want to have a look here.

Seriously speaking, you should consider screen printing, thermographical printing, or at least those ALPS Micro Dry thermal printers (out of production now). No pen or similar hand tools.

BTW, archibald is undisputed master here on printings and printers.

Less seriously, you may consider sticks and decals like someone is doing too.

i dont know if it would fit but could you not just buy a dial from a dealer and replace that unbranded one!

C'mon, Ben, let us be creative!

I am currently thinking about buying some SL from Tritec, but got stuck in a doubt about colors.

I happen to have two old SL color tables that I found somewhere on the net (old RWG? Tritec themselves?):

According with those tables, C3 would look a good choice: a nice white-slightly-greenish in daylight, and exactly the brilliant blueish green that I want in the dark -- and by far the brightest lume of all.

But, on a more recent table, C3 in daylight looks more of a shitty white-yellowish color:

May I know what our experts relumers here think about C3 -- and what advice would they give me?

Thanks!

Can't wait to book for several 21J (which I am a great fan of)!

Really thanks to the meisters!

Thanks for sharing those blueprints, rolli.

I just wonder if the 2nd one was actually manufactured or it just stayed at a project or prototype stage...

Thanks SSSURFER for your second long answer. I think I misunderstood your first answer as if you meant that one wears it out fairly quckly.

You are welcome. It was my 1st answer that was too short to be clear. My fault.

I dont know if I am a bit odd here at the forum since I am concerned with the quality and durability of the watches I like. I dont care so much about a detail at the font or other very minor design issues. For me getting my watch serviced is rather easy but if something really breaks and requires spare parts it will give me headache since I am currently working abroad and have difficulties ordering stuff. If it is possible to find at all. And even if 250-350 usd is not so much for a watch, it is still quite a lot if you buy a couple of them and they end up in the drawer after a short time. And if it is in the drawer, well then it does not matter how nice the fonts are.

I may assure you that I am quite picky on my watches -- but sincerely the aesthetic wearing of the crown, that we talked about, is no real concern as it is substantially invisible.

Much worse the mechanical wearing occurring when the lever is not properly centered and lined up with the crown, but that is a completely different matter.

Nice try, Stephane!

Now have a look here.

the cali dial was shaved down to fit the case... the dial was way too thick as well so it was actually split down the middle like a sandwich dial. hope that clears up the questions.

Thanks for making it clear, Flav, and congrats once again!

Do you have any idea how quickly it goes to wear out the middle of the crown and/or the top of the lever? And do you know any way of fixing it?

According to my small experience, some tenths opening & closing is enough. A little less on Lello's crowns (which appear to be the softest of all), a little more on PVD crowns. It also greatly varies depending on how strongly or weakly the lever pushes the crown.

The wearing seems to affect just the crown, not the lever. Or on the lever it is negligible.

And it is essentially an aesthetic effect, it does not compromise the functionality of the crown & lever ensemble. Maybe it is because this actually is a self-limiting process: the more the lever wears down the crown, the less the pressure on next movements.

In reality, noone really cares about it as the wearing stays confined to the center of the crown. It is invisible unless one closely looks into the opening of the guard, between the guard and the crown, with the lever in the open position.

The only thing I can think of to prevent/delay the problem is a little bit of oil etc at the centre of crown where the lever will scratch it, will significantly reduce the friction and delay the life of both the crown and the lever.

If you really are concerned with it, I think your best option is to finely trim the pressure between the lever and the crown. Naturally in this case your action points are: the lever shape, the crown gasket, the crown tube, and the guard feet.

What suprises me a litte about all of this is that one never read anything about it related to gen Panerais. This model with a lever pushing the crown has been out on the market for a pretty long time, but I have never heard anything on discussion forums. The same is for the screw down crown for the Radiomir. No one with a gen seems to have problems with it.

As far as I know, also on reps this is not perceived as a real problem -- see above.

I only talked about Luminor. I wear a Radiomir only on occasions, so I can't speak about its crown shelf life. But I heard of problems only on a specific rep model some time ago (maybe the Black Seal?), whose thread was defective (or at least poor) from the manufacturer.

However, even if not setting the watch very frequently, you still have to open and close it every day to wind the watch. It is possible that opening and closing it every day, in the long term could wear out the top of the lever and/or the center of the crown. Does anyone have any experience from this?

Yes, it does.

Much better autos.

I think phoband mentioned it before about the Davidsen dials in another thread. The diameter of the dial is shaved all aroudn to fit inside the casing. (Man, that is some serious patience! As I can't even control my dremel on an aluminum IPOD case mod)

And the split is the separation from the dial and the superlume

Thanks bro!

Swdivad, I really liked your previous avatar more.

I have no gen to compare (maybe some gen-owner member may step in and help?), but I am very doubtful too.

First of all, these have no spring. Aren't genuine crowns supposed to have springs?

Second, teeth sharpness is poor.

Third, the black one seems all but real PVD (in facts also the seller actually declares it just as "black steel", not PVD).

On this one, sharpness is completely lost. It looks like coated with some sort of black treatment/coating definitely not PVD (Caswell's black oxide / steel blackener, perhaps?).

Fourth, the seller seems specialized in selling crowns for several brands, so he hardly is an amateur/watchsmith who happens to have two spare crowns to sell. And we all know that OP is not giving crowns to anyone but their authorized repairers.

Awesome!

Please, what does "shaved down, split" precisely mean?

I hope a PAM104 comes soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I too!

mmmmm....

Even if '13 gobbi' is out. 'Latini' is in!