Devedander

Very nice! How does the dial look? Does it seem to be the same procedure (ie does it look like it might suffer from dial chipping?). I love the simple look of the normal ingy, but the chrono does a great job of keeping the complexity balanced with a clean professional look... just don't know if I could get used to no date...

Interesting... I just had it in my head the granite had that much green in it... it's intersesting what your mind comes up with as "right" given any specific starting point. I have to say though that I feel 100% dessaturation again sticks out as wrong to the eye because the metal should pick up some of the surrounding colors. It's one of those things that I feel isn't often picked out as wrong, but which does feel out of place to the viewing eye... @ubi glad no hard feelings. To each their own, and I definitely tend towards the boring, standard "correct" way of things in many cases, which certainly isn't by any means necessarily "right". @ And Bytor I agree, that shot is very good... I am still not a big fan of the super bright highlight but the stark black face creates enough contrast to balance it out. Not to mention the gradation and edge detail are gorgeous on the bracelet...

Hey, I didn't mean for you to take it personally... just saying I didn't like that particular one... I prsonally think some of your others are great, your sig right now is one of my favorites. No hard feelings? That said seeing the original shows me where a lot of the problem comes from... the glare in the original is the source of the problem. It would take quite a while to get rid of that glare properly, but I did my best to bump the other highlights a bit and soften it so that it doesn't draw so much to that area... this is still very heavily processed but more what I tend towards which is less attention to the processing and more to the featured subject This one is reworked from your original: What was done: Reflection removed from granite Contrast and brightness balanced a bit Colors adjusted Light bloom added/enhanced Softened Dial contrast/saturation adjusted Watch isolated and desaturated Colors and contrast balanced again after retouching to maintain high contrast (and offset the brightness of the highlight) Before and after BTW did you white balance your camera before taking that shot? It seems very warm... Also I looked at your original shots in this thread and isolated what catches my eye as being so wrong... your torche light filter doesn't match the highlights/shadows of the watches... they seem to be multi point lit and lit from farther than the torch would have to be to create that effect IRL... That said I am in no form of delusion about my rank amature status and tip my hat to those here who have far more talent in photography than I do (as I said Ubi, some of your pictures are VERY impressive... I am just not feeling it with your processed ones... maybe it's like guilding the lilly you know?)

Still not hot on it... the eye gets drawn to then almost blinded by the highlight. The rest of the picture still has a flat washed out feel... contrast is hurt and used up on the highlight. White crush is not being nice to you here. The reflection in the granite is also just wrong somehow and is exagerated by the contrast problem. Maybe reduce/remove the reflection in the granite and bump the contrast on the rest of the pic might help.

Sorry, gonna have to say I don't like them... the filter looks over or poorly applied... just not right somehow. In all but the first the filter looks over or wrongly applied and hurts contrast and really messes with the picture around the edges. It almost hurts my eyes (like those T shirts where the writing is blurred and says something like "too much masturbation makes things look blurry"). Overall I feel like you just hurt contrast and detract from the subject with obvious post prcoessing without helping the presentation and the only thing that gets accented is that something was done to the picture, not the subject. If it was supposed to be a dream sequence or blackout flashback scene in a movie where you are trying to convey a sense of not quite being able to see right and or discomfort with the scene, then I would say they work, but other than that... not my taste. I am much more impressed by your less processed shots. No offense or anything personal, I assume you put these up for some fair evaluation. BTW there is a beta of CS3 out there... I haven't played with it much but it looks interesting!

This got me looking at mine RT and I wonder if I am missing these spots or just looking at it at the wrong angle? Here are some shots, should I be looking at a different way or something? Also is tensile strength really the important part here? Isn't that the strenght it takes to pull something apart? This would be the strenght it takes to twist something apart I believe this is torsion and is significantly different. For instance take a steel rod and epoxy it end to end to another rod. Try to pull them directly apart. This is tensile strength of epoxy. Take a CD and grasp each side of it, even attach some kind of handle to it, then pull directly sideways to rip it apart. Tensile strength of plastic. However in either cirucmstance bend the item, flex or twist it, now you are in the real of torque and tensile strength is much less a factor here... Not sure where I was going with that but that's how it seems in my head

what kind of dremel attachment did you use to get down in there?

