Finepics

Absolutley - make sure the case back is fully tightened. My Honpo watch came with one of the caseback O rings missing but Ken did supply me with a new one. This baby should be good for a few 00 meters at least!!

Love ya baby!! Hey the Daily Show (last nights) was very funny - did you see it?

Actually I spent most of this afternoon further refining the crystal - now it has that proper pointed dome shape rather than a semi circle like it was this morning!!! And the really funny thing is that Harrods Fine watch department are going to properly engrave the winding crown with the "Brevet" and Swiss cross for me!!! There's a sort of irony in that I think!!

The pushers have an internal O ring which provides the water resistance, not the screw downs which only prevent the pushers being accidentally pushed which would run the power reserve down quicker.

The "7753" 7750 has only 3 gears to move the minute counter which normally will work very well as the counter only moves in very small steps once a minute. To move the running seconds will probably necessitate a similar arrangment and certainly this would be subject to increased wear as the parts are running continuously. The "7753" transfer gears do have a jewelled bearing but as I said they are not really subject to any stress. I hope that the makers have now incorporated jewels into the running seconds gears but we will not know until someone has a problem or one of "us" takes it apart for a peek. I hope The Zigmeister won't mind me pinching a bit of text from his Daytona review - "Since doing this review, I have had a few of these Swiss powered Daytona’s in house for repair and servicing. Some of the problems have been the 12 hour subdial not resetting as it should, on these I had to freeze the subdial as I could not fix it. On others there have been problems with the jerkiness of the running seconds hand, simply due to the culmination of clearances between the 5 new gears. And also I have had to disable the running seconds on some models, as the friction of the new gears was too high, and the movement would not work." I hope that dosn't say it all!!!!

Many of the desk clocks will have the wrong type of movt even though they are 8 days. The only sure fire way is to ask the seller to remove the caseback and show the movt. I have bought 2 angelus desk clocks and both were wrong although one of them was so nice I'm keeping it as a desk clock!!

Main things wrong with this new version are the chrono pushers should be polished and the min/hour hands have way too fat lume. Get a set of davidsens PAM 188 hands and these are sorted perfectly. Otherwise it's good.

I am happy to send things on to Germany - I am UK based and have not had any problems with things coming in to me.

Don't we all!!

I just sent you a PM without reading these new posts. Get a new crown from Davidsen then all you need to do is unscrew the stem - it will be a little tight as it will have thread lock on it but it will come off - then screw the new crown on - dead simple!!

Where is he going? If Beijing then he has to go to the Xiushui silk market. Go to the top floor of this 5 floor department type store. Watches are on the left side. There are lots of small stalls - ask to see the swiss models and a case will appear from under the counter. Be prepared for some hard bargaining. I paid about £100 for my first ever PAM 111 and that was too much as my haggling was not good enough!!! Otherwise go to Ghuangzhou - the home of reps. Hundreds of shops selling reps there and that's where they are made!!

Hand fittings for the ETA are: Minute - 1.15mm Hour - 2.0mm Seconds - 0.27mm

Check out his previous sales - mindblowing what people will pay and check his atrocious spelling.

I still cannot see what you mean. That stem looks perfect. All it is is a square peg so I suspect there is something else wrong. If you want me to look at it for you I can fix it. Send me a PM.

C'mon guys. This watch is so nice that the TZ people think its crap - which means it's very good indeed. Good enough to make a few gen owners [censored] their pants!!

