Watch insiders, i have questions, could help us all

[fotoman]

So, lets say i take my new MMD nardin to my jewler, he pops out the crystal, measures it and finds a comparable saphire.

First any idea what retail on that might be?

Then, i send it to Chief for AR.

are there date mag's available on the market similar to the crystal? is it reasonable to assume a competent watchmaker glue the cyclops on?

My guess is we'd have to try a few mag's till we find the one that works.

If we figure this out, wouldn't this be a great nitch for nardin freaks? I imagine all in, it should be less than $100 with Chief AR.

thoughts? ideas?

[Migge]

My only doubts about your project is that the Ulysse crystal has a built in magnifing cyclops

so I guess it has to be specially made...

But I will let the experts chime in as I might be wrong on this like so often....

Cheers

Mike

[fotoman]

its not built in, its glued on with a clear glue - the reason you can't just AR the crystal is it is done at HIGH temp and the glue melts and the cyclops comes off.

Hence the need for the project. i'm trying to figure out how to best and cheaply create top notch AR and on a scale from Nothing to Perfect do something about the cyclops. I mean it can't be to place right? you put in the crystal, find the position, glue it on, let dry, flip crystal

i know people have tried before and just failed or it was not worth the effort. But i have a real watchmaker to do that part of the work. I assume he is up to that task. I need to go over and ask him myself about this as well.

[Migge]

its not built in, its glued on with a clear glue - the reason you can't just AR the crystal is it is done at HIGH temp and the glue melts and the cyclops comes off.

Hence the need for the project. i'm trying to figure out how to best and cheaply create top notch AR and on a scale from Nothing to Perfect do something about the cyclops. I mean it can't be to place right? you put in the crystal, find the position, glue it on, let dry, flip crystal

i know people have tried before and just failed or it was not worth the effort. But i have a real watchmaker to do that part of the work. I assume he is up to that task. I need to go over and ask him myself about this as well.

Phoband: Do you have the watch in your hands?

Reason I ask is because I believe my UN MMD Chrono has a "built in cyclops" maybe the new Maxi Marine has

the cyclops glued onto the crystal.

If so, make a template of the crystal as it is now and you will not have problems getting it in the right spot later.

Regards

Mike

Edited September 18, 2009 by Migge

[lanikai]

Pho.. are you sure this is not a "sandwich" mag ... with sapphire on the outside and mineral glass inside.. I jus took a look at mine and it appears to be sandwich.. I may be wrong.. hard to tell..

I remember surfer doing one a long while back.. but it is tricky to say the least..and if the inner layer is mineral glass then it cannot be AR'd.. if its not sandwich.. then you may be able to use heat.. to remove the mag and xtal glue to glue it back once you have the xtal AR'd..

A~C

Lani

[fotoman]

until this moment i never heard of a sandwich mag. I just went and looked at my mmd chrono i can't see a bulge, but on my blue surf, i do see a bulge under the crystal.

Also i was told none of these are saphire, they are all mineral. From what i understand a "swiss" version will come out at some point. Thats why i was thinking buying my own saphire then doing the AR

[freddy333]

I am not familiar with this watch, but mineral glass has a green tint to it when viewed from the side. Sapphire is either clear or white. If the lens is a sandwich composed of both materials, it should be pretty obvious.

Also, you might check out the thread I posted several months ago that compared a non-AR vs an AR cyclops (done by Chief) on the GMTIIC (it was not very successful).

[lanikai]

until this moment i never heard of a sandwich mag. I just went and looked at my mmd chrono i can't see a bulge, but on my blue surf, i do see a bulge under the crystal.

Also i was told none of these are saphire, they are all mineral. From what i understand a "swiss" version will come out at some point. Thats why i was thinking buying my own saphire then doing the AR

if it's mineral Pho.. then it's probably a sandwich mag.. like the ones on the Pams.. that's one of the reasons to use mineral... it appears to 'bulge" but it may be just an illusion.. as I am pretty sure it is in fact a sandwich mag..

surfer to date is the only one that successfully ar'd a crystal with a mag such as that and with mineral glass.. but the mineral glass ar will not in anyway take the treatment like sapphire..

A!C

Lani

[jfreeman420]

Is the factory AR really that bad? They are supposed to be sapphire crystals.

Freddy is right though. The edge of a mineral glass crystal is green and sapphire is clear or white.

As for the sandwich crystal you may be referring to sapphire coated. Some watches have mineral glass sandwiched between sapphire. The layers are bonded together with heat and glue and you can look at the edge and see the layers with a loupe. Sometimes with the naked eye.

I imagine to sandwich a cyclops in there somewhere would take a lot of work and make the watch more expensive. I could be wrong. How is the gen crystal made? Glue or sandwich?

All this sandwich talk is making me hungry.

[lanikai]

All this sandwich talk is making me hungry.

How about a Kahlua pig sandwich with honey glazed ham on a toasted flat bread.. kinda like a Cuban Sandwich Hawaiian style...

A~C

L

[jfreeman420]

Lani you are speaking my language. I have been trying to eat healthy lately though and have been on nothing but chicken, turkey and fish for 3 weeks. Just got back from the hard rock and cheated with some wings from hooters. Damn that was good.

@Pho: sorry about the food talk not trying to hijack the thread.............

[TeeJay]

How about a Kahlua pig sandwich with honey glazed ham on a toasted flat bread.. kinda like a Cuban Sandwich Hawaiian style...

A~C

L

A bit 'off the menu' for me, but that does sound like an awesome sandwich

[fotoman]

Is the factory AR really that bad? They are supposed to be sapphire crystals.

Freddy is right though. The edge of a mineral glass crystal is green and sapphire is clear or white.

As for the sandwich crystal you may be referring to sapphire coated. Some watches have mineral glass sandwiched between sapphire. The layers are bonded together with heat and glue and you can look at the edge and see the layers with a loupe. Sometimes with the naked eye.

I imagine to sandwich a cyclops in there somewhere would take a lot of work and make the watch more expensive. I could be wrong. How is the gen crystal made? Glue or sandwich?

All this sandwich talk is making me hungry.

the AR is ok, but, Chief AR, would cause me to spontaneously orgasm at least 5 times a day

also its "synthetic" saphire, remember, thats mineral crystal. =- besides, my guy says its saphire, he gets it from the same horse's mouth that josh does

i might look into getting real saphire crystals that will fit and have them CHIEF'd and just go wthout the mag

[offshore]

Pho,

Synthetic sapphire, IS sapphire!

Mineral is an entirely different product. (There are also plain glass as distinct from mineral, but these are very rare.)

Seiko produced the range of "Sapphlex" which were these composite sapphire/MG crystals for their sports range.

These may help to.

O/S