lhooq

Very nice TAGs, gents! They nailed it with that shade of blue. Sunset Explorer:

That's strange. I was emailing DW about buying a few dials (7750 and V72) before Chinese New Year. Maybe he was referring to the specific type of dial you were requesting? Again, I'm pretty sure that the innards of the 7750-based cartel rep should slot into the DW case. Try contacting rolexaddict. I seem to remember reading about him transplanting the guts of a cartel 'Big Red' into the standard DW 6263 case.

While I think a "Big Hole" Tropic would look great on it, vintage rubber might not be your bag. Unfortunately, the selection of modern 19mm straps is pretty poor. Your best bet would be to get a 20mm Hirsch Rally (Rallye?) and trim the edges until it squeezes in.

Did DW say why he couldn't (wouldn't?) provide you with those parts? But, yes, you should be able to transplant the guts of the cartel rep into a DW case with no issue. There've been a few guys who have done this before, though I think DW has the best 7750 dials available.

I really wanted to post this by itself: But for the sake of diversity, I submit this:

Something a little different for casual Friday:

They're coming from multiple sources, too. The 7836 that debuted on Josh's 1655, later sold separately by other dealers, is a great bracelet for the money, but still has significant flaws relative to the gen. Yuki's much pricier 7836 looks to be an improvement in most respects, but still doesn't take gen-size springbars. And it's currently unavailable. I'm suspicious of many of the bracelets being sold on eBay, even from sellers who are positively referred on VRM. Why, for example, have I seen so many used 7836s with 258 endlinks? Are these not, in fact, "extremely rare" and "specifically and only for the Milgauss 1019" (to quote an exotic watch dealer)?

I'd go as low as five feet, J! Thanks for following through and reviewing it!

I don't consider myself much of a Submariner guy, but redwatch's Snowflake is near the top of my RWG's Most Wanted list!

Is it February already? Then it must time for the 2nd Annual Photo-Comparison of Tropic 21 crystals! This, of course, is the sequel to the massively popular 2010 Tropic 21 Photo-Comparison and a semi-sequel to the Thread-of-the-Year Nominee 2010 Tropic 22 Photo-Comparison. Last year's match-up was a bit of an apples-and-oranges affair, as it featured two aftermarket smooth-domes and a genuine beveled-edge crystal. This time, that genuine Tropic 21 faces off against an edged aftermarket "25-21" that only became widely available a few months ago through seller J&K Watch. It's undoubtedly older than that, so if anyone out there knows who actually manufactures this crystal, do chime in. Please note that for this entire thread, the J&K "Non-Genuine-Part" is on the left, while Rolex is on the right. Let's start with a close-up of the introductory photo: Already we can see the differences in heights and angles. The net result is that the gen's edge seems "deeper" i.e. it refracts a greater area than the J&K, and in higher contrast. Whether this is due to the angle or to the material is beyond my expertise. All I can say is that the clarity of the Rolex crystal is superior, though this is really only evident along the edge. It's been said that the edged Rolex crystals have a unique sparkle. To quote freddy, the later T21 "gives the Daytona a jewel-like quality that cannot be matched by any other crystal..." I agree. If you haven't seen sunlight shooting through the prism of a gen crystal, I hope this shows a bit of the effect: I reckon a lot of that is due to the angle of the edge. Unfortunately, this is the only edged aftermarket T21 I could get my hands on. So how big is the difference on the wrist? This might give a hint: In those lighting conditions, and from that distance and angle... pretty much identical! The J&K is a very good crystal, and I would recommend it to anyone looking to improve their vintage Daytona builds. There are some aspects of the genuine Tropic 21 that it struggles to match, but it is a credible alternative at a tenth, or even a twentieth, of the price. Final note: I measured inner/outer diameters (at the base) of 29.44/30.60mm for the J&K, and 29.55/30.69mm for the Rolex. (These threads seem to do better with a beauty shot tacked on at the end.)

Some general rules of thumb, from experience: 1. Use EMS when possible. 2. Request that the seller declare a package value of no more than $40. Beyond that, you're fair game i.e. duties up to 50-100% 3. For EMS, expect delivery times between 1 to 3 weeks. 4. For registered mail from Europe or the USA, expect 2 to 6 weeks. (Mind you, I'm now on week 7 waiting for a package sent in early December.) 5. Don't order more than 1 watch at a time. 6. Stay friendly with the guys at the post office. Resist the temptation to break the customs agent's teeth when he shows you his calculations. And if all else fails, take advantage of the current Cebu Pacific ticket sale and fly to Guangzhou for Php 1,888. (I hear the sound of a hundred hands reaching for calculators, so that's about USD 43 each way.)

I sat down and had a nice chat with Flex over coffee last month, but, unfortunately, he didn't have either of those watches on him. He did give me the scoop on the Newman on the right, and it's a jaw-dropper. There are a lot of amazing pieces in his collection that we sometimes get a glimpse of (e.g. that pair, the Rolex Moonphase), but he claims he doesn't show them off so much, since his photographic skills aren't that great. Nonsense! With subjects like the above, Flex could use a wireless, infrared webcam and still come up with beautiful shots! Heck, I'll gladly take pictures of all of them the next time I'm in Hong Kong.

Beautiful! Daytona or Chronotime, I love the standard panda dials!

vlydog: Thanks! The quality of the 288 rep still amazes me. I'm pretty sure ubi's is an 1171 bracelet, and I agree. I almost never wear the ref. 1998 that came with my gen Speedmaster because the polished outer mid-links look too fussy. The solid endlinks are nice, and so is the clasp, but I'll take classic, understated looks and lightness, instead:

Back to my big 288:

Check out ubi's excellent comparison between a genuine SM300, and the cartel rep. The quality of the movement is a secondary issue. I can't comment on all the pre-built Yuki watches, but the ones I'm familiar with (like the 6263 Daytona) also seem to be bog-standard cartel reps with no relation to the more expensive and more accurate case sets that Yuki sells.

Thanks, J! Let a thousand bezels turn! JoeyB: In the OP, I'm actually using the Yuki springbars, which have 2mm bodies and teeny 0.9mm pivots. It's more an issue of looks than anything else, but I really want those rounded tips to inhabit the lugholes. Even the bars sold by Ofrei (2mm/1.2mm, but with flat tips) don't look nearly as nice. I don't shoot in RAW format, but my G9 does have a custom white balance setting. Prior to shooting, I set it using a sheet of 8.5x11 paper. Any color correction I do afterward is minimal.

Pro: It's a decent-looking Seamaster 300 rep when viewed from the front. Con: It looks very little like an SM300 from the side. Bigger con: It's the exact same rep you can get from other trusted dealers at ~$180.

Thanks, flex. Wish I could've seen the highlights of your Rolex collection, but the PAM 28 was very nice!

Thanks, ubi! I think I bumped into you as you were walking out of the Gen Dial Superstore.

Weekend Explorers. That's Saturday on the left, Sunday on the right:

Thanks, Chi! I also like the movement for the extra confusion it cause when the caseback is unscrewed. Later that day... Unfortunately, one of the bars has a collapsed spring, so the effect is less pronounced than it ought to be. That's what I get for buying "Genuine" springbars. (To be fair, the listing does say '"Genuine"' in quotation marks!) Thanks for the tip, Ubi!

valerian, utheman: Thanks, it's a new dial! Well, old dial, but new to me...