Nanuq

Welcome aboard.... hang on its gonna be a wild ride.

Nice!! Can't wait.... let's see some oblique photos of that dial without glass over it. I want to *feel* that texture coming through the pics..... It almost looks like a layer of thin black glove leather. Tasty.

Verrrrrrrrry tasty indeed. There's one small thing about the dial that I'm sure bugs you too, but it's 99.999999999% there. Getting MQ to make that one small change would doubtless have the next version coming back with the coronet on upside down, or worse. Nice!

How about a rule that Scammers must immediately burst into flame upon touching their keyboard? Now that's a rule I can get cozy with.

Welcome aboard Jacob, and nicely done researching the watch! That effort puts you in the top 1% of all newbies.

Okay gents it's officially in the Rules now. At least one Tagged picture is now mandatory.

Looking good! Nice job. Can you round the lug tips off a bit so they're more bullnose and not quite as pointy? Here are some examples...

Yeah I saw that comment a couple pages back and put a stop to it... I said I wanted a copy of any communication like that, from any member, and I got nothing. You're doing good getting caught up, Mike. Hang in there. Keep up the good work.

It's pretty hard to beat offroad mountain biking, when you get off the main trails into the tough singletrack. You'll be standing up pedaling most of the time with hard climbing bursts, and it works your core, upper and lower body. Plus added sprints when you smell a bear!

Hendrix

Probably not. Do you know what's in there now? In some cases (pun intended) an ETA movement *can* be made to fit given the right adapter ring. Whether such a ring exists for your case is unknown. I'm on the hunt for a 1030 movement.

Where are you located? In the Seattle area you can't go wrong with George Kajanoff or Tom Nesbitt.

What arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ye waiting for? Avast!! Seize the day!!

Shiver me timbers Cougar, and Blow me down! An evenin'??!! Make it a fortnight and drive them all t' drink!! And enjoy yer spoils, sez I. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

If you want to use a gen sized dial you're into the stratosphere of Minh Quy and Phong cases. But then you get to use some really really nice dials. I'm busy twisting the arm of a member here to sell me his. And oh, what a dial it is!!

Garrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, mateys! 'Tis the day! Shiver me timbers and blow me down!!

Hey doc, I'll say it for the gang here ... Thank you! It's nice to see people helping out just for the sake of being friendly. Lots of folks here are like that, and I appreciate it.

Be sure to bookmark your English To Pirate translator page: http://www.talklikeapirate.com/translator.html

Let the countdown commence... in just over 4 hours it will be midnight Zulu and the beginning of....... INTERNATIONAL TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!! :Jumpy:

That's one of those thick riveted folded bands you can get anywhere for $50. It's a good solid piece, but really thick in cross section. Yuki's and MQ's are much thinner, with the correct attached endlinks. But they're weirdly shaped so you have to do a lot of tweaking to get the endlinks right. The MQ endlinks are pathetically soft and thin. Overall it's really a piece of junk. The rivets are bad, mine didn't fit the lugs, it was a waste of money. But Yuki is sold out indefinitely so................ Check my review last night in my For Sale thread of the Squinky riveted band I bought off eBay. It was remarkably nice. Far better than MQ and about the same as Yuki for $155.

That's a great list, Woof! Thanks. My MQ case will take a dial made from a genuine 6538 plate. That combination makes everything "visible" as accurate as possible. Then the trick is to get a silent, reliable low-beat automatic movement in there, with the correct dimensions. It's happening in the next 2 weeks.

What he said. The original 6538 has amazingly svelte curves and only Phong and MQ come close to matching it. They say the devil is in the details, and truer words were never spoken. Many people couldn't identify a real Big Crown case, but close matches are out there ... and you'll pay dearly for them. Get ready to drop a Grover on something most people would never recognize. Then you get to dials. Yes there are very nice $300 pieces, but soon you get caught up again in the devil's details and before you know it you're spending $1,500 for a dial, glad for the opportunity. Then you need a genuine 8mm Big Crown to match your expensive case and dial, another $1,000 out the window. And you can't bear to cut the feet off your $1,500 dial so you go looking for a gen 1030 movement, for another $1,000. What's this? You want a genuine Tropic-17 crystal for your build? Hah, good luck ... your money isn't making one appear from the ether of rare vintage parts. Hmmmm. You need a bezel upgrade you say? That'll be $1,000 please. Inserts are sold separately. As are the pearls. Before you know it you're $4,500 into a frankenwatch that 99% of the public cannot tell from a $500 Raffles build. And you're scared to use the thing because of the investment. Welcome to the madness.

Trust me, you don't want to know what MQ means... crazy expensive and beyond frustrating to coax the right parts out of him. Mine was a gift from a wonderful member here, then I jazzed it up. It was a Silix (Raffles) piece with the 21J movement. I flooded and killed the movement so off it went to Ziggy. He installed a 2836 ETA movement and the Athaya crown and tube. It was a tight squeeze to get the tube in without deforming the caseback sealing surface. Big Dazza is the one that did the dial and hands, and the aging (cough) was done by me. The insert was still a little too thick even after machining the bezel deeper for it. No biggie, that's why God made epoxy. That watch spent 2 weeks swimming and diving in Hawaii before I sold it, and it was spectacularly readable underwater.

More pics of what you can do with the Raffles case.