Donerix 2.0

After getting my first Laco (45mm Dortmund hand wind) I somehow got a serious case of "Flieger" fever. Be careful it might be highly contagious. While I really love the Laco it has one issue that keeps bothering me: it just looks to new, well and one more: it has a sapphire crystal and I just love plexi domes. So I picked up some less expensive watches to start experimenting before I start modifying the new 45mm Laco. Here are some first attempts at aging and replacing the glass with plastic: The light colored B-Uhr came already with an aged dial so I just matched the hands and got rid of the fat chunk of glass and installed a (temporary) plexi from a pocket watch I had laying around. I have a better dome coming and also a manual movement to replace the quartz under the hood: The 42mm Laco (a Lufthansa Edition) also comes with a quartz movement but has the same nice lugs as the bigger Dortmund and it already has the new dome installed (I added a rubber gasket which wouldn't allow the crystal to go in the case, but a few minutes in the freezer shrunk it to the right size and after warming up it now has a nice pressure fit and should be water tight , will have to test it to confirm. Nice bonus the crown - albeit a bit to small in proportion to the case size - is of the screw-down variety). Still waiting for the A-type dial from Kemmner to complete it (and to eliminate the date which bothers me. In my mind the plexi dome is a great improvement over the flat and somewhat life-less sapphire:

Born in France, raised in Germany, 10 years in the US and now 10 years in Nicaragua

A lot of the roads here in Nicaragua are still quite bad so you need a vehicle that can stomach some abuse:

Merry christmas to everybody from Nicaragua:

The case is stainless steel. On Laco's website it says "sand blasted" but I would think it is "bead blasted". I think it is light because of the ETA 2801 in there which is a rather small movement for this size watch. Over at HF they are working on a very similar case project which might be a cheaper way to make a vintage version.

Love it more every day

I think the Laco has the much more unique lugs. And I believe the Stowa only comes in 40mm and I think a B-Uhr needs to look big

I love that the watch is water-proof ( and the French Ammo strap also holds up great):

Laco B-Uhr Dortmund (45mm)

The last week has been a torture of waiting for my new watch, but living in Nicaragua you get used to it. No 1-day shipping here! But I got lucky in the end and a friend who was coming down here brought me my first Laco, the Dortmund 45mm. At first I wasn't sure about which size to choose. I wanted the watch to look big but not ridiculous. It turned out the 45mm is exactly what I had in mind (I have a 7" wrist). I have to be honest: I was a bit underwhelemed when I took the watch out of the (nice) presentation box at first. The strap that comes with it feels a bit like pleather and has very little texture. The watch also felt unexpectedly light for it's size (but then I took off a PAM 243 before I strapped it on which probably influenced how it felt on my wrist. While the build quality is outstanding the watch just feels a bit too "new" for a WW II inspired time piece - at least for my personal taste. Good thing I had already made two straps while waiting for the watches arrival: one from a vintage light olive French ammo pouch and one from some old leather luggage I had. Nevertheless I am seriously considering taking the watch apart, aging the dial and hands and replace the sapphire ( not the greatest AR BTW) with a domed plexi like the original watch. I already found a nice and thick plexi dome with a 40.8mm diameter from an old Panerai project in my parts box that seems to be the right size (maybe somebody can chime in here and confirm the size of the sapphire). After wearing the watch for a full day though it is really growing on me more and more. Here some pictures: I pulled an old airplane prop out of my basement: And some more lightly edited: Love the lume: Already took the watch for a swim, no problems:

Finally finished: GMT 6542, gen mid-case, movement, dial and crown Still need a gen bracelet:

I think it is a V2. I just bought it to have a model for my straps.

Finally finished my pool and my new workshop and had some time to play around with some ideas I had. I have made probably over a hundred AP Diver straps by now, but I started to get tired of all the croc, hornback and shark versions and wanted something a bit more tactical. A customer ordered a nice grey canvas strap for his AP Diver: And that got me to think and I made this: Can be worn as a bund strap or as a regular strap. I tapered this one down to 18mm at the tail and buckle because I didn't want it to over power my regular size wrists (7"): Now I just wish I had never soid my DLC APD, because this combination sure would look stunning: My friend who bought it from me gave it to me to take the pic (... and ordered the strap already ). Great to see the difference of VAC's work in comparison to a stock watch - especially the crystal: BTW - VAC was extra nice and made me a blue seconds hand which will be installed ASAP.

Powder-coated Submariner aka "The Battleship" on military grey canvas/leather bund strap:

I have a few in my sale right now. Might want to take a look and safe a few $$$

great work on the dial texture

Mache ich selber. Kannst ja mal meinen derzeitigen Sale anschauen, da sind einige drin: http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/157224-donerix-march-madness-sale-now/

First post in a while. Been working on this Tudor:

Thanks R. Gate is going in today and then I will have time for watch fun again:

My apologies to all members for having been absent from the forum the last weeks, but I had a lot on my plate: Mother visiting then sons visiting, got two big strap orders in that kept me from taking on more work. Built a car park and a new entrance gate: Redid my car: Before: After: And worked on my new website which is 98% ready and will be launched this month with some nice discounts for members: http://hamiltonleatherworks.com Just got back from a trip and brought some nice exotic hides with me: I also will have a nice big sale of boxes, straps and some watches in the next week and will start today answering all the outstanding PMs. Again my apology, but I am back better and with a lot of new energy. Eric

Do I need to say more ....

I actually miss snow after living in the un for so many years (almost 20 now) and christmas just isn't the same for me without mountains and snow (I grew up in Munich, Germany). M: your Speedmaster gives me goose bumps - so nice

Took this one to the beach, really hasn't left my wrist all week: