Nanuq

Come visit me here in Alaska mate, and I'll let you shave with it!

Mercedes

Nice photo! It's a nice reminder of sunnier climes. Here in the mountains of Alaska we're having a gnarly storm, 100mph winds and raining sideways. Hang onto your hats boys!

Dreaming of the warmth and the sun..........

Dude, you have exactly two eyes. Don't take that risk to save a few bucks. I used to be extremely active in nationally competitive sports and I had a coach that wasn't afraid of me. I hated to wear eye protection and one day he said "put your hand over your eye" and I did. Then he said "now live the rest of your life like that". He made his point. It's just not worth it to screw with your vision. Pay the money when it comes to your vision. Same goes for survival gear.

Dang, that's nice.

Yep, I bet dollars to donuts you need to extend the stem a smidgen. An old trick is to unscrew the crown from the stem and load some powdered graphite into the hole then screw the stem back in. That essentially makes it "longer". See if that helps. If it does then carefully measure the assembled length and cut a new stem so its assembled length is the same.

And sometimes the situation will change from silent to not-so-silent. I was in a local shop and they had a Rolex traveling display where all the new models were laid out. Several greying men in expensive suits were holding quiet conversations as people oooo-ed and ahhhhhh-ed. I was wearing jeans and mountain boots and polar fleece and my DRSD, and wandered through to see if any new Rolex was remotely interesting. One of the gents glanced and grabbed a watch from the display and addressed me: "You might be interested in the new Explorer model" and handed it over. I reached for it, and a little stainless steel and red lettering peeked out from under my jacket. I didn't mean for him to see it, and I could see him staring at it, then looking at my jeans and boots and then back at the watch. I knew he knew it was a rep. He didn't say anything, but his demeanor went very icy. I admired the Explorer a couple minutes and then another older guy walked past behind the counter. He glanced, then stopped and did the world's biggest double take. Like something from a Jim Carrey movie. He literally grabbed my wrist and pulled it toward him to expose the watch, and breathed the words "My God, that's a Red..." The other salesman looked at him, then the watch, then my jeans and boots, then the watch, then back at him as it slowly dawned on him that it wasn't a rep after all. And it made perfect sense, because I looked like I should be wearing a G-shock or a Casio.

You're getting ahead of yourself... you don't realize you've created the world's first GMT Moonphase dial!

Cross7, welcome aboard! We embrace true enthusiasts here... and don't care if it's Timex or Rolex. Every brand has something to offer, as does every member. And we're all on a learning curve of some point so a little grace for each other is well understood (and appreciated!) You mentioned the amazing builds our members have put together. This evening I saw a watch on eBay priced at $175,000 that's *supposedly* genuine, although there are things about it that belie that claim. And a member here has put together a build of almost exactly that piece, and his build is better in every way than that eBay piece. I'll leave it to you to do the sleuthing and see what I mean. Welcome! You're among fellow WIS here.

Not to worry big guy, it's all safely on my servers.

Coming soon... "Just how tough IS an iPhone6?" Answer: not very

Yes indeed Nikki, it started as a piece of Alaskan obsidian (rare as a rare thing) and he knapped it down to a blade one flake at a time. It's sharper than heck too.

Ahhhhhhh, I would. But it's on this phone:

Say Andy, how about posting that little video I took of your H2 at the Isle of Man?

Here's mine from 1964. Looks pretty close. Why doesn't his caseback have 44 years of wear?

Exactly. My 1665 had a service dome that was so scratched up you had to lick it to read the time. I had set aside 4 genuine old Superdome T39s for that day so took them all to my Rolex AD. One by one he installed them and did a pressure test, and none would seal. The service dome had passed with flying colors. So the old NOS acrylics were proved brittle and now it doesn't go near the water. I've thought about a Clarks replacement but the optics are wrong (and really the old girl shouldn't be getting wet anyway).

And what is a good sealed crystal in the morning can develop a leak point without even noticing it. Bottom line, you have to look it over before you get in the water and still you'll miss cracks down by the retaining ring, covered by the bezel.

Very true. But consider the shape of the two "pressure vessels". A Nalgene being compressed from the inside bulges out dramatically... I've had mine blow the screw-down cap off. Scary as heck. The internal forces press pieces outward and apart, weakening the seals. A Sea Dweller crystal is compressed from the outside and that pushes the crystal down even tighter onto the case. The higher the pressure, the more it seals until it collapses. My 1665 was used as a commercial diving instrument for nearly 20 years and was resealed and tested to max pressure every year. It's been to max pressure (2000 feet) in chambers several times and never had trouble during decomp... the HEV did its job. Several other watches in the chamber failed during extended decomp and blew their crystals with a bang... the internal pressure replicated what my Nalgene is doing now.

What a great writeup! I like how you added pictures and described what you did. There are a lot of very refined modders here that turn out ridiculously nice pieces. You could reasonably compare their work to a museum quality watch in a high end collection. Some are better than those in those collections. We also have the down-n-dirty modders (cough) and they do some fantastic work too. Some tend toward the avante-gard (cough) using tools like acetylene torches and Land Rovers (cough cough) but the results are appealing, even though they come from the scorched earth end of the spectrum. Looks like you're more of the scorched-earth type, and you'll find LOTS of guys here that think just like you. So keep up the good work and keep the mods coming!

You know, I'm sure, the 1665 insert is the same size as a 6536, 5513, 1680 etc? I have a Mk-2 fattie on my 1665 and on my 6536-1, they fit and look great on both.

I use mine regularly but it sure creeps me out pressurizing a Nalgene to 90psi.

We usually have a week or two of really nice warm weather before winter sets in. So we went climbing this afternoon, pausing to catch our wind in some Subalpine Firs. It couldn't have been a prettier climb.

Yes.... but go slow. Ask me how I drilled a hole clear through my right thumb.