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Thread: My Watch Journey

  1. #21
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    I just found these pictures. I did about four of these Marathon watches. I tried to avoid them since they were pretty poorly made and reasonably easy to break when disassembling. The Seiko are built worlds better.



    Cheers,

    Michael

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  2. #22
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    At one point during this I had 82 watches at the house that were mine(About 60 of them were 7S series Seiko). It got to the point I started to find watches in a drawer (used a dresser back then as my watch box) that I forgot I had, or thought I sold. At this point getting down to 28 seemed reasonable. Now I see that as still way too many.
    Cheers,

    Michael

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  3. #23
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    Meanwhile back at the ranch there were other things that were coming and going. In the time period that we left off on until January 2010 my Ball watch appreciation continued to grow. Near the beginning of 2009 I bought a BNIB EHC Chronograph with the Black dial. If you look at the crown and guard this is a Gen one EHC that the crownguard went over the crown.




    In the Fall of 2009 after a month long back and forth debate in my head I ordered the White and Blue B&O Fireman "The First Mile". I still have this watch today. I also at the same time I ordered the just release Spacemaster X-Lume that was rumored to be the watch that came the closest to the 100mci of Tritium "T" limit. This was one of two second gen EHC watches. The other was the Space master Standard that was a T25 watch without all the extra tubes.















    I also tried a few other brands like MKII , UTS and Zixen(then Zinex) back then.











    Next let's add another Anonimo, and Two Doxa. The Anonimo was my first attempt at a Bronze watch.







    Doxa's attempt at tritium watch.

    Doxa 100-T Milshark


    B&R BR-01which surprised me that I liked it.


    B&R BR-02 which is the winner of the most painful watch I've ever owned. It has a big "&" on the case back. My wrist had one after just a few minutes of wear.


    Corvus Bradley which the company owner became more famous than the watch. Does anyone remember this?


    Orient Star 200 Diver. I had a yellow dial version of the 200 Revolver diver also.



    Orient 300 Saturation diver that became a nearly daily wear for me. Hated the bracelet even though it had a Seiko like micro-adjustment. I had it on the strap.



    Arnold and Son White Ensign. LJP Handwind with date and power reserve. Watch had a 600m rating with internal bezel controled by second non screwdown crown. Note the bet tip in the hands to match the bezel angle. I owned one of these twice.










    Second generation LM-1 from Ocean 7 with full lume dial and a very limited Skeleton hand version.


    Citizen Diver(s):





    Mitch at Ocean 7 had bought the rights to the old 24 hour watch company Airnautic. After one GTG I decided to purchase this Sub model from him.






    Seiko Kenetic II what I called a dress diver.



    I'll continue to add more as I find them.
    Cheers,

    Michael

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  4. #24
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    My Watch Journey

    So there are a few watches that has some significance in the future of my watch collecting. The fist is the 6139 chronograph. Based on eBay and forum sales listings I've apparently had 11 of the "Pogue " model with the yellow dial and Pepsi bezel. I bought these is various states over this time period and restored them to look as close to new as possible. The best, and last one I did was one was presented to me by a high school friend back in Pennsylvania when I was visiting. It is the only one o the eleven that I was sure had all its original parts and the case had no dents, just scratches. This has always been my favorite chronograph because of it's simplicity and it meets 99% of my chronograph needs. Meaning the 30 minute timer is perfect for timing meats on the grill. The other registers I never use. The bracelets on many where from a source that made a clone of the original Seiko. I believe this one was the OEM on the watch.







    About this time I had the opportunity to buy a Ball EMII Telemeter Chronograph. The reason I bring this up was it matched the function of the 6139, and went one better. The main second hand like the 6139 provided the chronograph timed second indication, where the 6139 had the 30 minute sub dial the Ball had a digital wheel that was back lit by GTLS tubes below the 12. Everything was GTLS lumed on the Ball so everything was readable in the night.




    The second was the 6309 Diver that I had always loved the case shape. I was talking one time about them with a fellow mod on WUS, and he indicated he might have one to sell me. I got the watch, and it was pretty beat up so I started to refinish the case and I took to finding new parts for those that were wore out. When I got it done I sent him a picture, and he got a bit upset with me. He was mad that I did not leave it in it's dilapidated state. From my side I just did not understand having a watch that none of the lume was any good on, the bezel was faded and scratched, it did not pass a pressure test, and the case was all scratched up. This is when I learned I like new, or as close as possible to new. For those of you that like original no matter what that means I apologize. I've not done it again since then and just avoid vintage. This is why I like the modern recreation of the originals so much.

