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"Flieger" Fever


Donerix 2.0

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After getting my first Laco (45mm Dortmund hand wind) I somehow got a serious case of "Flieger" fever. Be careful it might be highly contagious.

While I really love the Laco it has one issue that keeps bothering me: it just looks to new, well and one more: it has a sapphire crystal and I just love plexi domes.

So I picked up some less expensive watches to start experimenting before I start modifying the new 45mm Laco.

Here are some first attempts at aging and replacing the glass with plastic:



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The light colored B-Uhr came already with an aged dial so I just matched the hands and got rid of the fat chunk of glass and installed a (temporary) plexi from a pocket watch I had laying around. I have a better dome coming and also a manual movement to replace the quartz under the hood:



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The 42mm Laco (a Lufthansa Edition) also comes with a quartz movement but has the same nice lugs as the bigger Dortmund and it already has the new dome installed (I added a rubber gasket which wouldn't allow the crystal to go in the case, but a few minutes in the freezer shrunk it to the right size and after warming up it now has a nice pressure fit and should be water tight , will have to test it to confirm. Nice bonus the crown - albeit a bit to small in proportion to the case size - is of the screw-down variety). Still waiting for the A-type dial from Kemmner to complete it (and to eliminate the date which bothers me. 

In my mind the plexi dome is a great improvement over the flat and somewhat life-less sapphire:



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Great selection of pilots, E!  The sandy-faced B-Uhr looks like something Hans-Joachim Marseille might have worn in North Africa.

 

Coincidentally, I took the following photo of Bundesluftwaffe fliegers a couple of days ago.  That's my Junghans flanked by the earlier (post-war) Hanhart, and the later Heuer Bundeswehr. 

 

i-Lr5XMCx.jpg

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Great selection of pilots, E!  The sandy-faced B-Uhr looks like something Hans-Joachim Marseille might have worn in North Africa.

 

Coincidentally, I took the following photo of Bundesluftwaffe fliegers a couple of days ago.  That's my Junghans flanked by the earlier (post-war) Hanhart, and the later Heuer Bundeswehr. 

 

i-Lr5XMCx.jpg

 

 

Martin: These look awesome. I love the Junghans, what size is it?

We need to have another Mini-GTG one day.

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Martin: These look awesome. I love the Junghans, what size is it?

We need to have another Mini-GTG one day.

Definitely!  I might need to head to New York again in the next few months, so let me know.

 

The Junghans is 38mm across at the bezel.  It's slightly bigger and slightly thicker than a Daytona.

 

i-msG8VBd.jpg

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Love those Fleigers.I have always liked the Heuer and the coin edge bezeled  Hanhart is pretty special as well. those pilot watches are not too shabby either, I wouldn't kick any of those out my watch box!!

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  • 6 months later...

Very much impressive. As a newbie in the forum, my first search was on "b-uhr type b" watches. Came across you folks' posts and I must say these watches are beautiful and hust the way I l like them. I am looking for a good one (no replica though) with my limited budget these days. Nice 2 meet u folks, Cheers

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I like the look of Steinhart. But there is one problem, it is not water proof...

True. But I have no interest taking this one anywhere near the water.

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