mjmurphy926

I'm not sure how the GEN crystal compares to a Clark's crystal, but I installed a Clark's in mine and had to remove a little material from the inside of my stock retaining ring. Some say you can press it on without sanding the retaining ring, but BK recommended I remove a little material. I'll take BK's advice every time.

Very nice Frank! I just received my vaclumed dial and hands today for mine. They are going on tonight!

Just keep posting those albino pix. That watch deserves to be spotlighted often. A real beauty!!

HOT DIGGITY DAMN!!!!I found it! Just when I had given up. There it was in a place I had looked 1000 times. Now I'm a happy man!

Diz, Thanks for the generous offer, but I have some noob SELs and I tried to fit one. Unfortunately, they are drilled a little different than the WM9 pieces and don't really line up correctly. Thanks again, Mike

I removed the bracelet from my WM9 v1 sub so I could polish it last night. While polishing it, I somehow managed to lose a piece of one of the SELs. I have no idea when it fell off or where it went. I looked for hours last night and this morning, but no luck. I just recently finished building this bracelet specifically so I could use the WM9 SELs. The red highlighted piece is what I lost. If someone has this piece or an entire SEL, I'd be eternally greatful if you would consider selling it to me.

Very nice collection!

You da man Hike!

Did you do the graphite treatment to the movement?

Yep...I just hope they do it right the first time so we don't have to wait for v2, v3...

Very nice!!

Yeah...I read that somewhere on these boards, but I can't find the thread now. Someone spoke about using 2 pair of vicegrips. He said to line the vicegrip jaws with the type of sandpaper many electric finishing sanders use. The kind with the fuzzy side of velcro backing. That fuzzy stuff sticks to the other side of velcro on the sander. You cut a strip of the sanding disk a little wider than the vicegrip jaws and place in it the jaws so the sandy side grips the bracelet links. I was amazed how little the sandpaper damaged the top link on the bracelet. I was able to remove the scratches with only a scotch brite pad.

My serial number is M550297

Thanks Rich.

Nice Frank. Looks like your upper CG is about the same as mine was. Lucky you!

Very close Rich! Component list: Case - WM9 v1 (actually PT's best from back in the day.) Bezel assembly - Stock WM9 v1/PT's best Crystal - Clark's Bezel insert - The dreaded JO! Pearl - GEN (Good eyes Rich) Crown - BK custom crown. I don't think these are available anymore, but I could be wrong. Movement - ETA 2836-2 Date wheel - BK date wheel overlay. HIGHLY recommended! Bracelet - Stock WM9 v1 endlinks on noob hollow mid link bracelet. Dial - noob 16610 The case was pretty rough when I bought this from a member on these boards. The upper CG was much fatter than the lower and there were tooling marks all over the rehaut. A lot of filing, sanding and polishing later, I have a case that I'm pretty happy with. The single most dramatic change was the swap from a stock noob date wheel to the BK overlay. The noob numbers were too big and the font was too thin. I finally decided to make the switch and couldn't be happier! The bracelet was a recent endeavor. I didn't like the solid mid bracelet that came with the watch, although it did have very nice SELs. I swapped the bracelet immediately with one of several noob bracelets I had laying around, but I was never really happy with the noob SELs as the center section was over worked leaving the edges slightly rounded. I finally got brave enough to disassemble both bracelets and make a single good one. I actually went through 2 noobs though, so it really took 3 bracelets to make one good one, but I'm thrilled with the final result! I also have a brand new noob dial and hand set at Vac's right now getting the C1 lume treatment. Can't wait to get that stuff installed! Anyway, thanks for looking. Mike

I'll answer later this evening.

I'm so sorry Marty.

Ah...So this is why my wife doesn't give it up to me anymore...so knows my Rolex is rep...

Freddy, This seems like it could fit in well in your "status symbol" thread... Why should you wear a Rolex? Cuz it'll getcha laid! (insert humpin' emoticon...hey...we need a humpin' emoticon!)

WOW!

Yep...The minute hand was set improperly and it hits the 7:00 marker. By forcing it, you actually unseated the minute hand from the minute pinion. I'll bet the pinion still moves, but the hand is no longer tight on the pinion, so it doesn't. It's actually a pretty easy fix if you know how to uncase the movement, but if not, send it back.

I always install the bezel first, then I snap the insert on. This allows me to get the insert lined up properly.

Make sure the click spring isn't under the bezel. it should be contacting the low point of one of the tiny notches.

Manual PAMs are pretty basic and easy to learn on. With a little practice, you can do quite a few of the simpler tasks as long as you are somewhat good with your hands. Just be prepared to ruin a couple. I've been pretty successful in swapping hands, dials, date wheels, crowns, and crystals. I even fixed the keyless works on a swiss 2836-2, but that's about as far as I go on the internals. I've also bent a few second hands, scratched a few dials, broke a few stems, screwed up a couple keyless works and even crushed the crystal gasket on my DSSD (I'm waiting for BK to get some so I can replace it). You can also learn how to work on cases too. I have been successful at shaving inner CGs, outer CGs on several subs. I also recently swapped solid endlinks on a sub bracelet (it took a total of 2 1/2 bracelets to get 1 good one though), and repolish and rebrush the sub case and bracelet. I'm pretty handy, but have no clock making or metal working experience. A lot of trial and error...and breaking stuff. But it's a great hobby!