Victoria

So, suddenly out of the blue I'm developing a rash on the underside of my wrist whenever I wear leather around my wrist. The effected area becomes itchy, red, and even slightly swollen by day's end.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Wrist-Check. I have lately developed an itchy, scaly rash on the underside of my wrist. I would have my dad check it out, but I don't wish to add to his burdens -- I'm self-medicating with Benadryl cream just for the itch alone.

For me, BTW, it happens with both leather and SS.

However, since I have recently suffered that famous bout of lotion rash, I was guessing it was related to that. Now, I believe that the affected areas are due to my wearing my straps MUCH too tightly.

Wonder if that's your problem too?

Get better, Chieftang. It's no fun not being able to wear one's watch comfortably.

I tried to do a search for this, but ended up with a big nada. Can someone tell me what it means that I have yellow star next to my name. When I click on it it says "Terje has lots of pretty gold stars" or something like that. I mean, seriously I`m not even sure if it`s gold plated or gold wrapped stars?

Just for this, I'm giving you an artistic. Suffer.

Such an easy question. Why the 217 of course!

I love his 112. I love his Fiddy. It just happens those are the only DSN watches I own.

(My next, the 232, perhaps)

Bump. Though Europeans are asleep and North Americans are watching Game 4 of the World Series.

Come on Aussies and Kiwis!

You've not worked in many European cities then. Practically no-one drives.

New York too. People are born live and die without ever getting a driving license. Let's at least hope you know how to drive.

I would have to say that Britain is an automobile-friendly nation, that is, its imagination is captured by the car. As are many European countries, whether or not their populace is able to afford a car. But this is neither here nor there to your predicament.

Hmm.

Now let's see...what watch would look best with you riding to work on the first day on a bicycle. Still think it's the UPO. It's a little more butch given the lack of wheels.

Wow, someone has a problem methinks

So which is it then, met him or heard of him? If former, maybe he just took an instant dislike to you? It IS possible you know.

Want to know? Okay here goes. Had dinner with members of the Brazil National Team when they came for a tournament at the Orange Bowl (they were staying at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables. We were amongst about a dozen people asked to the dinner; another guest was Emerson Fittipaldi, as an aside). Reason being is that my father is close friends with the long-time Brazil physiotherapist/doctor, whom he's known since the 1960s.

My father may be the only one outside of the Brazil XI in WC 1998 that knows what really went on with the "Ronaldo" thing, since it involved his buddy in a key role, and if I can't get it out of him, no one can. OTOH, if he told one person, the doc might've told others but each person swore a pact not to reveal what really happened.

You asked.

Ask me about the Paraguay team, the Argentina team, the Japan team, and I couldn't tell you squat about them. But about the Brazil National Side, gang way.

Frankly I don't care either way, as I don't buy it. I can name you a hundred more unsavoury characters in the game, and Roberto Carlos would not even be close to them.

BTW, he's one of the least liked teammates in the side. Juninho Paulista (long considered the most easy-going of the guys on that team, other than Ronaldo if you can believe that) and he loathe each other.

Overrated, vain, arrogant, narcissistic? If he managed that next to Beckham, he deserves a medal

Beckham is a powderpuff, who has limited brains to go with ripped abs. By all accounts, though, he's a really down-to-earth chap, ready with a smile.

That doesn't make his narcissicism any the less annoying, but actually, it raises him in my eyes since instead of intellectualising his attraction to other people, he comprehended it instinctively. And cashed on it big time.

Good for him. Loved the way he went from goat to hero after WC 1998, so I don't hold his stardom against him.

Rivaldo? Pfff, a despicable cheat. Explain that one away.

You won't get an argument out of me. Strange, I know, but true.

Breasts with buttons! What do you reckon the cup size is?

I'm just worried if I change the station, it'll look like a Girls Gone Wild video.

I do not know what what would make you detest a footballer like Carlos. I must admit I do not know much about the man outside his footballing abilities, but I have always thought of him as a smiling and fair playing guy.

BTW, Carlos for Roberto Carlos is one of my personal DEEPEST pet peeves.

It's like, to use a Norwegian analogy, calling Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer, "Gunnar"...

Again, due to my father's Brazil team obsession, and my having lived in Brazil, I have followed his career from the Brazilian media not the fawning writings of Marca from Spain, or the favourable impression given him by British media.

Everyone who has ever seen him play in the WC qualifiers for Brazil knows he's an "expertinho" (loosely, a wiseguy who pretends one thing, but in reality is dirty).

The last sight Brazilians have of him is his infamous "Mei

Hmmm, I agree that free kick made his reputation, one he he lived off for ever more. But "detest"???

Footbalisticamente, I hasten to add.

As if the Real Madrid thing wasn't enough, he's also what they call in Brazilian Portuguese, "mascarado" = beyond stuck-up.

