McRae

Stephane, I bought a modern 114270 as a gift to my GF this christmas from PT. You can't go wrong there, it's a really good replication and PT is a really good vendor! Good luck, mon ami.

Stephane, you want to trade?! Mine's only slightly damaged on the passenger side: Seriously though, glad that it was only pride and money that got hurt!

Or more likely:

+1, heard of more that had problem too, seems that it's running OK now!

Bugger... Thought the CG's looked so similar and hoped that they "reinvented" the wheel after 20 years.

Looking at Lani's beautiful pictures (and watch!) of his FL, it made me go, hmm, I sort of recognise that case... Isn't the GMTIIC using the same case?! Crownguards sure looks the same and so on, sure need to drill the lugs for springbars, but it makes me wonder if one can make an franken out of a ceramic and BK's transformer... I think I have a new project on the list... Lani, care to perform some checks?! Pretty please!!

Ceramic is a really cool material, but as previous posters has stated it's much more brittle. You almost always have to have the tradeoff between hard (brittle) and toughness (soft/mallable) in materials. Think knives and swords, an extremely hard edge is very sharp but very fragile... and viceversa. We have ceramic brake discs on some of the racecars and it only takes an errant stone to chip the disc and destroy it (at

Lovely shot BT! I agree totally with Toad on this one, it's a different watch than the earlier ones, more casual evening wear for me, than a tool watch. Since I'm more of a casual dresser this suits me perfect to slip on for the night.

What a tool... And he takes the time to post it, man, get a life...

Thanks all for the help, if I thought a little about it, I could have looked under the balancewheel for markings... And it's a ETA 6498-1, as you said. And the H3 issue was really easy, I remembered that I bought an assortment of dead movement to practice on, hmm, wasn't there a 6497 in there with panerai markings?! Lets check it out, voil

Best wishes to you all!

Doesn't RobbieG have a gen?! Shoot him a PM and ask...

Thanks guys! Much appriciated... Then I just have to order a H3 set, this was easier than expected!

Hi all, what kind of movement is this?!: (picture stolen from the former owner Stephane, he's WAY better than me at shooting pictures... ) It's marked with "swiss" and "seventeen 17 jewels" and finally "B3". And the reason for asking is that I would like to raise the hands a bit from the dial and also spread them apart a little, like you can do with the H3 pinion for the ETA 6497. This to make the watch more similar to the look VDB gets with the old movements. So guys, possible?!

Use the chuck in the drilling machine as a collet for mounting the tube, then either, if you have it, use a second machine to mount the drill bit or simply put the drill bit in a vice. Ergo, you made yourself a little lathe!

Stephane, lovely!

The effect you're trying to get is quite easy to do actually. Disassemble the watch and put just the dial and hands in the oven! Medium heat for awhile, just take them out whenever you're satisfied with the ageing effect. The dial is going to get flatter and duller and the lume is going from white to yellowish and finally starts to get brown, just stop when you're satisfied. You can also spray it with matt clearcoat, but be advised that that turns the lume even more yellow, so if you started with the oven treatment, you maybe want to finish that before you're satisfied, due to the combined effect. Been there, done that... The reason for the clearcoat isn't in my opinion mostly for dulling the dial, it's more for getting an uneven surface on the dial which some old gen dials have but not all! Therefore my recommendation is go for the oven treatment only! Oh, and don't forget that the dial and hands may need different lenghts of exposure (the dial takes longer if the memory serves me correctly). Good luck!

Stephane! Glad that you enyojed the stay! It was a blast for me too, lets do it again... Can't get to the GTG in Brussels, it's the Monaco GP then... ;-) Hmm, but maybe Bratislava, let me check...

Beautiful The Zigmeister! Really an apropriate movement for your fiddy, loving the combo!

I must say that they look extremely cheap, especially in contrast with the 1846, which is very well finished and lavishly detailed. The subdials partically, looks like it comes from a Canal Street special. Yuk!

Are you... ...Batman?! (said with a small, quivering voice)

Stephane, I'm actually at home this week! Tuesday I have a business meeting until about eight, so either after that or tomorrow?! I'll bring your old 6152-1! Salut!

I'm going with my new toy today!

John, caught twice, better wise up young man!