Devedander

I went with the harbor freight one, crossing my fingers it will be decent and not destroy anything....

I am very interested... was actually thinking about this myself a while ago but it seemed like isolating the sound to a quality that would be reliable was going to be very hard...

I was actually thinking of taking one of those old ball mice which used an optical sensor on the wheel (don't know what the part is called) inside to measure how fast the ball rotated. If that could be aligned with a balance wheel somehow it seemed that could be extremely accurated.

Also was looking at some laser timing devices (the kind used to time laps during RC car races) similarly...

Are you going to be doing another run later or is this a one time thing?

I have a press comming but it probably won't be till end of next week

It makes me think of Star Trek... the Next Generation... looks like the Enterprise... hmmmm... I am a nerd.

It's pretty late but hold out hoping! I have had express shipments come on different trucks than regular mail and come as late as 8:30pm!

Note that overnight usually comes with caveats such as "must be mailed before noon" or something to arrive next day... doesn't sound like this is the case for your item but good to remember.

Also maybe you can head to the PO and see if you can pick it up... if the PO guy got back eariler it might be there for you!

Blackberry... I never thought of that... that's how he is always so fast at his responses even... odd that I have a BB and love it just because it lets me get my business email anywhere anytime but I somehow just thought josh spent 16 hours a day in front of a computer screen

I was getting fast replies from him yesterday and the day before via email so I would go that route... I think he can't get on any forums to check PMs.

Yup I do it too... but I check out the "assets" first... priorities my friend My GF knows there is no getting away from eithe of these and occasionally I get the friendly "Bling at 2 oclock, ass at 10"

Oh man... another PO to get... geez... I wish I didn't like the PO so much

What? You don't like highlighting everything to read it? It's like a surprise or a present all wrapped up until you open it by highlighting it!

I see many vintage watches, and those that have not been serviced regularly are damaged as a result, brassing of parts, parts that break on removal or are worn out beyond repair, and finding parts is close to impossible for some models, paying the cost for replacement parts, if you can find them, is another issue...

I know I didn't clarify but in the world of reps at least does this still really apply? I mean with genuine Rolex quicksets and Breitling Calibur movements you have no choice if they break but to replace them with expensive parts etc... the option does not exist with them to simply drop in a $20-200 movement to replace the broken one entirely...

So considering that do reps warrant the same level of consideration?

I mean to take it back to the car/oil analogy it really should be more of a car/major overhaul (since that's more along the lines of what's really happening and a bit closer to the actual price ratio) so it would be like:

Get a Lambo kit car for $10,000 when the real one costs $180,000

Looks very much like the real thing and has a pretty hefty engine that performs near Lambo standards but is a generic fit with generic parts

At 150k miles it's time for a major overhaul by factory standards... because on your $180k Lambo a $10,000 service is a no brainer and if you ignore it you may be in for replacing piston rings at $3k a pop

But now your kit car... at 150k it's time for an overhaul... but does a $10,000 stil make sense when piston rings for the generic engine only cost $150 a pop? And at worst you need to drop in a new engine (possibly an upgraded engine) for only $3k?

That's where I think the difference is... with gens where replacing a movement is VERY expensive and parts are very expensive (or non existent thus requiring a whole movement replacement) service is a no brainer.

But the same restrictions don't exist on reps... at least not ones with movements that can be swapped out easily.... reps movements are "disposeable" in my book because often the replacement movement will cost about the same or even less than the service...

What do you think?

Coulda swore I read this a week ago...

Personally I can see spending $$$ on a relume as that means your watch now works in the dar which is a big plus for me...

But other mods (like lugh hole drilling and CG shaping) I can see as questionable also...

Here's the real nitty gritty though... this argument can be extended in both directions for a lot of things, but in watches I am sure we have all come up against the argument "Why would you spend $150 on a watch even if it looks like a $10k watch when you can get a decent looking watch for $10 at walmart that tells time much more accurately, has a stopwatch and date function as well as others, is waterproof etc etc..."

My answer to why people spend $$$ on mods... because it's worth it to them.

No investment arguing, no quantifying, no cost benefit analysis... because they want to... they spent $150+ on a watch because they wanted to... they could have told time accurately for much less... so if it makes THEM happy to have a canon pin fixed or a dial aged... well then money well spent.

You can also look at it like this..

You can tell me how unimportant any detail is and how much my watch is still fake no matter what I do to it... and you know what that matters in the end? Not one bit... because if it still bothers me, it doesn't matter that it's miniscule to someone else. If I feel better about it, being fake has nothing to do with it. That's why when people tell me stuff like "99% of the people out there won't know and the other 1% will know it's fake even if you fix it" I think "And what's your point? What do I care about 100% of the people out there? I care about me. I didn't buy watches for other people, I bought it for me, and if it bothers me that's 100% of the people I care about it bothering." So if I spend money fixing whatever problem I percieve to make myself happier and satisfy the one person who really counts to me then I think that's a pretty good investment.