Truly a weird thread.

Yes. No watch is perfectly smooth, they all jump. If you think about it, there is a little gear that catches back and forth in there, there has to be some kind of step, the steps are just really tiny for ETAs so they appear pretty smooth. Some electronic wall clocks have a motor that actually drives continuously, but I don't think any watches are truly continuous.

Why would you want to pay thousands to make yourself a target for theft? Why would you want to waste lots of money on something that does the exact same thing as another product 1/100 the cost? Why would you want to buy a car that you have to keep paying for gas for, insurance and registration? Sometimes it's not a want kind of thing, it's a just have to deal with it kind of thing. And those people buying gens realize that the value (and whatever inferred importance or whatnot) that comes with buying a gen is protected by this kind of hassle... In fact if it is a gen, you have little to worry about other than filling out a form or xeroxing a receipt and who's to say you don't want the hassle? I bet most people who buy a Rolex are just dying for any excuse to have attention drawn to it... In the end, what part of travelling internationally ISN'T a hassle? This is just one more on the list and it's one of those "you may not want it, but it's something you get yourself into by buying it" situations...

Not trying to insult you, just saying, it doesn't make sense. Now if you have a problem with how the gov works, that's a whole nother bag of worms and there are a lot of things I don't like about that, but it's another topic and completely different than anything Rolex has control over

Which leads to the question, which is the bigger risk, flying back with reps or registering a rep before you leave? You think they notice that the last 20 Submariners they saw had the same serial number?

I fail to see what this has to do with Rolex... do you think Rolex has the power to make special deals with governemt agencies? You don't go getting angry at Bic because they take yoru lighter every time you fly do you? In fact do you think Rolex DOESN'T want customs checking this kind of thing? They are probably the biggest proponents of this kind of thing. I fail to see the chain of logic you are using here...

I would definitely look at the video... it seriously looks messed up, like the seconds hand is possessed or something..

Always thought that would be a good way to go.. however I have heard of people being asked to produce receipts etc... which seems a bit unreasonable even if it's a gen and you did bring it from home... who travels with receipts for all their expensive stuff?

I doubt this is the answer you are looking for but my bet is this would work well http://cgi.ebay.com/Bergeon-Bezel-Remover-...VQQcmdZViewItem

I haven't noticed mine making any significant clicking sounds... it is louder than I thought an ETA would be and does make the metalic "ting" when being swung around that my Asian autos make, but not nearly as bad as an Asian auto on either count... the odd thing is I don't think my PO does this... I am thinking it's just normal opperation for this watch as it's keeping good time and it ran over 24 hours on it's back in my watchbox with the only winding be that of being on my wrist for a day.

This is still scaring me as I wear... I am afraid it will seperate and fall onto some concrete or something... When it seperated did it just fall off or was there any part left to hold it together?

Even harder for me is figuring out how to move that lever in small enough increments to get it really well setup... everytime I try to move it it resists then jumps 1/8 of an inch...

Thanks for the advice, I will get some rodico to try and undo any potential damage and prevent future damage.

I will have to get some of that... is it different than blue tac? It seems to look like blue tac... thanks for the advice guys! I always wash hands before touching anything with watches but will make sure to clean the parts I have touched now especially.

Hmmm... will keep that in mind. Is it the oils from your finger that can screw up the rotor or what? Thanks for the ETA answer, but I thought we had Asian ETA vs Swiss Finished ETA... so is this one really Swiss finished?

Not proposing any particular date or time but since all those guys are getting all the fun on the other side of the pond, who would be up for it if we had an SF/Bay Area GTG? Would be interesting to see what Macy's on Fifth would do if a dozen or so Panerais walked into the jewelry section all at the same time

Hot stuff, now I can becom The Zigmeister!

Why it just so happens I do... I processed the heck out of the shot that shows the rotor but it says "Twenty Five 25 Jewels Swiss Made" BTW it's bi directional... stiff in both directions... it's ok to push these around with your finger right?