Lovecraft

I got one of those as well - it really is a great fit. I still prefer the metal bracelet, but variation is always nice.

I just want it to be the best watch it can be I like it very, very well actually - better than my franken PO even. There's just some really small things about it that I'd like to fix. Besides - it's fun. Right now it's very good, but it can be better

Thanks for the review! They are way too big for me, but I like the ATs a lot. I hope to see more of these Again, thanks!

I'm curious as well. It's a nice looking watch.

Thanks for the tip! Yeah, even if it doesn't bring it closer to gen I think I would prefer to have a nice AR on it. I might even consider it if I have a gen - the dial is too nice to hide behind all that glare. Yes, finding a gen dial is hard - especially a white/blue one. Maybe I'll be able to lay my hands on some gen stuff some time - would be nice to add gen dial/hands. Hopefully they will consider making some of the new ATs as well, but I'm not betting on it. If they do I'll be first in line though...

I have one of these guys here: It's really nice and I like it a lot but it has it downsides for sure. The lack of AR goes on my nerves though, and I'd like to get rid of the happy feet if I could. The question is, what can I do to make it better? AR treatment in EU? Who is the best guy to contact? Possible to get a re-lume or do you think the dots are too small for it to be done well? Possible to find crown and tube that is close to the original? As nice as it is, I'd prefer it to be smoother and the tube is threaded on the outside... The only thing I've done so far is to put a brown leather strap on it with a nice deployment clasp. Even though the bracelet actually was really nice, I prefer the brown leather strap/white stiching look.

I'm waiting for the new ATs as well, but I'm guessing they are not a priority for the factories right now. If you are satisfied with the older ATs I got one of these: http://www.yourtrustytime.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=35_66&products_id=1766&zenid=27efe507f5fc07f4f3df40a478694556 It's a really nice watch and I'm more than happy with it. Some downsides though: happy feet, no AR and the seethrough case doesn't (naturally) display a 2500. There's probably more, but I like it a lot. The bracelet is excellent, and it looks great on a leather strap if you prefer something else.

Maybe I'll get used to it, but it's a little bit like "Hey! Look at me and my wrist mounted laser!" Yes, I did all the work - which turned out not to be all that much work after all. I had to ask Rymeister for advice along the way, but the actual work wasn't hard at all. I'm very happy with how everything turned out. The He valve looks great and both it and the crown sits snug as bugs The crown logo lines up as well, which is nice imo. I have some angst about the dial though. I still can't decide if I like the white or red numerals better. The red isn't as "clean" as the white, but the white seems a bit plain to me now that I'm used to the red. Thinking about seeing if I can do an even trade for a white. But who knows, maybe I'll want the red one again then

Yeah, I think the 42 looks just right on my 6,5 wrist. Same with my 39 AT. My 44 Panerai looks huge though - like I'm a kid wearing my father's watch. It's beautiful and keeps perfect time (barely lost a second since I got it), but I feel silly wearing it.

Here's some bad pictures taken with my phone. My wrist looks super thin - almost as thin as the watch dial. No matter what I do they look odd and strange, but I decided to post them anyway. You will just have to use your imagination I had some problems with my movement but it's all fixed now. I got a brand new Seagull beating like champ in it. The lume is extremely strong. Maybe too strong - like green LEDs - almost making it look vulgar. I'm wondering if it's something that will go away or will be replaced by something else in time?

I sold my Speedmaster, so can't check. I probably didn't notice it if it's that small. I'll make sure to check next time I see a gen Omega.

Really? I can't remember seeing one on my Speedmaster. Which ones use plastic crystals?

Yes, I used a watch knife and inserted it at 9, I think, and then carefully pushed it down to 6. You will see that there's one point where it's easier to lift it - insert the knife there. It was very easy really. There's always bezel removers as well, but they are ridiculously expensive.

Yeah, no kidding. Until you pointed out that it was black I thought it had fallen off I'm a bit undecided. I think I probably like the original black the best. I like the PO update way, way better.

I did set the spring arm, however thank you very much for the very visual and great help/explanation. I've disassembled and assembled the movement a few times, putting it back in the case - carefully checking each step in the grapher to make sure nothing funky has happened. Everything went fine until I put in the crown and screwed it on. Before that it had been a nice -1 to +3 in all angles, but now it jumped to +10 to +14. Maybe slightly too long stem? I'm thinking now that the earlier problems with the crazy time graph in the 3-6 area of the seconds sweep was because the larger spacer between the movement and case was slightly askew. Either way, I'm leaving it like this now and trying it out by wearing it. It seems fine and hopefully it won't stop.

Well, that sucks... Does anyone know if it's the same with the 42mm?

Yes, according to the seller it was serviced - but apart from that brand new. I also tried it before installing it and it seemed to be working just fine. Do you mean the very thin spacer between the dial and the movement? I used the one that came with the Seagull movement. If you mean the thick (copper) spacer between the case and movement/dial then no, I used the old one. Actually, I thought that it might be the thick spacer that was the problem so I removed the movement, put it back again with the spacer just fastened very, very lightly. I still got the same problem but with much less effect. I dropped maybe 10-15 seconds instead of 40 during the 3-6 quadrant. It still sounded horrible when winding it though, and very stiff. Way too much resistance. I tried it without a case and got the same figures. I figured I'd give the keyless a go, and disassembled/assembled it. The winding and date set sounded/felt/worked perfectly afterwards, but the time set wouldn't work so I missed something in the reassembly. That's how far I got though. I'm thinking that hopefully it's possible to fix the stiffness by putting together the keyless properly, but I don't know yet. Also, is it possible that I could have ruined the movement by winding it too much and that's the reason it sounds that way?