And yes it's an investment. I know, I know, investments appreciate, liabilties depreciate. Well let me ask you, how much is happiness worth? To me it's worth infinitely lots... so if I spend $10, $100, $1000 and I get happy from the results didn't my investment just appreciate infinitely?

Let me ask this: What better use of your money could you think of than to make yourself happy?

I can think of none...

I spend money on a regular basis on frivolous stuff that others don't understand or even berate me for... who am I impressing? Me. Can I logically explain to you why it makes me happy? Maybe, maybe not. And you konw what? It's still worth every penny

I think the point is betting obfuscated (no offense, many good arguments put forth) but not so much whether a few or any reps are worth servicing, but specifically those guys who have LOTS of watches... 10 is not lots, 20 is not even lots, I am talking the guys who need to dedicate a walk in closet or small (heck even big) room to their watch collection...

Again, it comes down to basically renting a watch for $100 a week average use and gets more expensive the more watches you have... this of course even applies to gens although in a slightly different ratio considering price.

This cracks me up

They photoshopped the watch on the guys wrist! HAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAAAA

I don't think he is questioning your cost, but rather why someone would pay that much for what they get...

ie I could have my honda engine taken apart and Acura piston sleeves installed then put back together. A fair price for that work would be quite handsome... and is why I wouldn't do it... bad ROI.

I think tourb is asking why pay is it worth so much money to people to have these things done... his point of view is it's a fake, and 100% of the cost later it's still a fake... ROI...

So asside from shredding tape and plastic all over the place, what do you do when you get your watches?

I figure check the casback, hand alignment, wind through all the days, check the corwn at each set location and tighten it down and check any screws.

Then for SS I have found all my watches have sharp edges so I am working on filing down all the sharp edges to a more pleasant feeling corner.

I have heard of people tearing the whole watch down to pieces and oiling, polishing etc every part... do tell!

Yeah if you look at it that way it's less than $1 a day for you frankentonas....

That's a good way to think of it... I had originally gone into it with the disposeable mindset but now I am liking some of them a lot and feel I would want to keep them a long time... I think after some more time in the game I will start to feel better about letting them slide on as new ones fill their spaces...

It's funny I totally understand the 30 watches 1 left wrist insanity, but I also go home and find TVs and computer parts all over my house that are about 10% into their expected lifespan and are no longer used because I upgraded to the next newest thing... I bought a projector and everyone told me how bulbs were going to be expensive and I kept saying "Like I am going to keep it that long" and sure enough a year later it got replaced with a new projector...

I guess I will just have to get over the mindset for myself of disposable watches...

But I still don't think this can really apply to those who have fancy cherrywood cases with nice glass display fronts/lights/rotation that house dozens of watches... that kind of investment seems to me like they are planning on keeping them up and running for a good long time...

May want to ask a certain Australian dealer who has my recommendation ^

So looking at the watches I have accrued in the short amount of time I have been in the rep world I realize that at least 4 of them I like and will have to drop some money on for servicing some day to keep them well and good... but assuming the best that they all make it 5 years and I service them all then I am looking at almost $1000 in servicing all at once someday...

So it got me thinking, I have seen collections of watches that range up into the dozens easily... if you had 50 watches, that would mean an average of 10 a year at $100 a pop that's $1000 a year every year to keep your watches in ship shape assuming nothing else goes wrong... and with 50 watches you would only average 1 week of wear per year per watch... so essentially the same as renting a watch for $100 a week once a year...

I don't know where I am going with this but I guess I am just blown away by that though and wonder if that's really how it works? It worries me because I am just the kind of guy who could look at that and go "wow that's a lot of cash" then a few months later look down and say "hey wait... how the hell did I end up with so many watches"...

After all that it's all gen... who woulda thunk it

Can I ask why you bought a second 5513?

So my Ingeniur had very sharp edges on the caseback, namely the indentations where the removal tool goes (these were VERY sharp edges) and the engraved writing has a definite sharp feel to it when you run your fingers over it.

On the back of my wrist for a few hours this starts to get a sort of annoying "itch" (like a tag on a shirt that rubs on the back of your neck) so I took some time to file down the notches for the caseback tool (still going to have to do that more) but the writing needs work too... but I can't think of a good way to go about it...

It's brushed so I can't just polish it or sand it and it's too definied to use a file or sandpaper on it...

Any suggestions on how to soften the enges on this engraving in this situation?

Thanks for any advice!

@The Zigmeister is that because of a longer mainspring or something? Because it just doesn't make sense in my head that it can tick more times but last longer than other movements...

@Ubi so you will now have 2 black dial Daytonas? You know... if you want someone to safeguard one for you I would be happy to... you know in case some disaster strikes your house one will still be safe elsewehere