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Wow... very nice. Talk to me about the dial's hour indices. Do they look big to you?

Ah, very nice Ubi. Well done!

Hi Vortx, do a search for an article by Ubiquitous regarding this. It's the definitive piece, with photos and everything.

Considering that everything I do is all about time and precision, yeah... I'm a stickler. My watches are always within +/-15 seconds of GMT when I'm wearing them. Here's another timepiece... a coded time source. Verrrrrrry tasty with numitron tubes. Old school meets new school.

Woo hoooo!! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!

The T-39 is a beauty but on a 551* its vertical sidewalls are too tall and it just looks screwy. BUT....... If you have one and its dome is nicer than the T-19 there is no reason you can't grind off some of its "height" so it rides lower against the case/bezel. Just take off a couple mm from the bottom, finish the ground edges and you'll remove that extra tall sidewall.

Yeah tell it to the pet. That's Mister Squirrel to you.

Double-T... you mean you have a keyboard?!! Sheer luxury! I have to tap rocks together to form Morse characters in binary, sitting just inside the satellite dish's cone of reception, hoping that it will pick up the sound and transmit it as keystrokes. Don't even get me started on my attempts to login with encrypted characters. The camouflage face paint plays havoc with my complexion.

What a whiner. I live so far up in the mountains that I have to use a dish and RF to get an internet connection, and it's line of sight. So every time a Yeti steps in front of the signal, everything goes dark until I throw enough rocks at him to make him move. That's right, put down the nice satellite dish, nobody gets hurt... EEEEEEEEEEEK!!! (run away) Pfffffffffft. I bet you even have a heater in your house.

I'd break it. Even if I didn't mean to, it would die in a week. I'd rather burn the stack of $100 bills buying watches!

My personal preference are those in my avatar. Durable, functional.

What a couple of sweethearts! Say, I notice you haven't got a wristwatch on either one yet?!

Has anybody received one of these yet? I really want to see a few detailed shots of the dial in the wild... not from the studio. Anyone?

UN-H, I will certainly pray for your beautiful little girl. And I'll keep doing it until I hear that she's okay. I'll keep you in my prayers too. As the father this is going to be extremely hard on you. Our daughters wrap us around their fingers and I sometimes think we feel their pain more than they do. Be strong for your family. Show them what strength and confidence looks like, but be careful not to pour out your entire soul being strong, until you're empty and exhausted with nothing left to give. Spend time every morning in prayer and get strength for the day. This will be hard. We have your back. Please check in often and give us updates. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30

Thanks for the great advice, Offshore. Another "insider" trick of the trade. Is that stuff for sale over at WatchBitz?

If your crystal retaining ring is fairly hard to press down, and you use a tiny smear of silicon grease, that sucker will be plenty waterproof at the crystal for even shallow diving. If, like JMB found, the crystal ring goes on too easily then your crystal thickness is wrong and it's not being squeezed on correctly. Likely this one will leak.

Heck I use a hockey puck to put mine back together so anything more gentle than that ought to be golden. I use a tiny smear of silicon grease or even vaseline at the very bottom of the crystal, perhaps the bottom 1/8" or less, around the outside edge ... not the inside edge. Then when pressing the ring down, that lubricates the last smidgen to help it seat better and makes it less likely you'll crack the crystal. It also pushes a tiny bit of sealant between the case and the bottom lip of the crystal, to prevent corrosion from starting in that gap. Press it down tight, and Robert's yer uncle. No worries.

Congratulations, you did it!

Well sometimes you need a bigger hammer. Or if frustration sets in... an alternate tool. Just make sure your aim is better than mine!

Okay now the fun begins. This is JUST LIKE setting finishing nails in trimwork. You get one chance to drive it in flush with no hammer strike on the wood (bracelet) or you can wuss out and taptaptaptaptaptaptaptap (repeat ad nauseum) to get it back in place. Whatcha gonna do? Man or mouse? Mighty blast or wussy tap?

See the problem is there's too much friction in the holes. Brute force will eventually get them, but it's tough and most of the time the pins bend. The trick is to overcome the stiction with an impulse or impact. Once you get it moving, it's a lot easier to keep it moving. Getting it to move is the trick. I bent a lot of those before I figured this out. Make SURE your pin is inline with the hole in the bracelet, then give it a rap. That will overcome the stiction and it will move. Grabbing the extended pin with pliers leaves you in the same boat. I use the drift pin and hammer to get the pin 3/4 of the way out or better.

If it's REALLY tight, I drill a small hole in a piece of soft wood and put the partially extended pin in the hole, laying the bracelet on the wood. Use a small brass hammer or something like a tack hammer, and a stout hardened pin. Tap that SOB out of its hole. It'll come out. Keep the pin directly inline with the hole, and do the deed like you mean it. It's not a lot different than using a nailset on finishing nails into hard oak.

First: are you SURE you're pressing them out the right direction? I do it the old fashioned way: hold the bracelet in my hand, with a thick leather sewing needle grasped between my fingers positioned above the pin. Tap the needle smartly with a small hammer to impact the pin, knocking it loose (there's always some grunge in there with the pin, holding it in place). Position the needle in the new hole and continue tapping until the pin comes out the other side and embeds in my hand. Grasp the pin with small pliers to pull it out of my hand, and continue removing it from the bracelet.

Very nice! Can you post a macro of the dial?

@JJ, I can't see your pic ... is it still online? Gotta see this beauty in profile!