OK - here are some very rough quick pics of my current project. Ignore the dial and hands - they are just temporary while I wait for my new dial to arrive back from the printers. The casing is going away to my friend "Metta Rob" to have a strap stitched to the case in a few days (I would have sent it to Aaron but worried about it travelling all that way and Rob is just as skilled and more local). You can see (I hope) that I have made up new stainless steel strap bars as my watch was delivered with bars that had a spring bar in the middle of two ends that are glued into the case and were not SS. I had to drill them out and bend up new bars from 1.8mm SS wire and I also took the opportunity to sink the stem tube into the case and weld that up at the same time (please don't ask me to do this as it really is a one off - I had to take a day off work to go to my old work place to do this so unless you want to pay me a days salary as well!!!). First pic is of the watch as I got it - most of you who have this will know how crudely finished the case is. The corners are very badly defined and thick so a lot of time was spent refining the shape of the case as well. I have also spent time re-working the top flat surface of the bezel to make it look wider (the gen is really wide and very tall). The movt is sitting in there quite happily using the Molnija spacer (even though it is loose) which works well enough to leave as it is for the time being. The case back is odd in that is has a brushed face by chance (which is also like the gen) and I have rounded the edges of the corners. The most difficult thing was the crystal which is still not quite right but I don't think I can get it any better without the risk of ruining it. It is a little bit too rounded but is close enough that I will leave it like that. It started ouit like the ones shown for the 6152 so I had to re-shape it by hand and polish it. Trying to get a completely smooth surface was not easy but I got there in the end. As soon as I get the dial back (which is going to be rather special) I will update the post - meanwhile enjoy the pics.

Unlikely that the stem is broken - it looks fine! I suspect the problem is that the stem release screw was not done up. Replace the stem and screw all the way in then tighten the little screw next to the stem tube on the movt to lock the stem in place. If nothing happens it could be that part of the keyless works has slipped out of place. This is an asian mvt so it could also be that one of the gears is faulty.

Absolutely it can be done (I did it!!). Are you sure you want it to be this shape as here is a photo of what it should look like - this is a gen watch - look how tall the bezel is: The tall type crystal is normally found in the 6152 watches as in this pic of a gen: @rgthrottle - I need to have your crystal to set the machine up for the plexi crystal which is a solid 5mm thick at the centre - much much better than a sapphire!!

If you look at the pics of the gens I posted you will see tha the cases are far from old looking. I have photos of about a dozen or more gens and all have very good condition cases (apart from maybe one or two). I have decided to leave my cases in good pristine condition.

Might help if you tell us which watch you are referring to!!

@ rqthrottle - not sure about this and I am unable to measure a bezel as I don't have one spare. @ Ubi - Yes this should not be a problem. I will need the original crystal to take the measurements from as my man sets his cutting machine up from it then I hand finish them to give the correct curved edges. The crystal for the Radiomirs is not a bubble type (like the ones in the pics) but a much flatter dome shape that joins the bezel very slightly below the level of the bezel edge. I will post pics of mine that I have just finished later.

Does the name Montresking mean anything to anyone?

Its not the dial from Davidsen, I have that - this has been sent EMS not registered post.

Guys - someone has sent me something from Hong Kong but not sure who as I don't think I was expecting anything and it has gone missing. I had a letter from Parcelforce (the UK EMS handler) querying if I had received the package which was sent on the 31st July. It is showing as arrived in the UK on the 2nd Aug and the trail goes dead there. Did anyone send me anything with the tracking number EE694989857HK -let me know please.

Will let you into a little secret - One of the things about these vintage dials is that the numbers were filled with a clear resin that then turns yellow/orange with age. They were like this because the dial really was a lid of a container of lume and so needed to be completely sealed. I have been experimenting recently and have found a way to re-create that resin that is tinted yellow but remains glass clear so it allows the lume to shine through perfectly. The only thing I have not been able to do is reproduce the cracks but hey!! I hope to be able to show you guys soon but just waiting for the dial to come back from the printers. Meanwhile I have done extensive work on the Radiomir 3646 case - re-shaping it and welding proper stainless steel strap bars to it (the rep bars are not SS and are glued in place) and have relocated the crown so that it is flush with the case rather than the tube sticking out!!! And the crystal is the finishing touch - the 3646 had a very shallow domed crystal nothing like the 6152 type. Also I will be having the strap sewn to the case - I hope to show you this very soon.