cdzsmith

Maybe we'd have to worry about someone who lived in the smoke-filled, stiflingly-hot California central valley skipping town. Probably not so much concern about someone living on an island paradise...

I, too, am afflicted by ignorance. But, millions DO die each year from malaria - about 1 million per year, mostly children, due in large part (perhaps entirely) to the bad publicity garnered from the book "Silent Spring". In the early 1960s, malaria was nearly wiped out; once the use of DDT was discontinued, it came back, and DDT-substitutes have had not had the same success. The head of the World Health Organization's antimalaria campaign is now asking environmentalists to reverse course on DDT use: "We are asking these environmental groups to join the fight to save the lives of babies in Africa," Kochi said. "This is our call to them." I saw what happened to California; the legislators and economists apparently didn't take into account how people would act with millions (billions - 8 of them to be precise) of dollars on the table for the taking. It's happening in ERCOT - the Texas electric grid - right now (wait, I thought the Texas companies were the ones responsible for screwing California, now they're shittin' on their own doorstep?). $150 oil means $5 (or higher?) gasoline. $12.5+ natural gas prices = $0.10 + energy per kWh. This is our new reality. Maybe we'll back off our consumption, but unless we make meaningful changes in the way we develop and use energy (ie, build nuclear generating plants, wind doesn't blow during the hot, still, peak hours) get ready not only for crazy gasoline prices, but way higher utility bills.

Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

NOT that there's anything wrong with that....

Yup, wife sees this, she'll think I'm a fag for sure....

Darned magnification makes those flaws hard to hide...

Stickers on mine.... and they were falling off.

I just checked my Cousteau, and the light reflections do show up as 2 images, but both have the blue tint, due to the 2x AR, I believe. Another issue that I haven't heard discussed - the chrono sweep hand on my Aquatimer has a definite stutter, very noticeable as it hits the 60 sec mark. As the sweep second hand approaches the 12:00 position, and the chrono minute subdial begins to increment, the sweep hand shudders, stalls, or jumps noticeably. Even my Omega SMP chrono, with it's problem-plagued movement doesn't do this...

Mine really looks single coated - if you look at a reflection of a light in the crystal, you see 2 reflections, one white reflection, and one with a blue tint. I could be wrong, but if it were 2x ar, wouldn't there be a single, blue-tinted, reflection, as seen on the Ultimate BCE, HBB, or Cousteau? This one looks just like the original, non-ultimate, BCE, and definitely could use an upgrade.

It's almost like the factories build a "tell" in every watch they make....

Thanks. Not mine

Did you notice that the chrono sweep second hand "stutters", much like the Chopard Mille Miglia?

QUOTE(cdzsmith @ Nov 26 2007, 11:58 PM) * The Aquatimer is on the winder, and the Cousteau is on the wrist... guess that says it all. Better size, lume, AR (ar, a/r?). I should not have said that. I apologize for the thread crap. It's mostly the size. Being used to the 44mm size dials, it turned out to be harder than I'd thought to get used to a 42mm. My Cousteau inner bezel worked fine, no dust issues, and the numbers are mis-aligned, but you really have to look close to notice.

The Aquatimer is on the winder, and the Cousteau is on the wrist... guess that says it all. Better size, lume, AR (ar, a/r?).

Here's another one. No gross problems like the hands falling off (sorry lanikai , but it's definitely single-sided AR (like the original BCE), and the markers at the 12 could be better aligned, the font kind of sucks, and the lume isn't as good as the Cousteau... That said, the inner bezel lines up nicely. I'll defer to the experts as to the finer points, but it is a nice watch.

Yes, the spring bars should be straight - not sure about the rolex, but as Pug says, the SFSO uses the standard (straight) 22mm spring bar. You're right, if yours look like your drawing, they were damaged somehow. I wouldn't wear the watch until after replacing them.