Watchmeister

I live, work and vacation in all of the hot spots around the world other than the Middle East (NY, Paris, London, St Barts, etc.) and I have never seen a Chanel on a man's wrist. IMHO, any girl who you are meeting will think that you are gay and will want to be your BFF (without priviledges) so she can borrow the watch. If your a married guy than you don't care - buy the Chanel. Seriously, in NYC the 38mm is the standard informal watch for married women - every upper East side housewife has one (yeah, black too). It goes with the pocketbook.

Oh crap, I am starting to get a hard on for a V72. Ubi....help!

Love to see Mrs. Ubi happy. I look forward to seeing it in February....with Mr. Ubi present of course.

Thanks guys. It is now several years since I built it but it will stick with me until my wrist can't hold it up.

Very nice work. Looking forward to seeing the final project.

I actually read through a couple of the longer threads and in reality this is a movie that has played out many times before on all these forums. I will always believe that VDB started out with the best of intentions. I bought one of his very first watches. Was it perfect? Absolutely not, in fact it needed some rework by the Zigmeister at the time. But it looked like a step forward and was well put together. I didn't regret the purchase. And I do believe that VDB did move the hobby forward. Fast forward and the modder has decided to make it a full time business and now the party is over. And this party was made worse by having the full time support of one of the larger forums to the point where owners and admin were getting special deals,organizing GTG's on their behalf, precluding other offerees on their forum and not allowing any negative comments. In fairness, those issues have been fixed on the other forum and so it is not a criticism of the forum. All forums make mistakes and they can be rectified. The whole issue of selling fabricated parts as gen is tremendously troubling. But I can also tell you that I am aware of some very very expensive non-gen parts which people have subsequently sent me pictures of from his watches. I know that he paid thousands of dollars for them. Some were offered to me and I always wondered where they ended up. In any case the real moral of the story is that people should tread carefully. More importantly, forums should as well if their primary role is to protect the membership. Frankly we were always criticized for not being aggressive enough on the vintage stuff. Nice miss, huh? Vintage started before VDB with legends like Kenzo, Enzo, Madasboot, Ross, etc. VDB was another chapter. And now folks like Francisco, Clint Eastwood, Kbiz, etc. will continue to move this vintage hobby forward.

Too funny. I noticed that years ago with the original Josh 36. If it is the rotor a proper servicing quiets it down. If it is the ticking I am not sure you can do anything.

Hey T- The watch is looking terrific. And more importantly it is great to see you posting again.

D- Very nice gesture. Although not always the most exciting RWG has always been true to the hobby and the membership. And given the recent server damage it is much appreciated. - W

I do understand FDG's question. Compared to a highly modded Panerai the AP's are way off. In fairness the AP's are far more complex, gen parts are both scarce and difficult to fit and so that is the price we pay. On the metrics by which we measure simpler brands the AP fails in every category - bezel articulates differently, cg's somewhat off, case back way too fat, no offset pushers and misplaced date. For many other commonly repped brands it would be a bust. Having said all that, it is a wonderful rep and the way to go if you want an AP and aren't spending $3.5k on a Franken or $15k on a gen.

Am I missing something? True ETA 6497-2 are USD $450-550 at major suppliers.I guess that is one heck of a mark-up.

M- Looks great. Congrats. Out of curiousity how is the rose gold tone. Does it look pretty close or too brassy (tinted to an odd color)?

Since we all already own one of these. What are the parts we would cannibalize from both this one and an earlier one to make the best hybrid?

Looks great. Congrats on a wonderful project. Is the case tube hexagonal or round?

Great news.

"MC" is referring to the Tudor Monte Carlo I presume.

George. Great to see you back.

B- Absolutely fabulous write-up. Thanks so much for the effort. Wonderful pictures and write-up. Definitely inspiring for a project or two.

There is no one more deserving than Mrs. Ubi. She puts up with him. Seriously, those two make an awesome set.

The ultimate kick save! T- Thanks again for all your efforts. Can't imagine all the horrible thoughts going through your head when you were down to the last back-up.

Yeah, no safe queens for me. Heck, I don't have the safe.

My frist two will be the PAM 187 and AP Diver when they come out (if they are as good as they are supposed to be) .

Thanks for the nice thoughts. And yes, it does have a gen movement. Can't take credit for this pic though. Ziggy snapped a quick one for me back when he originally mounted the movement.

Don't know if it is the time of the year but I have gotten several requests for pics by folks contemplating building Fiddy frankens. Ignore the crappy photography. This one was built several years ago, gets a lot of wear and as you can see is anything but a safe queen. What makes this one a little different is that it is made with the first generation of dial and crystal (first 350 or so pieces). As many people know there were 2-3 runs of dials and crystals with the initial runs of both dial and crystal being noticeably more primitive. Interestingly Eddie based his original dial after this first type. The Case and CG: The infamous "notch" and lug profile: And the obligatory wrist shot:

I will take it one step further and say .... more respect for those frankens then the gens.