Nanuq

Yes, now you say that, I think I remember it. I've been attacking my tropical InGod dial with polish and matte lacquer and I'm just not feeling the vibe. I think this build calls for black with gilt. Thanks friend! I needed a little nudge in that direction.

DH, does your Daz-ified MQ dial shine and reflect with a nice strong gilt sheen? Is it an order of magnitude better than the Daz Special dials we started with? I know Daz can work magic with those cheap dials, now I'm ready to take it to the next level of giltiness.

Going with an old friend today

Small world, my neighbors are just back from 6 weeks in Sandefjord and points north,

Fourteen days off?? Wow......... I'm lucky when I don't get hit with a 2x4 as I leave my job every day. So a couple things, the Diamond Raffle generated some big cash for the board, they've got a donation coming your way. Second, I owe RWG a donation for some stuff I just sold. Where and how do I do it?

Thanks Freddy, yes I've seen them and they're very nice. Check out these dials from Ivan... pretty nice stuff! But sadly out of my price range. Something this nice I'd be afraid to really USE it... and that's really the name of the game, to build something nice enough to be acceptable yet inexpensive enough to be willing to risk it to the elements.

Okay gents I'm a step further along in my build and now I'm looking for a good 2-line 6538 gilt dial. I have several options in mind already, and I'm looking for other ideas. The best I've seen are the customs by Ivan. They're over the top perfect and around $1,500 My next choice is the mid-range Minh Quy dial, at around $350 I'm less impressed with the Ingod, Raffles, Natalie and Yuki dials. What else is out there? Do YOU have a good dial you want to offload? Your thoughts?

Wanna take a crack at my v72c?

Those eyes! "You must give me your watch. You WANT to give me your watch. You're getting sleepy.... sleeeeeeeepy....." ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....................

Wow, her eyes are mesmerizing. I noticed two things: 1) she's got an extra index finger on her left hand, instead of a thumb 2) she's stolen your watch!

150/90/17 vs 150/100/25 Sorry, no luck. Swapping in an ETA can be otherwise problematic too, with stem thread and movement ring differences too. Just buy a fistfull of DGs and swap 'em in as needed.

Nice photos, Freddy. Here's one I cleaned up and put back to factory spec. Do I wear it? No.

Naturally, who wouldn't!! Freddy makes nice stuff. I'm sorry for going off last night with my acerbic comments. Congratulations to the proud papa!

I have some nice gens and two frankens. Guess how long it's been since I wore a gen? Yes they are impeccably nice, but I wear the frankens because I built them. There's something fascinating about learning every minute detail of a watch as you recreate it from parts scattered across the globe. Then you put them together and sometimes it feels clunky and wrong, even thought the components are 100% right. So you go to work making the bits fit together correctly and recreating the wear it should have accumulated in its faux life. Sometimes it clicks and your lizard brain agrees subliminally with your higher brain and you know you've got a winner. Other times it's just a clunky assemblage of parts. There's the challenge: it's the intangibles that make this frustrating, and rewarding. There's no similar challenge with gens.

This is the kid you just put through college in Hawaii? Just between you me and the fence post, the only words outta be coming out of his mouth are "thanks Pa!" Oh, and "thanks for the Big Crown!" Warning: acerbic commentary from an acerbic observer! Feel free to ignore.

Gaghhhhhh!!! Hey wait a minute that's a non-sequitur. I'm a scientist too and I don't need no stinking Daytona. Okay we'll show him, send ME the tropical dial and I'll make sure it's in the photo next time I'm published.

Nice!! Except for the part where you gave away my tropical 6538 dial!

Very nice! Here's the immediate predecessor, with the AOPA wings on the dial.

Wow that's some buying spree! Life is great here. Lots of winter but it's ending soon. I've been bit BAD by a Big Crown bug so I'm working on a build. I did Freddy's trick with the boot polish, then spritzed with matte spray to finish, Now I need to get it creamy lumed (hands too) and it'll be done. Big Daz will do the magic on this one I think.

Hey rps is back! Long time, man! How are you?!

Yeah so you know what this feels like. Tied with Antarctica, that's us!

Making headway on my project.

You bet I'll trade! I've had enough winter!

After our big snow dump the last 2 days, it's melting fast. So I headed uphill to catch the beauty. Enjoy!

I've been looking for a good folded riveted 7206 since Yuki quit carrying them. I finally tried the one Minh Quy offers as his "special quality" piece. I'm sorry to say I cannot recommend it. Even though it costs nearly 3x what Yuki charged for his, the quality is nonexistent. On the 6:00 side of the band the links taper down in width as expected. On the 12:00 side two adjacent links are the same width so the taper is wrong. The coronet on the clasp is very poorly formed. It's clownish. The clasp won't click shut, as delivered. It sorta stays but there's no definite click. No amount of bending and tweaking will fix it. I had to cobble in an old Yuki clasp. The endlinks are made of extremely thin metal so they're incredibly easy to bend out of shape. That being said, the curve apex at the springbar tube in the endlink is too acute, so I cannot get the right shape for a 6538 case. I can make it look "okay" but not "right." The Yuki band was trivially easy to shape right. A rivet head on the 12:00 end of the band was far too tall so it hit the lug and the springbar would not click into its hole. I filed it down until it works. Finally, the 6:00 end fits like a dream but the 12:00 end is too wide for the 20mm lugs. It took a lot of filing to get it to pop in place, and it still doesn't fit nearly as nice as the 6:00 side. Bottom line, this is an overpriced piece of crap. If you're diligent you can make it work. But it's not even in the same league as Yuki's $110 bands were. Alternatives? Non-existent. Let's hope Yuki comes up with more of his, although having handled both I suspect they're from the same factory.