lhooq

With the horrors of Black Friday behind us, let us make preparations for the forthcoming giving of thanks by wearing our watches. Like this Blancpain here:

Gasp! Nanuq without a Rolex OR a Doxa?! Beautiful scenery, by the way!

Looks so nice, feels so light. Ignore that price tag; it's really JPY800K at the airport. Cheap!

Beautiful, J. Fantastic work, as usual!

Thanks! Luckily, I had some pretty nice scenery out the window, as I was crossing the Pyrenees when I took that shot.

Nataf gave us all-new watches that looked like poo. Dufour tossed those out and resurrected Zenith's classics. Magada is combining those two approaches by defacing familiar and loved designs with open hearts, Rolling Stones logos &c. Out of this list, I'll take the GS GMT.

It was a rental! I reserved an "Audi A3 or similar". I don't see the similarities myself, but they had all the bargaining power that morning. I wrote about this Speedmaster here: http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/153807-ck2915-speedmaster-one/

It's very gratifying to see how this thread has progressed. It started off with me wanting to get something off my chest, but it's evolved into something far more thoughtful. The last batch of responses has been especially enlightening and speaks well of the membership here at RWG. I almost never sell anything, and I always embark on a project with the assumption that the watch will be with me for a very long time. Look at my "CK2915" Speedmaster franken: It's one of my most expensive builds, contains nothing but genuine parts, and is the highlight of my collection. I know I'd be hard-pressed to recover my costs if I ever chose to sell it, but I'm OK with that. As to why I sweat over the insane level of details that practically no one will ever notice... It's not that I'm trying to fool everyone around me. What I'm trying to do is fool myself--even for just a few seconds. All I want is to be able to glance down at my wrist and think, "Well, look at that! So that's what it's like!" It gives me an immense amount of pleasure, as does the obsessive search for parts, coordination of labor, and communication with other members. I continue to learn new things, both about the watches and about the people. Right now, I'm revisiting one of my old Panerai builds, and it's led me to learn a lot more about the brand than ever before. I've been PMing other members like a newbie, asking questions about crowns and CGs that, I'm sure, are common knowledge among Paneristi. It's a long and sometimes confusing process, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

In my case, it's to show off the piece of [censored] I happen to be driving at the time: (Apologies to any RWG members who drive a 500L. And condolences.)

This is pretty nice. The subdial dishing and printing is much better than what you'll find in some later DW dials. The red "Daytona" looks a bit ropey, though, so if you could figure out a way of scraping the rest off, I think you'd be left with a much improved appearance.

I've gone through a whole lot of Mercedes handsets over the years, and I've been careless in cataloging them. Most of the Sub hands I've got in my parts box are either from Yuki or Clark, but I think there's at least one gen handset in there. Can you identify which hands in this picture are genuine Rolex units?

I like a black dial on brown leather--ostrich or calfskin.

Toronto, currently reaching a high of -5C.

That warms my heart on this subzero day.

The early DW cases (hallmarks are the slender, droopy lugs and the toothy old pushers) have an excellent shape, so don't worry about reshaping it. Otherwise, I agree with the others who recommend a bezel and pusher swap. Great catch.

Congratulations! And, yes: Embrace the doooome...

tomhorn: I think you've been more patient than most when it comes to dealing with stuff like this. I can barely make it through that epic, tl:dr discussion you've been having on RG! Bullseye. For the record, the one I referred to in my OP wasn't anyone on RWG. I'm happy to say I've enjoyed >95% of my PMs here, including all the "Hey man, are you selling that 5512 yet?" queries! I'm still learning--not just from the old masters like ubi and automatico, but also from brand-new members with nuggets of information that were once unknown to me. It's one of my favorite things about this forum.

Third vote for a Steinhart Ocean One.

You could check in with Akira in Germany. He's getting better and better at luming, and modding in general.

I agree. And even if he gave exactly zero to charity, it's his pile and I'll be damned if I tell him how he should spend it.

Thanks for the thoughtful response, 508. It's more than my OP deserves, which —as sgtuk accurately noted— was primarily a vent over a correspondent in another forum. You tackled the cost half of my question, and all your reasons are valid. Personally, I can justify scarily high outlays on certain projects, so I really don't have a problem with "sky's the limit" budgets—even for reps. What really bothers me is money combined with an utter lack of curiosity. Anyway, the feedback on the SM300 Master is pretty good, so I think you should be fine. Contact donerix for a nice strap!

I don't get some people. Why are you spending $700 on a rep if you can't even tell the difference between it and a $200 rep? Maybe it's so you can have "the best and most accurate" (under $1000, of course), but why can't you be arsed to learn --actually learn, rather than check through a list of features (i.e. don't ask me about recessed subdials if you don't even know what a subdial is)-- a few things about this watch that you claim to be obsessed with? Is it so you can fool your friends, who most likely wouldn't know the difference between a $7000 franken and a $100 F-grade quartz? And if you actually ran into someone who knew their stuff, do you really think they wouldn't be able to suss out that you've only got the most superficial knowledge of this supposedly rare watch you're wearing? I'm fine with helping people who are genuinely eager to learn about watches. But I have no time for people who demand to be spoon-fed hard-earned lessons while exhibiting all the diligence and attention of a toddler at Sunday Mass. Rant over.

I'm pretty sure an RCO sold for over a million bucks in that ridiculous Christie's auction last year. So 660K's really a bargain!