midshipman01

Oh, and the recipe is deceptively simple. Perfect Hour has almost the correct watch even with the 28,8 movement, but you need to add a Tudor Sub bezel insert (Ebay has a few) and a Corvus Nato. Then I shaved the case down just a little (I think it could use a little more), baked and tea stained the dial/hands, sanded and bleached the bezel insert, aged the crystal, and sanded the strap all to get the right period look.

This Nato is too small (18mm) as per geniune, although I do think the actual is 16mm (you just can't find that). It's hard to tell but you can see springbar in some of my pics.

Just finished messing around with and vintaging this Goldfinger Sub. Fairly accurate I think. The reference shot... and mine...

Ha, as requested...my camera's not good enough to do a really impressive dark shot, but this will suffice. The hands are the better lumers of the two, and do get a charge even from ambient lighting. Much better than my experiences with homages in that way. They've been categorically awful.

I've been into the idea of higher quality (higher quality than a street corner) reps for a long time, but for whatever reason, I didn't actually start until now. After having built my own rep I decided this time to see just what kind of quality was out there. This might just be a rerun for most of you, but this was my rep experience and it might help someone considering the same watch. Ordered a white faced Milgauss (Asia 2824) from Josh at Perfect-Hour on March 9th I believe. Despite my order initially showing 3 Milguass's(Milgaussi?)he was quite responsive in fixing this and came highly recommended here because of that. So, about 2 weeks goes by and the watch is here. After opening the box, I'm pleasantly surprised that it feels nice and hefty, is running, and generally looks pretty good. That is..until I test the crown. Immediately after unscrewing it to set the time, the stem pulls all the way out and is snapped in half. So...that was a fun 10 seconds with my new watch. Sent it back the same day. Fast forward until now, the watch has once again reached me. I'd actually totally forgotten about it. To my suprise, it is actually the same watch repaired and not a new watch. Alright I guess. Test the crown again...uh oh, feels a little funky like before. Deciding not to go any further with it for fear of snapping it as well, I notice that the 12 and 6 dial markers are slightly mis-aligned in the case...hmmmm. Gotta open er up. This ain't right. Pulling the caseback off reveals a pretty nice looking setup, with a legit faraday cage complete with it's own gasket. I gently slide the movement around in the case to re-align the dial and then attempt to reinstall the caseback. Nope. As it turns out, the faraday cage fits so well that it actually compresses against the movement when pushing down on the caseback and forces the movement to twist along with it. Really not good, and almost certainly the reason the crown stem had snapped during assembly before. I finally messed around with it and successfully closed the watch while not putting this undue strain on the movement/stem. Whew. 2 months and finally we're just out of the gate. I will have to say though, that none of this is meant as a bash on Perfect Hour. They were willing to help, and did, all the way. Anyway, here she is. Pretty great looking rep I think. The chapter ring Rolex engraving isn't quite lined up on the dial markers as original, and the Milgauss font doesn't seem EXACTLY like a gen, but it's all very much forgiveable in my book. No one would notice that stuff, and it's just barely off even if they did. I'm also very happy about the cool blue/green lume layout which also seems fairly useful.

I'd guess soaking it in bleach. At least, that will give you similar results. Some bezels require a very, very light sand with a fine grit to remove any clearcoat that might prevent the paint from fading.

Ha, thanks. On certain watches I'm definitely a bit of a lume freak. Divers especially. But, I've got a soft spot for vintages too, so they can get by just on their looks.

Hey all, I've been into the modding and homage world for a little while now, but mostly focused on customizing Seikos. Just couldn't resist trying my hand at a rep after having seen some really nice ones around here. Picked up some parts from the sales section a few weeks back and now here we are! So, hello, and I hope you like! -Ryan