Hobbies-R-Us

Xetum: Refreshingly Clean Originality

2010-03-29T01:55:00.065-04:00

While Imitation May Be the Sincerest Form of Flattery . . .

Originality Requires a Bold & Creative Imagination!

Xetum (pronounced "zehtum") joined the ranks of small U.S. watch companies in December 2009. Unlike many small startups in the watch industry that build "homages" imitating well-recognized brand styles, Xetum is one of the others that has taken the bolder path. Their two introductory models, the Tyndall and Stinson (cream dial versions shown above) have a clean, practical, and very original style. The creativity expressed in them establishes a clear Xetum character with a unique brand identity at the outset.

Summary:

Unique with their own character
Well designed to fit properly on a small wrist
Big enough it won't get lost on a large wrist
Aesthetically attractive, clean lines that maintain functionality
First rate, very durable materials used throughout
Excellent, reliable and durable Swiss ETA movements under the dials
Assembled in Switzerland with Swiss movements, they are "Swiss Made" watches
Priced competitively with "high range" brands (e.g. Longines, Rado, Union)
Direct purchase available through their Web Site: http://www.xetum.com/

I had the privilege of a long phone conversation in mid-January (2010) with Xetum's founder, Jeff Kuo, about his new watch line . . .
Jeff is no newcomer, he has been in and around the watch industry for about 10 years. This shows in the aesthetics, it's found in the movements and materials selected, and in the the small mechanical design details of the watch case. The work to create Xetum and their watches began in 2008. The goals he had in designing the Tyndall and Stinson included:

Contemporary style
Clean shapes
Uncluttered "instrument" type dial and hands (easy to read)
Versatility (can be worn with nearly anything, anywhere)
Utility (not just wrist jewelry; works easily as a useful timepiece)

The model names come from geographic locations in California, where Xetum is located. Mount Tyndall is part of the Sierra Nevada range, in the eastern area of central California near the Nevada border. It was first ascended by a pair of climbers with the California Geological Survey. They were attempting a first ascent of Mount Whitney, only to discover they had climbed the wrong peak. Stinson Beach is a very small unincorporated community in Marin County, along the California coastline just north of San Francisco. It's a popular day trip destination for those living in the San Francisco Bay area. The name, "Xetum," as Jeff described it, has a "convoluted" origin, with a process that involved how it looked in print, how it sounded when spoken, and research to ensure he would not encroach on any trademarks.

Tyndall:
In addition to the cream dial above, the Tyndall is also offered in a black dial. It's powered by an elaborated grade Swiss ETA 2895-2 mechanical auto-wind movement. This is the seconds sub-dial version of the venerated 2892-A2. This movement and its variants are found in many prestige watches costing substantially more than the Tyndall.

The seconds subdial is located just above the "6" with the date just inside the "3" and an inner 24-hour time track marked with 13-23 plus Xetum's logo, a green hexagon in lieu of the "24" marking. Main hour markings are bold at the 3, 6, 9 and 12 without overpowering the dial. The "Xetum" name is found vertically under the "12," and provides visual balance with the seconds sub-dial. The overall aesthetic result is pleasing to the eye with uncluttered appearance that maintains utility. Reading the time is easy and quick with just a glance.

Stinson:
The Stinson is offered in three dial colors. The black and off-white are the same as offered in the Tyndall, plus the Stinson is available with a brown dial. It's powered by the Swiss ETA 2824-2 mechanical auto-wind movement. The dials have the same date just inside the "3" with bold hour markings at the 3, 6, 9 and 12. The "Xetum" name is found left of the central pinions, and provides visual balance to the date window. With the same attractive aesthetics and utility, it's obvious the same person designed the Stinson.

The dials and hour/minutes hands on both the Tyndall and Stinson are lumed with Super-Luminova which is among the brightest and best lume available. The 3-6-9-12 numerals are fully lumed on the dial, and the hour/minutes hands have lume along their entire length. One should have no problem reading the time at night, all night (provided the dial and hands have had enough light exposure during the day).

Case and Strap:
Materials used to house the movement and dial are first rate, robust and durable. The Tyndall and Stinson share the same case design. The 40mm diameter lug-less case is made of solid surgical grade 316L stainless steel. While this may seem on the smaller side to those with very large wrists, the nearly "all dial" design with very thin bezel "wears larger" than its dimensions, giving it a larger appearance when worn. It won't look lost on beefy arms with large wrists. The case diameter combined with a modest 11mm height and lug-less design allows the watch case to be worn on small wrists without overwhelming them.
The screw-down crown is subtly signed, carrying the Xetum hexagon in its shape, with very slightly rounded corners and edges. Its size should make it easy to grip and turn. Although I wouldn't suggest continuous water immersion to any depth (it has a leather strap and it's not a diving watch), the screw-down feature gives them a 10ATM (100 meter) water resistance rating. It allows exposure to outdoor elements in all weather conditions. Grooves ringing the case above and below the crown provide some visual eye relief to the case sides while maintaining clean lines. Crystal on top is sapphire (corundum), the most scratchproof crystal material made, and it has an anti-reflective coating on the underside to reduce reflective glare. With its durable materials, water resistance and dial lume, the Tyndall or Stinson could just as easily be used as a "field watch" while its aesthetics make it equally sutiable for the business atmosphere of a corporate board room.

The case back is held on with four screws and features a movement display window made of K1 hardened mineral glass. The movement auto-wind rotors are signed with the "Xetum" name, and one can see, and admire, the fine workmanship that goes into ETA watch movements. Looking at the balance wheel oscillating can become mesmerizing. Most lug-less cases use integrated, custom made bracelets or strap. Not so with Xetum. The straightforward "hooded" strap attachment to the case using standard springbars, can be seen on the underside. This allows easily changing the strap to a different style, or even using a metal bracelet or mesh band (with straight ends) if desired.

Xetum's straps are signed on the back side and reflect their "conservation" culture. Made of natural, vegetable tanned leather, they're lined with comfortable Italian cork. All the materials are "renewable." Clasp is a signed, stainless steel butterfly deployant. Xetum's eco-friendly philosophy doesn't stop there. While not as visible to folks as the watch straps, it's everywhere in the company. Watch boxes are made from the rubberwood of rubber plantation trees felled after their latex producing life-cycle ends. They would otherwise be burnt in monstrously large bonfires. The carton surrounding the watch boxes is made of certified Rainbow 70 paper. Xetum is also working with carbonfund.org to offset its carbon footprint, and their website (http://www.xetum.com/) is hosted on an eco-friendly service using low power draw service and also works to offset its carbon footprint.

Swiss ETA Movements:
ETA is part of The Swatch Group which owns a dozen and a half brands from the lowly Swatch to the extremely expensive luxury Glashütte Original, Blancpain and Brequet brands. Their 2895-2 used in the Tyndall is a hacking, 27-jewel, 28.8kbph (4 Hz) high beat automatic, and is the sub-seconds variant among ETA's 2892-A2 series. The 2824-2 used in the Stinson is a venerated workhorse. It's a hacking, 25-jewel, 28.8kbph (4 Hz) high beat automatic, and is the date variant among ETA's 2824/2834/2836 series. These movements are among the most preferred and desirable in affordable high-range watches for their time-keeping accuracy, reliability, and long-term durability.

Bottom Line:

Utility and practicality in a unique, artistically aesthetic design that isn't pretentious or gaudy
First-rate materials and movements for accuracy, reliability and long-term durability
Design details that enhance versatility and comfort when worn

If you're looking for a watch that is unique, attractive, useful for telling time, and can be worn just about anywhere, for any occasion, the Xetum Tyndall or Stinson may be just what you're looking for. Current MSRP (March 2010 and subject to change without notice) is $1395 for the Tyndall and $995 for the Stinson. They can be purchased directly from Xetum, either in person at their design studio and showroom on Market Street near Union Square and the Financial District in San Francisco, or on-line through their web site:
http://www.xetum.com/.

Important Notes:
I have no financial interest in Xetum, or any business association with Jeff Kuo or Xetum. Opinions and observations expressed herein are mine alone, drawn from a phone conversation with Jeff Kuo about Xetum, and from the Xetum web site.

Invasion of the PC Snatchers

2009-05-25T02:20:00.010-04:00

How to Join a BotNet Army Without Really Trying
(or Knowing Until It's Too Late)

Screen-shot of warning from Avast! A/V for the Trojan Dropper Nancy encountered:

Act I: Social Engineering
Nancy received an email a couple days ago from someone she knew related to her most recent job. I've deliberately munged the hyperlink it contained with "#" characters to keep it from working (they were originally strings of numbers).

Subject: it should you be pleasant

Body:
Check this out http://rapidshare.com/files/#########/File.exe?0,#######

Disabled the hyperlink by munging it for very good reason. It doesn't simply go to a RapidShare web page; it immediately attempts to download and run a file stored on RapidShare. Firefox doesn't normally allow immediate download file execution, but Internet Explorer gives that option with "Run," "Save" and "Cancel" buttons (in that order). Too many folks will blithely "Run" the executable file out of habit! This type of email employs "Social Engineering" to persuade its recipient to run the program. Nancy's email address was harvested from the address book of a likely trusted source. In this case it was a known co-worker, but it could also be a family member or close friend.

The first flag that should cause alarm in this email is its subject line, "it should you be pleasant" which reads like a poorly translated user manual for a cheap Chinese toy (unless the trusted sender actually writes that way all the time)!
The second flag that should cause alarm is a RapidShare link for an executable program that attempts to immediately download the file. For those familiar with RapidShare, a proper link to a file stored there should lead to a RapidShare web page with information about the file and a download button. I'm still trying to figure out how this URL was crafted. Haven't been able to replicate my own version using innocuous files I've uploaded to RapidShare. However, I did find references to tools that can convert normal RapidShare download links into immediate, direct download links that bypass the normal RapidShare download web page. I suspect this link was crafted using one of these kinds of tools.
The third flag that should cause alarm is an executable file with no explanation about what it is, what it's for, or what it should be expected to do.

Act II: Trojan Horse
"File.exe" is only 23kb in size. This is tiny, even by MS-DOS 3.1 standards. Even so, it's extremely dangerous. Programs that initially penetrate a computer and its defenses are typically this small. They merely create the beachhead to facilitate the installation of larger programs that take over the machine. It signals, calls for the main invasion force payload, and provides the invasion path through a machine's defenses. It can also disable or circumvent the common means used to detect the malware invasion. This particular program is a Trojan Horse Dropper. It's called a Trojan Horse because the victim is enticed to invite it through the gates. This was done in Act I with the Social Engineering that convinced the victim to click on the link, download and run it. The task performed by "File.exe" when it's executed is providing a concealed path for the installation of a Rootkit, one that's completely hidden from the rest of the operating system, anti-virus software, and computer administrator(s) and user(s):

Opens a remote thread in "svchost.exe" to retrieve a Rootkit installer in a concealed manner that will not be detected.
Downloads the Rootkit installer into the current user's "temp" directory, from a completely different, remote server (using an IP address in, or obtained by "File.exe").
Silently runs the executable Rootkit installer in a manner completely concealed from the rest of the operating system, anti-virus software, and computer user(s) or administrator(s).
Only takes a few seconds and it's done. After that, "File.exe" has no useful purpose. Even if detected later and deleted, the damage it did is a "Done Deal."

Act III: Coup d'État
Rootkits are insidious. This Trojan Horse dropper pulls in a specific Rootkit called Win32:FaRoot [rtk] (Avast!'s name) and installs it. Rootkits work under a stealthy cloak that hides them from nearly all anti-virus detection software. Different types of Rootkits use a variety of techniques to keep the operating system, computer user, and anti-virus detection software from finding them. The underlying objective is keeping completely hidden from operating system view, not just normal end-user view, but low-level operating system view, protecting it from discovery, and actively preventing its eradication. It accomplishes this by creating "hooks" in the operating system to hide the Rootkit's "drivers" and their system registry entries from the rest of the operating system. They are locked to protect them from being deleted, even by a user with "administrator" privileges employing the system's registry editor, and that's if you can even find them. Once this Rootkit is embedded in the system, it grants itself completely unfettered, undetectable, and highly protected "administrator" control of everything on the computer from a remote location through a hidden "back-door" that's enabled by loading a driver every time the system boots. True Rootkits per se are not the real malware, other than their ability to hide themselves, and other files and processes it's programmed to hide. It's what happens next that does the real damage.

Act IV: Resistance is Futile, You Will Be Assimilated
One of the more insidious modifications this Rootkit makes to Windows is changing some registry entries to force using a pair of different network Domain Name Servers (DNS) that are located in eastern Europe. DNSs are how URLs (site names) get translated into numeric IP addresses. It's like a phone directory; send the name to the DNS and get the IP address number in return. The local service provider (e.g. DSL, cable, etc.) maintains their own Name Servers, usually two primary and two secondary for redundancy. Without a Name Server available, you go nowhere on the internet, but get stream of "site not found" errors instead. Service providers provide the DNS IP addresses to use on their network automatically when a computer connects to it. This is part of the "handshaking" that occurs when the network connection is made. Hijacking which DNS servers are used, and doing so in a way that's permanent unless these registry entries are deleted accomplishes several goals:

Every internet site visited by the computer (regardless of browser or other program used) generates traffic to these other DNSs to look up web site IPs; there is now a "history" of sites used by the victim.
These other DNSs now being used, presumably under control of the malware creators, can block or redirect attempts to update Windows with patches, Anti-Virus software, or access major Anti-Virus software sites to non-existing IP addresses. All one gets when trying to go anywhere on the internet to eradicate the beast is greeted with a "Site Not Found" error, or worse yet, a porn site that generates popups faster than a popcorn popper. Even Windows and anti-virus software automatic updating needs DNS availability to find their sites and update servers.
Can send you (if desired) through a "Proxy Server" they control when the computer is accessing web sites. This is called a "Man in the Middle" attack. If done properly, it's entirely transparent. You never know you're not communicating with an internet site directly, but through an intermediary. Legitimate proxy servers are used on large corporate networks to help protect their internal networks from the outside world. Because they act as a "proxy" they can passively record all the internet traffic passing through, to include HTTPS (encrypted, secure server traffic), effectively record screen shots of every web page, and log all the keystrokes made within a web browser (i.e. when entering a user name and password, or filling in a form with personal information).

Furthermore, it's capable of doing a "Lazarus Act" to resurrect itself using the operating system's "system restore" functions should the victim discover pieces of it and delete them. Many accomplish this by embedding reinstall code in the System Restore Points, deeply hidden (and protected) on the root of the boot drive. While not impossible to eradicate from the system Restore Points, it can be quite arduous and very time consuming to find which one it's been stashed in if there are a few hundred to choose from (typical if the computer has had the O/S installed for a couple years). Another location that can be used is the hard drive's Master Boot Record (MBR). No standard Anti-Virus tool will find it in an MBR, and only a few of the couple dozen Rootkit detectors will find it. The hard drive MBR is also not a place most would think of to find malware either. Worse yet, the MBR survives nuking the hard drive and re-installing the operating system from scratch unless specific action is taken to install or "restore" the drive's MBR. Not normally done when installing an operating system.