    (After I was done)


    This kind of leads me into the next watch from this time that I wanted to talk about. During the lunch meeting with Mitch at O7 he kept talking about the original Omega Ploprof from the 70's. So I started to look this up online, and at first I though it was an April fools joke. Honestly would you build a watch that looked like a hammer with a screw in stud in the crown and a push button on the one side? This watch it a left handed setup that adds to the strangeness. Add that these were selling for $12K-$15K or more. At first I just did not get it, about 30 days later it was at kinda OK, and in a few months I was obsessed with it. There was no indication from Omega that they had any intention of ever building these again in 2009. I do not own a clones of a watch if the original is still available from someone that owns the IP. This is a rule regardless of price. This comes from working for a software company in the Legal department. Protect your IP must be said 6 times or more every day. So I was not about to pay for someone taking someone else's IP. When Ocean 7 started on the LM-7 they purposely changed many of the elements from the original PloProf so it was not a direct copy. There were many when these were delivered in the fall of 2009 that were mad at Mitch if they got a blue dial. This was because it was not the same pantone as the original Ploprof. This had been discussed on the O7 forum, but a final call by Mitch was never posted. Mitch used a brighter blue star burst which to me looked 10 times better. I bought the Black dial version and got a few 24mm bracelets along with the OEM rubber strap to wear it on. This gave me a feel for how this design wears. I really came to love this weird watch. If you ever try on one of these or a real Omega Ploprof the size is intimidating when you see it. Then if you look at the specs you see it is only 48mm lug-to-lug and 51mm wide. Most 40mm divers are much bigger lug-to-lug. The width is not really a factor unless you have it on the right wrist which my put the crown close to the hand. All of a sudden out of nowhere about 5 months after Basel Omega releases the Black dialed Ploprof 1200. Now there was a new version from the creator of the watch. Given my rule the LM-7 had to go. I'll talk about the real thing in a few posts, but wanted to talk about the LM-7 since it prepped me for the real thing, and showed I could easily live with this setup day to day. I know a few other brands cloned the Ploprof even more close to the original. I could never endorse these.





    My last watch from this time that I wanted to talk about was the Original Ocean 7 LM-1 which was Ocean 7's first watch. Mitch found the original LM1 prototype one day while cleaning out his watch shop. He decided to time and test it. When he found it was running good and could pass WR he decided to hold an auction on the forum from the highest bid that all the money would go to a Veteran's charity (Maybe Wounded Warrior?). I bid $1K since it was going to a good cause which was apparently five times the next highest bid. So I won it. Having this I can see why Ocean 7 took off well originally, followed up by the LM-2 Mitch knocked the first two out of the park. He should have made a few more originals like these two?







    Cheers,

    Michael

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  5. #25
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    So going out of 2010 I had 222 lifetime watches so far. Since my collection was changing so much I cannot really say what I had on Jan. 1 of 2010. I believe the number was 28 which I found in a post from this time. A few I do know I had:

    Anonimo Magnum Bronze
    O7 LM-7
    Arnold & Son White Ensign
    Seiko Kinetic
    Ball Fireman B&O
    Ball Spacemaster X-Lume
    Ball Avaitor GMT
    Ball Night Train 43mm
    Orient 300 diver
    B&R Br-01
    B&R BR-02
    Seiko 6139
    Seiko 6309
    Seiko Sumo all three colors
    The rest where probably modded Seiko(11).
    Cheers,

    Michael

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  6. #26
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    Missed one watch for this period. This is the most complicated watch I've owned. The Corum Admiral Tides. It took me about two days to get everything I need to set this properly. When I did it was spot on by my checks at the beach. While the watch was very readable, the lume was good for about an hour.

