Watchmeister

Has anyone reached out via the email route?

Great collection. Wear those well. Here is one you will get a kick out of - the first Ziggy Conquistador dial with the mystery ford auto body paint to get that perfect hand color.

Actually neither. The wife wasn't home to yell at me.

Hell, no.

Yes, its called swapping straps in the kitchen. And of course the counter tops are reps of Ubi's.

I happened to be changing straps on my Fiddy and while I was at it I pulled out an EL case set and snapped a couple of quick pics. I am sure it has been done before but here is a refresher. bear in mind that the although the crystal is mounted in the bezel the bezel has not been permanently seated on the EL case so it will look taller.

It is actually a very common problem. The gen has the same issue and it is has a dedicated 2 or 3 piece tube within the movement ring to ensure the pusher stays on path. The rep has a less substantial stem and the tolerances are not as tight on the hole in the movement ring. I learned this when I sent a rep and a gen to Ziggy for service at the same time and he did a quick comparison. But make no mistake, over the years both have required repair on that "quickset" date pusher.

Pete- Great tip.

So I suppose it is all relative. H- Great watch. Wear it well.

Great watches and absolutely wonderful history. Honpo was really the first dealer to recreate their watches with a gen in hand. At the time they were signiificantly more expensive. They had been making them for the Japanese market only as at the time it was the most sophisticated rep market with people willing to spend $800-$1,000 for a rep. And it all began on our forums when a rogue salesman posted a couple of pieces on eBay - the legendary Kenji. I can't tell you how painful it was to communicate with him as he spoke little to no English. Ultimately a guy named Ken (always wondered if it was the person as his name was Ken) set up shop in Florida. Unfortunately he didn't last long. Most importantly, congratulations on a wonderful pair of watches.

Very sweet collection.

It should be repairable. That marker is usually just a lump of lume. You should send it to someone who is practised in relume and dial repair as you may need to have a whole new marker made if it breaks up when trying to loosen from the dial or it is possible you will need a touch of black paint where the lume marker was moved from on the dial.

Very nice collection. Wear them well.

That 156 looks awesome.

It is all about budget and priorities. That is the beauty of the MBW's. Obviously the first step is to deal with the movement and swap out the crown and tube if necessary. On the crown and tube you can buy for a little as $50 or spend $300+ for a proper 700 or 702 set-up depending on how old you are trying to make your "vintage". You should consider some case work as well (CG's, case and lug edges, etc.). On the insert as someone else has said there are some good aftermarket inserts. Finally there is the whole issue of whether you want to redo the lume on the dial and hands to vintage tritium. I would say that before you go whole hog price it out. Good luck with it and have fun.

I am guessing the edges are polishes but if they aren't a little masking tape and a dremel and you are good to go.

Congrats. The grey one is very cool.

Very nice collection. It does show remarkable restraint. The question is whether your collection was at one time larger and you have learned. I now have a reasonably restrained collection but not before I went the other way first.

Do people think the bezel profile is better on this one than the other seconds at 12. I may be ahllucinating but I thought I would ask.

Pete- Great info on the various iterations. And I can tell you from my own experience on the 127 the first generation (1-350 or so) was far and away more primitive both as to dial and crystal - IMHO much closer to the watch it pays homage to (6152-1). So although Risti may have complained about the first run I am betting that 20 years from now there will be a big premium placed on the earlier serials. And I have to agree that you don't go with a gen dial unless you are willing to put up the extra money for the crystal (and of a course a movement).

I always wondered whether the 217 was like the 127 - three different dials. On the dials I tried two of the three before settling on the oldest variant. On the crystals I really only came upon two different variations over the years having seen 3 or 4 and simply assumed that one was for the 127 and the other for the 217. They are a couple of years apart. And all service crystals I have ever seen were what I thought was the 217 variant. But I never carefully analyzed them other than to slap them onto a dial to check the distortion.

I am running Time Warner in one location and Verison FIOS in another. FIOS is a little cheaper and the service is far superior.

They look great . Congratulations.

The headline is you should probably keep what you got. Your PAM is a far more accurate franken to the gen, The only question ia whether you have too many PAM's and the AP is a breath of fresh air.

He lives. Good to see you back. Good luck with the trade.