HauteHippie

Yea, me too... This is a neat looking piece! I will take this caseback over the horrendous attempt at the wooden inlay.... any day.

Awesome. The pro2 really does the trick.... in fact, those pics are inspiring me to get up the nerve to wear a Pro2 on my wrist! Looks great, Dave... Enjoy Mexico.

I'm giving myself a three day weekend starting tomorrow so I can spend lots of time in the wood shop (my other hobby)... although I don't like to wear watches in there. However, today, I enjoyed wearing this:

The blogs at lewrockwell.com are a good place to start (there is some really goofy stuff in it, but economic discussion is pretty good and will lead you elsewhere). Also, check out any articles by and/or interviews with Jim Rogers. A nice clip of Ron Paul in the LR blog today: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/024370.html Too bad there aren't 400 Ron Paul's in the House.

Mark to market was suspended already. That came with the bailout. So... been there done that. It "had" to be done, otherwise the bailout of the banks would have bankrupted them. Of course, it's totally ludicrous because mark to market is essential for the financial firms to be able to forsee shortfalls in order to raise capital in advance and remain solvent. The suspension of mark to market indefinitely is only setting them up for future failures and is really solving nothing. WHEN (not if) this whole thing blows up, Bernanke and Paulson need to be led away in cuffs.

Get a solid answer from the Chinese as to when they will sell of their Treasuries.

Here are a few IMO major stories that have largely gone unreported.... 1. http://www.safehaven.com/article-12012.htm - For the first time in history, last week the gold basis went negative. In English: anyone holding physical metal could make free money by selling the metal and buying the futures. And, interestingly, they are sufficiently nervous about getting delivery on the futures that they are choosing to stay put! 2. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...sI&refer=us - The Federal Reserve is toying with the idea of issuing its own bonds. This, of course, has never been the case as it is the Treasury's job and really makes no sense to me at all. Any ideas??? They don't seem to say why or what for and I certainly can't think of a good reason. The Fed has been talking about buying up Treasuries. So what the heck? Lots of strange stuff out there.

Well, yes and no.... Yes, the cure is indeed to do nothing. (And government intervention prolonged the great depression, BTW). But right now, realistically, it's probably more like a decade or two of some real pain vs. hyper INflation and a collapse of the dollar. We need a major recession/depression in which the service sector sees massive layoffs and a movement in to new jobs that are then created in production. The bottom line is that we need to start producing again.... and saving. That's what our GDP should be based on; not consumption. But, instead, the government is trying to create inflation... desperately. They think the economy is some sort of old car that can be jump started with stimulus packages, etc. Stimulus can be beneficial to get a sound but sluggish economy moving... Stimulus is worthless though when you don't have a sound economy in the first place, which we don't, and only serves to delay the inevitable. So right now, we need stimulus like we need a hole in the head. On the other hand, doing nothing and allowing the market to function will bring prices down. The market, for example, is trying to bring home prices down. That is its answer to home affordability. But the government is resisting fiercely. They have trained us to believe that deflation is bad. And, what we're seeing right now is a normal deflationary bust after the bursting of a major financial bubble. So of course they won't allow deflation because they created the speculative imbalances in the first place, and now must act in order to "cure" us of their aftermath. And so what lies ahead, if we stay on course, is nothing of the deflationary sort....

Looks great. And I'll tell you, there's nothing like giving something unique like this as a gift. At thanksgiving I presented my brother with a franken/gen Datejust that was a long time in the making, and he could not have been more thrilled. I'm sure your father in law will be moved beyond words.

45.5mm? It looks like Cousins doesn't have 42mm PO parts. You can find what you're looking for by entering the case number 168.1650, and then selecting part type (dial, etc).... for the 45.5mm model. For example, searching for the dial for that case, I get: Omega 064WK3170001 Black Dial X20376

LOL "inspiring and teaching more people to grow some of their own food" Sorry, but self-reliance is not a liberal value.

Hummmmmm..... it's a darn good rep, at least..... My only real question with it is the dial due to the A in PANERAI however the pics aren't really clear, and even the 6 o'clock marker is dead on. And the hands are extremely good... better than rep hands or DSN hands. I've never seen those hands on a rep. Daylight, without Luminor, on the case back isn't a problem..... have seen gens like that. Edge view of the bezel looks good. Crown looks good. DW looks great. Hummmmm, what other flaws am I missing? I'd say it's better than my old case 7753 196 (below)...

Pot, meet kettle? That's what I thought.

Remind us, mil_sub, from which corruption-free part of the world do you hail?

Well, I really can't say I share the observation nor the concern... I always take a "thanks" to be implied, and frankly a "thanks" response to every response would be far too much PM traffic anyhow. Edit: And now that I think about it some more, I'd say 95%+ of the PMs I receive include a "thanks in advance" or a "thanks for you help" in the original inquiry.

Phenominal work as usual, R.... Love the custom pin.

Wow, looks fanastic, Rob! What was the starting point for the case? Did you redo the rep PVD case, or start with a new case altogether?

She's a looker! I love how the franken 2008 stick marker SAs have appeared well before the rep stick marker dials too.

Initially, my thoughts as well.... But it's gen.

Congrats!! I know the feeling.... Now enjoy months of sleepless nights.

Has anyone compared the red color on the chrono seconds hands for the rep SA V1 vs. V2 vs. Gen (preferably in the flesh)? If so, what were your conclusions? Thanks!

Very cool. Is it just me or is the diameter slightly larger than 6mm on the gen cyclops?