jmb

I have always loved dark blue dials and have always wanted to build a Franken Blue Sunburst DJ. Unfortunately, after haunting fleabay for the past couple of years I've never seen a blue dial for under a couple hundred bucks and most of them are well north of that amount. I finally decided that I would have to settle for a pure rep. I e-mailed my parts guy and told him what I was looking for and when he sent me pics of this dial I just had to have it! I had wanted a blue dial with silver stick markers but when I saw the pic of this dial I fell in love with it. I normally don't like Roman dials as I have often seen examples that had crooked looking markers, etc., but I decided to take a chance and ordered a few of 'em - I wasn't disappointed! For this build I used a 2836 case and my last "real" ETA 2836 with my best DW overlay. I used a set of rep hands but stripped the stock lume from them and applied some Luminova. There were no "surprises" for a change and of this I was most grateful! Since this is a no lug hole sapphire build I am going to order a newer style solid end-link DJ bracelet for this but for the time being I think it looks great on the "vintage style" Jubilee. Here's a few pics:

Well, R, that one pegs the kewl-o-meter! This is considerably lower on the meter...

I'll jump on woof's Tudor Train!

It doesn't matter whether or not it's noticable "on the wrist" as the nit-pickers live and die by the macro! I'm not trying to stir anything up but macro shots ( and $hit you can't see without taking something apart) don't really matter to me anymore - "wrist presence" is the only thing that matters in the real world. I mean what does it matter if a rep doo-hicky has a feature that can't be seen off by.0002"!!?

Oh, gag! No straps - PERIOD!!

I'm regretting ever mentioning anything about this crystal. This is my last word on the subject: JBG25-295 is NOT the same crystal as the MG25-295. The MG25-295 is a generic flat mineral glass crystal which is 2.5mm thick with a 29.5mm diameter.

This crystal is not in the catalog yet, just put the part number in the on-line order form and it will find it. Part number MG25-295 breaks down as follows: MG - mineral glass 25 - 2.5mm thick 295 - 29.5mm diameter I don't think they have a sapphire version but they are cheap enough that you could replace a bunch of 'em before you approached a total close to what one sapphire would cost...

Another neato from the lab of the C-Man!

The lug holes look a tad large. Are you going to go with solid lug bars? But, maybe my eyes are playing tricks on me...

Back to basics...

rouhelena on fleabay used to sell "10 packs". If non listed then e-mail 'em...

Normally not considered good form to post pics of the actual package as received, especially with any labels and stuff visible... But, congrats!

I decided to break this one in after slapping it together...

Maybe not but he would be able to buy a new $90 rep every year and still have $2300 left over! I guess the whole point is is that it's a mechanical device and mechanical devices WILL fail, eventually, but you can be proactive on a bunch of known little $hit and save yourself some grief. That's the main reason that I really don't buy a "ready made" rep anymore. I buy the parts, build what I want, and if it goes FUBAR the only one who I can complain about is myself.

The "pearl" is just a spot of lume paint so to really do it righ it needs to be popped off, a hole drilled, and a pearl dot glued in...

sgtguk mentioned the fleabay sterile vintage cases from HK and I remembered picking up a couple a few months back out of curiosity - I believe he has these listed at $69 plus $10 S&H. I decided this would be a good excuse to test out my "new" hand and see if I could do stuff without tearing anything up. The case is set up for a 2836 (or equiv) and comes with a sterile Snowflake Date type dial (ETA), movement spacer, a set of axe hands (ETA), sterile trip-lock style crown, and three NATO straps in Grey/Green, Black and Blue. Have I ever mentioned that I'm not fond of straps? Although the bezel attachment is not gen like (uses octo-paperclip spring) it does come with lug holes and the stock crystal is so poorly glued in that it's extremely easy to pop out. This is a completely sterile case without lug engraving or any engraving inside the case-back. The CGs don't look all that bad (these haven't been touched) but the "pearl" is just sort of painted on In it's stock form it comes with a crystal with magnifier but since I was building a no-date type watch I popped it out and started digging through the crystal box for something that would fit without a whole lot of effort. Imagine my surprise when a T21 dropped right into the milled crystal slot just like it was made for it! I mixed some clear epoxy and laid it in the milled channel for the crystal, seated the crystal, and set it aside to cure. After the glue had cured I reassembled the bezel onto the case and moved on to the innards. I had a 2836 which I had never gotten around to reassembling after cleaning it so I figured this would be a good test for the fingers. I reassembled and lubed the movement and I was pleasantly surprised at how much easier it was without numb fingers!! It actually runs although I seem to have lost the "hack lever" over the past 1+ year it's been torn apart!!! I stuck on one of my "decal" dials and a ratty looking set of hands and popped everything into the case. I then stuck it on the timer and adjusted it to .1 msec beat error and -2 sec/day and called it good 'nuf and screwed on the back. I then threaded on the NATO strap and pronounced it a watch. All-in-all I don't think it turned out too bad and I would actually wear it if not for the strap so it'll probably show up in the for-sale section or get disermboweled and go back into the parts box. Here's some pics:

Uh, yeah? A no-date dial would look kinda funny with a magnifier!

sgtguk - I played with one of these sterile cases a bit today. Like I said, no gen bezel construction (uses wire clip) but not really that big a deal - just makes fitting a different crystal a bit harder. The case came with a cyclope crystal with the magnifier in the "Tudor position" so I popped it out and found a T21 drops right into the slot so I will likely glue that in there and assemble it with a 7928 dial and see what it looks like.

Not gen like bezel construction, and sterile, but overall they don't look too bad.

Yaaaarrrrr...

highoe - I bought a couple of his cases to play with.

A good inexpensive start would be with a Cartel 5512/5513 with clone 2836 movement. Although the clone is a bit more expensive than the a21j I personally have not been able to find "axe" hands for a21j movements. Bezel inserts can be faded by marinating them in a bleach solution.

Time to rise and shine!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buy a $29.99 Silix Special ( http://www.silix-prime.com/rol252-p-4360.html )or two to practice on. When you get the hang of it then do your "keeper".

Gimmegimmegimmegimme.... Damn, R, every time I start to think "life's good" you feel the need to slap me with something!