Act V: BotNet Army Marching Orders
Most of the time, the Rootkit is directed to install various additional pieces of malware on the victim's system. These include keystroke loggers and sometimes a remote monitoring utility that allows viewing the victim's desktop remotely at will, much in the same manner as a desktop can be shared in NetMeeting. Aside from being able to record keystrokes and capture desktop screenshots, the machine is now part of a BotNet that can be instructed to do just about anything from any remote location. The "generals" in command of these BotNet armies have a known history of doing a variety of things with their Zombie troops:

Lease or rent portions of a BotNet to others for a fee (who will use them to do just about anything that follows in this list).
Conduct Distributed Denial of Service attacks on internet sites.
Inject SPAM email into the internet through the BotNet machines' service providers email accounts (guess who gets blamed for spewing SPAM?).
Perform automated scans of internet IP addresses looking for vulnerable computers and servers.
Provide hidden server services for distributed storage and distribution of malware, Warez, pirated music/video, and (maybe) last, but certainly not least, (child) pornography (and guess who gets blamed for that, too?).
All of the above entails using the Rootkit to load, save, install, and execute additional files and programs, all cloaked under the Rootkit's protection, to comply with a remote location's orders from the BotNet Army commander.

The victim remains blissfully ignorant and unaware of all this . . . until . . .

Weird computer behavior is observed, such as unusual and continuous internet activity (the little icon in the tray or MODEM lights) when nothing should be accessing the network.
Internet account is suspended or shut down for spamming in violation of the ISP's Terms of Service (ToS).
Several Windows or Anti-Virus software update failure errors finally get the victim's attention.
Computer bogs down to a crawl slow enough to get the victim's attention.
Computer ultimately refuses to reboot (who said malware is bug-free?).
RIAA slaps the internet account holder with civil lawsuit for copyright violations (distribution of pirated music; yeah, it's happened).
The police or FBI show up with a warrant to seize all electronics in the house and arrest the internet account holder for child pornography distribution.

Epilogue:
We were lucky. Nancy declined to execute or download the program, once she found it was, indeed an executable. I copied the URL she was sent and downloaded it to my desktop without executing it, to study it more. It's now sitting innocuously, unable to do anything, in the Avast! Virus Chest on my computer (which prevents it from being accessed or executed).

Screen-shot of warning from Avast! A/V when I moved it to Avast!'s Virus Chest:

Would have been an absolute nightmare to recover from on her laptop. Did a Rootkit eradication to recover a laptop running WinXP that belonged to the son of a close business associate a couple years ago. Took about a week to completely clean up his son's computer, working on it in the evenings. About half the time was spent eradicating all the malware that had been installed under the Rootkit's cloak. The other half was spent finding and eradicating the Lazarus Code that kept resurrecting the Rootkit.

Review: S.U.G. Nova

2009-04-06T14:47:00.047-04:00

Nova: A Sports Watch Wannabe, It's More A "Casual Attire" Watch

This S.U.G. Nova was loaned to me specifically for review by Ricky, an acquaintance on PMWF, the "Poor Man's Watch Forum" which is dedicated to sub-$1,000 watches.

Summary:

Aesthetically attractive and decently made (with a couple exceptions).
Looks like a sports watch, but isn't; it's a "casual attire" watch.
The Nova lacks significant features one expects of true sports watches.
Decent, Chinese-made, "export quality" Sea-Gull movement.
Dial ergonomics is lacking in a couple aspects, but doesn't kill the deal.
Hand lume is passable, but dial lume is weak.
Don't look at it using a 10x loupe; you'll be a lot happier. Ignorance is bliss.
Provided the buyer knows it only looks like a sports watch, the Nova is worth the price, if it's under $100.

Specifications:

41mm diameter (excluding crown)
14mm thick
50mm lug to lug length
20mm lug width
Weight is over 100 grams (incl. strap; my scale only goes to 100 gm; it "pegged the meter")
5 ATM water resistance
Decorated 28 j, 21.6k bph, non-hacking, Chinese Tianjin Sea-Gull ST-17N caliber 1780 automatic with blued screws (export caliber TY-2714)
Date sub-dial at 2:15 (set using a flush, dimpled pusher on the case side)
Seconds sub-dial at 6:00
40-hour Power Reserve partial sub-dial at 10:30
Stainless steel case, crown and back (with display window)
Thick and wide castellated non-rotating bezel
Crown is not screw-down
Flat mineral glass crystals top and bottom (display back)
Eggshell white dial checkered with small (U.S.) "football" indentations
Rectangular lume dots at the hour indices
Silver skeleton arrow style main hands with lumed arrowhead pointers
Silver arabic hour indices and brand logo

The S.U.G. Brand Name:
S.U.G. is one of over a dozen brand names marketed in the U.S. by Always at Market in Carrollton, Texas. They're sold exclusively through auction sites, primarily eBay now, and are advertised with absurdly high suggested retail prices. Invariably, most are sold for what they're actually worth in the $50 to $100 range (for those without real precious gems on the dial or case), although there are anomalous auctions. Bidder behavior is utterly inexplicable at times. One exception is their "Balmer" brand which is a little more up-market from the rest (Balmer uses Swiss movements, but they're not ETA and less expensive). In the industry they're referred to as "Myth Brands" (with elaborate tales about the company name originating from an obscure, centuries-old, Swiss watch or clock-making family) or "Mushroom Brands" (pop up overnight and disappear shortly thereafter). They're typically "Private Label" made in China regardless of where the company headquarters is located. One of the firms that makes many of them is MillionSmart Enterprise at a factory in Shenzhen. Most have Chinese Tianjin Sea-Gull (one of the better Chinese movement makers), Dixmont Guangzhou, or Hangzhou movements. Dixmont Guangzhou makes movements similar to Tianjin Sea-Gull. I don't know much about the Hangzhou except they make some of the ETA 2824, 6497 and 6498 "clones." I couldn't determine where this one was assembled, but I'm certain it was made in China, by MillionSmart or one of its "cousin" firms.

A visit to the S.U.G. website is similar to visiting any of the Always At Market brandings. They're all laid out the same way and once you've navigated one, you can navigate them all blindfolded. Its history tells a long and winding tale about the founding of the Schweizerische-Uherenmacher[sp]-Genossenschaft by Gottilieb[sp] Hauser in the late 19th Century, with nothing about what ultimately happened to the organization or became of Gottlieb. It's tragic that Always At Market cannot use proper German and correctly spell what should be simple words. Litterally translated, S.U.G. should be "Swiss Clockmakers Cooperative." "Uherenmacher" is misspelled; it should be spelled "Uhrenmacher." Long German words are little ones pushed together. It's a building-block language. Furthermore, they couldn't get Hauser's first name (vorname) correct either. It's "Gottlieb," not "Gottilieb." I recognized these spelling errors immediately, and I'm not fluent in German. Mein Deutsch ist sehr schlecht, aber Always At Market Deutscher ist viel schlechter!

But wait, there's more. Alpina, a true Swiss brand, very directly traces its lineage to Gottlieb Häuser (the name roughly translates to God-loving houses), not this pretender near Dallas, Texas. "Alpina" is a trademark Gottlieb Häuser registered in 1901, and it has been used nearly continuously thereafter. The name of the firm he founded in 1883 should also be in French, not German: Corporation d'Horlogers Suisse. Nearly all Swiss watchmaking is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. This was no exception. At the beginning of World War I, the Alpina firm had holdings in both Switzerland (Genève, Bienne and Besançon), and in Glashütte, Germany. In 1917, near the end of World War I, the Swiss and German organization fractured (politics of war with Swiss neutrality) and a German named organization, Alpina Deutsche Uhrmacher-Genossenschaft G.m.b.H. was created for the German half of Alpina. The Swiss half formed under a similar name in French: Alpina Association des Horlogers Suisses. If inability to use proper German spelling, including getting the alleged founder's name correct wasn't bad enough, Always At Market tries to rewrite Swiss watchmaking history too. So much for Swiss lineage and heritage. There isn't any; it's a myth, living up to its characterization as a "Myth Brand." Furthermore, all of the Swiss lineage S.U.G. implies it has, complete with marvelous photographs of para-sailing in the Alps, unquestionably belongs to Alpina. Enough about the brand name; on to the watch itself.

Case, Crown, Bezel, Back and Crystals:
The solid stainless steel case and bezel are a "sports" style: large, thick and heavy with a brushed finish that won't show fine hairline scratches as easily as a highly polished case does. Bezel is castellated with the inset parts enameled jet black, and has numerals marking the minutes at each quarter-hour. In checking the number of bezel detents (60 or 120), the feel of its click when rotated . . . whether it's loose and grinds or tight and smooth . . . what??? . . . it doesn't turn . . . oooooommmph . . . nope . . . doesn't turn. Counted the indentations. They don't line up with 5-minute increments either (four instead of three between the quarter-hour marks). It's purely decorative [sigh]. Crown is likewise made of stainless, is a nice size with good fluting, and unlike the bezel it readily turns . . . what??? . . . it readily turns. It's not a screw-down crown, but it does feel like there's some gasketing around the stem. The wind also feels decent, as does time setting (not loose, sloppy or excessive gear lash). The lugs have knurled Allen screws that at first glance appear to be part of the strap attachment scheme, but they're purely decorative. A closer look reveals the position of strap attachment does not line up with the Allen screw centers; it's a little outside of them. The strap attaches with standard springbars (no problem mechanically; it is what it is). The decorative nature of the knurled Allen screws adds to the "Sports Watch" style. Top crystal is heavy mineral glass which should take a few knocks OK and is reasonably scratch resistant.

The back is stainless with a flat mineral glass display window. Etched printing around the back is well done, even depth, and crisp. It's better than the recently reviewed Rousseau. Top crystal is also heavy, dead-flat mineral glass.

Strap:
The blue textured leather strap is good quality, well-made and nicely padded. Its stitching looks good and isn't gaudy; it doesn't distract from the watch head. The excellent signed buckle is made of heavy guage stainless steel with rounded edges on all its parts. Etching of the "SUG" signature is deep, even and crisp. It's well executed with a weight, heft, style and color appropriate for the watch style.

WARNING
If you are prone to disillusionment, and are obsessively bothered by the slightest flaws found in consumer products, to the point that you lose sleep over it, or cannot bring yourself to look at it any more, proceed no further and skip to my comments at the very end. What you are about to see past this point are details that can only be seen through 10x loupe. While they contribute to overall visual effects when looking at the watch with an unaided eye, the root causes for those effects are not revealed until they're magnified. They also demonstrate some of the reasons this watch belongs in a sub-$100 price class.

Dial and Hands:
The dial is heavily textured with a checkered pattern of small (U.S.) football shaped indentations. It has an overall pleasing effect. The raised silver arabic hour indices are bold and nicely applied to the dial, as is the raised, silver U.S.G. logo. Rectangular lume dots are placed just outside the hour indices in the chapter ring with minutes black tick marks that are bold enough to be seen easily. The central hour and minute hands are silver, arrow skeletons with white lume in the arrowheads. The minute hand could have been made a tad longer so that its tip reaches the chapter ring. Subdial hands are red and easy to read. I believe it would have been better to used blued hands throughout on this dial. At some lighting angles, the central hour and minute hands, as wide as they are, nearly disappear completely, forcing the wearer to turn or twist the wrist to change the lighting angle and make the more visible. That they're skeleton hands doesn't help any. Lume on the hour and minute hand is OK. Lume on the dial is quite weak.

All seemed good until I looked at the dial with a 10x loupe. That's when I discovered why something had been nagging at me about the dial's appearance when looking at the photos I'd done of the entire watch. I had expected to find the subdial markings inked onto the dial itself. They're not. These markings are plastic or vinyl appliques glued to the dial face, and they're not exactly the same shape or completely aligned with the spaces inset for them in the dial. I was disappointed by this. There's no reason these markings could not have been inked onto the dial using pad printing. It's not that difficult to do. Although the "root cause" reason cannot be seen without a loupe, the misalignment of these appliques does impact the overall visual effect of the dial, making it seem just a bit rough around the subdials.

Movement:

The movement is a 28 jewel, 21,600 bph, Chinese made Tianjin Sea-Gull Series ST-17N caliber 1780 non-hacking automatic, also known by its export caliber number TY-2714. Features include hand-wind, central hour and minute hands, with a seconds subdial, and power reserve and date complications on subdials. Date is incremented for setting it using a separate pusher located at 2:00.
Movement dimensions are ~12.5''' (28mm) diameter and 6.48mm thick. Hour and minute pinions are 134/83.5 nominal (H/M in 1/100ths millimeter). Found this unusual as its neither the "standard" Miyota or ETA diameters. Subdial pinions are a more standard 25.5 (also in 1/100ths millimeter). The pinion diameters define the hole diameters required for the hands. As with nearly all watches in this class, it is held inside the much larger case using a nylon spacer ring.

Then I pulled out the 10x loupe and looked at the movement in detail. This photo, and the one of the dial, were made using the loupe and a technique called "eyepiece projection" by putting the loupe directly on the front of the camera lens. It's a "quick and dirty" method I've used with microscopes and telescopes. With many movements, the pallet fork interaction with the escape wheel is extremely difficult to see, if it can be seen at all. One of the two pallet jewels can be clearly seen engaged in an escape wheel tooth in this photo. Both pallet jewels looked to be well shaped with nicely beveled ends, and cleanly attached to the pallet fork. The Geneva Stripes on both the rotor and bridges are clean, crisp and straight, with even depth. The stripes also line up across the bridges nicely. The blued screws have even bluing, and the outside edge of the heads are beveled. The etched logo on the rotor also looks quite clean (much better done than the Rousseau rotor logo).

However, this movement, while cleaner than the one in the Rousseau Cantata, still showed some lack of control and cleanliness during movement and watch assembly. I found a few small tool scratches on the movement bridge, a chip in the striping on the rotor, and a strand of lint on the rotor as well. At first I thought it was some lint on the outside of the display crystal. Then I thought it might be on the inside surface of the crystal. Finally, I moved the rotor, and that showed it was on the rotor. It's a shame considering the clean striping. A couple miniscule particles of dust were also found; much fewer than was expected after seeing the strand of lint. It's fortunate the movement is decorated, as the striping (and pearlage, if there is any inside the case) will tend to grab onto tiny debris particles and hold them. It serves functionally much like the magnetized drain plug in gearboxes.

Although I don't care much for leather bands (preference is for steel bracelet), it is a well made strap with a nice quality buckle. The rest of the watch is fairly attractive in the sub-$100 class. I could live with the movement and overall workmanship by invoking the same rule regarding watches in this class: Don't look at it using a 10x loupe and remain blissfully ignorant. One additional rule for the Nova: It looks like a sports watch, but it's not, so don't treat it like one, especially around water. It's a "casual attire" watch. Lack of a screw-down crown was the first of my disappointments; the second was a non-hacking movement. Rotating bezel for timing would be a nicety, and blued hands throughout would make the central hands more visible against the dial.

Bottom Line:

One can spend a lot more than $100 and get substantially less watch.
Don't spend more than $100 for a S.U.G. Nova and you get your money's worth.

