archibald

GORGEOUS

Gorgeous, TTK. Perhaps an odd request. A former boss of mine (a very respected chef/restauranteur over here in the states) has done me a truly remarkable favor, which I would like to repay in very small measure with a nice gesture: Would it be possible for your knifemaker to make a chef's knife, using very specific perameters for steel, balance, weight, and handle shape etc yet made with the interesting materials and excellent workmanship that went into the knives you posted? I'd be willing to pay top dollar for a custom piece, but a few specifications would have to be met exactly--knives are to chefs what clubs are to golfers--individual preferences of performance and "feel" are inviolate. Anyway, please feel free to respond here or email if you'd be interested in presiding over what may be an interesting project...and pretty good advertising.

Sweet! Thanks for the info, buddy!

I worked the doors for many years......I always relied on the old principle....ask 10 girls if they wanted to go home at the end of the evening and play a game of hide the sausage.....8 would give me a rubber ear......the 9th would say..."if you play your cards right".....and the 10th would say..."sounds like a great idea to me big boy".......guess who I went home with....?

Which reminds me of a story an old boss of mine used to tell: "I got a friend who used to stand on the streetcorner and ask every girl who walked by 'Hey, Baby, wanna go screw?' I said, 'Man, don't you get slapped alot?' 'Hell yes...But I get a good bit of pussy, too.'"

Anyway, has anyone fit an OEM dial to the PO rep? It seems that by the time you do the relume and pay shipping, you're only about 80 bucks from an OEM dial.

@ajoesmith:

by chance is it for your 027, joe?

@Canuck88:

yes, I also saw that on some models periferal distortion became a problem.

That is due to the extreme desing of those lenses (designed to get the highest possible magnification) coupled with the different rehauts of our reps. Even small increases in the distance between dial and crystal result in a large increase in magnification, that can possibly result in unacceptable periferal distortion.

Gens don't have this problem as each cyclops is designed for that single specific model, and perhaps they also use aspheric lenses to minimize spherical aberration (aspheric lenses would cost at least 4x, though).

You may want to try your cyclops on other models with a shorter rehaut, or try removing the teflon ring on which the cystal sits and glue the crystal on the bezel directly (that would shorten the distance between the cyclops and the dial).

As you pointed out, other problems about the readability of the date come from refelections. And, I might also add, from the date becoming darker (less bright).

Reflections actually came out as an unexpected issue. Anyone tried AR coating the crystal with the cyclops mounted?

Reflections overcome the date font also because the date font brightness decreases with the square of date magnification. At 1.8x magnification, those same light rays that comes from that given date window area become scattered on a 3.24 wider area, so that brightness becomes about 1/3 than original.

That should benefit from the new datewheels that we all are waiting for from Finepics (and I also heard that Archibald was planning something about it)...

Now I can hear you think "Well, I got a bunch of explainations, but very few solutions".

True.

All what I can say now is that, on the experience from those cyclopses, I am actually working on a project for inexpensive cyclopses that can work on all models.

Be warned: no sapphire, no extreme mag this time. But no distortion and no reflections-vs-brightness issues, too. Sort of a middlepoint between old Lello's cyclopses (1.1x) and the new sapphire super-mag cyclopses we talked about (1.8x).

I hope to be able offer them @ as low as about 12-13 USD (+ s/h), and with immediate shipping (ready product, no wait for manufacturing).

But before releasing them I want to have them tested on ALL my PAMs. After all, there's nothing like real tests. And I also want to post pictures so that anyone can make his own judgement before purchasing.

I'm in on the new ones, definitely! sssurfer has exactly stated the optics behind the problem.

my experience is as follows--

PAM 051: perfect in every way. perfect mag, excellent clarity, probably due to the black date on white background. This one will be AR coated as well. I'll update when this happens.

PAM 222: Even with the extra cyclops @ the dial removed there is too much distortion--probnably due to the extra distance from the date to the lens. Still looks better than out of the box.

