Resistor

Oh man...I should have never sold my bananawolf. Such awesome watches.

Gen Seamaster on rep bracelet.

Sweet! I think those are not very expensive, but I'm not sure about current availability. You may need to use WatchRecon to see when one comes up for sale. http://owcwatches.com/milsub.html

OWC?

Sandoz Submariner?

Steinhart Mil-sub homage, maybe?

Noticed that Omega has not yet been represented in this thread.

Salicylic acid (found in over the counter wart removers) works too, just requires patience and diligence in application.

Received two new toys the other day: franken 2531 and a rep PO deployant strap for the 2254.

As Nightwatch said, I avoid "Swiss" movements because they are typically not worth the money. I have better luck with new Asian movements over old Swiss movements which are usually an unknown quantity.

Right nao

Yes. Loctite on the He valve goes a long way toward retention. Also, if the case is drilled all the way through for the He valve, a little bit of epoxy can be used to seal the hole for water-tightness.

You can swap a sapphire back onto your 3570. It requires a different movement ring, since the closed caseback Speedies have the anti-magnetic cover between the movement and caseback. I much prefer the classic man on the moon caseback and will be leaving mine alone.

I'm sure you're all familiar with how poorly the end links fit on the rep Bond bracelet. By this, I mean that the bracelet is not allowed to smoothly wrap around the wrist -- the square end of the first link juts out, creating a terrible look. Has anyone tried to install gen end links between a rep case and bracelet? I'm wondering if these are more curved and provide a smoother contour around the wrist. I have an old WBK Bond GMT which suffers from this problem and I have a franken 2531.80 on the way which will almost certainly be the same. My gen 2254 was purchased as a head only and I tried the rep Bond bracelet for about 2 minutes, but the end link/first link fit drove me nuts. It would be awesome if gen end links solve this problem. Anyone try this?

The A2836 works just fine for me. I'd avoid the Miyota, even though it's probably a more reliable movement longterm, it often suffers from jerky second hand motion due to the weight of the PO hand. As always, steer clear of "Swiss" movements because you're going to get ripped off or receive a rusty old salvaged ETA.

Seems some of their older models are less expensive - I've seen them for ~1k. The newer watches with in-house movements are climbing up there.

Not sure when I'll return home to take pics, but working from memory: Rep: Breitling Blackbird (old brushed model) Gen: Speedmaster Pro Seiko 7A28-7049 "Speedy" Citizen 67-9313 mechanical flyback Victorinox Chrono Classic Citizen Skyhawk Blue Angels Atomic Citizen Calibre 2100 (black dial and white dial) Citizen Skyhawk Blue Angels non-atomic Sure I'm forgetting some here. I'm lately tending to shy away from chronos due to servicing cost and reliability. Just not worth the hassle to me anymore.

The non-sales forums are still dangerous! You can just be reading threads then BAM, someone posts a pic of a watch that you just can't resist. Then it's off to the sales area you go!

WU is fine, as long as it's a forum-recognized TD. I've never used it and have bought using only PP, but I wouldn't hesitate if the dealer is well regarded and reliable. In regards to the watch - the noob CrPO is a fantastic piece with a reliable movement. Me personally, I steer well clear of modified (or even stock) A7750 movements. Just too much trouble.

Same here. I have only four or five reps (only one is worn with any frequency, and I just got it a few weeks ago). I've somehow managed to buy two 2254.50 SMPs in the past two months. One of which was traded away so I got another, which I received just yesterday. This is [censored]!

These forums fuel our bad habit of searching for and buying watches. I took a self imposed break from WUS and RG for a couple of years and found myself more than happy to wear just one or two watches. All of the others simply sat in my box in hibernation and my wallet stopped hemorrhaging. For some stupid reason, I decided to check out one of the forums and in doing so, I stopped by the sales area. One of the first things I saw was a watch that I "had to have"...I've now spent thousands in the few months since I started browsing the forums. Time for another long break, I think [emoji45]

Sometimes. Breitlings seem to be sensitive to this, both because they use double AR on most of their watches and because their AR seems a bit soft. There are many types of AR coatings with different hues and varying hardness. I had an old Blackbird re-coated and the replacement AR was clear, with a faint greenish tint vs the typical Breitling purple, and it seems harder in the sense that it doesn't scratch nearly as easily.

I've completely removed AR with red Scotchbrite and a little elbow grease. Comes right off without damaging the sapphire.

My second 2254 since September! Traded my first for a Speedy and almost immediately regretted it.

Do you have a design or are you going to need the machine shop to design + manufacture? It's going to be very pricey to have one-off components made, moreso if CAD work is required. Design, tooling, setup, and 316ss material are going to cost a boatload. I'd try to look around for machine shops in your area. You'll have better luck if there are major manufacturers near you which are supplied by smaller machine job shops. One in my area comes to mind and I can check and provide a website/phone number if needed.