cheepoguy

Oh wow. Now that is a very nice job. Those Semaster style cases are great for a home build. I used one with a Yobokies dal and some spare hands. Dial wasn't quite right sioze and I needed to fiddle with stuff but it turned out OK. Not as nice as your build though.

Guys, this has been asked before but no-one knew the answer so I'll ask again. Who is making the dodgy Blancpain 50 Fathoms. I think they are superdeluxobrill :-) Can't find them anywhere Cheepo

Took this shot a couple of days ago with my Canon A620. I was having a play with manual mode and just messing with different settings. The watch was beside the bathroom sink. I had a small tungsten desk lamp for light and I held a plastic milk carton cut in half over the watch to act as a diffuser. I also had a 10 dollar lens extender with an x2 macro filter on the camera. I'm pretty happy with the results. Not bad for a 200 dollar setup, if I say so myself. I've been reading this thread since the start and I've been debating whether to spring for a new fancy bit of kit. I like Canon so I toyed with a G7, Rebel XT, heck even had a look at the new Nikon D40 but almost settled on the old classic Canon G6, but after this shot I think I'll save my money. Cheepo

Camera I use is a Canon Powershot A620 - 7 megapixel with a macro lens adapter (couple of bucks off ebay). Brilliant camera. I use aperture priority mode to get a decent depth of field. It's low light capabilities are not as good as the Canon G2 I used to have but with adequate lighting or a fiddle with the aperature settings it takes amazing photos. I had lusted after the new Canon G7 10 megapixel with the newer digital processor but Canon fell asleep at the wheel. You can't remove the memory card when it is on the tripod and the battery life sucks. The A620 is pretty cheap now as it is thought of as an older model. Canon brought out the A630 (8 megapix) and the A640 (10 megapix) also with the redesigned memory card slot. The A620 uses standard batteries and I have some rechargables which just don't seem to run out. Absolutely amazing. For the money I think this is the best camera around. especially with manual mode and the ability to cheaply add macro lenses or filters. I use a cheap SD card adapter with the camera. Whip out the card, plut it in the adapter and plug it into the USB port. No cables and just leave the camera on the tripod in position ready for the next lot.

go here www.thedoxabook.com click on the excerpts link and open the Flash Paper file called Conquistador. It is an excerpt from a book on Doxa Dive Watches (300 pages and 330 images) and should be published very soon. It was hoped to have it out by Christmas, but Doxa are a bit slow with the final edit. You should find the Conquistador section interesting. Cheepo

Blancpain 50th Anniversary 50 Fathoms would certainly be my first choice, even thought the first thing I'd do would be dump the strap thing they come with. The Ulysse Nardin Marine Diver is a beauty but I'm not sure wjhat movement it uses and if it could be done easily. The date version of the vintage Omega Seamaster 300 could easily be done and there seem to be a few "dodgy" ones out there anyway. One thing I really don't understand is why there isn't a 1:1 of the Rolex Submariner or Sea-Dweller available. As a reply to the comment about how wearing a real one and being asked all the time is it a fake etc etc etc. I have both a gen and a rep and could tell the difference very easily. I've never been asked if either was real or fake. Before I got the gen I thought it would bother me knowing there were so many fakes about that people may assume mine was a fake too. However, once I got the real thing, it never bothered me at all. I knew it was real, that's all that mattered. It actually bothered me more wearing the rep knowing it was so imperfect. Cheepo

I'm a definite #4. I wish I knew more and had the time to learn. I've trashed a few movements getting to the point where I am now. I did the classic press the stem release button too hard on an ETA 2824 a while ago and stripped the movement quite a way to reset the little retainer. Fiddly operation but well pleased when I got it all back together again and it worked. Tried to change the date wheel on a vintage ETA and as soon as I lifted the wheel a couple of springy bits flew out. Had to bin that one Cheepo

Thanks guys, just struck that one off the list.

OK thanks. I like the watch but 46mm is too big so I like the idea of the smaller rep. Here's info on the gen http://www.thewatchquote.com/Bell-Ross-Ins...ces-No_5603.htm Cheepo

I like the 39mm size. 46mm is kinda big. I know the present trend is towards bigger watches, but I prefer not to wear a dinner plate on my wrist. I assume that this model of B&R only comes in the 46mm size. Cheepo

Richard, thanks. yep it is nice. Mid size so I never wore it much and just kept it in a draweer. I was going to sell it and showed it to the wife. She jumped up and down and said it was exactly the same watch as her father's. Her brother got the watch when her dad passed away. So I did the only descent thing I could and gave it to her. It was very difficult to resize the bracelet as even with all the removavble links out it was still too big. I tok it to watchmakere who did an tremendous job resizing it. So now the wife is realy happy that it has the original bracelet and is identical to the watch her father used to wear. As for Reps. Can't say I have ever seen one before, but I think they would be well worth repping. Cheepo.

Ah, brings back memories. I lived in Guangzhou from 1990 to 1992. I actually opened the office for the company I was working for at the time. Talk about exciting. A half wit Paddy with kids who had flame red hair and freckles. The locals had never seen anything like it and used to touch the kids hair and skin in the street all the time. They even gave me craem for the kids "bad skin condition". It was a lot different to the Guangzhou you saw. I really enjoyed my time there, however, it was incredably polluted. I actually picked up a genuine Rolex Airking for not a lot of money. Most of the watches at that time were actually real but with very bad redials. The Rolex I got was perfect but running eratically. I had it serviced in Seoul and it has run like a chanp ever since. The wife wears it now. The bracelet in the image was one I used as my wife is Korean and has minute wrists. I've since managed to "shrink" the original bracelet which is now on the watch. I went back there in 1999 and what a change to it. I'll bet I wouldn't recognise the Garden hotel and China hotel anymore. Sounds like you had a great trip. Thanks for the memory tug :-) Cheepo

As most of you know I had a dial made up in green with a Shamrock on it for St. Patricks day....well, it took a year to make and ended up with a clover leaf instead of a Shamrock but what the hell, close enough. The dial was from a modern 600T. I tried to install it in a vintage 300T Searambler. I was going to use the orange hands so we had the Irish colours as well..... Guess what, the modern dials don't fit the vintage movements. I was screwed as I wasn't prepared to canabalise my wifes 600T Pro or Divingstar (people say food and sex is over-rated, but I'm not so sure!!!). Then just today as I was picking up the Conquistador from being serviced I asked Barry to whip the back of the dodgy Rolex Seadweller I have. I believed it had an ETA in it but wasn't sure as I couldn't remove the caseback. It was on mega tight. Yep, very nice ETA 2824-2 with gold Rolex rotor !!!!!!!! I pulled out the movement, removed the hands and dial, replaced it with the Irishstar dial and bingo... the Doxa that never was. OK so its really a Folex Irishstar, but man is it nice. The pics don't do it justice or catch the right colour but I love it. I have another vintage Searamber coming with a trashed dial so I'll remove the innards and see if the moderm movement and dial will fit but until then... Green is the IN colour. Pete

Actually. I think I just lucked out. I dumped the watch in the bathroom sink. Ordinary bulb light, no diffusers, no filters, no nothing, second shot I took. I had just bought the camera and wanted to test the aperature and shutter modes. Sometimes you just hit it right. It is a Canon A620. Hell of a camera for the price. Cheepo

Great camera, but beware, you'll start to get artsfartsy after a while.