S.U.G. Watches Web Site
Always At Market Web Site

Note: I have no affiliation, association or financial interest in S.U.G. or Always At Market. I do have an association with Ricky, who owns this watch, and was kind enough to send it to me for review.

Review: Rousseau Cantata

2009-04-05T13:07:00.030-04:00

A Lesson Repeated:
Do Not Use a 10x Loupe to Examine *VPMWs

*VPMW: Very Poor Man's Watch; sub-$100 street price

This Rousseau Cantata was loaned to me specifically for review by Ricky, an acquaintance on PMWF, the "Poor Man's Watch Forum" which is dedicated to sub-$1,000 watches.

Summary:

Aesthetically attractive piece, fairly well made except for one major defect (see if you can spot it in the photo above before I get to it).
This is a "Dress Watch." Don't expect "Sports" or "Military" watch features.
Decent Chinese-made "export quality" movement.
Could have done a little better with dial ergonomics, but it's not a deal-breaker.
Be prepared to do a thorough Quality Control inspection immediately on receiving it (related to major defect alluded to above).
Worth the price as long as you win the auction under $100.

Specifications:

40mm diameter (excluding crown)
13mm thick
48mm lug to lug length
20mm lug width
72.5 grams (with strap)
5 ATM water resistance
Decorated 21j, 21.6k bph, hacking, Chinese Tianjin Sea-Gull ST-16N caliber 1680 automatic with blued screws (aka caliber TY-2856)
24-hour jump hour subdial at "6" (independent of central hour hand)
40-hour power reserve partial subdial at "12"
Stainless steel case, crown and back (with display window)
Crown is not screw-down (not expected of a dress watch)
Flat mineral glass crystals top and bottom (display back)
Two-tone black and white dial with inner checkerboard pattern and cyclops over date window
No lume on dial or hands (also not expected of a dress watch)
Black dauphin hands (no lume)
"All Dial" no bezel design
"Cantata" model no longer in production for Rousseau (as a private label)

Rousseau is one of over a dozen brand names marketed in the U.S. by Always at Market in Carrollton, Texas. They're sold exclusively through auction sites, primarily eBay now, and are advertised with absurdly high suggested retail prices. Invariably, most are sold for what they're actually worth in the $50 to $100 range (for those without real precious gems on the dial or case), although there are anomalous auctions. Bidder behavior is utterly inexplicable at times. One exception is their "Balmer" brand which is a little more up-market from the rest (Balmer uses Swiss movements, but they're not ETA and less expensive). In the industry they're referred to as "Myth Brands" (with elaborate tales about the company name originating from an obscure, centuries-old, Swiss watch or clock-making family) or "Mushroom Brands" (pop up overnight and disappear shortly thereafter). They're typically "Private Label" made in China regardless of where the company headquarters is located. One of the firms that makes many of them is MillionSmart Enterprise at a factory in Shenzhen. Most have Chinese Tianjin Sea-Gull (one of the better Chinese movement makers) or Hangzhou movements. I don't know much about the Hangzhou except they make some of the ETA 2824, 6497 and 6498 "clones."

A visit to the Rousseau web site is no different than other "Myth Brands." Its "history" tells a quite lengthy tale about an exceptionally obscure 17th Century European watch-maker named Jean Rousseau and his sons, the eldest of which lived into the mid-18th Century. It ends its verbose meanderings there, as if the family suddenly vaporized with Jean's sons. Absolutely zero connection is drawn between that family and the current brand name, or the age of the current Rousseau brand. So much for European lineage and heritage. There isn't any.

It has the MillionSmart "private label" heritage common of many "Myth Brands." The evidence is quite compelling after visiting the Chinese web site for MillionSmart Enterprise, perusing their extensive on-line catalog, and finding this MillionSmart brand MS70020 that looks nearly identical. Change the dial slightly, put on different hands, and add a Rousseau logo. The movement inside the MillionSmart MS70020 is identical: Tianjin caliber TY-2856 made by Sea-Gull.

Case, crown and crystals:
The case is highly polished solid stainless steel in a clean "All Dial" style with no bezel which makes its 40mm diameter appear visually larger. Very well made with clean lines. One sees the dial, not the case. Crown is also stainless steel with good fluting and decent size to grab hold of and operate. It's not a screw-down crown, a feature that should not be expected of a Dress Watch. The crystals top and bottom are mineral glass, clean, and appear dead flat. Execution of all this gets an excellent mark.
The rim around the see-through case back is etched with markings one expects to find on the back of a watch. Close examination shows that these markings are not etched into the steel using "bead" or sand blasting, or by a chemical photo-mask process. They're made by either mechanically needle peening or, more likely, by pulsing LASER. It requires using a loupe to see the tell-tale "plowed field" rows that multiple passes make using these kinds of etching processes to attain the font width. Nevertheless, lettering edges on the back are sharp and it's very legible. More about the rotor when the movement itself is discussed.

Dial and Hands:
Dial is well sculpted with flat, wide outer ring in black surrounding a white checkerboard inner circle. 24-hour subdial at "6" has fine concentric circle pattern, and 40-hour power reserve partial subdial has a fan pattern. Hour indices are roman, not uncommon for a Dress Watch. An outer chaptering has hour dots with minute indices. An inner chapter ring around the white circle has minutes marked in arabic numerals every five minutes. An unusual convex cyclops magnifier is over the date window on the dial itself. Usually these magnifiers are on the crystal, not the dial! The silver hour indices and "Rousseau" script logo are very cleanly applied and straight. All other markings are inked (appear to be pad printed) with very clean edges. The central dauphin Hour, minute, and second hands are all black, as is the stick 24-hour hand. The power reserve hand is red, matching its sub-dial markings. Neither the dial nor the hands have any lume, which is not expected on a true Dress Watch.

While the dial has an overall aesthetic appearance, some ergonomics are lacking. The tips of the black minute and second hands are lost over the flat black wide outer ring making precise minutes and seconds more difficult to read. The date complication is nearly worthless in practical use as its window and numbers on the date ring are so tiny. The cyclops magnifier on the dial does nothing to improve this. Indeed, it may impede reading the date.

Dial workmanship overall is excellent with two exceptions. The first is relatively minor. Look at the photo above at the black/white edge between the "35" and "40" minute markings on the inner chapter ring. The dial was first painted black, and then the white inner portion painted over it. The boundary edge between has a few places where the white paint bled slightly down into a groove that surrounds the checkerboard pattern. It wouldn't be noticeable if it weren't for the stark contrast of white and black. The second problem is a major quality spill that escaped all the Quality Controls (what there may be of them) from dial fabrication through watch assembly. Have you spotted it yet? Very carefully count the roman hour indices around the dial and examine each one. When you get to the "VI" the next should be a "VII" but it's not. There are two "VI" indices. The missing "I" didn't fall off or it would be floating around inside the watch and the glue dots that had held it would be visible. I'm left wondering how many of these dials got out the door!

Strap:
The black strap is very good quality crocodile grain leather and is padded on the inside. Stitching looks good, and it has an excellent signed buckle made of heavy guage stainless steel with rounded edges on all its parts. Well executed and an appropriate color for the watch style.

Movement:

The movement is an inexpensive, ~13''', 21 jewel, 21,600 bph Chinese made Tianjin Sea-Gull Series ST-16N caliber 6180 automatic, also known as a caliber TY-2856. Features include hand-winding and hacking, with date, 24-hour subdial, and power reserve complications. The photos above show a bare 6180 without any decoration. The Rousseau's bridges and rotor are decorated with "Geneva Stripes" and the screws visible from the back are blued. As should be expected, the stripes line up properly across bridges.
The Tianjin Sea-Gull ST16N 1680 is based on the Miyota simplified bridge movement, but slightly larger. Basic dimensions are ~13''' (29mm) diameter and 6.52mm height. It is held inside the case with a nylon spacer ring. The central minute, hour and second hands pinions are 100/152/17 (m/h/s in 1/100ths millimeter; defines hand mounting hole diameters). Both subdial hands appear to have 25.5 pinions (in 1/100ths millimeter).

I looked at the movement using a 10x loupe to examine its workmanship as the decorations are particularly pleasing to the unaided eye. The first thing I noticed was ability to see the pallet stones on the pallet lever being driven back and forth by the escape wheel. The ruby pallet stones, from the side I could see, looked clean and well mounted to the pallet lever without any lint or other debris. Likewise, the balance wheel and hairspring and regulating lever also looked very clean and well made. As of today, and with my crude accuracy measurement methods, it's gaining ~13-14 seconds per day which is something a watchmaker could easily tweak and improve to about half that.

Next came an examination of the extensive decoration on the bridges and rotor. See the photo of the watch back above. Even without a loupe a smudged fingerprint can be seen on the rotor. A look at the engraved Rousseau signature on the rotor revealed it could have been done better as it needed to be deeper to overcome the Geneva striping already present. As a result, it looks rough compared to the etched printing on the case back performed using the same process. The bluing on the screws is decently done and they are beveled around their rim, but not inside the slot edges. The Geneva stripes are likewise done fairly well and they're even width and straight. This type of decoration is performed with a horizontal cylinder and should form a concave surface with curved grooves. I found the stripes very slightly lifted on one edge compared to the other (this is very difficult to see; requires looking at a bridge edge). In addition, the corners on the bridge edges are slightly radiused, but are not finished off after the striping as would be done by hand with extremely expensive luxury watch movements (and wouldn't expect this either). For all the nice decoration though, I could see small nicks, scratches and scrapes in the striping through the loupe, along with a few bits of exceptionally fine dust scattered about (about the diameter of powdered sugar). While none of this affects movement operation one iota, it's evidence that parts and tool handling during movement assembly is sloppy. In addition, parts, movement assembly and storage isn't in a dust-free environment. While the Chinese have made progress, they have some distance to go with controlling their manufacturing. I had to continuously remind myself that this is a very inexpensive movement compared to Swiss ETA and Sellita, or the Japanese Seiko and Orient movements.

Movement operation is smooth. Winding feels much like a Miyota 82xx series movement with an extremely fine "click" (this is a toothed wheel and spring that acts as a ratchet). Detents are positive with setting date and time, and the second hand does not have the "jump" that some Chinese movements suffer when the crown is pushed back in following time setting (the "jump" is usually caused by the hack stopping the 3rd wheel instead of the balance wheel). The 24-hour hand is incremented by using a flush pusher located on the side of the case at the "4." It has a dimple in the middle of the pusher and it's intuitively obvious one should use a pen or pencil to increment the 24-hour time. It's an interesting feature that reminds me flush pushers found on quartz digital watches for setting time and calendar date.

Although it's not particuarly my kind of watch style in terms of colors, Roman hour indices and leather band (my preference is steel bracelet), I could live with the movement and overall workmanship, with a simple rule . . . don't look at it using a 10x loupe . . . as a sub-$100 watch . . . except for one thing . . . the twice each day hour of Daylight Savings Time that occurs at 7:00 AM and 7:00 PM (the "missing" Roman "I" at the "7" hour) . . . a major gaffe in Quality Control starting with the dial fabrication and continuing through sending a completed watch out the door. It's something I would expect Rousseau to fix (aka Always At Market in Carrollton, TX), without question or cost, regardless of how little I paid for the watch.

Rousseau Watches Web Site

Always At Market Web Site

Note: I have no affiliation, association or financial interest in Rousseau or Always At Market. I do have an association with Ricky, who owns this watch, and was kind enough to send it to me for review.

Rebuilding a Desktop Computer

2009-02-10T23:45:00.000-05:00

Much Cheaper Than a New One:
Custom Desktop Computer Rebuild

It had been a while since I had upgraded my main desktop machine. Been building my own custom desktops since the mid-1980's, starting with a PC-XT clone with an Intel 8088 processor, 640kB RAM (yes, kB) 30MB (yes, MB) hard drive, Hercules graphics, and a 14" monochrome monitor. The technology has changed substantially since that first machine, and my primary desktop has evolved through an Intel 286, AMD 386, Cyrix 486, AMD K6-2, AMD Duron (Applebred), AMD Athlon XP, and into the AMD Athlon 64 processors. Before this rebuild, my main desktop was running an AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 4000+ and AGP 8x graphics. It's upper the limit of Socket 939 AMD processors, with AGP or PCIe graphics. By no means a slouch in speed (faster than most current mid-level machines), it was time to upgrade it to multi-core processor and PCIe graphics.

Had some decision-making to do. There is some system design required when doing a custom build. One can't push any hardware combination together and expect it to work well. It might, but it might not. Learned that the hard way when I started building my 386 and 486 machines. Nearly all compatibility considerations are driven by the motherboard and its chipset. However, it shouldn't be the first choice. I choose the processor and desired chipset (Northbridge / Southbridge). Then I look for a motherboard with the chipset that supports the processor.

Looked at both AMD and Intel processors. Intel holds the edge on speed, but that's at the bleeding edge of processor technology, and they're quite expensive. Back down slightly to the top end of AMD's processors, and they're less expensive than the equivalent Intel. In the process, I discovered the AMD quad-core processor clock speeds were still substantially lower than top end of AMD's dual-core. In addition, current operating systems and application software are still geared for the lowest common denominator in the majority of machines in the current "installed user base": 32-bit single-core processors. Even the default install for Microsoft's newest operating systems, Vista, is 32-bit. The latest budget machines are still shipping with 32-bit processors (check out what's inside many of the "loss leaders" in the computer store ads). I opted once again for another AMD processor, a Socket AM2 Athlon 64 X2 6400+ dual-core with 3.2 GHz core clock. One of the chipset makers I've used heavily in the past, Via Systems, basically stopped supporting AMD processors with the Socket 939 and 940 Northbridge/Southbridge chipsets. Disappointing as nearly all their chipsets were excellent. The only real choices for an AMD Socket AM2 or AM2+ are the AMD and nVidia chipsets.

Which one picks also tends to lock in which graphics chipset will be used: ATi (owned by AMD now) or nVidia. It is possible to use an nVidia graphics card on an AMD chipset motherboard, and vice versa, as the PCIe socket it is plugged into, and the graphics interface behind it is an industry standard. However, it doesn't allow leveraging on enhancements that can be had if an ATi graphics card is used with an AMD chipset motherboard, or an nVidia card is used with an nVidia chipset. This is especially true if one wants to run multiple graphics cards in tandem (i.e. ATi CrossFire or nVidia SLI). I've used nVidia graphics for a long time (4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000 series) and have always been pleased. After looking at the nVidia and AMD Northbridge/Southbridge chipsets though, I settled on the AMD's 790FX and SB600 chipset. These are found on AM2+ motherboards which support dual, triple and quad-core processors. If I wanted to upgrade to a quad later (as they gain core clock speed), I could. It meant I'd be using ATi (Radeon) graphics. After reading some about ATi's Crossfire, I picked ATi's HD3870 with plans to use a pair of them in CrossFireX mode. The current bleeding edge is the HD4870, but they're expensive. Could have gone with HD4850, one notch down from the 4870's. It was pretty much a coin-toss until I found substantial rebates on a pair of HD3870's. Added up the power requirements for all this and realized quickly I'd need a new power supply; one that's bigger than the solid 500 Watt that's been used for several generations of motherboards. It wouldn't be enough for the processor and pair of graphics cards.