@ Canuk: The mag is the mag is the mag--just the laws of physics: the mag on the new cyclopses is between 1.67 and 1.83. It is possible the rehuat was unusually shallow on your particular piece, however, but the mag can't change lens to lens.

Finally, a general message...and this is very important: My watchsmith refuses to put these on because he says that too much glue or an uneven application can casue severe distortion and reflection problems. Before anyone chucks their lenses...I would highly reccomend being brutally honest with yourself about the quality of the installation.

If he deep links to your pictures, surely it'd be simpler to replace them all with JPEGs that state how Paul is a [censored]-gobbler or similar.

If you guys keep this up, Paul is going to start posting bizzarre insults along with pictures of his pool--at which point all of us w/ pending orders will know we're [censored]ed...

Hi

Looking for a PAM cyclops for an upgrade.

Does anyone have one that was specially made a while back??

Please let me know

Thanks

Joe

I can probably steer you in the right direction, please shoot me a PM to remind me.

FM LI crazy hours

That's the "great bargain" watch I was talking about in the other thread (with the correct blue hands on the white dial) I have it w/ black dial (w/ a better-than-oem-quality HM-Watchband strap and a "WG" plate job from Artisan--total investment $350) and not only is it still going strong after more than 2 years, but still gets the most positive comments of any watch I own.

you have to be 80 years old to wear that one...and there are not a lot of 80 years old people around here...

LOL! Maybe so, but then again, I've never seen anyone in real life under 60 wearing any vintage rolex, including the DSRD's etc so popular around here. I say if it's a great deal and a great watch, but it and don't think twice.

Sadly some of us have to wear dress watches to go w/ the clown suit...18k muller on OEM Patek brown croc...

What are the problems, specifically w/ this movement? An antique store near me has one of these for almost free....I was thinking about picking one up, but not if it's going to cost me the price of a real 240 to make it work...

If there is such a thing as 200 steel, I'd love to meet the guy who can eyeball the difference, especially not side by side. IMO, the whole 319, 419, 220 hut hut hike business is a bunch of hooey.

Also, I'd rather the orange dial not be PVD's--since it saves a tep. Rep PVD's need to be redpne...just part of the cost of doing business.

Some rare values worth seeking out:

Paul Picot Le Plongeur--very accurate and $110 the last time I saw it offered. Wish they made it in swiss...

Franck Muller Long Island Crazy Hours-- You'll have to make sure the hands match the color of the case (rhodium for SS, rose gold for rose gold, etc) for non-white dial versions, and that you're getting the "thrid generation" movement, but this one is an unusual and accurate piece for less than $120. The most accurate version of this watch is the 1200 Crazy Color Dreams, which has a correctly marked back and reps the only version of the Crazy Hours series Muller makes in steel. This one should have blue hands on all dial variations.

VC Patrimony--Usually around 80 bucks from TTK. I've never owned one, but I remember a review in which the owner said the dial was unbelievably good and that the dimensions were spot on. Sure, 80 bucks for a quartz movement is a debatable value, but the handwind gen is no value either--13k for not alot of gold.

There you go: 30 grand "worth" of watches for 300 bucks.

hello where i can found The Zigmeister ???

i sent to The Zigmeister email but no answer why?

Dude, I tried to warn you when you were pestering me about the cyclopses--if you keep acting like a 13 year old you'll be stuck with gens....

I just don't get the problem with either the "standard" rep dials or Davidsen's. Having done a buch of Photoshop and Illustrator work recently I can tell you fixing the font on Davidsen's dials and the "A's" on everybody else's is a 30 second job. I can only assume we're talking about intentional flaws, although I sure hope it's just that whoever is printing rep dials is not as anal as we are....yet.