    Cheers,

    Michael

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  7. #27
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    I figured I do a thread on my Ball watches stories over the years. Near the end of 2009 I became the co-mod for the Ball forum on WUS along with Scott W. About three days into being a mod their and completely unknown to me Ball and Scott moved what was the official Ball forum to TZ. This turned into a disaster and the forum never caught on. The WUS owner took this in, and acted a bit childish basically shutting me out of everything. I had no idea what had happened and I got back some nasty PM from some of the mods, and the Forum owner. Scott would not return calls, and I had no idea what was going on. I was talking with Rob about a few watches at the time, and I happened to mention what happened. Basically 2 days later the Topper took over the Ball forum. We decided to make it better than any other Ball watch forum. Within 6 months Jeff Hess at Ball was begging us to post some things on TZ since their forum was dead. Jeff listened Scott who talked him into going to TZ with the forum. Apparently they had not spent much time there, and the format of the forum and general community feel was not working well. Jeff later came when Rob and I started working on contest and helped with some of the prizes. We did photo, review and many other contests. One day while Rob and I were discussing what our next contest should be we had about five or six ideas of things we could do. Then I said well let's do a contest with all of them. The Ball-A-Thon was born. The Ball-A-Thon was 4-5 events that then were measured for accuracy and speed. All events focused on things related to Ball watches and Toppers. Where were word finds, crossword puzzles and general Ball trivia. Two of the most popular events were the lume and and elements contest. Since Ball is all about the lume the Lume Contest had a group of Ball watches in the dark each with a number. Contestants had to identify the Lume pattern and tell us which watch it was. The Elements Contest took one little box out of an entire watch photo and you had to identify the Ball watch from this. First to submit with the most correct got first place points, then the fastest with the next most correct got second...and so on. Our own FuzzyB won the first Ball-A-Thon, and won a Ball watch. Rob and I would spend almost two months of free time getting all the event materials together. Then the contest would take about 2-3 weeks to run. This included scoring all the submissions for each event.

    Attachment 66792Attachment 66793Attachment 66794Attachment 66795

    From the watch side between my wife and I we have had about 64 Ball watches. She has a Ball Ladies Arabic, the Engineer Hydrocarbon (EHC) Mid size (Also tagged as the Mid Cow since it was 36mm version of the 42mm Mad Cow except in SS not the Mad Cows Titanium).





    So far from my side we have talked about the EHC Chronograph, Night Train 43mm, EMII Aviator GMT, EMII Diver GMT DLC, EHC Spacemaster X-Lume and the Fireman B&O the First Mile. Just before I became the Ball moderator the EMII Diver World Time cam out. Ball released this watch with no manual on how to set it. The watch is a bit complex and setting the WT is not remotely intuitive, Add that it also had a dive bezel internal to the watch which has the countries for the WT on it also. Scott and I both had bought one, so we decided to pow wow on a Saturday morning at a Starbucks and figure out how to set these and then write up instructions. I took what we had and kept refining it. This was then posted on the forum, and about 30 days later it made it's way into the Ball manual.





    Since I wanted to learn more about the Ball watches and sample the ones that Interested me I decided to start rotating them out every so often and replacing the outgoing with something new. In no particular order here are the watches that I've tried:

    The first is the biggest Ball watch there is the EHC Orbital GMT Chronograph. While it's case is given as a 45mm (and there are some 46mm Ball watches) the EHC with the crown guard makes the cases seem so much bigger. What makes it big is that it is 57.5mm Lug-To-Lug (No that is not a typo). It barely fit my 7.75" wrist. This watch had a few unique feature, fist was the compass bezel, second on the back it had a feature called the Amortizer which allowed the rotor to be locked (for like rocket blast offs) to deal with High G shock, and last it had GTLS tubes in the chronograph pushers so they could be seen at night. The Amortizer was turned on and off by moving the propeller on the case back.








    The Orbital was also the first EHC watch to use Torx screws in place of the earlier slotted screws. Note EHC watches have two screws holding the each end-link on the bracelet. Good for security, bad for finding a strap other than the Ball Rubber or a Nato to fit.

    Next I also tried the standard Spacemaster with the white dial and blue hands. I liked this combo, better, but they never offerer the X-Lume with this combo so you had to take the T-25 standard.



