Watchmeister

Guess I missed that one. Don't know whether to be hurt or honored.

He has a lot of feedback and it is regarding gen watches so I would be comfortable.

Chief- You are right. I never did get that one AR'ed.

Chief- Great pics. And congrats to Delta - enjoy it. You inspired me and I have added some substandard pics of my own. Here is the first CD Ziggy ever relumed. It has been sitting in the watch box for a while but now it is going on the wrist for a few days. Additional mods include Swiss movement and the one and only RepAustria genuine wood caseback.

Robbie- Couldn't agree more. That party is over. At least until the republicans get back in.

If you have any form of loan or debt - cash is fungible....maybe you are.

Beautiful watches. Congratulations. This one is still my favorite Breitling and frankly the only one i have kept over the years. Can't wait for the blacksteel though. That will be one for the ages as well.

Back to the point of the thread. The elimination of the RWG1 header was not some hidden conspiracy. It was simply cleaning it up. I don't really understand why it is in the header in the first place. But no need to explain. I am not a contributor in the Loony bin. In fact this is my first post here in a long time. And hopefully my last for a while. Back to the loonacy.

Although I don't know all the trading parameters it is clearly a root cause. That and the fact that no one ever thought through what happens to a market concept when there is no market. I also think that at the end of the day it all starts with easy money. Low rates and readily available cheap credit whether mandated by the government in the form of the housing bills in the 90's, or unchecked liquidity allowing investment banks and traders to lever up trading portfolios 30:1 or allowing levels of leverage which are unsafe on hard assets and commercial enterprises allowed us to get into this mess. We all rely on "market forces" ignoring the most fundamental truth. People are greedy. They will always act in their own self-interest. So without proper safeguards and penalties many people will always err on the side of putting money in their pocket today (or yesterday as the case may be). Free enterprise is a great concept but by definition there is none without government and thus some regulation is clearly required. On this one we clearly got it wrong. And one last thought - when perception is more important than reality - than it is reality.

If you want glow you should buy a different watch. Tritium is an inferior lumination material. But, unlike Lume, will glow with no charging from an external light source. I have tritium dials and watches from about the same time. They vary from low glow to no glow. My non-scientific observations are that the amount of glow is dependent on so many factors-amount originally put on the marker, material it is mounted on or mixed with, exposure to oxygen/polluted air. I cannot explain why but some of my new old stock dials still glow reasonably well but others have been dead for years. And no, as everyone else has said - don't touch that dial. I prefer to leave tritium dials in watches. So I would suggest buying a better rep or more contemporary lumed sub if you need glow.

Chief- You should leave the U.S. I travel and do business around the rest of the world (except Africa). 7% unemployment ain't nothing. Many countries are in far worse shape than we are. Most stock markets are off 50%+, currencies off 30% +. Even the almighty China requires growth of 8-9% year to stay even (or face a very different revolution). I had thought that the natural resource rich countries would be all right. But that is not true either. So I would say that as bad as you think the U.S. is today go visit some other countries. It's all relative. And I do believe the U.S. will be the first one out of the doldrums. Let's just call it FIFO.

Chief- And here is the rub that I am still trying to think through. On the one hand the government regulated its way into hundreds of billions of bad loans while deregulating itself into trillions(?) of credit default swaps. And so regulation is needed some places and not others. Where is that fine line? How do we determine what institutions are critical. I wouldn't have guessed Lehman's downfall would have been as damaging as it was. I do actually think we are in a position to get ourselves out of this mess. The most amazing part of this whole financial crisis is that we started this whole global mess and yet when there is a flight to quality the dollar is deemed to be the quality. The world is willing to take a 0% yield on U.S. treasuries just to preserve their capital. And we still are the largest economy (won't be next time though). For these reasons I am more optimistic and the U.S. givernment will once again spend its way out of this mess. And the world will eat up that paper because their own currencies are even more suspect. Anybody have a better idea?

Sorry to hear about the QC. At least you know that any of the dealers here will make good on it. It is a pain in the neck though.

Let's just hope we don't end up with the same cure as the Great Depression - World War II now III. I would also point out that whether or not you like what has happened so far - we the tax payer now own the banks. Because there certainly is no equity value. I am still trying to understand the "free enterprise" flaw. Financial institutions were given more freedoms than ever in the 2000's (yes I have not forgotten the gov't's previous mandate to make bad loans to unqualified people) and the only survivors are the more regulated (lower leverage) commercial banks - sort of. The Lehman's and Bear Stearn's of this world had no business leveraging themselves up 30:1 so they could use other people's money to generate larger fees and pay higher annual bonuses. There were no penalties for those who did this. There is something so fundamentally flawed and I will be the first to admit I am trying to figure out what. In my heart of hearts I am a free enterprise guy but something went very wrong.

I am not familiar with LH dial but if it is a painted/sausage dial (not sandwich) you can make a base (PAM 02). I dentical watch but solid caseback and undecorated movement. You also would want a traditional crown guard (not historic).

Congrats on a beautiful watch.

RMC- If you are actually looking for the number cut-outs be forewarned that I don't think they are exactly the same from version 1 to version 2 of the gen Fiddy dials. The hour markers are the same size though. - Kruz

IMHO, spot on. I look to pay $3500 for handwinds without box and papers and $4,000 with. I would be remiss if I didn't add that in general prices for watches in the secondary markets are falling.

Congrats on a wonderful watch. I am jealous but happy for you. Rolex finally came up with a manly watch.

Here is a gen sandwich versus a single layer with aftermarket cyclops: Single Layer (rep): Sandwich (gen):

It will look great. And I have to agree the hunt can be more fun than the finished product. But here is my question for you - are you really going to wear a watch that small?

We knew you would come around.

The movement is not a 7753 in a gen. It is a tri-compax modified 7750. And by the way the Spitz write-up is completely messed up. 7753 is a derivative of a 7750 but it isn't used in any Panerai other than the chronos with date pusher on the side. The automatics spitz refers to uses a 7750 base movement. You can ask Panerai. I am guessing that for purposes of his article he simply lumped together 7750's (the base movement) with 7753's.

Very difficult to tell without removing the crystal. I suppose if you were intimately familiar with the improved magnification you could tell. And yes it is superior. That is how the gen crystal is built. All things being equal it allows you to either improve overall magnification by raising the height of the cylops from the date or maintain the same magnification as a one piece crystal using a lower magnification cyclops for better clarity. I am simplifying this but you get the idea.

Sandwich crystal is as it sounds. It is a pair of crystals glued together. The lower layer has a hole drilled into it to allow for the cyclops to be glued to the bottom of the top crystal. The cyclops is attached to the top crystal but sticks thru the hole on the second crystal allowing more height (and better magnification) above the datewheel. That is how the gen crystal is constructed.