The new hardware architecture was settled:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ Dual Core
AMD 790FX Northbridge and SB600 Southbridge
AM2+ socket motherboard with ATX form factor to fit case
4 GB DDR2 800 MHz (PC6400) low latency RAM (4-4-4-15-T1 timing)
Two ATi HD3870 Radeon cards in CrossFireX
Sony DRU-865S SATA DVD/CD Burner (with Lightscribe)
850 Watt Antec power supply
300 GB SATA II hard drive (reused from current machine)
3.5" micro-floppy drive (reused from current machine)
Flash card reader (reused from current machine)
Soundblaster Audigy SE audio (reused from current machine)

The first step, before disconnecting anything from the existing machine, was backing up its hard drive completely. I used an external USB hard drive, and cloned the hard drive inside the machine to the external drive. These things are handy. Following drive upgrades, I've been putting the old drive into an external USB case. The contents of the 300GB drive fit onto the 250GB external USB drive with room to spare. The new machine will have a different processor, different supporting chipset on the motherboard, and equally different graphics. That requires completely different operating system drivers. The cleanest, most trouble-free rebuild requires completely reinstalling the operating system. I've tried simply booting up with the existing hard drive without reinstalling the operating system in the past. Doesn't work very well, and requires more time and effort to get the new machine working right compared to backing up the drive, wiping it clean, doing a complete operating system install, reinstalling application software, and then copying legacy data to be retained from the backup. A clone of the old drive ensures everything is saved, and can be retrieved.

The only things to be reused in this project are the computer case, hard drive, floppy drive, flash card reader, and sound card. The case was originally bought to house an AMD K6-2 (Socket 7) system on an ATX form factor motherboard running Windows 95. It's solidly built out of heavy gauge steel; not a cheapie and worth reusing. Buying a new one with its materials and build quality, even without a power supply, would cost well over $100. The next step, after backing up the hard drive completely, was gutting it completely, down to just the case itself.

Only one problem with reusing this case though. It's a horizontal desktop box which will be a little crowded after all the new hardware is installed, and it wasn't made to dissipate the heat generated by current higher-end processors, motherboards and graphics. Although there's an air intake fan on the front, the only exhaust is out through the power supply in the back. That sufficed until now, but it's insufficient for this upgrade. Pushing the very hot air generated by current high-end processors and graphics card(s) through a power supply would be hard on it. It needs some exhaust fans on the back, and the flat panel on the back, just above the rectangular hole for the ATX motherboard connectors, is the only viable location for mounting cooling fans in the rear of the case. It's the only unused area on the case back.

Some measurements of the panel shows a pair of 60mm fans can be mounted next to each other. The task now is drilling the holes for the fans, and that requires a bi-metal hole saw. Turns out I've got one just the right size. The same size hole saw used for drilling holes in metal doors for door handles will make a hole just the right size for 60mm cooling fans. The fan mounting hole centers are marked first, and lines drawn between opposing centers locate the center point for the hole saw's pilot drill.
Drilling sheet metal, even if it's steel, can deform it, especially when the drill begins to break through to the other side. A piece of scrap wood is clamped to the area of the case being drilled out to provide support. The other technique is not putting too much pressure on the drill, or too high a drill speed, using just enough to let the drill's cutting edges do the work. When it does break through, there's not as much metal left for the cutting edges to grab onto and twist. It also reduces the amount of burr left behind that must be removed after drilling the hole.
The holes have been finished and the burrs removed. The remnants of marks made to locate hole centers can still be seen, but removing those doesn't matter much. It's on the back of the case that won't be seen when the computer is in use. I used a fine-tip Sharpie "permanent" marker. Some alcohol or similar solvent would easily remove the marks if desired.
The fans have been mounted taking care to route their power cables so they don't get pinched, and won't interfere with the rest of the computer's components when they're installed in the case. The pair of fans selected are variable RPM to minimize fan noise to the level necessary for cooling. They have heat sensors on them, starting at a low RPM at room temperature, that increases fan RPM as heat from the air passing through them increases. These types of fans do the job for exhuast air; not recommended for intake fans (the air would always be cool).
A look from the back with the new fans. I had considered adding a couple of grilles over the fans to keep things (like fingers) from coming into contact with spinning fan blades. The motor mounting in the fan box provides sufficient protection for the fan blades on these particular fans. They'll be OK without grilles over them. Note the horizontal line marked above the fans, and the small hole just above the fan on the right. The top case cover has a flange on the back, and the hole is for one of the five screws that attaches the case cover to the case. The fans had to be mounted below this line and hole as the case cover screw protrudes into the case when its cover is installed, and the fan mounting screws would interfere with the cover flange if it extended over the top of them. The fan mounting screws are nearly flush, but not quite.
A vacuum cleaner and its hose attachment were used to completely clean all the sawdust, and more important, the metal filings out of the case. I removed and put back the drives in the drive cage while doing this. In retrospect I should have removed the CD/DVD burner, hard drive and 3.5" micro-floppy drive before drilling the holes and mounting the fans. I still use a 3.5" floppy disks occasionally. Booting from a floppy is required to flash a BIOS update on nearly every motherboard made.
Now to deal with the motherboard. After looking at various AM2+ boards with 790FX/SB600 chipsets, reading some reviews on them, and comparing prices, I picked an MSI K9A2 Platinum that includes USB, Firewire and 1000BASE-T Ethernet on the motherboard. Even though it can handle up to four graphics cards in CrossFireX, I only plan to use two.Most motherboards come with plenty of cables for connecting peripheral devices (e.g. disk drives). This one is no exception. Also included is a backplate for installation in the computer case to provide the proper cutouts for all the rear connectors on the motherboard. The original ATX form factor had a fairly standard layout for its connectors, but that didn't last long. Centronics parallel and RS-232C serial ports were supplanted by USB, Firewire, Ethernet, and embedded audio connectors. Now, eSATA ports are becomming common (this motherboard has a pair of them).The next step is putting the backplate into the case. All the ones I've encountered with motherboards snap into the rectangular hole for them. Occasionally the motherboard makers will use one plate for several different motherboards and some tabs on them must be tweaked or completely removed for ports and connectors on the motherboard that wouldn't need to be for a different model number motherboard. The next photo shows the backplate installed into the large rectangular hole in the back of the case. The bottom halves of the two cooling fans can be seen just above it.
Before handling the processor, motherboard, or any of the peripheral cards, there's an essential device called an ESD wrist strap that needs to be put on and the cord attached to a ground point on the case (can be clipped to any convenient, unpainted, exposed metal inside or around the case. While many folks get away without using one, the bare processor is an extremely ESD sensitive device. It can be easily damaged by ESD. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (and the cost of a new processor).
When doing a rebuild that includes a new motherboard, I've found it easier to install the processor into its socket on the motherboard before installing the motherboard into the case. Doing it after the motherboard is in the case necessitates reaching down inside the case which isn't impossible, but is more difficult, especially with lining up the pins on the processor with the holes in the ZIF socket on the motherboard. This processor is the "retail" version that includes a heatsink and cooling fan for it. The amount of heat generated by this 135 Watt processor can be seen from the size of the and cooling fan and the heatsink it's mounted to, complete with copper pipes to facilitate heat transfer. It dwarfs the processor IC and is one of the reasons I added additional exhaust fans to the case.
ZIF is an acronym for "Zero Insertion Force." ZIF sockets unlock to allow inserting an IC, cable, or connector with near zero "force" or friction, and then lock again after the device is seated. Processor ZIF sockets on motherboards have a locking arm along the side of the socket that's lifted to unlock it. The square socket takes a "Pin Grid Array." This processor has a grid of 940 small pins on its underside. (The four long "card edge" sockets to the left of the square processor socket are for RAM.)
After the processor is carefully dropped into its socket, it literally drops into place when the pins are lined up correctly, the socket is locked using the locking arm and contacts inside the socket grip each pin tightly. The large black frame around the processor socket is for the heatsink, which attaches to and uses the frame to press the surface of the heatsink firmly onto the top of the processor.
Next, the case is prepared for the motherboard. ATX form factor mounting holes are fairly standard. There are two or three variations, and some motherboards do not use all nine mounting points. Consequently, cases use removable brass studs and have threaded holes at all the possible mounting points for them. With this motherboard, I needed to move a couple of them as its mounting points were a different variant than the old motherboard. The studs are hexagonal which allows using a hex nut driver to remove and install them easily. Care must be taken to avoid over-torquing them as it can strip their threads, or worse yet, snap the stud off of its threaded end (requires extracting it from the hole to replace it with a new one; not easy to do).
One of the cool tools I found some years ago is this one. Mounting points on the motherboard are surrounded closely by components and connectors, some of which are tall. This tool can grip a Phillips screw by the slots in its head, and it allows getting the screw started into its hole. If, perchance, the screw is dropped, it typically falls down into someplace that's hard to reach (one of many corollaries to Murphy's Law). There's a small magnet on the other end of this tool that allows retrieving it much easier than trying to use needle-nose pliers.
The motherboard can now be installed into the computer case. As a double-check, I count the number of mounting holes in the motherboard, and the number of brass studs in the case, to ensure they match. There's not much extra room; typical of horizontal desktop cases. Care must be taken to get all the motherboard's external connectors through the holes of the backplate correctly before installing any of the mounting screws. The bottom of the motherboard should not be dragged across the tops of the studs in the case while inserting it, but should be lifted off of them slightly when adjusting it. That can damage copper traces on the underside of the board. The screws are started using the tool above, and then tightened down firmly (again, taking care not to over-torque) using a standard #2 Phillips driver. More clues to the heat that will be generated by the motherboard are the three heatsinks on the 790FX Northbridge, SB600 Southbridge, and a third IC, all connected together with copper tubing.
The power supply comes next. When power requirements hit exceed 650 Watts and higher, the power supplies get bigger. Because of standard mounting points and dimensions inside cases, they get longer, extending deeper into the case. This 850 Watt Antec is no exception, extending a couple inches farther toward the front of the case than the 500 Watt supply it replaced. Fortunately there's enough room between it and the drives mounted in the drive cage for the power supply and drive cables, but it's just barely enough room. The blank space just to the right of the motherboard in the photo above is now completely filled by the power supply.
The processer heatsink/fan assembly and the RAM are now installed. Even though there are four card edge slots for the RAM, I used two 2GB "sticks" for a total of 4GB RAM. They go into the slots nearest the processor, and the heatsink crowds them a little. The fans AMD uses on the heatsinks included with a "retail boxed" processor are exceptionally reliable and quiet. The large fan size helps reduce noise as it can turn at lower RPM to move the same amount of air. The lifespan of every AMD fan I've had has exceeded every aftermarket processor cooling fan I've bought. Don't know what their service life is yet as they're all still running. It's a major reason I try to buy "retail box" versions of AMD's processors. In this case, it was less expensive than buying a "bulk pack" version of the processor (intended for manufacturers and system builders) and separate AMD heatsink/fan assembly rated for this processor (they can be found separately, but it requires some searching on-line for them). The RAM also has heatsinks; typical of low latency, high speed RAM as it must be run at a slightly higher voltage to work correctly. This generates more heat which must be dissipated. Could have used four 1GB "sticks" or one 4GB "stick" but there are reasons for using exactly two of the slots and putting identical RAM in them. An even number (versus 1 or 3) of the same size allows the motherboard to use "dual channel" RAM access which it cannot do with an odd number. This greatly speeds RAM reads and writes. In addition, if all four slots were populated, a couple RAM timing parameters would have to be slowed down slightly (at the least, the T1 in its timing specs would have to back off to T2). Using exactly two, with exactly the same RAM in each of them, allows optimal RAM access speed, to the timing limits specified for the RAM by its manufacturer.
The first of the two graphics cards is inserted into its PCIe slot before adding the other cards as it's the innermost slot. The second one and CrossFireX cables will be added after the machine is up and running with the operating system, hardware drivers, firewall (I disable Windows' firewall and use one of my own), and Anti-Virus software. The size of its cooling fan and heatsinks are yet more clues about the amount of heat this system will generate.

The remaining cards, a Soundblaster Audigy and a WiFi card, are installed in two PCI slots, and then all the internal interconnecting cables are run. Unless there's a piece of hardware that will prevent connecting a cable after all the hardware is installed, I save running all the internal cables until the end of the hardware build. Doing this keeps them from getting in the way of installing hardware, and it allows routing the cabling properly over and around the hardware as required. Doing it before this often requires re-routing cables again after additional hardware is added.

After double checking that all the internal interconnect cables are properly installed and connected by systematically inspecting each component, it's time for the "Smoke Test" (apply power and see if anything starts emitting smoke; no smoke means at least there aren't anycatastrophic mistakes). It's the reason the CPU cover hasn't been installed yet. Keyboard, mouse, monitor and speakers (in this build, the monitor has built-in speakers) are connected, and then the power cords. Wiping the hard drive completely clean before gutting the old system prevents the machine from attempting to boot the old install of the operating system and makes accessing the motherboard's system BIOS easier. It's passed the "Smoke Test" and no errors were indicated when the BIOS performed its POST (Power-On Self-Test). The BIOS is accessed by depressing a specific key on the keyboard when the machine is powered on. The manual for the motherboard contains instructions on which key to use (typically the F1, F10 or DELETE key, it varies by motherboard manufacturer). Time to make some BIOS settings specific to the hardware in this build:

Enabling the USB and Firewire ports
Disabling the Serial and Parallel ports (I'll never use them)
Disabling the on-board audio (I've installed my own Soundblaster card)
Enabling the SATA drive interfaces and disabling the IDE drive interfaces (I'm using a SATA hard drive and CD/DVD burner)
Disabling RAID (multiple hard drives can be configured to appear as a single one)
Setting RAM operating voltage and timing to its manufacturer's specs
Some additional timing parameters for the system bus (if you don't know what they are and what they do, and it isn't explained in the motherboard manual, leave these alone until you can look them up using Google).

The machine is then re-booted several times into BIOS to ensure it's at least stable enough to boot into BIOS.
The cover is now put onto the CPU and the operating system is installed. The machine should not be connected to any network while installing the operating system! Firewall (if the one bundled with WinXP isn't used) and Anti-Virus software should be installed before connecting the machine to a network. The operating system is vulnerable to attack while it's being installed, and if it's allowed broadband internet access in the process, the operating system will be compromised. There are thousands of automated "bots" that scan the internet for vulnerable computers. A WinXP machine was compromised in less the 4 minutes in a test done by PC Magazine several years ago. A close friend forgot to disconnect his computer from the internet before installing WinXP. When he got done, he had to reformat the drive and start completely over. It had become a "Zombie" drafted into a Botnet Army.