Carlos totally redefined the position of LB, with his marauding attacking runs. A breath of fresh air, despite the purists' sneers about lack of defensive cover. He also served Real through the good times and the bad (11 years!), and by all accounts was a very decent guy, never playing up his Galactico status always making time for junior players and staff. I actually felt sorry for him that the Beckham leaving circus overshadowed his own departure last June.

You heard wrongly about him. He's amongst the most unsavoury, unusual Brazilians I've personally ever met, or ever heard of.

I could understand Rivaldo's lack of friendliness, because it was in part due to his embarrassment of having false teeth having had his fall out due to malnourishment as a kid, but Roberto Carlos is vain, and arrogant to the point of narcissicism. Blech.

Agree in theory with your analysis of his position at RM though. But in practise, he often left gaping holes which others had to fill, often unsuccessfully.

I think the British media liked him and gave him good press because the England team have long had a wet dream of a left-back such as himself. We have no one in that position who is really effective...not Ashley Cole, not Wayne Bridge, not Gareth Barry (heh) could match the dynamism of a player like Roberto Carlos.

By the way, I voted for Maximilian's Ingy.

Eagle and Maxi for me. But loved Ola's pic, as well as Pix'! The latter was seasonal, the former sensual.

Only azgjav's photo was too avant-garde for me. I'm such a yahoo.

I'm out the door, guys. Good luck to the winner!! Thanks to all who participated (thought I had, but I didn't make the final cut, boo).

Don't you have a wrist check to take on the freeway? Down a bottle of jack before you start out, you'll be doing the world a favor

TEEJAY........no. Ignore. Don't wish someone death using alcohol which could take out even more innocent lives. ((

This is a rep watch forum people, come on, there's no room for hatred here. Just dissent...

Which rep do you think is the best out of the box rep? Just curious to know people's thoughts on this topic.

Since inaccuracy is not a criteria, I would echo Xyphis by saying that the USD98 FM Crazy Hours is a fantastic rep, which is not TOO inaccurate at that.

I will stick to the ones I have, because I've never seen the HBB in ceramic or even the ETA SFSO.

The Gucci Twirl (especially in SS), the Cartier Panthere in YG, and Cartier La Do

I don't know if this has been posted yet.. and I frankly don't care.. It's worth watching again and again.

The famous Roberto Carlos bender!

(One of the few reasons why he was so highly rated, in fact, overrated, IMHO. I detest RC)

Do you know, Apey, that this famous goal so mesmerised the French imagination that they actually analysed it and came out with an university study of its dynamics -- trajectory, etc.?

That's respect.

But France needn't worry. They have owned Brazil since the mid-80s...

As previously mentioned, not all Muslim Communities have that freedom of speech, and, a major contributing factor to Bin Laden's 'jihad' is economical and political, not religious, he just uses religion to manipulate weak-minded and impressionable people into following him. Of course, I wouldn't expect people unfamiliar with Islam to appreciate that.

I don't think so. I think the majority of people in the West are well aware of the political limitations of the Middle East, and have done so for centuries. This is precisely why when the Ottoman Empire collapsed, having backed the wrong horse in WWI, Western countries intervened, leading us to the path we are in now.

There is no ignorance here, politically. Religiously, yes. But it goes both ways, I might add. How much of our ways are truly understood by those in the Middle East, without conspiracy theories?

I can also make the point that political oppression, divisive religious leaders and grinding poverty for centuries have never made South Americans drive jet planes into US buildings.

There is something going on, and people are looking for that variable which makes it different. I don't think I need go on.

Anyway, as Pugwash said, this is the internet. People will take an innocuous thread about the Middle East, and someone will bulldoze their views onto it. It's something we have to live with, but since we can choose to make a point and walk away, that's what I am choosing now.

Hope my intent has been understood.

V-

No I don't post on risti. I am not a member there but I enjoy reading occasional factual posts and have bought there. IMHO, the truth with gens is that you buy them and then you own them. Nice to wear occasionally but I prefer to wear reps which have love and sweat put into them.

That's cool.

The majority of watch owners, however, are not modders and they will live and die without ever having peered inside the caseback of their watches. That's also true of people who own cars, although they stand a better chance of actually popping the bonnet/hood every once in a while!

IMHO, this attitude is not exactly wrong. Like many things, it's limited. Incurious. But not wrong.

Stuff looks good. People like stuff. Why complicate things, they think.

There are certain events, functions or trips where I only bring a gen but those are very rare. Reps are my true love when it comes to horology. Just wish I could convince the wife.

BTW, big turn off when men under the age of 89 speak of "the wife".

It makes you sound like Frank Sinatra, and frankly, Kruzer, I've heard you sing. You suck.

P.S.: You're lucky she's not a fellow WIS. Can you imagine such a watchloving couple's pillow talk?