It all depends on price. I have nothing against ETA movements, but f*** if I'm giving someone like Franck Muller 8 grand for a SS watch powered by a stock 7750. I'm also not going to give Vacheron 10 grand for the manufacture chronograph movement they put in the SS overseas. But, if I can get a manufacture movement for the same price as an ETA, I'll take the manufacture if only because they're more likely to indicate hand craftsmanship, which is what high end watches are all about, IMO. I happily gave JLC 4 grand for my Master Hometime 'cause when you look at what other manufacturers are getting for comparable design, craftsmanship, complications, and name recognition the JLC is an unbelievable bargain--a hand crafted, complicated, beautifully finished dress watch for nearly a grand less than a 3-hand, mass produced, Sub.

Bezel wasn't "Sourced"...It came with the Watch...

One of our dealers had a limited supply of them back at the beginning of the year...

No longer available...

The only items I'm changing are the Strap and the Buckle...

TT

Curious: is there a reason why you won't tell us which dealer? Not reccomended? Since it came out of a rep factory, you may want to read post #5 in the "18k gold "thread.

Kudos to Andrew for the explanation....and even if they came out w/ a solid 14k watch, why would anyone buy it? It would look less accurate than an 18k plated version and still not be heavy enough.

If you're going to buy a gold watch you can't expect any deals--they pay the same for gold in China as they do anywhere else, and gold ain't cheap these days. an 18k piece may be slightly cheaper than one made in the west because of labor costs, but since materials account for 90% of the cost of an 18k piece anyway, you wouldn't see a huge difference in the cost of a solid TT chinese rep and one you can make yourself using quality aftermarket 18k parts from a trusted ebay dealer.

Do a search there are at least a couple dealers of solid 18k aftermarket rolex parts that people talk about around here--I've never used any o f them (and can't remember their names) so I can't vouch personally.

I'm on a business trip right now and i brought 3 watches with me, my 2 gen TAGs and a rep Breitling Bentley. I"m sitting here bored out of my mind in my hotel room and i was wondering how many of you bring mulitlple watches when you travel?

I travel about once a week--usually w/ two watches: one gold, one silver, both of which can hopefully be worn with the business suit and whatever casual clothes I bring. Last week they were a rep TT TOG and the gen JLC Master Hometime.

I didn't know their slogan was "Where ideas come to life".

Good to know...

Ads in top magazines all over the world--wonder what that adds to the price of each watch.

The fit and finish doesn't look up to the level of the non-chrono santos 100, especially on the pushers and dial....looks like they got the crown right, though, which means we MAY see a non-chrono version w/ the right crown.

I have had good luck with professional replating. In the past, I have used Artisan Plating and it has been perfect. The bad news is that they have not responded to email in a long time.

Regards.

My exact experience all around.

Not the pam177.....I am trying to figure out which titanium 6497 pam with second hand and non-sandwich dial is?...........I am pretty sure its not a current production model but im not sure......pam???......thanks for your help.....wan

Just curious...is someone making a rep of a solid back, Ti PAM aside from the subs?

Here's one from this afternoon. All gens. Life's good

All gens? [censored]. You think we can't see that the "Pure Single Malt" font is all wrong and the "21" is at least half a mm too low in relation to "aged" and "years?" Aslo, untill you have the shoulder of the bottle milled to the coprrect shape, you're not going to fool anyone.

Thanks Kenberg. I am known for my tell it like I see it way, but is is never personal and I never try to aim a "kick" at anyone. I realize when you tell it like you see it you are not always right and I hope I don't come across as going after anyone specific. It's just my opinion.

Overall, I have really enjoyed these boards - It's just that some time when I come on I feel like I am listening to a bunch of hens cackling!!!

Aside from the fact following facts which are not in dispute, I am VERY happy with RBJ.

1)He implemented a system of holding watches for months without working on them and then charging $25 for $4's worth of return shipping. His excuse was that he was sick, yet a record of his ebay transactions shows steady the buying, working on, and selling of other products.

2)He botched at least one watch and then had the gall to charge his customer(s) $600.

3)He has always used either shills or alteregos to promote himself. I do not think the OP is RBJ himself seing as his post is more or less coherent, but rather yet another of the first time posters who regularly use their first posts on RWG to say how great Joe is.