I'm putting Windows XP /x64 Professional on this platform. The "/x64" variant of Windows XP is the 64-bit version of WinXP. The common variants of WinXP (Home, Pro and Media Center) are all 32-bit. They'll run on a 64-bit hardware platform, but I prefer /x64 as it was created from 32-bit Windows Server 2003 (the server version of WinXP), which came several years after WinXP Home and Pro were released. Windows Server 2003, and WinXP /x64 are noticeably more stable than the 32-bit (aka /x86) WinXP Home or Pro. It does require having true 64-bit hardware drivers for all the hardware inside the machine, and for anything connected to it using a USB, Firewire, serial or parallel ports (e.g. printers, scanners, PDAs, cell phones, MP3 players, etc.). It's not a problem now, although it was one just after /x64 was released. Even iTunes can be installed for iPods (requires an easy to perform, minor hack to iTunes for Vista /x64).
After intalling the operating system, hardware drivers are installed as needed for the processor, its supporting chipset, and other peripherals (e.g. graphics and audio). The general sequence I use:

Operating system (WinXP /x64 for this build)
Hardware drivers
Firewall and Anti-Virus software
Connect machine to internet and update A-V software
Update operating system with all critical updates (Windows Update for this build)
Customize the Windows user interface
Benchmark software (after which I run some benchmarks)
Application software (e.g. MS Office, OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, Nero, various games)

One of the benchmarks I use is Futuremark's 3D-Mark. The reason for running some benchmark software before installing other applications is to put the entire machine under full load and ensure its stable. If the benchmark software crashes while running its tests, this is investigated until the root cause is found (typically a timing paramete in BIOS must be tweaked). It prevents headaches later. I was very pleasantly surprised with the results of 3D-Mark05 after installing the 2nd graphics card and setting up CrossFireX. It's at the very top of reported benchmarks for similar machines in its class, and holds its own against the guys who build machines for nothing but sheer speed by overclocking everything and watercooling the processor, RAM and graphics cards. These guys don't care if the machine lasts only a day, or if its of any practical use for anything. They're after the highest benchmark score possible with a single run of the benchmark software (why the "Fastest System" score on the right is ridiculously high).

Before installing other applications, I customized the Windows XP user interface on this machine. It looks a like Vista, including a Sidebar with Widgets, but it's not Vista, it's WinXP /x64. Who needs Vista? I don't, and I don't want it either. WinXP /x64 is smaller, more efficient and very stable. It doesn't have the continuing problematic stability issues Vista still has.

Review: Turning Back The Hands of Time

2009-02-07T19:29:00.001-05:00

Vintage A. Schild Brain Matic Alarm

Created in 1973 and produced until 1977, the A. Schild AS5008 auto alarm movement was made in the last years of A.Schild before they were absorbed into The Swatch Group and merged with ETA. A.Schild made movements for many mid-range and high-range Swiss watch "assemblage" firms from the 1920's through the 1970's, including Certina, Fortis, Junghans, Mido, Rado, Zeno and Zodiac. Some of these companies are now in the Swatch Group (Mido and Rado) and the firms that used AS movements 30 years ago now use ETA 28xx movements in their current mechanical watches.

Most of the AS5008 movements were sold to Fortis for their Brain Matic Alarm. Nearly all vintage Brain Matics, especially with this case style, have Fortis logos. The AS5008 was also used by Certina, Junghans, Zeno and Zodiac. In the final couple years of A.Schild, they returned to their "manufacture" roots and made complete watches, but only a few. This one is a true rarity as it was made and sold by A.Schild under their own name, bearing the A.Schild shield logo on the dial, something normally seen only on the inside of a watch etched into a bridge on its movement. I've no doubt the case, dial and hands were made by the same firms that supplied Fortis for their Brain Matics. They're nearly identical except for the logo on the dial.

A.Schild Brain Matic Specs:

180 Grams
40x42mm stainless steel case, 13mm tall, with hooded lugs, hardened to 1450 Vickers, the same hardness as a Rado DiaStar's "Hardmetal." Extremely large and heavy for its era, its the only vintage extremely hardened case I've seen aside from the Rado's Titanium Carbide cases.
Hardened mineral crystal.
Silver dial with sunburst pattern and applied hour indices of heavy steel blocks stepped for the minute hand to pass over them.
Lume on hour indices, hour hands and minute hands still glows.
A.Schild AS5008 Auto-Wind Alarm Movement:

25 jewel, 28.8k bph High Beat.
Watch and Alarm both Auto-wind and Hand-wind. Rotor winds watch in one direction, alarm in the other; approx. 800 revs for complete wind.
49 hour power reserve.
Hacking with Quickset Bilingual Day and Date.
10 second alarm.

Acquired without a band, the one on it is not original. It is of a style from its era, 4mm thick and 20mm wide with solid stainless steel links.

More recently, circa 1990-1991, the AS5008 movement was resurrected by Maurice Lacroix as their caliber LM22 for use in its Masterpiece Collection as their "Masterpiece AS5008", including two limited editions of 999 in pink gold cases and 125 in platinum cases.

The A.Schild Brain Matic can hold its head high that its movement is worthy enough to be used in limited editions made by a prestige brand. I feel extremely lucky to have found this rare example of an A.Schild Brain Matic in such fine condition.

iPod Mini Lazarus Act

2008-02-23T11:44:00.005-05:00

Resurrecting an iPod Mini From the Dead

A friend at work asked me if I could resurrect an iPod Mini that booted to the dreaded "Sad iPod Icon." Told her I'd give it a shot, thinking one of the "5 R's" would bring it back to life. My wife has always managed to cure her own iPods, so I knew there was a source of advice available on what things can be tried to get it working again. Although she has a whole family of various iPod models, none of them is a Mini. Little did I know at the outset that it would be a little more work than fiddling with some button combinations on the click wheel to reset it and restore the operating software, if necessary.

I got my first clue of this when the iPod Mini was delivered to me by my friend. She told me they had already been through Apple's "5 R's" several times without avail. Not a good sign. Nevertheless, I took it home and went through them a couple times myself, including trying to put the iPod into mass storage drive mode. Same results as she had. Nothing more could be prodded out of it beyond the "Sad iPod" screen. OK, off to the computer and the search engine of search engines: Google. What I didn't know before getting pages of hits about the iPod Mini and the "Sad iPod" icon was soon revealed.

The Bad News:
With an iPod Mini, it's almost always catastrophic drive failure. This isn't just the file structure hosed up on the drive that reformatting it can fix. That would produce a file folder icon with an exclamation point.

The meaning of a "Sad iPod" icon on a Mini:

[with apologies to Monty Python]

The drive isn't just restin' from playing the LP version of Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida," or pinin' for The Beatles' "Norwegian Woods." Even 4 million volts wouldn't make it "voom" again. It's passed on; the drive is no more; ceased to be; expired and gone to meet its maker; a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If it were't captive inside the iPod, it'd be pushing up the daisies. Its electro-mechanical processes are now history; off the twig. It's kicked the bucket, shuffled off its mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. It's an EX-DRIVE!

The Good News:
Powering up with an Apple icon and displaying the "Sad iPod" icon almost always means the logic board (main circuit board) and display are OK. Very, very likely the click wheel and daughter board with earbud jack are OK too. More Good News: the iPod Mini can be disassembled and the original Seagate ST-1 MicroDrive replaced with a CompactFlash card.

Better News:
While it's cracked open for major thoracic surgery, might as well replace the battery too. Age and repeated recharging has likely reduced its capacity (translates into playing time). The original battery Apple used was rated at 400 mAh capacity. Target offers 400 mAh replacements for $40. Surprisingly high priced as on-line (easily found) sellers of iPod parts offer 650 mAh significantly higher capacity (~1.5X) drop-in replacements for 2/5ths of Target's price, including shipping cost. Better yet, CompactFlash also uses less power than a MicroDrive. An iPod Mini with both CompactFlash and new 650 mAh battery won't run just 1.5X longer between recharges, it will run even longer, likely 2X or more.

The Best News:
At the time the iPod Mini was originally designed and made, MicroDrives were expensive. That's why Apple only used 2GB and 4GB drives. CompactFlash was emerging as a drop-in direct replacement for MicroDrives using flash memory, but it was even more expensive. Hitachi and Seagate still make MicroDrives, offering models with as much as 8GB capacity, but they remain expensive. The price of CompactFlash has since plummeted while capacity and read/write speed has increased dramatically. A 133X CompactFlash with 8GB, twice the capacity of an iPod Mini 4GB MicroDrive, now costs 1/4th the price of a 4GB replacement Seagate ST-1 MicroDrive, and while the capacity of a MicroDrive now tops out at 8GB, the capacity of CompactFlash has risen to 32GB. Designed as an end-user removable memory, it's most often found in this kind of application with some PDAs and most professional grade digital SLR cameras. Devices like the iPod Mini have them embedded inside, and they weren't intended to be end-user removable. Consequently, not every make/model CompactFlash works well inside an iPod Mini. Scouring a number of reviews showed the Transcend 133X CF cards worked well with decent write speed (when uploading music into the iPod; read speed during playback is at a comparatively very slow rate).

Now to get the iPod apart and extract its MicroDrive. I just happen to have memory card readers on two desktop machines that have a slot for MicroDrive/CompactFlash memory cards.

[with apologies to Frank Baum]

Attempting to read it directly will verify it legally, to see if the MicroDrive, is morally, ethic'lly, spiritually, physically, positively, absolutely, undeniably and reliably dead.

Examining the outside, the mechanical design concept for its case is obvious. It is an extruded aluminum shell with plastic top and bottom caps, with two holes in the front for the display window and click wheel switch pad. What isn't obvious is how the plastic top and bottom caps are attached. There are no fasteners (screws, nuts, rivets, etc.) visible and there are no labels or bezels that could be concealing fasteners. That means the top and bottom plastic caps must either snap on or be held in place with an adhesive or glue. Turns out, after a little more Google work, that they're held in place on metal plates just under them with adhesive. However, they're thin and can be easily broken if removal is attempted too aggressively. Past experience has taught me that getting an adhesive to "release" requires just enough tension applied and patience to allow it to slowly give way. The bottom plastic cover is more fragile than the top too, with its wide rectangular hole for the docking connector and thin strips of plastic above and below the hole.

A small and extremely thin knife blade edge can be slipped between the aluminum shell and the plastic top and bottom caps. The trick is not going too deep and damaging any components immediately under the cap, or break the guide pegs on the underside of the caps around their edges (aids installation of them during assembly and adds a little strength when completely assembled). Some gentle sideways prying, just under the cap edge (not on anything under it) and alternately working both the front and back long edges eventually releases the adhesive. Some folks suggest using a hair dryer to heat the caps (and the adhesive) to help it release. Yes, it could help as hot adhesive usually doesn't hold as well, but controlling the amount of heat and where it's directed is difficult. Even if the hair dryer is on its "low" setting it could warp the plastic, and too much heat on the click wheel could damage it too. I avoid using any form of hot air "heat gun" if at all possible. Room temperature and patience was all that was required to get this iPod's caps off.

Sure enough, under the caps are metal plates. The bottom one clips into four grooves at each end of the iPod's front and back. The curved arms that clip into the grooves, and the holes in the ends of them are there to aid in installing and removing it. This photo was done during reassembly. The adhesive that holds the bottom cap to the plate can be seen clearly. I added a little more adhesive of the same type to help hold the cap on securely as the plate and cap had been handled some while they were off.

An extremely small pair of needle nose pliers, taking great care not to insert the nose tips too far into the holes allowed squeezing the clip arms and removing each side. What's found under this metal plate shows why care must be taken to not insert the blade used to pry the plastic cap off or the tool is used to unclip the metal plate under it too far into the ipod. The very thin mylar cable with copper flex traces embedded in it that connects the click wheel to the logic board is just under one end of this clip. The "button" connector on the end of the cable has a mating connector on the edge of the logic board. These types of cables are easily damaged! Go too far with a tool under the cap or plate and the cable or its connector will get damaged. A damaged the click wheel cable or connector cannot be repaired; it requires removing and replacing the entire click wheel assembly with a new one. The cable in this photo has already been disconnected from its mate on the logic board by very gently prying alternately on each side of the connector until it came loose. It's a snap fit, so it should be obvious when it finally pops out. Do not pull on the cable or exert too much force on the tab on the end if it!

Under the top cap is another metal plate. Turns out this one is attached to a daughter board with the audio ear bud jack and "Hold" switch on it. The daughter board is, in turn, attached to the main logic board. There are two #000 size Phillips screws that attach this plate to the top end of the iPod and hold the entire logic board assembly inside the case. As with the bottom plate, the adhesive used to hold the plastic top cap on can be seen in the photo. Removal of the logic board assembly from inside the aluminum case requires removing these two screws using a jewelers driver. Ensure it's a #000 Phillips or cross-tip, one of the smallest made, as anything bigger will not fit into the heads properly and strip out the slots. The screws have non-permanent thread locking adhesive on them and they're driven in firmly when the iPod is assembled in Apple's factory. This requires firm pressure on the screwdriver pushing it into the screw head while carefully turning it. The driver can start to back out of the screw head (in spite of some pressure on it) which necessitates stopping as soon as it does so, reseating it, and trying to turn it again. The thread locking adhesive will eventually "give" and the screws will come out, but it's very important not to damage the screw heads while removing them! They are all that hold the entire electronics assembly inside the case. It also helps to work over a towel or old T-Shirt, well away from the table or bench edges, to keep from losing them when they come out. I suppose replacement screws can be had, but have never seen anything suitable as tiny as these are. They can't be replaced by a simple trip to the local hardware store! I also use a very small Tupperware container with seal (aka lid) to keep parts like this in, so they don't get lost.

Felis Catus Interruptus:
Do you ever get that feeling someone might be watching? Ever try to do fine, detailed work requiring a steady hand with someone supervising it by watching closely over your shoulder? Just as I was about to remove the two #000 Phillips screws from the top plate, I sensed being closely watched. Suddenly I was being closely supervised, by our cat, Frisky, who jumped up on my shoulder and perched there, watching everything going on. She does when she wants attention, sometimes several times in a singe evening. What she really wants is a free ride around the house perched on my shoulders, trilling in my ear and rubbing her head against mine the entire time. At least she did it before I had the Phillips driver firmly engaged in the screw head. Picture was done with my cell phone held out at arm's length. After I deposited my "supervisor" onto a high perch (she climbs from my shoulder onto it), I got back to work on the iPod.

Once the screws are out, and after double-checking to ensure the click wheel cable is disconnected, the entire logic board assembly can be carefully slid out through the top by firmly pushing on the bottom docking connector. Do not pull on the top plate as this can break the daughter board off of the main logic board, and slide it out slowly. My fingers aren't that huge, but they still didn't fit far enough into the bottom of the case to push the board all the way out. My little finger was almost narrow enough. Used the eraser end of a common wooden pencil to push it the rest of the way out. The cap end of a narrow plastic pen can also be used. Push on the docking connector, not on the board or click wheel connector. The photo shows all the parts: top and bottom plastic caps, the metal plate from the bottom, and the Phillips screws from the top. All the parts except the logic board went into the Tupperware bin, sealed up and set aside until they were needed for reassembling it. Flipping the logic board over shows the drive and battery. This photo was done with the new CompactFlash drive installed, but the old battery still in place. The battery is opposite the display at the top and the drive opposite the click wheel at the bottom. The dull silver rectangle in a metal frame is actually a piece of stiff foam inside a fine wire mesh tube. It grounds the body of the drive to the logic board's ground plane and aluminum iPod case. The drive is given shock protection by wrapping its edges in a neoprene U-channel held in place with tape, along with the header connector for the drive that has a very short ribbon cable running to a tiny board connector (hidden by the battery). The small piece of copper conductive tape also wraps around the blue neoprene channel to provide a conductive path from the metal plate on the drive to the grounded wire mesh. The battery is attached with a very small square foam adhesive pad to the top of a small integrated circuit chip on the board.

