lhooq

Love the sheen of that 5500! Donerix's croc today:

The Yuki main hands are a big improvement over DW's. As for the subdial hands, it's good that you like them, since they're really much better constructed than DW's. The best trim jobs I've seen involve a combination of shaving the bezel and sanding a bit off the crystal. But, yeah, doing anything to a genuine C128 is not something I enjoy!

Great work! Are you using a combination of stock and Yuki hands?

lgking: Thanks for the scans! Now, who can teach me how to stack watches like that? woof: Great catch, R. Your collection seems to be growing fast these days!

SM300 at night, Omega delight:

Both nice, but gray takes the win. The subdials on the black dial are a bit too hypnotic for me.

Strange thing about that '7033'... I don't think anyone had ever seen one -let alone knew of its existence- until it was displayed alongside the Heritage at last year's Baselworld.

This is correct, and common to all Valjoux 23/72 chronographs. Flywingwedge recently received one with the positions reversed, so you're lucky you didn't get one, too!

Dizzy: I don't know if these pictures will help, but here are closeup shots of the insides of a Yuki 7206 link and a genuine 7205 link: Maybe I've got the wrong process in mind, but taking the springs out of an expander bracelet sounds like a Sisyphean ordeal that could leave you with a twisted mess of metal.

I've got a bunch of links (well, four, I think) that were removed from a couple of Yuki 7206s, and they all have their springs inside. I can send a couple off to you. (But first, let me sacrifice an animal to appease the postal gods and ensure safe delivery...)

I would love to see a breakdown of Rolex sales on a per-model basis. At the very least, I think it would be instructive to compare sales of watches that are, say, 39mm and up with those of smaller Rolexes. The preferences of the average WIS may be gravitating toward the mid-40s, but I think it might be a mistake to extrapolate that trend to the wider public. I run into a lot of people who still find a Luminor to be bizarrely big. And, no, I don't spend most of my time in a retirement home!

He doesn't post much on this forum these days, but Brighlight on the other RWG repairs and services reps in the UK. Tell him LHOOQ sent you, and... er... Well, see what it gets you!

Trust me on this one! As great a job DW did on this kit, his hands look like rejects from an $88 vintage Milgauss. I'm glad to hear the 7732 transplant went well. You're right about the 7734. It's a solid movement (most of the time), but you can understand why Tudor switched to the comparatively ancient Valjoux 234 for the 7100-series chronographs.

That's one nice thing about having a few to choose from! I guess the brown leather strap is a keeper? It still looks terrific!

It's the beater Explorer for a Sunday swim:

Really nice progress, donerix! I especially like the aging of the 7032 dial, but if I were you, I'd ditch those main hands for a Yuki set ASAP.

Thanks for the compliments, all! Dave: I bought my Speedmaster second-hand a few years back, in a face-to-face deal. Its condition at the time was flawless. Not anymore! The subdial spacing is something that no rep -save for the quartz cheapies- has ever gotten right. But in my opinion, the easier tells are flat crystals (on most Speedy reps) and flat dials (on all of them).

Satuday 6239:

It's a VC Malte: Tourbillon, skeleton, white-gold... Retail price is around $200,000 +/- the cost of a Boxster. Depends on what sort of discount you can swing. My actual watch for April Fool's:

I guess today's the only day when I can wear this:

Excellent points all around BT, and they do make me reconsider my initial reaction to the revised Exp II. My favorite in the current Rolex lineup is the new Explorer I. That may seem utterly predictable, but I haven't felt any burning love toward any Explorer since the late 80s. The 214270 acknowledged a few realities of the current market (bigger diameter, higher quality bracelet/clasp) while hewing closer to the original concept (matte-finish dial, cleaner graphics). The new Exp II does much the same, and I'd probably be outraged if Rolex had tried a Milgauss-like reinterpretation of the 1655 design. 1. DSSD's biggest sin, in my opinion, is its lack of balance. Its Rolex's most top-heavy design since the Deep Sea Special, and much more cluttered. 2. The GMTIIc has never excited me. 3. The RER is unnecessary ornamentation on the dress watches. On tool watches, it misses the point. As an an anti-counterfeiting device... Well, maybe Rolex ought to make microprinted, holographic dials with UV-activated serial numbers. And maybe the watches could require a wi-fi connection to an encrypted Rolex server before they can start telling time. Or maybe they want to look into something LESS obtrusive! 4. Great analogy, but I think you meant 996! 5. I respect the WM9 replication, but I've never understood the appeal of the YM. The YM2, however, is grotesque.

A Sub that's a franken thing, Will take a Stilty ring. (OK, that's a bit of a stretch...)

Carpe diem, C!

I fooled you, I fooled you! I got Asian ETA, I got Asian ETA! I got all Asian ETA!

Almost all of my outdoor shots are taken while I'm traveling, and I usually bring a trio of watches. When I'm working, well.. That's why so many of my pictures are taken indoors, at night, and with artificial lighting! Time to start saving for a return to Paris...