EMM

I want "lasers."

I got an email from him yesterday. He's been away taking care of his mother, who was sick.

Why are there never decent reps of the simple 2 and 3 hand dress watches? The factories put all their time into these complex pieces like that new JLC with the plastic bracelet, but they can't be bothered to properly replicate a Calatrava?

I thought the 243 was 44mm. 47mm reps are slim pickings. 187?

I can confirm two things. 1. The dial is amazing - really nice bright blue color to it. Not the typical overly royal, dull rep dial. Watch feels and looks totally gen - even the ugly strap. Deploy feels like it could fall apart, but that may be because it is part titanium. 2. I have now seen and held three Noob 326s, and all three have an issue where hand for the minute chrono counter (3:00 subdial) wobbles when you tilt the watch back and forth. Basically, if you hold the watch with the CG pointing down at the ground, this hand moves about a tick forward. When you hold the watch with the opposite side pointed at the ground, the hand moves back about a tick. I seem to remember this been an issue that occasionally afflicted the H-fac 236/250/251.

I've got one from my old Ingy

To tie a bow around this: Gen dial: DSN: Caseback: Gen: DSN:

R_Squared has always done great mod work. It's because he's so persnickety. Wouldn't surprise me to hear that he started with the old upside-down DSN CG or something similar and basically made that one. The new 82 dial is not noob 111N level accurate, but it's a big improvement. Same with the CB. Both look better on DSN's photobucket pics than in the ones he posted on RG.

You have great taste in watches, M. This was my daily wearer for 2008 and part of 2009. In the end, the moats and stubby lugs just got to me. Vac and I discussed this back in 2008 or so. He said it would look terrible if you lumed the moats, but there might be a way to lume the sides of he moats to make them less noticeable. He also said you could fill the moats somewhat with clear compound. He was willing to try but couldn't guarantee it would work out, and I was unwilling to pay and sacrifice my watch for the experiment. I just went and looked at the pics of DSN's "New Born" and maybe it's time to jump back in on the 82. The CB is significantly better (although there are a lot fewer clouds in the rep sky ), the CG has improved, and the moats look like the real deal, which has a slight moat itself: So the only real issue left is the case shape. I think your solution is the best one on that. BTW, that CG is fantastic - do you know anything about its origins?

Wow. After getting that much dirt out of one link, I would have just thrown up my hands and taken it to the SC.

I'm thinking Gabus is right. I repaired the keyless. Problem was this (from the tutorial): Now it works most of the time, but kind of pops its way out of setting mode. And it no longer winds via the stem. That's no big deal, though. This was very useful to me due to the colors. Thought I'd pass it on:

Hacking lever removed. No help. I guess I am fixing a keyless works.

Took the rotor bridge and then the barrel bridge out and the hacking lever was clearly out of position. I think I put it back in the right place and it doesn't look damaged, but I still can't get the time to set when I pull the crown. The crown is turning the castle wheel, but the hands do not move. I don't know enough about what else is supposed to happen here or I'm sure this would be easy to figure out. Can I just remove the hacking lever to eliminate that possibility? Or will the keyless not work right if it's gone?

Yeah, I looked this up. Are there pictures of the process? All I can find are blowups of the movement - which are useful, but somewhat overwhelming.

Looks OK for now:

Yes, WSO from Sugarland. As noted by JoeyB above. Anyway, I ended up shaving the insert with an XActo over and over. Took a ton off of it - maybe 2mm all around. Snapped it around the pearl in the process. But I just put it on and am letting the glue dry (this bezel will not hold an insert with mere tension, and the snap near the pearl made that impossible anyway). We'll see. If not, I'll consider the crazy expensive one from Classic Watch Parts.

WSO insert came - it is WAY too big around to fit on the outside edge. How do I fix that? Just sand it? How do you keep it round? Thanks

Sorry. Just noticed that when I posted about it. If I can do it with the movement in the case, that means I don't have to remove the dial and hands?

FWIW, can you make a 2836 not hack? It doesn't. Does that tell me anything? Tried the only crown I have and it wouldn't fit the CGs.

So the best solution is a new crown or can the crown be fixed? I'm not excited about replacement as it's a gen 703.

Got a 5513 with an ETA 2836 inside. It's obvious that the movement was originally set up for a watch with a date, as the stem has two stops (I don't know - maybe all 2836's are like that). Anyway, most of the time when I pull the stem out to set the time, the crown will just turn - hands do not move. About every third or fourth time, it will "catch" and the hands will turn for about one rotation of the minute hand, then stop. Then I just push the crown back in and pull it out again over and over until it catches again. Repeat until time set. Obviously, there's a problem here. Is it the keyless works? I've had them malfunction before, but usually the time just won't set - never had this intermittent type of issue. Or does it have something to do with the date stop - maybe sometimes the stem doesn't want to go past the first stop, and I can't tell because there's no date to set. Thanks.

So where can I source a tiny bit of mostly-dead yellow lume?

Found it - the DW looks really odd in those pics. Like it has too much bevel. And the DW font looks like the newer style.

Thanks for all the compliments and ideas. I may go with the WSO one - but the pearl looks super new and looks like it's missing lume. What do I do there? JoeyB, what's the "epoxy drop" method of aging a pearl? I'm familiar with the epoxy drop method for making a pearl on a newer Sub or DSSD, but not using epoxy to age it.

That's the one. The movement looks better than it works. But hey, it's a 60 yo watch, so that's not all that hard to pass. I managed to get the bezel insert off. There's a fairly deep channel in the bezel and it was literally filled with epoxy. Now (obviously) the old insert is torn up. So what's the best replacement for the insert? The standard 5513/1680? Or the old TOG-style without hashes? Where do I get one?