The battery must be at least pulled up and away from the board as most of the drive interconnect cable and its connection to the logic board are under the battery. The battery is held in place, primarily to keep it from shifting around inside the iPod with a very small square of thin adhesive foam pad. After the drive has been disconnected from the logic board, the tape, shock absorbing frame and interconnecting ribbon cable must be removed. The short interconnect cable was made by Molex, a major name brand of industrial, commercial and military electrical and electronics connectors. The double row of header pins mate with a matching double row of header holes on the top edge of the drive. The double row of pins can be seen inside the MicroDrive/CompactFlash slot of a memory card reader. Once I had everything removed from the MicroDrive, it could be tested in the MD/CF slot of the memory card reader in my desktop computer.

Slid the drive into the MD/CF slot in the memory card reader, and the card reader's LED lit up (meaning a memory card has been inserted into one of its four slots). Not loud enough to be heard while inside the iPod, a soft grinding sound lasting about two or three seconds was emitted by the MicroDrive after it was inserted into the memory card reader. This kept repeating continuously until I pulled the drive out of the card reader. The computer's O/S also did not acknowledge the presence of a removable drive. Even if it were completely unformatted, the O/S (Windows XP) should at least come up with a dialog box offering to format the drive. I have more than one desktop machine, and all of them have memory card readers. So, it was inserted into the MD/CF slot in a second destop computer which resulted in exactly the same behavior as when it was in the first one. The picture shows what the inside of a Seagate ST1 looks like. Most likely the repeating grinding sound was the read head arm trying to deploy or move to read the drive platter.

[more apologies to Frank Baum]

I must aver, I thoroughly examined her. And she's not only merely dead, she's really most sincerely dead.

With the new drive and battery installed, reassembly is simply the reverse of disassembly. I added some thin adhesive strips to the top and bottom plates to rejuvinate what was there as handling them, along with the plastic end caps had likely degraded the original adhesive some. It's a very similar, non-permanent adhesive, which means the caps can still be removed at some point in the future if necessary.

After the iPod was completely reassembled, it was time for the infamous "Smoke Test." Contrary to popular belief, promoted by electrical engineers world-wide, electronics do not run on electricity or electrons. It's one of the greatest hoaxes ever foisted upon mankind. They run on pressurized smoke. Ever see an electron? I daresay everyone has seen smoke though. The proof of this is seeing the smoke leak out when electronic devices fail. Disengaged the "Hold" switch on top and depressed the center click wheel button. The iPod sprang to life with the Apple logo followed by a file folder with exclamation point icon. It's what I had expected as the CompactFlash drive had been formatted, but didn't have the iPod software installed yet. Much, much, much better than the Sad iPod icon. Best of all, no smoke leaked out. Connected it to the USB port on my computer, reinstalled the iPod software, including updating to the most current version and was rewarded with a full iPod Mini menu. Loaded some music, started the iPod playing, and exercised all the click wheel functions. Works just like a new iPod Mini! It's now headed back to its owner, who I hope will be tickled pink that her iPod has been resurrected from the dead, with twice its original drive capacity, and just a hair over 1.5x its original battery capacity. The iPod seems to be with its new lease on life.

Suggestion for this iPod's new name: Lazarus!

Epilogue, Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-28T00:14:00.003-04:00

Upholstering the Padding in the Top

Link to Part 9: Padding the Sides

There was one final detail, not a necessity for full functionality, but to make it look better and improve long-term durability. The large "egg crate" foam pad in the top would eventually start to wear, tear and crumble if not covered. Got another half-yard of the Ultra-Suede fabric and completely covered it today. No real magic to it. A hot-melt glue gun, a little fabric trimming, and wrapping it up like wrapping a box with paper was all it took. Here's the back side, finished, and you can see how the cut edges are folded under to keep them from fraying. You'll also notice a bit of hot-melt glue showing in a couple places. No big deal, this side won't show unless I pull it out of the top.

Here's the "egg crate" foam pad, completely covered, installed in the top.

Finally, the complete box, with watches from different watch boxes placed into their pockets. Note the different colored watch pillows. One of the primary reasons for this mod was to avoid pulling watches off of the pillows on which they're normally stored in several watch boxes, and transferring them to foam pillows in this case. They're all on the pillows they would normally be stored on in their "home" watch boxes. Makes loading up the valise much faster and easier. Makes putting watches back into the watch boxes they're normally kept in much faster as well.

Now I'm FINALLY done . . . it's completely complete!

Part 9, Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-28T00:12:00.005-04:00

Padding the Sides

Link to Part 8: Upholstering the Dividers

This has been a while in completion. Went on vacation for a little over a week and came back to a master bath that needed the vanity, counter top, sink and its plumbing to be ripped out again and completely reinstalled correctly. This included redoing some significant vanity cabinetry with modifications to make it fit properly. The installer who did the work while I was gone botched it completely. That consumed my evenings for over a week.

In the last installment, work had progressed sufficiently to make it mostly usable in the center pockets. However, padding around the outside edge, and for the bottoms of all the pockets needed to be made. The larger pads along the left and right sides needed some stiffness, so the medium density green foam was layered with some high density, very stiff (closed cell) foam. Used hot melt glue to layer the foam pieces. Lots of cutting and gluing to layer them together! This shows the outside edge pads nearly complete (without covering). The narrower pads along the back didn't need the additional stiffness, so a single layer of green foam was used for them.

After a lot more fabric cutting, the larger outer edge pads on the right and left sides were covered by rectangles of Ultra-Suede. Since the back sides of them would not show, they didn't need to be completely covered on the back. This shows some of the folding used as they were wrapped. Once again, hot melt adhesive worked quite well.

This is what the larger ones look like from the sides that will show when installed . . .

And this is how the fabric was folded around the narrower ones along the back . . .

Now to make the padding for the pocket bottoms. The valise is deep; quite a bit deeper than necessary to hold watches. After measuring several watch pillows with watches on them and the depth of the pockets, three layers of medium density green foam should work to pad the bottoms of the pockets. A whole lot more foam cutting later (63 rectangles of foam for 21 pockets), they were layered together using hot-melt glue again. This shows one of the 21 pads for the pocket bottoms layered together. You can see some ink marks on it where the foam was marked for cutting. It was thin enough that I could use a pair of very heavy, long blade scissors designed for cutting aluminum window screen.

This shows how they will be installed into the pockets and they are intended to be a "friction" fit; just a hair oversize so they stay in place and don't fall out

Before covering them with Ultra-Suede, it's a good idea to see if all of them will fit properly!

Yet more cutting of rectangles to cover the bottom pads. Used a small, portable drafting table, T-Square and 18 inch steel rule to mark the fabric on its back side for cutting.

Now to cover the pocket bottom pads. Since the bottoms of them will not show, it isn't necessary to cover that side, just the top and at least half-way down the sides to hold the fabric in place. First step was very lightly gluing the top of the pad to the center of the fabric rectangle . . .

Next step was gluing the fabric onto the short sides of the pad . . .

After that, it was glued to the long sides of the pad . . .

And then the corners folded around the long side and glued down; this shows the first of the 21 pads right side up and its Ultra-Suede covering completed.

Now to place it into its pocket . . .

And it's installed securely in the pocket bottom . . .

Only 20 more pads to go (the stack of cut fabric rectangles)!

Covering them took a little longer than expected. Had to take a little break about a third of the way through . . . a whole row completed now . . .

And finally they're all covered and in the pocket bottoms. Here it is, with everything finished!

At this point I'm declaring "victory" -- it's done! However, I do have some fabric left over, and will likely use it to cover the large piece of "eggshell" foam that goes in the top. Not an essential task, so I can take a rest from upholstering blocks of foam for a while :) When I do eventually cover it, it will be similar to wrapping a box with paper, and unlike the other small pads around and in the bottoms of the pockets, it will end up covered on all sides. The hot-melt adhesive worked extremely well and allowed working with things nearly immediately after gluing pieces together.

Link to Epilogue: Upholstering the Padding in the Top

Part 8, Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-27T23:06:00.008-04:00

Upholstering the Dividers

Link to Part 7: Trimming Padding and Fitting Padded Grid Together

Tonight I got the fabric cut and the major gluing done to attach the fabric to the dividers. Using a small drafting board and a T-Square (not shown) helped immensely in making reasonably precise rectangles of fabric. Before marking and cutting though I needed to establish the dimensions for all the different sizes I'd need

Took quite a while, but I finally got all the pieces of fabric for the dividers cut.

I then glued them on, working with one divider at a time. This is how I laid out the piece (or pieces for some of them like this one) before applying the glue.

My wife grabbed the camera off of the table and shot this one of me applying glue to the foam

She took another one as I was positioning the first side of a divider onto the fabric. This was much, much easier than trying to put fabric onto the divider!

It's late, but I'm finally done with all the gluing I can do tonight. It needs to set overnight before I remove the tape. There's more gluing to do on the dividers, as it must be wrapped around the edges of the foam, but don't want to do that until what I've done has set. At this point I'm wondering if I'll be done by Sunday night. I'm going to have to work all day on it tomorrow!

Link to Part 9: Padding the Sides

Part 7, Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-27T23:03:00.007-04:00

Trimming Padding and Fitting Padded Grid Together

Link to Part 6: Covering the Dividers with Padding

Things are starting to come together. Tonight I trimmed the foam on the dividers cutting out what had been masked last night when the foam was glued to the dividers using contact adhesive. A steel rule, square and very, very, very sharp knife (I keep 'em extremely sharp) helps. Foam is still difficult to cut, even with exceptionally sharp knives. It helps to saw slightly on the corner of an edge to get a cut started, and then slice carefully with a shallow cut at first, and repeating the cuts at gradually increasing depth until it cuts through. This is one of the mid-size dividers set up to begin cutting. It is one of the four vertical dividers has the lattice slots in the top which is why the slots are masked an inch wide. I've already removed the 1/8th inch wide masking from the ends, and trimmed off the notched corners that will have to fit along the curved corner in the bottom of the valise along its edge.

This is the same divider with the foam cut back over all its slots on one side and the masking tape peeled up. Next step is flipping it over and repeating on the other side to completely uncover the slot and 1/2 inch of divider on each side of the slot's center-line. Reasonably straight works, and it doesn't have to be "finish" quality cutting as it will not only end up being covered, the cut edge will hidden by foam on the horizontal dividers.

Finally finished all the vertical dividers, and had to stop cutting to do a partial fit-up just to see how they looked

Using a small square, narrow sections of foam were removed from the horizontal dividers with the slots in the lower half, just a hair wider than the slot in the Plexiglas. Note that I stopped just short of the top of the divider. That foam will show and needs to be there! I started with the short ones first that will end up on the right side of the valise as there is a slight "learning curve" on exactly how to cut the foam away (how wide and how close to the top). Working with one that has only one slot allows testing fit without having to cut several. As with the other dividers, the cut edges will end up hidden when they're all latticed together.

Now, it's on to the longer ones with four slots. This is the last one just after the last slot was cleared of foam. Finally done with the foam cutting on the dividers (and I will need to sharpen the knife before I use it again ).

The horizontal dividers are now all fit into the case latticed into the vertical ones. Everything fits, and the cut edges are nearly completely hidden. What very little does show will get concealed when they're covered with Ultra-Suede. A few tricks learned joinery in cabinetry work about how to hide things in the wood joinery to make the finished work look "clean" helped immensely here

The final test for this evening, my largest watch, the Seastar 1000 again, to see how it fits. Foam has a very high coefficient of friction! Grabs onto everything that tries to slide across it. Fits a little tight, but it fits, and most of that is the friction of the foam. Better than rattling around loosely! Once covered with very smooth and soft Ultra-Suede it should slide in and out of the pocket much more easily.

Enough for one night. Next is covering the dividers. There will be more foam to cut, to go in around the edges, and to raise the bottoms of the pockets, which are too deep. I need to measure how many layers, but my guess is two will do the job. That will all get covered with Ultra-Suede as well.

Link to Part 8: Upholstering the Dividers

Part 6, Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-27T23:01:00.004-04:00

Covering the Dividers with Padding

Link to Part 5: Cutting the Foam Padding

Part 5 ended with using Duro spray adhesive on the smallest divider to test how well it attaches the foam to the dividers. It works quite well! Even when you think you've got it (the right concept) it's still wise to take a small step with one before replicating the rest in the same manner. That proved to be true when trimming foam off the ends of the small "test" piece to expose 1/8th inch of Plexiglas to fit into one of the slots around the side of the case. No problem trimming the foam off, it's what was under it that was the surprise! Kinda gooey. Used a rasp to file most of it off. Messy and time consuming. This very short one will be usable, but I definitely do NOT want to do this with 10 more dividers!

The portions of Plexiglas on which ultimately no foam will be used need to be masked off. Dug out the painter's masking tape (has very light adhesive on it; pulls off easier than generic masking tape), started marking the dividers where the mask edges need to be, and put masking tape over the ends 1/8th inch in. These are the three smaller dividers.

Some of the dividers only need the ends masked; these are the ones with the slots in the bottom half. The ones with slots in the top half need not only the ends masked, but 1 inch straddling the slot as well (the foam is 1/2 inch thick). This will allow the lattice to fit together if the foam is only cleared out over the slots in the others (the ones with slots in the bottom half). You'll see how this works in Part 7.

In addition, the pieces of foam should be shortened by 1/4 inch to leaves 1/8th inch of Plexiglas exposed on each end. Easier to cut it off now with the foam flat than to trim it off later (gee, why didn't I think of that last night; another mystery of The Universe). Out with the marker, square and steel rule to mark the cuts on all the foam pieces.

Finally all the dividers are masked off - seems like it took longer than it should have (and all the foam is trimmed down by 1/4 inch too).

Now to get into another "production mode" gluing the foam to 10 dividers. Set up a small table outside under the covered and screened in porch. Covered it with old newspaper. I'd be in real "Deep Kimchi" with my wife if I started spraying adhesive in the dining room on the dining room table. This is the setup I used to stage the divider and foam to cover one side of the divider and foam together. Note the center line. That helped immensely lining up the divider over the foam.

The easy part was placing the divider on the foam. The tricky part, especially with the longest dividers, was wrapping the foam around to the other side of the dividers. Got it done though, working very carefully on the second step wrapping the foam around each divider. You only get one shot at it with this adhesive! You could get all the foam off the divider, but it would be in very ugly pieces requiring cutting another piece of foam (ugh!).

No Do-Overs Here are all 10 dividers, now covered with foam. They don't look quite as ugly now that they're covered with foam. The adhesive needs to cure overnight before pulling the masking tape off and trimming out the slots. That will have to wait until the next day. I've done enough for one night anyway.

