Serafino

Thanks guys. I guess I have a bad case of backseat perfectionism. I think I will go ahead and snag a 2846. I had a prejudice against them but I'm getting over it.

Some say a 2836 movement in a 1601X case will have strain on its stem because of the .05 mm greater stem height. -Does anyone know first-hand of a Franken that had a stem break or malfunction because of this issue? In the event that 'best practice' would be to use a 2824 (assuming one could have the needed cannon pinion mods performed): -Has anyone come up with a way to use a 2824 in a 1601X case without a Stilty spacer? Would new dial feet located for an ETA do the job of spacing the dial .4 mm if they were long enough, or are dial feet solely for alignment? -I see a lot of conflicting recommendations on the web about attaching dial feet: 'epoxy won't work'; 'JB weld'; 'special industrial magic epoxy'; 'the only good way is specialty soldering equipment we don't have access to'. What's the truth? Does better consumer-grade epoxy such as JB Weld used on properly prepared surfaces fail? -I've been wondering if one could stack two Raffles movement rings, soldered together, and then sand that down to the right size to give a .4 mm space for the dial? Poor man's Stilty spacer? -What about the Rafflestime dial spacer? Anyone used one? How thick are they?

I gotta learn this trick of not reading the whole thread before responding. Must save a lot of time!

Another nice one JMB. At this rate I'm going to be, like, 10th with my gilt dial.

Bezel seems narrow too. Too bad McGoohan wasn't wearing an Explorer

This will give a better sense of scale, but keep in mind the guy was 6' 5" (196 cm.):

I don't have the Blu-ray, and this is as much as I could find quickly, but hope this helps:

Freddy documented his observations about this bracelet pretty convincingly in some earlier threads. If there is a workable solution to the problem it would be nice to see it documented. In one of those threads someone claimed there is such a thing as a 1.8 mm bar with 1.2 mm pins, but they linked to a set of multiple sizes of bars sold by Offshore and there are no specs for what is in the set. Offshore was not able to confirm that such a bar is in that set. I think it would be worth a try to turn down a regular bar and see how close you could get to 1.8 mm before it becomes uselessly fragile. Even if you could only thin it half way it would be that much less that the bracelet has to be modified.

I worked on the shape some more, I see now I still have a way to go, but here's the crystal with a dial under it FWIW: Current shape:

I took a stab at modifying a crystal for my 16013-based 1016 project. I wanted a vintage look without the pricing and other liabilities of a real vintage crystal, and it seemed like there is plenty of room to round the bevel on the modern style crystals. I cobbled together a suitable mandrel to mount the (GS) crystal on my benchtop drill press. I built it up using a 3/8" diameter steel tube, a piece of 3/4" PVC plumbing pipe, and part of a 3-way PVC fitting. Packing tape unceremoniously bridges the gaps from rod to pipe and from fitting to crystal, and I also used tape on the tube to tune the runout to a manageable level. I used a small file and sheet abrasives in 600, 1500, 2000 and 6000 grits (the latter being the one piece from my Micro-mesh kit I managed to dig up...) I'm fairly pleased with it for a first effort (it still needs a proper polish), although there are some things I would do differently: If I do another one I will use a finer file and greater magnification and hopefully then I can preserve the sharp transition from the curved edge to the side of the crystal. One has a choice between just rounding over the upper corner of the bevel, or carrying the rounding down a little into the lower corner. These two approaches seem like they might possibly relate to the two shapes we see among doubtful 'vintage' crystals which are apparently often found in the market. I haven't sat down and done any serious comparisons to photos of real vintage Tropic 22s yet, but my guess is that the fatal flaw of this modification will be that the GS is not tall enough to fully capture the impact of a real vintage Tropic no matter how it is reshaped. I gather that I am not the first in our hobby to do this modification--while researching strategies for polishing it up I ran into a reference to others having done it at some point. Many thanks to LHOOQ for his GS to Clark comparison thread, which gave me the means to choose the GS and photos with which to work out the possibilities. Thanks also to everyone who posted photos in the Tropic 22 thread recently!

Exciting stuff, I look forward to seeing the final product. I have a similar project in the works and seeing yours makes me itchy.

Actually I suspect it's for the same reason he didn't like lace-up shoes (which although never given explicitly, was probably for speed and convenience of dressing).

Book Bond wore a stretch bracelet (although Fleming's Rolex band was not one). A few posters here say they have no problem with hair pinching with the expandables, I wonder what the difference is (I think they are both haired individuals...)

Very helpful and, for me, timely. Thanks!

I don't think it's a mistake. One is called Version 2. I've been wondering about this too just hadn't got round to emailing about it.

Great stuff LH many thanks! Dee--I'm looking forward to the photos. If you can take an exact side view from a long distance that would be particularly useful

The additional question has to do with the profile of a vintage domed Tropic 22. Even making allowances for different angles and lighting it is hard to reconcile these 3 (supposed) examples--can they be the same shape? The first is from a French site, the second I believe was from VRF a few years ago, and the third TRF if I remember right. Or to put the question another way--is the third photo here a solid representation of the correct shape?

Can anyone post the following: -a close up of the shape of the end of an original Rolex 1016 springbar. (I'm going to be grinding down some aftermarket submariner bars and want to get the shape right.) -the max. height of an old-style dome Tropic 22 crystal. I'll have another question later tonight once I've had a chance to get some photos sorted. Thanks in advance for any help!

You'd need at least a mill with special tooling, and probably a lathe, maybe even a specialized industrial machine of some kind. A one-off you might manage with a small high quality lathe and a milling attachment but you'd spend a lot of time on it.

Ubi--many thanks! Very helpful, again.

Lovely beast. Has a lot of presence.

Speaking of balance weights--do any ETA movements have them? The movement in my Hamilton, which I believe is supposed to be Elaboré and adjusted in 3 positions, has none. I am getting the impression that my assumption that 'adjusted' always means balance weights is wrong? What other types of adjustments are done to a movement in the various positions?

With apologies to the masses, +1 but need a spacer for 2824, etc. in a 160XX case, while we're at it.

Two corollary questions: When buying old ETAs what are the odds of, and range of bad experiences to expect? i.e say I want a movement that was common in the '70s or the '60s. Are 3 out of 4 likely to need major repairs to the tune of, say $300? (Zig tells some sobering stories about watches that have been abused.) Are there ways to evaluate a movement in hand or is the only way to know its potential to tear it down and have a look (i.e. for me, send it for a service)?

Thank you Ubi! And thanks for the startling string of photos!