Ocean7 to bring Ploplof Homageto market in February...

Did you miss out on getting a PloPlof for your collection because of the Omegamania price bump? Dispair that you'll never be able to afford such a watch? Well there may be an alternative...

I just had a long phone conversation with David Greenspan [who many old time TimeZone Omega Forum regulars will remember ] and he pointed out to me the Ocean7 watch company's website:

In addition to a number of very interesting current offerings, it appears they will be producing a Homage to the Omega Ploplof in February:

This is a good news/bad news situation... It's good news to those who'd genuinely be interested in owning a PloProf Homage watch, it's bad news to collectors as it's likely that the unscrupulous may well use this watch as the basis for a reasonably convincing fake.

Details as well as an interesting line of other watches on the Ocean7 Watches website.

-- Chuck

 I recently purchased a LeJour:The Precise World of Chronographs Manual off of eBay. I just finished scanning the manual and posted it within an HTML framework for everyone's viewing convenience.

Enjoy!

-- Chuck

A request for a link exchange from Jason of Swiss Watch Boutique has prompted me to add a section on my Links page for Watch Blogs that I know of:

If you know of a watch blog that I don't have a link for post a comment or email me and I'll add it [unless it's a fake or replica site or a mere sales site. Must include interesting content].

NOTE: I will not publish any comment referring folks to "Replica" or "Fake" watch sites selling knock-off's of trademarked watches. I have no problem with OK-ing comments to legitimate watch blogs, watch manufacturer sites, sites which offer "Homage" watches [Homage is a watch [typically a discontinued model] done in the style of another brand but branded as a Homage/Tribute piece made by the company producing/selling the watch]. But I will not publish comments where people post URL's to Rolex Replica . org or anything similar. Save your and my time or waste your time, it only takes me 5 seconds to reject comments.

Thanks!

-- Chuck

An emailer asks: “Chuck, Where's a good place to buy NATO Straps?”

It occured to me that while I had some ideas for sources, I don't know that anyone has compiled a list of said sources. So I decided to share my response and post it in the blog with the idea that It would be a pointable place were we could list such staps, and if anyone reading this blog entry had their own suggestions, they are encouraged to post a comment with links.

Sound reasonable?

Ok, here were my suggestions:

The fellow I usually use is Ron Sabo/International Watchman:

http://www.internationalwatchman.com/home.html <---  Look under Watch Bands then Military

Here are some of Ron's more interesting Militaries:

The only rub against Ron (who's prices can't be beat) is that he has a $45-50 minimum order.  So so if you're a little short on your order, buy a $15 assortment of:

Spring bars... Sooner or later you know you'll shoot one across the room, might as well be prepared!

Another source that has been highle recommended to me is West Coast Time/Howard Marx. Who in addition to NATO's also offers British Regimental Color, Rhino and Zulu straps:

Lastly, but not least, there is always Military Watch Resource or MWR, who offer a wide variety of straps as well...

Well, those were my suggestions, do you have any to share? If so, please post a comment!

Thanks!

-- Chuck

Good Morning [Afternoon, Evening...]

This morning I received four scans from Greg Wade of c.1983 Heuer data cards to add to the page I have already posted on-line.

Each card is notable and significant...

The first card provides us with the first printed information on the exceedingly uncommon and rarely seen Gold 510.508 Lemania 5100 chronograph:

Not many Lemania 5100's were ever put in a gold case!

The second card provides us with perhaps the best explanation of the rationale behind Regatta watches:

It all seems much clearer and easier to understand now!

Thanks are due to Greg for his contribution to the knowledgebase existent on the Internet.

Cheers!

-- Chuck

A watch timer highly recommended by one of my watchmakers...

I got a phone call out of the blue from one of my watchmakers today [Shane Ede from Toronto], and he had me navigate to this web page and was telling me that this unit (costing less than $900 USD) is better than the: Witschi Watch Expert II (which runs around $2,775 USD) and may even have more features than the Chronoscope M1 (runs around $10,000), and the Vibragraph Watchmatic II (also $2,775). He has the Witschi and bought Mumford unit when his Vibragraph died and he'd rather depend upon the Mumford unit than any other he hass seen.

There are lots of reasons, much of it far too technical for this blog. This unit has many many more features not the least of which is how little it impacts your wallet compared to the competition. "And furthermore, Mr. Bryan Mumford will work as closely as required with any customer, his customer service is second to none!" <-- Direct from Shane.

Sounds real good to me. Shane asked me to pass it along for those who sometimes tinker with their own collections.

Cheers!

-- Chuck

[Added 5 May 2008] Just got off the phone with Shane and he informs me that this unit WILL time the latest model Co-Axial movement with the unusual 25,200 BPH rate and it will measure the Co-Axial amplitude as well... He had a latest model Co-Ax in recently and the timer worked like a charm. -- C

Bill Sohne purchased a vintage Breitling AOPA Navitimer 806 recently, and fortunately for all of us, it came with an instruction manual for how to use the slide rule. Bill was kind enough to scan in the manual and email them to me for presentation and the utility of "Whiz Wheel" fans everywhere:

[click on graphic above to open instruction page in new window.]

Thanks Bill for making this possible for the Internet watch collecting community!

-- Chuck

Section added to "Omega Chronograph Dimensions" Tables/page...

At the behest of Steve Waddington, moderator at Chronocentric's ZOWIE Omega Discussion Forum and all around good guy, I've added a new section on my “Dimensions of Selected Omega Chronographs...” page...

Steve mentioned to me that he often used that page as a quick look-up when people were asking about a 145.xxx or a 176.xxx and it'd be really handy to add a reference to the 176.001 card and discussion we had in C/ZOWIE last week.

A "scrunched" version of this table looks something like this:

Cheers and Enjoy!

-- Chuck

 Considering a Speedmaster Day-Date model, Read this before you commit!

Levy03 in the TZ Omega Forum pointed out that there have been a trio of reports of Speedmaster Day-Date (Also known as Day-Date Month) models which have reportedly had the problem within warranty of failing to change the day of the week. In the first instance a purchaser of a 3523.30 had two examples fail from the same Authorized Dealer and was waiting on his third.

In the second instance a purchaser had to return his example (pictured above) to his dealer when the day wheel reportedly wasn't working properly.

It's hard to impossible to say if this is a fluke, a bad batch or a something more. However, it seems advisable to check any Day-Date-Month 7751 based chronograph for proper Day and Month changeover before you purchase it.

Here's what to do:

• Advance the time on the watch to approximately 6:00 pm
• Set the date to 31, the day and the month can be at any day or month.
• Then advance the time past 12pm and see if the day and month advance.

If both the day and month switch over smoothly between about 10pm and 2-3am then the watch is probably ok. If it doesn't... I would pick out another.

Thanks Levy for pointing this out.

-- Chuck