Link to Part 7: Trimming Padding and Fitting Padded Grid Together

Part 5, Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-27T22:59:00.007-04:00

Cutting the Foam Padding

Link to Part 4: Padding the Dividers

Not a lot of s this time. Wasn't that much to photograph when it's replicating a few tasks numerous times.The test of "Plan A" to glue the foam padding to the divider didn't work. The adhesive works great on the foam. Doesn't adhere worth a tinker's dam to Plexiglas. Moved on to "Plan B" this evening with the same small divider, the same piece of foam (which was very salvagable) and tried some Duro spray contact adhesive. Spray a coating onto the foam and Plexiglas, wait about a minute or so, and then press them together. WOW! That works! Immediately!! Better have it positioned just right; there's only one shot at it and no sliding things around to reposition them. Won't have to wait overnight to know if this works or not. Doing the "Proof of Concept" test piece last night, which disproved the concept, paid off in not wasting a lot of time redoing ten larger dividers. This is the small divider with the foam attached to it using the spray contact adhesive:

Now that the method to attach the foam to the dividers is settled, the other pieces of foam have to be cut. A small square, larger combination square and long steel rule are used to mark the pieces of foam. A little planning with the dimensions required beforehand maximizes use of the width of the sheet of foam and minimizes scrap. Most of the scrap can be used later to make pieces to fit around the case sides and in the pocket bottoms. No foam has been pitched yet! Here's the layout marked for three 5 inch long dividers using a fine point Sharpie:
Ten pieces in three different lengths are needed to cover all the Plexiglas dividers (not counting the tiny one which is already covered). The line across the center marks where the foam will go across the top of the divider. Found this helped immensely when positioning the Plexiglas after applying the adhesive for the first side, and then pulling the foam across the top to attach it to the other side after the second application of adhesive. The short, tiny piece was easy. The longer ones may be a little trickier.
I had set up a small table outside in my covered porch on which to do the spray adhesive. Put sheets of packing paper down (essentially newsprint paper without any newsprint on it). It was so humid tonight that the paper had become quite damp. Too humid to work with the adhesive. Attaching the foam to the Plexiglas will have to wait until tomorrow night. After that, I'll use the small piece that's already done and do another "Proof of Concept" in covering it with Ultra-Suede.

Link to Part 6: Covering the Dividers with Padding

Part 4: Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-09-27T22:50:00.009-04:00

Padding the Dividers

Link to Part 3: Creating the Grid

Not much to show this evening. Sometimes it pays to do a "Proof of Concept" to verify that something will work well, before replicating it many times. Limits the effort expended in a "Do-Over" and wasted materials. That's what I did tonight.

1/2" foam needs to be glued around each of the Plexiglas dividers. I've never used this combination of foam, Plexiglas and adhesive before. The smallest divider is the very short one in front dividing the narrow accessory pocket in two. It's real purpose is structural, to keep a long divider that came with the case pressed up against four longer Plexiglas dividers on the other side of it. If it were to bow too much away from them, and it is somewhat flexible (more so than the Plexiglas), the dividers could slip out of the slots. It's small enough that I can work with it easily, and if I need to strip off the foam and start over with Plan "B" (a different adhesive), I won't have wasted much adhesive or foam.

I cut a 6" long by 1-1/2" wide piece of foam to wrap around the top and sides of this divider. Cutting it the same width as the divider allows wrapping it around a little more precisely and I can trim off some to expose enough Plexiglas - about 1/8" - to fit the case slots (around the inside edge and on the dividers it came with) after the adhesive sets.

Then I put some adhesive on one half of it and pressed the Plexiglas divider onto that side.

After that I put some adhesive on the other half, wrapped it around and used a small scrap block of wood to hold it down.

I'll know in the morning if the adhesive will work well enough to hold the foam firmly to the Plexiglas. If not, I have Plan "B" and a Plan "C" which are two different adhesives that are supposed to work on many different materials, including foam.

Now that the concept was demonstrated with one piece of foam, the next step was cutting out all the pieces of foam to cover all of the dividers.

Link to Part 5: Cutting the Foam Padding

Review: UTS München 3000M PVD

2007-09-17T17:23:00.000-04:00

UTS München 3000M PVD:
The Ultimate Diver?

Summary:

Only 200 made; all by hand
Stainless steel Case and band (PVD optional)
43mm diameter
16mm thick
Solid link stainless steel band
Band attaches to case using unique screw system (no springbars)
220 grams
3,000 meter depth rating
ETA chronometer grade 2824-2 (adj. 5 pos.)
Solid stainless steel case, crowns and back
Sapphire crystal; 5mm thick with AR coating
PVD coating on case and band are optional

I’m not that big into divers. I own only one that I would consider a true diver, a Tissot Seastar 1000. It's one my modest budget can afford. This is a review about a diver I've seen and done some research about to find out more about it and the company behind it. It's unique and interesting enough I want to share with you what I discovered.

Divers come in all manner of styles across all price points from nearly every watch maker. Not all are true divers though. They have the appearance of a diver’s tool watch, but are missing the necessary depth rating; they’re “desk divers.” A diving watch today is not as critical anymore for serious deep and commercial divers as it once was because it’s not the primary timing device. Today these divers use small dive computers as they’re more efficient with the dive plan. The modern dive computer strapped to a diver’s body can calculate safe ascent times using more complex algorithms than one can do with simple hand computations or mental calculations that result in estimates padded to keep any error in the direction of diver safety.

However, the dive watch on their wrist is a backup to the dive computer. Since I wanted to know more about true divers' tool watches, ones that could be used by deep or commercial divers as their dive computer backup, I set about looking for the ultimate deep dive tool watch. After several hours doing Google searches using of all manner of search words and phrases, I came across a company that one doesn’t hear of much in the general watch collectors' community. Perhaps it's better known in forums that specialize in dive watches, or in deep and commercial diving itself, but it's not heard of much, if at all on the general watch collector forums I regularly visit.

The company is UTS München. It's a very young and small German firm founded in 1991. They specialize in making very serious dive watches that are assembled by hand, and thoroughly tested and certified before it goes out the door. These are real tool watches rated for very deep diving. Among their collection, one stands out from the rest as their current flagship, the UTS München 3000M Professional Diver. It’s called the 3000M because it’s rated to 3000 meters – yes – that’s right – 3000 meters of static depth pressure, not feet. The 43mm diameter and 16mm thick case is made of surgical stainless steel with 3-1/2 mm thick walls and a 5mm thick sapphire crystal. It’s so sturdy and rugged that it can withstand its incredible depth rating without needing a helium valve. Any watch this beefy will have some mass: 220 grams worth.

The second crown one might assume is the valve when looking at photos of them? That’s a timing bezel lockdown to keep it from accidentally being rotated while in use. Their engineering gave thought to error-proofing a critical feature that could have dire consequences if it's accidentally rotated from its set position. It's a feature not found on most dive watches!

It also comes with a massive, solid stainless steel band with special screw attachments to the case. No way this one's going to come off accidentally due to a worn or weak springbar if it's accidentally bumped or snagged on something during the dive. This particular variant has been PVD coated black, an extremely hardy finish (others come in the natural stainless steel with a brush finish).

There was no skimping on the movement inside either. It’s a chronometer grade ETA 2824-2 adjusted to 5 positions. It's the most expensive grade with greatest attention to detail one can get from ETA to put into a watch. Adjusting a movement is no small matter, and doing so to five positions (orientations of the movement) can be quite time consuming!

Their price new is too salty for me to afford for now; it's over $3,000. Even so, it's less expensive new than a Rolex Sea Dweller, the Rolex flagship of deep divers, which has less than half this one's depth rating. I'll have to settle for just being able to look at them and drool uncontrollably (fortunately they can easily withstand being drooled on). If I ever do have that kind of money for a watch, the trouble may be finding one. All of their watches are made made in very limited numbers; only 200 of each model. I did find a couple used ones that were advertised and sold on watch forums within the past year. They were the PVD coated versions, and both were in excellent condition with asking prices in the upper half of the $2000-$3000 range. Someday, maybe, after I win the Lotto, I'll be able to find and buy one. Until then I'll have to dream of one on my wrist. [sigh]
Summary:

Only 200 made; all by hand
Stainless steel Case and band (PVD optional)
43mm diameter
16mm thick
Solid link stainless steel band
Band attaches to case using unique screw system (no springbars)
220 grams
3,000 meter depth rating
ETA chronometer grade 2824-2 (adj. 5 pos.)
Solid stainless steel case, crowns and back
Sapphire crystal; 5mm thick with AR coating
PVD coating on case and band are optional

Current MSRP is over $3,000, but they can sometimes be found used in excellent condition for a few hundred dollars less than that. Takes some patience waiting for one; there are only 200 of them and owners don't part with them often.

UTS München's German Web Site
UTS München North America

Note: I do not have any association with UTS München, or their dealers or distributors.

Review: Rado Original DiaStar XL Automatic

2007-09-16T21:29:00.001-04:00

Rado Original DiaStar XL Automatic

Summary:

Updated version of the original 1962 "Scratch-Proof" watch
39 mm wide (across the 3 and 9)
46 mm long (across the 12 and 6)
11 mm thick
20mm wide X 3mm thick solid link stainless steel band
180 grams
ETA 2836-2 25 jewel 28,800 bph auto movement
Titanium carbide outer case
Stainless steel inner case, crown and back
Sapphire faceted crystal
Signed outer case, crown and band clasp
Rotating anchor logo on dial
Lume stripes on hands and subtly embedded in indices

Rado was founded in 1917 as the Schlup & Co. in Lengnau, Switzerland. They began by producing only watch movements. Longines merged with them in 1931 to form ASUAG, and they became Switzerland's largest movement maker. In 1983, ASUAG with its Rado and Longines brands merged with SSIH, which held the Omega and Tissot brands, to form the ASUAG-SSIH Holding Company. In 1986 it was renamed SMH, and was renamed again in 1998 as The Swatch Group. Within The Swatch Group, Rado and Longines are considered "High Range" brands, between "Prestige Range" brands such as Blancpain and Omega, and "Middle Range" brands such as Tissot and Mido.

The Rado DiaStar Original made its debut in 1962 as the world's first "scratch-proof" watch. Since then, Rado has distinctively differentiated itself from the rest of the watch industry by using unique and unusual high technology materials for equally unique and "scratch-proof" dress watch designs. The Rado Original DiaStar and its sister collection, the Original, continue the general case, dial and crystal design of the 1962 DiaStar Original, making it their classic.

While details have changed over the years, the general concept has remained true in design concept as well as appearance. The Original DiaStar comes in four sizes:

Small; women's size (21 x 25 mm quartz)
Medium; womens' size (27 x 30 mm automatic)
Large; a men's mid-size (35 x 42 mm)
Extra-Large; a men's large size (39 x 46 mm)

The one depicted here is the "XL" or Extra-Large, a size that's difficult to find. The vast majority of the men's found are the "Large" size. Difference between the two sizes is essntially that, their size. The "scratch-proof" hard-metal case shell is made of titanium or tungsten carbide, molded under extremely high heat and pressure, and polished to a mirror finish. The shell is permanently fitted over a traditional 316L stainless inner casing to house the movement, is signed with the Rado name on the side opposite the crown, and has the watch's serial number finely etched into the side below the "6" instead of the traditional location on the back.

The crystal is of thick, multi-faceted man-made sapphire (aka corundum), harder and more "scratch-proof" than the case shell. The faceting is subtle; normally when looking at the watch one sees vertical bands on the dial that at a glance appear to be part of the dial finish itself. In reality, it's the subtle facets and how they cast light on the dial, which has a subtle, very fine metallic flake finish. While the location of the logos, day/date and and trademark rotating anchor have changed, the general dial and hands style hasn't changed in at least 30 years.

Most of the vintage seen on the market have bands that were made by "NSA" for Rado. This is not the National Security Agency, but a Swiss company that made stainless steel bands for not only Rado, but quite a few other high end watch companies. These were unique bands that had a traditional folding clasp with a unique feature that would allow it to stretch some using internal springs and a metal tab. Links were of heavy stainless steel sheet metal rolled around thick pins. They were high quality bands in their era. Unfortunately, NSA is no longer in business. These have been replaced on at least the "XL" size with a band that looks similar but is noticeably thicker and heavier with solid stainless steel links that are highly polished to a mirror finish. The clasp is a unique butterfly with one side of the butterfly shorter than the other. The signed closure has side buttons to open it, and the thick butterfly mechanism under it is made of Titanium (the only titanium part of the watch).

The signed crown is partially recessed into the case to reduce its prominence, but can still be wound without undue difficulty. The faceted sapphire crystal is relatively thick compared to a flat one, but the thin vertical facets are subtle giving a shallow rise from the sides toward a wider flat portion in the middle. Unlike prominently faceted crystals that are more like prisms, the dial is read easily through this one under all lighting conditions. The dial has the trademark rotating anchor just below the 12, which is slightly weighted and pivots as the watch is turned. The applied "Rado" and "DiaStar" logos provide horizontal visual balance at the 9 and 3 positions; the anchor is visually balanced vertically by the 6-eater day/date window. This gives a horizontal and vertical symmetry. Indices are medium width applied batons that stand proud from the dial along with all the logos. These provide good visibility for reading time without clutter or distracting from the logos or day/date, and there is visual dimension and depth. Many dress watches do not have any lume on the dial or hands, and this is a "deal breaker" for some that like the rest of the design. Not so with the DiaStar. Rado put thin stripes of lume down the centers of the hour and minute hands, and down the centers of the hour indices. One might not notice the hour marker lume as it's subtle. At first glance it can appear that it's simply a groove down the middle and part of the design, until it gets dark and one sees the nice lume.

Prior to formation of The Swatch Group, Rado used A.Schild movements, which were considered excellent workhorses, and were used by numerous mid-range and high-range watch brands. A number of movement manufacturers, including A.Schild, were consolidated into ETA, another very excellent movement maker, when The Swatch group was formed. ETA makes the movements for current Rados. The movement inside the Men's Original DiaStar is a 28,800 bph, 25 jewel ETA 2836-2 day/date automatic. This is a classic, exceptionally reliable workhorse that comes in several grades. The grade used by Rado is the second highest, an elaboree just below the extremely expensive "Chronometer" grade that have COSC certification and are intended for certified chronometers. Instead of the traditional 3-eater horizontal day/date, the day abbreviation is displayed vertically.

Fit, finish and workmanship is impeccable, which is to be expected of a "High Range" watch. It's a classic design dating to the early 1960's that carries Rado's heritage of unique designs using unique materials that can withstand normal use and still look brand new 10, 20 and even 30 years later. The "scratch-proof-ness" and durability of the high-tech materials Rado uses is across all its collections, not just the Original DiaStar, is unrivaled in the industry.