"Ooh, the things you can do with that Selita movement.

(groan, mumbles something about Seagulls and ETA)

Sock it to me!"

Нет и ни является она.

Nyet. I ni yavlyaetsya ona.

Sorry, didn't get anything after the "No, I am not" bit.

EDIT: Drat. According to an Online translator, it says, "And it is". Don't leave us hangin'!

If you seriously think that the fanatic scum who carried out those attacks represent the vast majority of Muslims, or are acting in a way consistent with Islam, then frankly, you are an ignorant, bigoted fool.

Unfortunately, there is such a thing as jihad in Islam, and it is invoked in the name of Allah, Mohammed (PBUH) and Muslims.

If the Pope himself, whom I revere, were to tell me that as a Roman Catholic it is now my duty to kill Muslims/infidels/unbelievers, I would spit in his eye, and ask for his immediate resignation. As would millions of other Roman Catholics.

The few who would take up his call to arms based on religious invocations only, would be ostracised in Western society as lunatics, and tried in their criminal courts of laws rightfully as murderers.

That simply doesn't happen in Islam, and that, to take the Devil's Advocacy point in Hambone's stupid remark, was his point.

As I said, lads, this topic can be discussed ad nauseum. No, it's not really about politics. It's about behaviour. So let's worship when we have to, and keep our counsel when we must.

Why dont you play it safe for the first couple of days and not wear any watch. This way you can scout out what everyone else is wearing and choose a watch from your collection that fits in. You never know....maybe their wearing the kinda stuff you like.

I was ABOUT to reply that that's a great suggestion. It normally would be.

But it's better that Pugwash serves notice that he's a WIS, and they get used to his watches from Day 1.

Thx V...mine's a gen too

Ahh. I remember you commenting about checking "one" of your gens!

....and that MP strap is nearly identical in color to the MP PAV strap...I had it and sold it as it was almost identical. I love it and highly recommend its addition to your strap collection.

You mean, the PAV 99? Got it.

Have the:

PAV 90

PAV 91 (x2)

PAV 98

PAV 99

My favourites.

Wish I could find/afford the real PAV strap....

Which reminds me! Did you see this on Risti? (The guy is a very nice person, BTW).

People teased him that he had a programme which automatically informed him when a gen PAV was posted on the Accessories Forum.

hxxp://www.network54.com/Forum/353391/thread/1193441684/90+%2B+91+%2B+93+%2B+98+%2B+99+-+Perfect+family (change xx to tt)

L to R: PAV 90, PAV 91, PAV 93, PAV 98, PAV 99

That's even more than V's collection, which is saying something!

Daddy Likey

Seems you have a good eye for a bargain, WB.

As my search string, Omega Seamaster Quartz, these results popped up:

http://search.ebay.com/omega-seamaster-qua...dZm37QQfromZR40

Only the (icky) white dial SMP came up costing less than yours. Just make sure you don't buy the ladies' version.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-OMEGA-SEAMASTER-30...1QQcmdZViewItem

The dial matches my pearls... why would I switch?

Cristiano Ronaldo, is that you??

(Gah, I even have that Louis Vuitton handbag. Ptui! I may have to burn it now)

Hi, welcome to the internet where people don't believe we landed on the moon.

Not on RWG though...everyone here seemed so sane and logical, what with buying rep watches instead of doshing out thousands of dollars for one.

Ah well.

Much like the Panerai 187, sometimes you need something brutal to put on your wrist. The Graham fits the bill.

Good answer. That begins to change my mind about the mindset of those who fancy the Grahams. I still find the watch I posted absolutely vile, though.

I collect vintage radios, and it reminds me of one known in the antiques trade as the Mae West.

ps. All those who hate it will suddenly flip to loving it one day. It's odd. Me? I like some of them rather a lot, but think the ones with L and R on them remind me of kids' wellies or mittens with LEFT and RIGHT written on them.

Using the logic explained in this thread, about why one should like it, there is only one reply:

Function, my dear Pugwash, function. Like a petrol gauge that tells you whether it's F or E.

Not that what you wrote wasn't .

It's not a watch...it's an owl!

If it moved, it would be in ajoesmith's avatar.

LOL!!

@Chubbchubb: Nice to see you around!

V -- I like this one, too. I had something similar awhile back, but it kept terrible time. And banging it, repeatedly, on the sides of Russian T-54 & T-55 tanks did little to improve matters.

Hmmmm. Or should I Russianise that, Gmmmm.

Works in Washington...had armoured Russian vehicles at his disposition...wore a Poljot...Freddy, you are really Valerie Plame, aren't you!

@Tech: Great shot. My fave so far, and that MP Hommage certainly has a certain resemblence to the PAV99.

@Kru: Do you ever sneak a gen pic on the Wristies? I like your choice for today!