So, I was just done with my franken build of a 42mm Omega Planet Ocean. I had problems with my first movement so I installed a brand new Seagull. Once done, I noticed that there was quite a bit of resistance to the winding and the time and date settings. I wound it up to see how many seconds it would gain/lose and noticed that it didn't last as long as it should - maybe 6 hours or so instead of the 36-ish that a 2824.2 is supposed to produce. I got my hands on a cheap timegrapher and the plotted line is anything but straight. It hits about +6 seconds until the seconds hand reach 3, then it drops to -30/-40 until the seconds hand reach 6. Then it goes back to normal again. Opening the case and winding it I noticed that it had a bit of an unpleasant sound when winding. The button releasing the stem was incredibly stiff the first time, and I was worried that I might have hit deep enough for the keyless to come loose. What do you think? I tried the Seagull movement when I got it and it ticked on for at least 24 hours so I didn't get a faulty movement.

So I finally got my 42" franken project together in one working piece (fingers crossed). And, first off, let me apologize for the lack of pictures. A thread like this desperately needs pictures, but I'm at work now and I have no way of taking any pictures until tomorrow. It turned out great - no blemishes and everything sits where it's supposed to. Also, it was surprisingly easy - the mechanics of it anyway. I still had to ask questions and look around. The only thing that I found to be time consuming and irritating was the fitting of the hands. Things done: Tweaked the bracelet clasp, dry lubed the bracelet and changed the faulty half-link for a gen one. I did the crown/tube switch, a He-valve switch to gen, dial and hands switch to gen, date wheel switch to ETA and bezel switch to gen. I also changed the movement to a Sea-gull that I got my hands on (still waiting for a replacement from China). Things that could be done: change full bracelet/clasp/end links. Change crystal to gen or give it an AR-treatment. Back case... I'm not going to buy the full bracelet, it's just too expensive. I'm also not going to invest in bits and pieces of it since it's expensive and I still won't get the amazing silky feel of the gen. As for the crystal; I'm pretty happy with the rep one, and the gen is quite expensive. Most importantly though, I'm not comfortable doing the switch myself and I don't really feel like sending it away either. I like the thought that I've done the adjustments myself. For the same reason an AR treatment isn't all that attractive either, even if it's great value and result. I might go for it anyway if the rep crystal starts to bother me. Subjective reflections: The half link was of course a silly expense. I'm sure they would have sent me a new one free from China. The crown/tube switch gave it a nice feel, even if I don't see any big difference between the crowns. The He-valve was expensive, but I don't regret it. The rep looks bloated besides the gen. It's ridiculously fat. It also wasn't nearly as hard to install as I feared. I have access to tools at work though and if you only have your screwdrivers and epoxy it's probably a different story. Dial: in my opinion, the dial I got looked pretty darn good. The lume however was not good at all. The lume on the gen is ridiculously strong. Get a super lume kit instead and save some money. Hands: Also look great, also got crappy lume. Lume them yourself. Date wheel: a no-brainer. It's cheap, it's easy and it looks better. Bezel: The rep looks great apart from the pearl that looks horrible on most bezels. If you get an orange bezel with a well placed bezel (haven't seen any really nice placed on the black ones) you could lume it yourself. It was a lot of fun, and I don't regret it. However, you could probably save yourself a lot of money picking up a super lume kit with a result close to mine with lots of gen parts. Now I'm going to deal with the faulty movement. Hopefully I'll figure out how to service it and fix it at the same time. Edit: Oh, and two things I never would have wanted to be without: Rodico clay and Rymeister!

Delete me

It was actually the flight that I was supposed to take on my way home now that I think about it. It was a long time ago though - over 10 years ago. And to be honest, I've never thought about it while sitting on a plane.

It's many years ago now, but me and a group of guys got invited down to a hotel in Italy with all expenses paid for. As it happened, I got sick with the flu and you can believe I was bummed out. I was really upset - well as upset as I could manage while being sick. The day after, the plane I was supposed to be on crashed. Luckily none of the other guys were from the same city as me, so I didn't know anyone onboard. It was a strange feeling and a strange event all in all.

I'd most definitely prefer if it's possible to open/screw it - however, my beef with it is that it's MUCH thicker than the gen. I just don't see how something that off survived as long as to the 5th iteration of the PO. Of all the gen parts I got, this is one that couldn't be easily "solved" in a cheap way. Not that I know of anyway. The crown and tube fix is cheap. You can keep the hands and dial and lume them yourself. You can find a nice bezel pearl and lume it yourself. You can send away the crystal for some AR work and so on... You can't really fix the look of the He-valve cheaply. The other part could resonably be the end links - don't think there's a cheaper fix there. We are all different, but the two things that my eyes usually get stuck on are the pearl and He-valve...

You were right - it was just a hole that the rep valve was pressed into. Decided to keep the case closed and just epoxied the gen valve into the hole. A pretty expensive part to just "glue" on, but it's a pretty big difference in thickness. Rather strange actually how the rep is way too thick.

Yes, 5th gen 42mm. I'll try to just pull it loose. If there's a hole that I can enlarge that would indeed be the ideal solution.