POTR

Maybe the internal combustion engine (one which does not burn itself ) has been the most USEFUL invention over the last 150 years, but it was revolutionary long before the US or France were... way back in 1680 a Dutch man (before they discovered Amerindian Hemp) designed the first internal combustion engine, but never built it, ran on gunpowder... the first one actually built was sometime before 1810 by some craze Swiss dude, ran on hydrogen, but the car designed around it wasn't too successful... then some BRIT adapted an old STEAM ENGINE (another revolutionary invention of great age) to run on GASOLINE sometime before 1825... THEN ABOUT 150 years ago some crazy BELGIAN hooked a simple GAS ENGINE with his new invention (A CARBERATOR) into a 3 wheeled cart and took a drive for about 50 miles or so... afterwhich it did become QUITE useful, infact transformational.

Well, probably really easy, EVEN WITHOUT THE GENDER POPULATION GAP... especially if you're not from Brazil. Hell women dance naked in the streets to get attention... hell they dance practically naked in kid's shows... most of the vaqueiro's are all off branding EACH OTHER in the barn, and admiring each other's metrosexuality...

Now THIS is the way to start a bidding war.

oooo, pumpkin burger. Now THAT is bigger than a Panerai. In keeping with the sub-theme... who knew the monster I'd turn out to be was GROVER?

Now, how about you tell us how you REALLY feel Steve.

Hmmm.... When you have more watches than Imelda had shoes... I'd have to say, "I just like them."

Today? Vintage Croton Aquamatic... And I just finished working on a birthday present for one of my bros... An antique Bulova 23 Jewel Selfwinding, manufactured in the year of his birth, 1954.

I can try... Can you send me a pic of the dial and movement?

Those are Venus 175 movements. As I said, the one in the auction looks SIMILAR TO a 175, as the positions of all the major "wheels" is the same across the middle and bottom of the movement. However, if you look at the movement in the other auction, almost straight up from the balance on the 175 (between 12 & 1, remember this is the back...) you'll see the notched, ratchet-looking teeth of the COLUMN WHEEL, intersected with several levers and brakes. Look across from the balance to the same position on the broke chrono auction and you will see NO COLUMN WHEEL, if there is one, it is covered, and therefore the configuration of the levers and brakes at the top of the movement is completely different. As for the hands question (sorry for squeezing in Nanuq)... Hands (and winding crowns) are a lot easier to find than replacement parts for antique chrono movements. As for a bidding war... I put a $20 bid on it to keep track of it... (yeah, watching too many items, I just put small bids on everything to keep off that ceiling.. if I were going to go after it (and I'm not planning on it - yet, but would let you know if I decided to), I wouldn't pay much more than $40-50, knowing it will be big out of pocket to make it fly again...)

It looks SORT OF like a late 60's 808. However, the dial is one that I am not familiar with (missing a few markings) and the movement doesn't look right either... should be a Breitling/WOG signed Venus 175... Case back is odd as well. It's looks similar to a 175, but not right. Thinking about other possibles (from the 2 sub dials) if it were a fake.. It's definitely not a Val 92 or 7734 or a Strella 3017... Not saying it's not real, just saying that too many things don't look right... It could very well be one of the most rare 808's there ever was... but I'm not feeling it. Probably worth it if it doesn't go too high, just remember old chronos are EXPENSIVE to fix...

3 Genuine WHAT? Swatches? Sorry, I just don't buy it. You can't keep on track through one post... let alone on track enough to earn the scratch for Gens... "Wow, beautiful and classy watch... makes me want to spend the $6K" "It's all the name, I mean for a mass produced watch... blah blah $7K..." Go ahead, spend too much money with George... you'll probably appreciate the "better quality"... but then again, since they're all mass produced and there's no difference in mass produced widgets, you should probably... Spend $50 on Canal street, so you can really cluck about your bargaining skills... AS THERE IS OBVIOUSLY NO DIFFERENCE IN MASS PRODUCED QUALITY to your refined sensibilities...

And, if you're going to spend a couple dozen tons on "bling," and actually cared about whether or not all was "right," would you buy feel safer buying a Rolex? or a Swatch?

Couldn't be... I have a brain, shoulders, and an ass. Or was that, I am an ass? Eh.

I personally don't like the Yachtmaster. However, I don't think the current Milgauss, (which looks like an updated 1019 with a bit of 6541 thrown in, and fairly consistent with other well received updates..) or even the Yachtmaster (which looks like it could be a bad 15 year old china fantasy rep...) deserve to be criticized so harshly as to put Rolex into Swatch (Omega) territory.... That is some really clownish crap coming from them... 007/gunbarrelled logoed dials? Crap, the Moon watch was half way acceptable because of the achievement behind it, but now, not only are they turning out totally cartoonish pieces, but the QC is going to hell quicker than the Chinese are getting better. Same goes for Heuer, I haven't paid much attention to them since they were bought by TAG. Rolex may have to cater a bit to some of the more outlandish tastes of the obscenely wealthy, as will any high end company, but at least they don't do schtick, and their quality has CERTAINLY never slid so far as Omega. As to the modern Milgauss Rep, add internal green tinted AR and it would be as nearly near as a Rep can get.

Platform Agnostic? Not you... Oh, I wasn't trying to imply you'd impose... just posing a hypothetical first day... hopefully you're not going to be mucking about in one of those "500k sites on 2-3 year old, half-patched, CentOS/WHM" messes... my last 'employee' job in IT was with Free-I, anyone remember them? Man was that a bad move... Consultant/Web host myself these days, and the lesser of the former the better.

The dial matches my pearls... why would I switch? Bracelet definitely... If I win, and the n00b doesn't crank up the price too high...

It's a Gen, it's on my short list, and there are more than one of us bidding on it.

Yeah TTK, I really want a MB&F HM1. When will you be stocking?

Shiny new Leopard Server v10.5 upgrade the first thing on the new departmental TODO list???

IWC, maybe... kind of a dependable Swiss/German ideal. Of course an MB & F Horology Machine 1 or a "special china 'tourbillon style' reverso" with a custom "FBSD Daemon 'kicks' the Penguin's Ass" animated rear dial (in place of the usual buggering) would probably be a bit over the top... (Hmm.. if I copyright that will they make a Rep? Bet it would sell) Steelfish is the proper amount of barely restrained renegade carnivore... unless you want to borrow one of my post AL&S, pre-IWC, GUB/Glassutte antiques ...

Today, this odd-ball... Notice the nice rounded, internally AR'd, sapphire crystal, hardly any glare, except from the sharp but shiny dial... with internal date mag... Not bad for $0.99 + shipping.... Except for that "Flying B" second hand , I wonder why that's there?

Shadow... No, send them only the case, bracelet, pushers/crown for plating... why spend extra money for a non-watchmaker to tear apart your watch, or send it off to yet someone else you don't know to do the same at a markup in cost? Triplock/twinlock refers to the winding crown... Twinlock will have _ or .. or . under the Rolex coronet _ for SS/YG .. for WG . for Platinum Triplock will have ... or ... or ... under the coronet ... same order.