Roland

This is the link to the box: http://www.thewatchprince.com/s.nl/it.A/id.2291/.f It is called "carbon fiber-style box". so it is not carbon fibers, only a print and then lacquered to look like it. But it looks very convincing. The inside of the box is covered in black, soft, man-made material. The inside of the lid is covered as well, so the watches are perfectly protected. The pillows are 60 mm wide, and the divider between the compartments is 7 mm. This is really big. The first watch in the top row is a Fiddy and it fits well onto the pillow. The watch is only available as factory seconds; but you have to look really hard to see the defects.

Last November I found this forum and very soon my collection had outgrown my old watch box. So I needed a new watch box and bought this one: My main requirement was that the indivisual compartments are big enough so that the watches are in a safe distance from each other and there would be no chance for scratches. This one has pillows of 60 mm width. This is big enough even for 47mm Panerais. As you can see it is full. Fortunately I bought two boxes.

Hi James, you have to check the width of the strap at the lugs. This is more important than the size of the watch. Traditionally, men's watches have a distance between the lugs of 18 mm and up. There are some vintage watches with 17 mm, but they are not very common. Ladies' watches have straps which are 16 mm and smaller. Compared to today's watches, it will definitely be a ladies size. If it has a 18 mm strap it should still be fine as a dress watch for a man. Roland

I built one like this: Homemade Watch Winder Works fine for me. Roland

I changed my links without problem, it just takes a lot more time than usual. The pins are not the usual split-pin design. There is a sleeve in the center piece that gives a very tight fit. This sleeve will fall out when you remove the pin and has to be inserted before the pin is driven back. Resizing the bracelet is easy if you have a pin removal tool, e.g. item FB-506 from Otto Frei (http://www.ofrei.com/page237.html). The tool comes with three attachments of different lengths. Start with the shortest and push out the pin as much as you can in arrow direction. Then take the next longer one and push out the pin more. With the longest attachment you should get out the pin more than half of its length. Then take pliers and pull out the pin. Don't loose the sleeve, it will fall out at this point. For inserting the pin I used a hammer, now against arrow-direction. It will go easy through the first piece of the link since there is no sleeve. Then you need to get it into center-piece with the sleeve. This needs some force and I was not successful pushing it in. So, that's where the hammer comes in. Drive the pin in until only 1 or 2 mm stick out. Then use the pin remover tool with the shortest attachment, align it with the sticking-out pin and push it back in all the way.

The "proofs" of God's existence are probability arguments. I mentioned earlier the argument that uses the beauty and order in the universe. We have to decide if this is a product of random processes or due to the directing influence of a creator. Everyone has to decide for themselves what conclusion they draw. As mentioned above by Craytonoics, the five most important arguments are to be found in the Summa Theologiae (St. Admin Aquinas, not St. Augustine). All of them are not "proofs" in the modern, scientific sense. They give evidence for God's existence, but not conclusive evidence. It was said earlier, that the idea of God has been made up so that people could feel happy. I am not sure which religions have ideas of God that make people feel happy, but I am sure that this is not the case with the Christian idea of God. The Christian God sets up strict rules that He wants mankind to obey. Life is much easier without God. But if you are convinced that there is a God and that your (Christian) ancestors did not lie to you, then you have no choice and accept His rules. One thing is for sure, death is much easier for believers than for atheists. The problem of evil was brought up several times, but I don't think it was really discussed. Unfortunately it is not so simple as to say: Evil exists, therefore God does not exist. I could turn it around and say: Good exists, therefore God exists. Neither argument holds. The problem of evil has been discussed for many millenia. Christianity's answer is very simple: Freedom. Freedom is the much higher Good than preventing evil. God wants us to be free and freely decide to believe in Him. This also means to allow us to make the choice of evil. As my last point I would like to discuss if Christians are better than Atheists. To say itup front, I do not know the answer to this. What I know is that I am a better person because I believe in God. And I think this is the case for many others as well. Let me give you an example. These are the thoughts that someone had on March 30, 1981: "I looked on that tiled ceiling and prayed. But I realized that I couldn't ask for God's help while at the same time I felt hatred for the mixed-up young man who had shot me. Isn't that the meaning of lost sheep? We are all God's children and therefore equally beloved by Him. I began to pray for his soul and that he would find his way back into the fold." I have been in similar situations, not as serious, nobody ever tried to kill me. I remember situations where I calmed down and forgave someone becaue the line from the Lord's prayer came to my mind: "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us". President Reagan must have thought of this very line on this day in March of 1981.

Ken, please allow me one more reply in this thread, having posted only once before. I was very surprised that this thread suddenly turned back to the original question and became much more of a scientific debate. There was some good things earlier in here when the discussion of univerals came up even if I personally am not interested in reviving the debate between nominalists and realists. Spinoza's pantheism is not so far away from the Christian understanding of God. There are many groups in Christianity and some may be close to Spinoza. The transcendentalists were influenced by him and they were close to the Unitarians, some of them actually Unitarian ministers. Goethe also showed great admiration for Spinoza. The harmony or order in Nature is mentioned as the fifth way of demonstrating the likelihood if God's existence in the Summa Theologiae of Admin Aquinas. That is the one that convinces me more than those of the immovable mover or the first cause mentioned earlier. When I look it evolution, for example, I find the explanation of random changes not very convincing in explaining the big changes during evolution. Maybe when Science progresses there will be good explanations, but for the moment I find the directing influence of a Creator the most convincing explanation.

I did not want to post in this thread. There were too many irrational post, like science and religion contradict each other etc. But after watching it over the last few days, I feel I have to reply. By the way, I am a scientist and here is my answer to the question: I believe in God, the one with the capital G, not "a god"; I attend Mass on Sundays and on holidays of obligation.

Looks like Ofrei's Omega's Microlon Pad For Use On Titanium in the picture, a fancy version of a Scotch pad. I have the Bergeon satin finish bars and I am very pleased with the result. Roland