HauteHippie

Any "before" pics?

Some advice: RUN.

Nice dood. Enjoy.

Coating the uneven surface is a non-issue. But there is a *potential* issue in that the glue used to attach the cyclops may pop in the vacuum chamber during the coating process. I would like to hear from Finepics on this one and see what his experiences have been.

Once we get into removing the crappy rep coats and reapplying I think the demand will be there. The main issue is that most people don't want to remove crystals and that's probably what is preventing cheap mods like good magnifiers and good AR coating from really catching on. Even if we only do a few runs, that's fine. I have a handful of crystals that need to be taken care of.

There is going to have to be a labelling requirement in place with the company - i.e. I will organize the lot with numbers (say from 1 to 50), and they will return the lot numbered the same way. Otherwise, as lovepanerai pointed out, I will have to measure each one which I'm afraid to do because I don't want to be handling the coated crystals bare. There is some money built in for my time, but the main benefit to me is getting my own crystals coated at very low cost!

FYI, I have been working with a few USA-based AR coating companies who deal with watch crystals to define specs and pricing for our crystals, and should soon be able to help provide this service for interested parties in the USA. I will not offer this for UK/European members as Finepics has that covered already. Here are some of the preliminary details : Coating color: Neutral with a very slight greenish tint (blue may be available alternatively) Coating type: Visible light, multi-layer AR Reflectance: < 1% on the coated surface (one side coated only) Turn around time: 2-3 weeks This is not a one off service. Multiple crystals must be collected and submitted at once to get reasonable pricing. Pricing preliminarily looks to be as follows: 25 crystals - $60 USD per crystal 50 crystals - $30 USD per crystal The maximum size of a single run is actually 75, but I'm not sure I want to work with more than 50 at a time and the pricing wouldn't improve much anyhow. This pricing is for crystals that do NOT already have an AR coat applied. For crystals that have AR already and need it stripped prior to application of a new coat, an entirely different pricing structure would apply - that service would come later. OK, now, here is my attempt at photographing the AR coat sample. There are some variables here. First off the round crystal is an uncoated submariner sapphire crystal. The square glass is non-sapphire and coated with the bluish/puplish AR film. So the two substrates have different refraction indicies, but I think it's close enough to see what we're dealing with. Also let me state that the AR coating does not provide a lot of assistance with direct light sources. It does do a good job with ambient reflections. I can't look at the AR coated piece and see the other side of the room in it, like I can in my uncoated watch crystals for example. On to the pics... In this picture you can see the very subtle tint on the AR piece. You can also see that major glare will never be eliminated, but it is subdued somewhat compared to the non-coated crystal: Now, in this picture you can see that regular ambient glare is reflected off the uncoated crystal but not off the coated one: And here is another glare comparison between coated and uncoated.

Very different and thus cool!!!

Ingy in a heartbeat - that is assuming you get one with an unbroken bracelet and unchipped bezel ring.

LOL Tribal!!! And here I thought you needed another sub like you needed another hole in the head!

Yea, there is definitely variance from watch to watch. The cheaper Rolexes, like Noobs for example, definitely pop out with your thumb. Reseating is a different matter. There was a nice post showing a bench vice being used (with alot of padding) to reseat a crystal. And I'm sure that'd work just fine.

You probably actually need a sub insert.

Atta boy!! I love it. We need to get a beer sometime!

I thought Neil played double bass?? Am I getting senile already?

The eagle has landed.

There are tutorials on RWG for this. The Zigmeister certainly covers it, and the Edge guide does too. Usually they'll pop out with your thumb.

He doesn't have an AR lab anymore. He replied to my inquiry just the other day.

Here's a TW Best Classic 16610 I just acquired. This is the TW Best that was sold about 2 years ago and has long since been discontinued. I bought it used, and there are a few nicks and dings that add character. It will undergo the usual mods (dial and date wheel swap, gen insert, gen crown and tube, spring bars, etc) and then will be quite a watch - perhaps my most prized rep thus far. Here are a couple quick and dirty (pardon finger prints) pics : Take a look at the rehaut, folks. Deeeeep, and *YES* this is 1:1 with the gen (in a side by side comparison). Once you've seen it, you never forget it: Centered undrilled lugholes (no rebiasing to worry about), and nice thick crystal reveal that will mate nicely with the gen insert:

Pug, it is in the mail.

lovepanerai, that does help. But at this time I haven't seen quite enough interest to proceed with the project. So, here's a shameless Monday bump.

Tempting!!

I have a Noobmariner O-ring you can have. PM me. Edit: Looks like Ubi already came through.

Just curious... is C3 the "correct" lume for a 27a/28a ?

Great watch!!! Congrats indeed.

Perhaps this has been covered, but I've been out of town, haven't been reading the board for a few days, and didn't find the answer in search... My RWI login is no longer working. I've only ever made a handful of posts over there, have never gotten into any spats or made controversial posts in any way. So I can't believe I would have been banned. I usually just browse the forums from time to time but am now unable to do so. What's up?