    Next to the Orbital


    Fireman Racer on Ball Stitched Rubber


    Ball decided to do a retro watch of there first diver introduced in 1962 (the year I was born). The watch was called the Skindiver back then (and now). Ball showed photo's of one of the originals at the Skindiver launch at Basel. I've tried to find one as my birth year watch and there is absolutely nothing to be found on this watch. One day while talking with Jeff Hess I asked him about this watch and why there is absolutely nothing available about it. He said that at that time Ball would go hire these private watch makers and do a set of like 3-5 watches for a customer. So in all likely hood the one that Ball has is the only one. The Skindiver is the only other watch I've found like the Rolex sub that seems to fit everyone. The first generation of the GTLS Skindiver is pretty much just like the original (except with GTLS tubes and the RR second hand)one of my favorite Ball watches, and in the top three. The bracelet on this was very comfortable. It's only weakness was the stamped steel clasp.







    This had a ceramic bezel inset with a blue glow conventional lume for the bezel markings.

    Ball could not leave well enough alone. Two years later it released the second generation of the Skindiver. The second generation had many improvements, like a higher dive rating, HEV valve, thinner font on the bezel, new knurling on the crown and bezel, chapter ring, Machined clasp, COSC movement...Where it failed (IMO) had to do with the taking the case from 40mm to 43mm. Generally I'm all for larger cases, but when the stretch this one it lost the ability to fit everyone. It was now 7.75" and up. The weight of the Gen 1 was identical to the Sub at 150gr where the Gen 2 went up to 204gr. Also they scaled up the bracelet from 21 to 22. While this made it easier to find straps, it lost the balance of the 21 mm on the 40mm version. The gen 1 had a domed crystal that looked very cool on the wrist, where as the Gen 2 had a flat crystal. While I thing the gen2 looks much better (except for the flat crystal), I've always wonder how good it would be if they would have built this as a 40mm (even without the HEV). Ball should have offered both a 43 and a 40 on the gen 2.


    Note the Gen 2 went down to a T-25 tritium content. I think the gen 1 was just a hair over the limit and the slightly thinner tubes in the 2 put it under.









    I'm going to break off here for now, and will continue with more Ball watches in my next posts.
    Attached Images Attached Images     
    Cheers,

    Michael

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  8. #28
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    So lets show a few more ball watches.

    After Ball released the original EMII Diver, it came back with a bit more subtitle version of the watch a few years later. This one was all black with out the white or neon green on the internal bezel ring for the first 15 minute marks. I only wore this on the rubber, but there is an excellent bracelet available for it that many prefer over the one on the EHC series. Since this has 20mm lugs I've seen them with a whole host of straps including crocodile.



    Everyone likes to think they came up with the ideal for something. In my case it may be delusional, but when the Fireman Racer came out I commented that the hands from it be placed on the EMII diver with Ball green on the bezel, and the hour hand tip. About a year later Ball released this in Ball Green and also a white (for the bezel and hand tip). You decided? The case was 1mm thinner than the first generation.







    Since we're on the subject of Ball divers, and watches I may, or may not have influenced, Ball sent out a survey to current owners. One of the watches I would like to see was to build a survivalist watch by using the EMII Titanium Diver COSC case. Put in a compass bezel in of the diver bezel and use stick hands. GTLS lume should be maxed. I also wanted it no date. This was released as a special model for Ducks Unlimited called the EMII Sportsman. It has almost everything I asked for except the no date.. If you joined Ducks Unlimited for $30, you could get the watch for $1200 which was $600 off the normal price. It was a very good deal if you liked it.









    More Ball watches to come in my next post.
    Cheers,

    Michael

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  9. #29
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    So to continue with some more Ball watches. Let's begin this post with one of the all time best lume watches Ball has made. We had shown the Spacemaster X-Lume a few posts ago, and we will do the Avaitor dual time in a minute, but first I want to doe the Fireman Stormchaser DLC Glow LE. The Storm Chaser was inspired to be used by the National Weather service storm trackers in the field that go and chase Tornados. The Original Storm Chaser had a tornado on the case back. The DLC Glow addition has the Tornado mobile tracking vehicle on the case back.


    The key feature of the Storm Chaser was that it has both Telemeter and Tachometer scales for the chronograph function. The telemeter to determine storm distance after a lightning strike and the Tachometer to track a tornado speed over a known distance. The DLC Glow model had GTLS tubes in every hand and index on the watch. It made for quite a light show at night.









    Since I talked about it I guess the EMII Aviator Dual Time will be next. This is a favorite, and had a unique second time indicator with an hour and minute hand. Other features are a big date, and lots of gtls tubes on the dial and hands. It was rather clean given it's complexity. Loved this watch on the strap. Never took the bracelet out of the plastic.









