eunomians

Definitely Jetmid!!

It's one of the first larger-sized black dial white 18k out in the U.S.A. wild...

Lucky to have it in the other side of the family. My uncle bought an Aquanaut as well a few months prior from the same place.

I put this fat fonts insert in my Frosty Flake just because it matches the dial so well... I take it swimming and biking and climbing, and now I have to rethink that.  As valuable as the insert alone is getting, the watch will wind up losing its "beater" status!
 
 

Fascinating about the inserts fetching stupid prices.

Remind me why I sold this pointed guard 1675 with the original insert installed! I was younger and consequently more naive. Faded fat pepsis were everywhere for $25-$50 tops.

In any event, this was the nicest Pepsi insert I've ever owned... Sorry for the poor quality pic. It's an oldie.

PS. In retrospect, I shoulda kept this pointed guard watch too -- my reasoning in selling was that I already own my grandfather's 1675, so a second one made no sense. In any event, I did purchase this with some of the funds:

Was just saying, not to it pick but some would say using the term 'original' then immediately stating that you swapped the bezel out is a faux pas, people on vrf, rwg, etc,  have all different ideals and presumptions and especially convenient truths, but sure I get it and you're points.

Rolex had a mysterious undocumented past with what is and isn't, I know three people who still work on the bench in their late 50's, with boxes of old parts some of the stuff I've Never seen before, just because I hadn't seen it previously I can't presume it's not real and rare.  Like green gmt inserts for example.

 

 

This is somewhat true but it's stretching the truth most of the time... The anecdotes about Rolex using up caches of outdated parts is always interesting. At least it was back in 1991 when I bought a 1016 for $850!

In any event, I'll corroborate your alibi

This GMT of mine is all original (black insert was added later by me). It's 1 to 2 years too late to have had a small GMT hand... But it does. How do I know the provenance and authenticity? My grandfather bought it new in 1966. The guy never serviced it until it became mine. Crazy. But so yes, there are oddballs but again, 99.99999% of the oddballs are fake as hell!

Btw, concerning vintage hands and dials...I bought a GMC-320 Geiger counter and can not tell tritium dials/hands from Luminova with it...and that's why I bought it.  Read up about it and evidently the small amount and type of radiation emitted by tritium does not register on this counter.  I have a shadow box on the wall above my work area with old character and 'dollar' watches in it and my 'Tip Top Jr' wristwatch with radium dial and hands really set it off.  The display immediately went red with a printed warning across the display and the ticker sounded like a popcorn popper.  I moved the shadow box across the room. 
The Geiger counter needs to be closer than about 18 inches to go off big time...not that close to it where I work but it has been hanging there 15 or 20 years. 
Here is what it looks like:  eBay item number  192162361358

Lotta stories to tell

The amount of fake aged bezel inserts, fake blueberry inserts, fake small GMT hands is really annoying!

I've been collecting vintage Rolex sports models since approximately 1990 and I've NEVER seen a blueberry GMT, nor did anyone ever talk about it whatsoever. Perhaps there were a few genuine ones but in all honesty, zero of them were out in the wild. FAKE! Well, more like 99.9999999999% fake!!!

And those all red GMT hands? Hummmmm, yeah right. Maybe a couple dozen TOPS were OEM! Remember folks, they made a ton of GMT-1's and it had a very long run-time as well.

 My rant is more directed towards the fakesters and swindlers who have messed with the pricing of parts and watches. They have created false value, and ruined the pricing on OEM vintage parts forever.

Nice! I wish I had scooped up one back then with the gator strap

Pffffft speak for yourself!

and who remembers 'Sticky Balls?'
 
Ken

Wow it's fantastic!

I gotta say that going to the Breguet store here where I live is quite a treat. Seeing these movements in person is astonishing. So many watches on display! The price tags on some of them are just plain nuts. But wow, the Fusée movements are breathtaking.

A few stores down is the AP store which is totally boring in comparison. Most of their watches are hidden, aside from the typical models. The Richard Mille store is also a few stores down. I frankly won't ever bother walking into a Svengali hype Barnum & Bailey PR machine store lol!

Lovely engine!

I'm with you on that subject. And here's my ride of preference

I'll have to raise a glass ?

We're only getting older

I would if I didn't have watch OCD. If I am able to, I change watches a couple times per day

And I've been doing this going on 3 decades now.

Really not sure about this one. I enjoyed trying it on at the local AP store a couple of years ago. Now it just seems like it fades into the ether. As if it has no voice or personality, or perhaps genuine originality. Maybe it's my sorta disdain for AP these days... Trends, clichés, fashion, new money... Yes the design is historic. Yes AP has a great story But like most things in this reality, money can buy you an AP or some other pedigree bespoke watch... But money cannot buy experience, patina, integrity, blah blah .... My rant is silly. Suffice it to say, I'd rather drive my air-cooled bat out of hell with all the right things wrong than drive a 2018 that any player with a big bank account can just go out and purchase. This watch belongs to which kind of mindset? I'm confused now! I guess that's what Hublot is for! To neuter the thirst for something original!

The ups and downs of this hobby for 3 decades perhaps has got me twisted today!

Just ordered another 1675 from Sead. Can't wait to get one back on my wrist. I've had a number of gens over the years, and always regretted selling them. Just looked on ebay, and the prices have really shot up in the last 3-4 years. I used to be able to buy them for $3,000-$4,500. Holy crap.
 
Hopefully this rep will do the trick for me for a while.

Best Freind EEnumions! 
 
You probably remember this...............
 
https://rwg.cc/topic/57992-crisis-panic-emergency/