oswald

Marco sent me a PM about "wabiing" my fiddy so I figured I'd lay it out as a regular topic. First of all I'm no watch guru, I just sort of fumble around with them but I really enjoy it!. My hats off to the true masters of wabi but I guess they started somewhere. For the case, I just stripped it down to nothing and rattled it around in a bucket of bolts for a while after duct taping the threaded parts and the counterbore where the crystal goes. After that I wire brushed it with an 8" brush on a bench grinder. This pic is one of my first tries at making a plexi crystal which ended up looking a lot like a rolex tropic so I remachined it and gave it some more dome plus yellowed the inside with a highlighter.(Thanks Enzo!) Turning the 127 into a destro involved carefully clipping the second hand stud off, grinding the dial feet off and flipping the dial around. I plugged the seconds lume cutouts with some epoxy. (You can still see the outline of them in the pic but it's not that noticable in person, plus the dial is sort of artifically pitted.) The hands were done with some varnish and stain and the dial was painted with flat black and daubed with a brush before dry. Here's the "almost done" pic: I plan on removing the foil from the movement plates, deblueing the screws and making a sort of yellowed bubble back for it as well as machining the engravings off the case back. It started off with the cheapest cn mov't fiddy you can get. Sometimes you can have fun for cheap if you just want an old looking sanitized fantasy war watch. I've been dreaming about building a nice MM destro with the molnija "rolex" movement and I may try it out now. Oh yea, the strap is a BOB sportivo that I distressed. The cuts in the leather are from an underwater commando knife fight

Here's one I've been fooling with: It started out as a cheap CN fiddy and I fooled around with it a bit and made it a vintage base destro. The only weird thing was making the plexi crystal for it because the original just exploded on me I still need to go into it because the dial is rotated slightly to the left. As for movements, I'd go with one of the molinja mov'ts in a MM rep. They already have ROLEX engraved and only a PAM or Rolex freak could tell the difference especially if you deblued the screws. Look at Joshs site, he has a few for below $200. I'll post some pics of the strap when I put another 40 years on it

Got it. I ended up cutting a small piece from the o-ring and pressing it back into the bezel. I lubed it up with some silicone and it now turns great with just the right amount of resistance. Rep or not, the TW best is a great bezel retaining system design.

Thanks for the advice but it gets really tight with the rubber o ring installed and it turns freely with it out. I may re-install the rubber and fool with it some more.

I have a TW best sub that the bezel is really tight. I took out the rubber O-ring and it now turns a lot better but it's kind of loose. Any suggestions on findina a middle ground? I'd prefer to have the O-ring back in.

I am ashamed... I will perform ceremonial disembowelment to redeem myself...

PENIRAI??

Here's my "new old" watch. Like Nanuq said, it's best to go in steps. Age it, wear it, age it, wear it, etc... My first attempts just looked like really scratched up watches. In real life it's more of a polishing and rounding off of sharp edges that occurs. Whatever you do just have fun with it

Here's a lume shot: You can really see all the groovy scratches in the crystal Glows all night thanks to The Zigmeister

The Zigmeister did a relume on this one. When I got it it had NO lume at all. I think the markers were just painted on. It may not be the greatest rep but it's one of my faves The case has been vintagized, most of it natural... I'm doing a remodel on a rental and wore it while stripping the old shingles

I was working in my shop today on my old Kondia k-70 CNC VM and was thinking of you.

The little "lugs" that go around the regulator sword have lifted up. No I wouldn't want CA fumes floating around inside my watch That's why I was thinking about removing the foil. Maybe someday I'll learn to service my own mov'ts and may try some engine turning on watch plates. I've done some on other stuff and it turned out pretty good although nothing as small as a watch mov't... Funny, Côtes de Genève is something I try to avoid with my machining projects I had always heard it referred to as "machining marks" until I got into watches

Some of the PANERAIPANERAIPANERAI foil is coming loose on my CN fiddy and I'm scared part of it will get hung in the works. Anyone have pics of a mov't without it? Thanks!

Yep, I took a second look I was hoping for something interesting... Just took a second look at the site. Looks like a decent watch at a fair price.

Looks like a micro-rotor mov't...

Does anyone sell a 47mm Radiomir rep?

http://perfect-clones.com/product_info.php...products_id=730 I love the dome on my 127 but I don't care much for the 9 0'clock seconds and the text on the dial. "Marina Militare" just sounds tough. This one would be perfect with a thick-ass plexi crystal... I'm not that into the perfect rep, I just like what I like. Any input on this one? I was thinking about some heavy vintagization.

I'd like to see some pics of the tea technique!

I know Martin Sheen wore a Seiko but what was Colonel Kurtz wearing? You could see it in a few scenes but I couldn't make it out.

Man, that's a shame Really sorry to hear that. Maybe you can find the spring?

Seiko diver. I'd probably get him a quartz. It'll last for years.

I don't think it even wrapped all the way around. It just needs to keep enough tension on the pawl to keep the mainspring from unwinding.

Ian must be looking for that screw he dropped...

Ditto Well, not my only one, just my favorite...

Just remove the screw circled. Once you get it out remove the pawl with some tweezers and you can see how the sprimg fits. I had to bend my spring a little with some tweezers and hemostats. I'm not a watchmaker but I did fix the same problem with mine... It'll give you a lot of respect for the guys who really know how to do this kind of stuff!