    Lume side by side with the Storm Chaser DLC Glow(Right side). Ball likes to use colors to communicate communicate information. Can you tell where the 12 is?



    Ball did a few watches that used the tubes to show features. Here is the EMII Moonphase which had a GTLS lit moon.



    Another was the EMII Moon Glow that has glass lenses at the 12,3 and 6 and a back lit date.



    Here are two power reserve Trainmaster Series watches. One use conventional hand in blue over a white enameled dial with the signature Ball & Co in the 7. The second know as the Trainmaster Power Glow use sword hands and a unique sliding window tube aperture system with GTLS day and night.

    Rays use to always love this watch.






    The EMII Officer was a 46mm handwind movement with a Hunter case back.




    The EII Red Label


    The EHC Black was the only DLC coated EHC watch made. it had good nighttime visibility. One item it note is there is a 3D ceramic bezel insert on this watch (note the raised areas every 10 minutes). As far as I know Ball is the only watch company to do this for a ceramic bezel insert. All bezel markings are conventional light activated lume. The watch was titanium so it was pretty light. When everyone else seemed to have their divers getting thicker (some Ball's were 17-18mm also) this came out with a 300m EHC that was 13mm.









    The Ball Sixty Seconds brought many elements of the traditional RR watches.



    The Ball EHC DeepQuest brought forward the third generation of EHC cases. While well protected and reenforced the crown guard had no lever to lock it like other EHC watches. This was Ball's Uber diver with solid Titanium monoblock case (build form the top). These have the best crown action of any watch I have ever tried. If you get a chance try one. Many felt the bezel action was a bit light. I came up with a procedure to add tension to the bezel spring that improved the feel that was posted at the other place. These have a 43mm case with HEV valve.










    I've posted quite a few of the 62 Ball watches I've had. Hope you also have seen some of the unique case backs for these watches that I have posted here and other threads.

    So with the Ball watches added my lifetime total sits at 278 watches. More to come from other brands.
    Cheers,

    Michael

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  10. #30
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    We're now in the late 2010 early 2011 time frame. I had been watching the replacement for the Samurai the Titanium SBDC029 closely. Here was a near perfect everyday watch with the 6R15 movement that allowed handwinding and Hacking. It also had Dia-Shield to protect the titanium form scratching. My issue with the watch as delivered was the hands. Seiko has since this watch started using the monster hands on almost everything. They just did not work for me. From all the moding I did I learned that I just did mot like using anything on a Seiko that was not a Seiko OEM hand. The aftermarket lume just did not cut it, and was a poor match to the rest of the lume. While I have expressed my dislike of the MM300 as a watch I absolute love of the hands on that watch They are some of Seiko's best since they are unique and have some very nice detail that make them look much more expensive. Add that I like the double lume dots on the second hand that made it work so well in the dark since it is easy to see and read. It took a while to find a source that could get me a set. Once I had the hands I bought the watch from Chino (It was JDM back then). The fist arrived and must have taken a pretty intense shock in shipping. The balance spring must have had a kink and it was running very fast (was not magnetized). So it went back and a replacement came. While waiting on the second watch I found I found a sapphire crystal for it. This is the last mod I have done which is a simple hand change and crystal swap.

    Before:


    After:



    Given the quest for a balanced collection I felt I needed to have a dress watch. I had a few attempts at this in the past with watches like a few of the Ball's, the Movado and a few more. It just never worked out for me. One of those attempts (well technically two) was the Zenith Ultra Thin Elite. The first try was with Roman Numerals and a pure white dial. I just don't jell with Roman numerals . This was sold off in a few weeks to be replaced by the black star burst dial with indexes which worked much better IMO. This Ultra Thin line has some of the best hands IMO. The reach well across the dial to their marks like they should. The minute hand uses pretty much all of the dial real-estate to the edge.













    One more from this time frame. I was on a titanium lick and decided to try a newer Tag Aqua Racer. I think the lume and cyclops on this as well as the black coated Titanium. Also the clasp was very simple to adjust since it did not rely on strap holes to size the deployant. It just slid up and down the strap and locked with tension.













    Some more from this time in my next post.
    Cheers,

    Michael

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