Watchmeister

Did one in radium years ago - 3646. I posted it here years ago I think. Only ever found one guy willing to do it and with access to the radium. At the time I had the guy run a Geiger counter or whatever you call it over it before sending it. That stuff does glow forever.

+1. Try the right stuff once. Worst case you have it for future attempts.

That may be true. But they are not here. We are purposefully slow to adopt modders as recommended here. 9 out of 10 "modders"'either get ridiculously backed up or get out over their skis and start taking on work they either farm out or should farm out. Movement skills are different than aesthetic skills. Dial work is very different from casework. Being able to service a 6497 does not qualify you to service a chrono or tourbillon movement. Even on lume - a base dial is very different than a 196. You see where I am going. In any case there are more modders than you think here. You just need to read carefully. I can tell you there are more modding skills here for certain brands than anywhere else. Having said all that, I am sure there are other quality folks elsewhere and when you find one or different guys who are experts at different elements - stick with them.

looks like a lot of fun. was there ever a doubt on the watch?

For the chrono or automatic with date at 9?

Apparently the ETA 7750 plugged right in and took the rep date wheel, Of course you have to do the mods removing the sub dial pinions and the main second hand escapement but apparently it was a piece of cake. I will show a picture or two of the swapped movement when I get it back.

You have answered your own question. Because consistent ones are few and far between....unfortunate but true.

I am still betting the better version is what we will see I our reps. It is a natural extension of the 3 days. IMHO, it is inevitable.

Had to come back to this thread. Wonderful collection. I bought my first Royal Oak in 1989 and still have it. AP is the quintessential elegant sports watch. Wear those babies well.

Great thread. And of course all the scientists have it right, Tritium is a gas and it all about the substrate or bonding agent used. I do think there were wide differences. My '66 5512 glows much better than my PAM 170 which is less than 10 years old and my 23 and 28 glow even less. And I know all the arguments about exposure to air, etc. But I concluded that the bonding agent makes a huge difference. I know a number of folks have suggested that the move from tritium to luminova was safety related but I believe folks moved onto Lume because it's critical properties (brightness, longevity and period of time to degradation) are so much better. Until recently PAM still made dials with tritium markers (and not in tubes) - submersibles, etc. I know radium is a whole other story but I don't think the levels of radioactivity in tritium on a dial are nearly that bad. I do still use tritium (albeit older samples) and find that tritium combined with very low quality lume as bonding agent and a touch of tint or paint to color appropriately and further reduce the glow matches up very nicely with vintage tritium and de facto is tritium. So I go with that. It is funny that even this morning I woke up in the dark and there was the remote to an ancient tube TV in the room with the principle buttons still glowing vaguely. Tritium of course.

I would wait it out for V3, Lume alone makes it worth the wait.

Too cool. But no, I don't have the skills.

Holy cow! Now that is impressive.

I recognize the dealer. I suspect he got stuck with a bunch. Rolex leather straps are actually reasonably priced (generally) compared to Panerai or AP. Do those work on a 16520 and if so what do you use for a clasp?

All this really tells me is that the eight day movements are coming from one or two sources and they will get better over time with the one big issue that jewels will always be in the wrong place. I suspect patience is a virtue here.

D- Great build. Wear that one well.

I am too. Now just waiting for Ziggy to return. I figure it can't be that hard (for him) he has done some nice conversions for me on PAM automatics, etc. I know you can handle this but it is well beyond my skill set. Well beyond...

D- Per usual great stuff. That has always been one of my favorite dials. Wear that one well.

I am with you in limiting my purchases to watches I could theoretically afford. The funny thing is that if you follow the logic that many people have no idea what a specific watch costs than the issue becomes how many different watches you are rotating. If you are rotating 30-40 different watches on a daily basis it probably looks pretty suspicious/weird whether they are reps of $300 or $300,000 pieces. And for that reason I don't swap watches every day. In the real world even the few folks I know with massive gen collections don't switch what they are wearing that often. The one exception is probably Panerai but those guys typically own only Panerai. At some level same is true for Rolex.

It may not be worth it but I have old 7750's laying around explicitly for this purpose so I will probably give it a try. If I am going to go to the trouble to fix the stuttering running seconds hand which looks like crap I might as well invest the servicing money into a Swiss movement. Give me a few weeks but I will let folks know how it works out.

It's funny you say that I Borrowed one from an older gentleman who bought it back in the day and it was pretty tinny. Then again it is not like the early Rolex sports watches were much to write home about either. I was shocked how cheap the 50's watches felt.

I am sure someone has it. But in all the gens I have seen in the wild (20 or so) and regularly stopping by the Boutique I haven't.

Have fun with the IPAD. I have an ancient first gen and would kill for the dictate feature for email. I am so bad with the thumbs.

Has anyone ever done the proper white and red double print to get the right brightness and color on the red? By the way in the U.S. 1680's can be had for as little as $3-3.5k and Reds for $7k. This is why I never bothered to build a gen movement franken of a 1680.

I don't think Mr. iceberg understands our concept. We are not here to run eBay and nor does the forum get paid a commission for it. We try, first and foremost, to protect the membership and provide a nice place for people to discuss watches and other things that tickle their fancy. Because of that we are very careful on approving high value sellers - frankly more demanding than eBay. i can tell you we have turned down significant ebay sellers both as dealers and high value sellers. With that philosophy in mind we will happily miss out on offerings here until we have had a chance to properly vet those sellers. And no this is not our job. This admin team tends to be older folks with families and fairly serious jobs who do this out of love for the forum. So Mr. Iceberg best of luck with the sales on eBay, really.