leboul99

I wanted to big kudos to Frankie at http://www.banda.com for running a great business for after-market bands and straps. Great customer service, tremendous selection of types and finishes (matte, glazed, satin), willing to customize the lug and buckle widths with little hassle, and the best prices I've found for real alligator, croc, shark, etc - and nice buckle options. I have a Panerai 127 46mm - and I've found Banda was the best for after-market options at reasonable prices. Leboul

Folks - this is very real. Have a very nice Andrew Fiddy - after 7 months - woke up one morning this week and looked at the night table - and the crystal had exploded overnight.

So - I will seek out a Davidsen upgrade. My question is - can anyone recommend a good shop in NYC (or to whom I can ship my watch) who caqn do the crystal replacement? Thanx so much.

LeBoul

Maybe I can enlighten you guys a bit...

The rep crystals are domed. As it seems those domed sapphire glasses are not so well cut - making them suffering from an interior imbalance in stability. Now - often, the crystals are not seated evently in the bezel - causing a lot of tension on the crystal. Probably this is one of the main reasons for the "pop" effect...

Good enough is that we live in times were spare parts are rather easy to obtain.

I got some cape cod's in the mail today and I thought about polishing the bridges of one of my G-Series movements so it gets a shiny look like the gen.

The Rep movements are not polished to a mirror finish, they have little brushmarks on them. How should I best do it? I tried to rub the cloth on the bridge for a few minutes (I used a LOT of pressure, I even used a Screwdriver with cape cod around its top) but it still doesnt have the mirror finish I want it to have. I always thought those cape cods are like some sort of magical stuff that makes everything shiny as a mirror?

I then put some of the cloth around the dremel and tryed that, but it still doesnt have that mirror finish I want it to have. Whats the magic trick? How should I do it to get the finish I want? It looks a little bit better than before, but I really want it to look like a mirror!

Slay:

As a sailor who swears by Cape Cod, I can tell you that it will not "convert" brushed SS to polished - what it will do is polish up any tarnished or faded SS that was polished to begin with. To bring brushed SS to Polished requires buffing and is fairly hard on something as small as a watch casing.

Good luck.

LeBoul