Summary:

Updated version of the original 1962 "Scratch-Proof" watch
39 mm wide (across the 3 and 9)
46 mm long (across the 12 and 6)
11 mm thick
20mm wide X 3mm thick solid link stainless steel band
180 grams
ETA 2836-2 25 jewel 28,800 bph auto movement
Titanium carbide outer case
Stainless steel inner case, crown and back
Sapphire faceted crystal
Signed outer case, crown and band clasp
Rotating anchor logo on dial
Lume stripes on hands and subtly embedded in indices

MSRP for the Original DiaStar XL Automatic is currently $695. They can be found with discounted prices, sometimes significantly discounted in spite of Rado's efforts to eliminate discounting, but due to their relative rarity compared to its Large sized smaller brother, it requires significant searching and patience.

Rado's Web Site

Note: I do not have any association with The Swatch Group, Rado or their dealers other than having bought a Rado from an authorized dealer.

Review: Fortis Flieger Chronograph Automatic

2007-09-15T12:16:00.000-04:00

Fortis Flieger Chronograph Automatic

Summary:

2004 European Aviation Watch of the Year
40 mm diameter
14 mm thick
ETA 7750 chronograph movement
Stainless steel case, crown, pushers and back
Sapphire crystal
Signed crown
Solid link stainless steel band
Flip-lock clasp
Central "stop" seconds hand
30 minute accumulator
12 hour accumulator
Day/date complication
Standard seconds hand sub-dial
100 meter depth rating

I’m not that big into chronographs as I only own one. It's not this one, but I eventually hope to have a Fortis Flieger Chronograph in my own collection. Nearly all current aeronautical watches include a chronograph complication and this particular Fortis is a unique example of one.

Fortis' entire market focus and brand identity is exclusively with modern aeronautical watches, but they didn't start out solely serving that market segment as they do today. A Swiss company founded in 1912 by Walter Vogt, it set up production in 1924 with John Harwood, inventor of the automatic wristwatch, and released their first auto-winding watch in 1926. Over the years that followed, they made various types of watches including their first chronograph in 1937. Various alarm watches were introduced in the 1950’s after WWII that culminated in their Brain Matic Auto Alarm during the early 1970's.

In 1987, 75 years after the company's founding, Fortis took a direction that would ultimately change its long-term brand identity with the introduction of their Flieger collection of aviation watches. During the two decades that have followed, aeronautical and astronautical watches have become their entire focus. It has paid off for them handsomely. Fortis has been the exclusive supplier of wristwatches for manned space missions to Russian Federal Space Administration Cosmonauts since 1994. They enjoy a relationship today with the Russian Federal Space Administration that parallels the long-term relationship Omega has had with NASA. Fortis’ chronographs use the venerated ETA 7750 chronograph movement, originally designed and made by Valjoux.

Why this Fortis chronograph is special:
Some of the chronographs in their various watch lines are quite pricey. I found the Flieger collection "street prices" more affordable while having similar characteristics of their other collections. The "flagship" of the Flieger line stood out from the rest in the collection, the 40mm diameter, 14mm tall Flieger Chronograph Automatic. It's powered by an ETA 7750 in a solid stainless steel case with sapphire crystal, and a solid link stainless steel band. The chronograph is big enough with it's narrow bezel to have a nice, large dial for readability, and yet it's physically small enough not to be bulky or feel cumbersome when wearing it while flying a plane -- striking a balance between size and utility. If a pilot is that unfortunate enough to end up "in the drink" it is blessed with a 100 meter depth rating, sufficient for swimming. The Flieger Chronograph was received so well by the civil and military aviation that it received the 2004 European Aviation Watch of the Year Award. It embodies Fortis' significant strategic shift in 1987 to focusing solely on modern aviation timepieces with the introduction of the Flieger line, and it's the model within the line that has received recognition from the aviation industry for its concept and design. One couldn't ask for much more than one of their more affordable chronographs representing so much about the Fortis brand and two decades devoted to producing aviation watches.

I started out by stating I'm not that big into chronographs. Having looked at many others, this is one I can see myself saving for -- and not buying any watches for some time to accomplish it. Its street price is more affordable than many in its class, it reflects a major direction change in Fortis' history, and it carries the prestige of a significant aviation industry award.

Summary:

2004 European Aviation Watch of the Year
40 mm diameter
14 mm thick
ETA 7750 chronograph movement
Stainless steel case, crown, pushers and back
Sapphire crystal
Signed crown
Solid link stainless steel band
Flip-lock clasp
Central "stop" seconds hand
30 minute accumulator
12 hour accumulator
Day/date complication
Standard seconds hand sub-dial
100 meter depth rating

Current MSRP with the "Oyster" style stainless steel band is $1750, but with some searching it can be found substantially discounted.

Fortis' Web Site

Note: I have no affiliation or association with Fortis, or any of their dealers or distributors.

Review: Zodiac Astrographic 2000

2007-09-14T00:16:00.000-04:00

Zodiac Astrographic 2000

Summary:

Updated version of the original 1971 Astrographic SST
No more than 500 made during 13 months in 2000-2001
38 mm diameter
12 mm thick
20 mm wide X 3mm thick solid stainless steel band
180 grams
200 meter depth rating
ETA 2824-2 25 jewel, 28,800 bph auto movement
Solid stainless steel case, crown and back
Sapphire crystal
Signed back, crown, and pushbutton butterfly clasp
Unique orbiting satellite hour/minute and red moon seconds hands "mystery dial"

Zodiac was founded by Ariste Calame in Le Locle, Switzerland, in 1882, a center of Swiss clock and watch making for centuries, as "Ariste Calame." The Calame family had lived in the region since at least the 16th Century. While the "Zodiac" name had been used for some time, it wasn't registered until 1908 by Ariste's son, Louis Ariste Calame. The company went through a succession of registered names in the years that followed, becoming "Ariste Calame: Montres Zodiac" in 1923, and eventually became just "Zodiac, S.A."

The Astrographic SST (Split-Second Timing) made its debut in December 1971, with the same uniquely original concept found in the Astrographic 2000: orbiting satellite hour and minute hands with a "fiery red moon" seconds hand "mystery dial." Although case and band styles changed during the 1970's, the watch maintained the same concept for its "mystery dial" hands. I've never been able to determine exactly when the original Astrographic collection was discontinued, but it had disappeared by some time in the 1980's.

Willie Gad Monnier, formerly a Tag Heuer principal, purchased Zodiac in 1990 while it was suffering financial troubles and modernized its collections with a noticeable Tag Heuer influence. In 1997, the company declared bankruptcy. Not quite a year later in 1998, Genender International, Inc. acquires the brand and all its surviving inventory. It's under their ownership that nearly all of Zodiac's mechanical watches are discontinued and replaced with new quartz collections. Only the Super Sea Wolf and Marine Life models survived with mechanical movements.

In October 2000, Zodiac announced the resurrection of the Astrographic which had been one of their most popular and best known collections. The new, high end Astrographic 2000 was designed with updated materials befitting its intended market segment, a sleek look that maintained historical elements of its case styles and the mystery dial, and an MSRP of $1295. The Astrographic 2000 only lasted 13 months though. In October 2001, Fossil purchased Zodiac from Genender. A month later Fossil announced discontinuation of Zodiac's collections, including the Astrographic 2000, and relaunched completely new lines of watches under the Zodiac name, showing them in the April 2002 Basel Watch Show with retail deliveries later in the Fall. The Astrographic 2000 (along with the Super Sea Wolf) became instant collectibles due to their popularity, uniqueness and very limited production numbers. Even though it wasn't intended to be a limited edition, it became one overnight. No more than 500 of this Astrographic 2000 were produced with black, blue and silver dials in round and square cases. Even so, they were dumped into the market at very low prices.

The Astrographic 2000 is made of materials with quality of workmanship in fit, finish and assembly befitting a watch with its original MSRP. The case, signed screw-down crown and signed back are solid stainless steel. The back, which is held on by screws, has a very large Zodiac logo deeply etched into it. Surprising for a cross between a dress and sports watch, it has a 200 meter diver depth rating.

The movement inside is the venerated 25 jewel 28,800 bph ETA 2824-2 automatic. Its high beat gives the orbiting red moon seconds "hand" an extremely smooth motion around the very deep lapis blue, fine sunburst texture dial. The case is 38 mm in diameter and 12mm thick. The crystal is heavy, flat sapphire, and the 20mm wide integral band is 3mm thick, made of solid stainless steel links, with a signed butterfly clasp.

The Zodiac Astrographic 2000 is a piece of Zodiac's history embodied in one of its most popular and distinctive models, updated with top notch materials and impeccable workmanship. Even though Fossil has quite successfully stabilized and improved Zodiac financially, it's highly unlikely they will ever make a watch like the Astrographic 2000 again. The probability of it is better characterized as nearly zero.

Summary:

Updated version of the original 1971 Astrographic SST
No more than 500 made during 13 months in 2000-2001
38 mm diameter
12 mm thick
20 mm wide X 3mm thick solid stainless steel band
180 grams
200 meter depth rating
ETA 2824-2 25 jewel, 28,800 bph auto movement
Solid stainless steel case, crown and back
Sapphire crystal
Signed back, crown, and pushbutton butterfly clasp
Unique orbiting satellite hour/minute and red moon seconds hands "mystery dial"

Original MSRP was $1,295 in 2000. "New Old Stock," when it can be found, has a current "street price" of about $500, but they have all but completely disappeared now.

Zodiac's Current Web Site

Note: I do not have any association with Zodiac, Fossil or their dealers, for new or NOS, other than having bought a NOS Zodiac Astrographic 2000 from a dealer in vintage Zodiacs.

Mechanical Watches: Adjustment and Regulation

2007-08-28T22:30:00.002-04:00

Two definitions:
Precision: repeatability without variation
Accuracy: ability to hit the desired target

All time-keeping devices I've seen or read about operate either on a "pulse" or "oscillator" whether they're electronic, electro-mechanical or completely mechanical. Their ability to measure passage of time ("time-keeping") relies on both ability to repeat the pulsing or oscillation with as little variation as possible, and the (mean or average) frequency of the oscillator being set as closely as possible to the desired frequency. The amount of variation in its repeated oscillations is a measure of its precision. The mean (average) frequency of the oscillator as compared to it's proper value, is its accuracy.

It's not possible to set accuracy to an extremely tight tolerance unless there is extremely high precision. This is a problem encountered by those trying to tweak watches to extreme accuracy (exceeding that of certified chronometers) that have "off the shelf" workhorse mechanical movements. It is an attempt to achieve an accuracy that exceeds the movement's (current) precision, especially when worn daily which varies the movement's orientation and to some extent, its temperature. Gravity and the movement's position relative to it has a measurable effect on mechanical movements, as does motion of the movement when in use. Temperature affects both mechanical and quartz movements.

In horology, a timepiece with high precision is described as being "well adjusted." A very low "drift" (gain or loss over time) compared to a time standard such as that provided by the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO) or the Nat'l Institute of Science and Technology (NIST; formerly the Nat'l Bureau of Standards, NBS) is characterized as being "well regulated." Before regulating a watch, it must be adjusted for sufficient precision that allows it to be regulated to the desired accuracy. A watch's precision (how well it's adjusted) ultimately limits its accuracy (how well it can be regulated), no matter how much its regulation is "tweaked."

While many things can be done in most mechanical watches to adjust them, how well the movement is designed, especially the balance wheel, escapement, and mainspring can make adjustment easy or very difficult, and it establishes a baseline precision from which adjustment is made (if desired) to improve it. Three major environmental factors affect their adjustment:

orientation to gravity,
motion (including vibration), and
temperature.

The watch's variation will be how these factors affect the specific design, and the adjustment (if performed after assembly) of the balance wheel, its hairspring and the escapement. All three, especially motion and temperature, plus state of wind (how tightly the mainspring is wound) affect isochronism, which is ability to maintain a stable frequency regardless of how many degrees the balance wheel rotates. A pendulum analogy is the pendulum having the same period (how long it takes to make a complete cycle) regardless of how far the pendulum swings.

Gravity and Watch Orientation:
This causes minor differences in escapement operation and the bearing of shafts on pivot points that varies the friction in them. There are six basic positions in which a watch can be tested for the effect of gravity on its beat rate: dial up, dial down, crown up, crown down, crown left, and crown right. Adjusting a watch for precision in all these positions is very time consuming and very expensive. It requires tweaking the exact position of staff and shaft pivots . . . and can require tweaking the balance wheel hairspring (usually done to reduce isochronal error).

Motion:
Motion of the person carrying or wearing the watch, particularly if it rotates the movement, or vibrates it, combined with its orientation to the motion can affect the how many degrees the balance wheel rotates. If there is isochronal error related to balance wheel rotation, the balance wheel period will vary, and timekeeping will vary accordingly.

Temperature:
Changes cause expansion or contraction of all the parts, changing their dimensions, particularly the balance wheel diameter and the hairspring. Materials such as bimetallics and designs that inherently compensate for temperature changes to maintain the same tension on springs, and the rotational inertia of rotating parts help reduce temperature effects. A temperature change and how tightly the mainspring is wound will shift a watch's regulation. How much it shifts is a matter of how much the temperature changes, and how well the design of the balance, hairspring, escapement and mainspring compensate for temperature change, and the mainspring maintaining constant tension (force) as it unwinds from fully wound to fully unwound.

Stringent chronometer standards test timepieces for timekeeping accuracy (its regulation) while inducing conditions that can cause variation at different temperatures and in different orientations called positions (its adjustment). As much hype as the Swiss COSC creates about its chronometer certifications, it is the least stringent of the three major standards that have existed. Furthermore, it's done on the bare watch movement, without any complications, and without its auto-wind rotor (if it's an auto-wind movement). Final assembly of the movement, and assembly into the watch case is done afterward, followed by shipping to the retailer. The U.S. Railroad Standard established at the end of the 19th Century required greater accuracy, and it was performed on the completely assembled watch, just as it would be used. The most stringent was the British Kew Observatory standard established for naval and maritime navigation chronometers. Its complete test required 45 days! If still done (which I doubt), it's now performed by the British NPL (National Physics Laboratory). Kew chronometer testing was also performed on completely assembled chronometers.

Given the materials and modern designs that limit, prevent or compensate for variation of a mechanical movement's regulation, the most important remains positional adjustment. Inside older, higher end watches, it's not uncommon to find the number of positional adjustments made when the watch was manufactured. Typical is either three positions, five positions or "unadjusted" (zero positions; all testing was likely dial up). Rarely is a wrist or pocket watch adjusted for all six positions. The most common position omitted for a wristwatch is crown right (or "12" up). Which is omitted for a pocket watch usually depends on whether it has an open face (no cover over the crystal) or is a "hunter" or "field" style with a hinged metal cover over the crystal.

Most modern Japanese and Swiss movements found in the mid-range to high-range watches are unadjusted workhorse Miyota, Seiko and ETA movements with 17 or more jewels. Their design, particularly the balance, escapement, hairspring and mainspring, have made adjusting movements for this market range unnecessary. Factory regulation can get their accuracy well within about 20 seconds daily gain/loss, the common factory specification. It's almost always much better than that (approx. +/- 10 sec./day). Their variation in daily gain/loss rate (precision) is usually much less than +/- 5 seconds per day.

These watches can quite often be regulated later by a watchmaker experienced with mechanical movements and knows what he's doing, to within 10 seconds gain or loss per day without any adjustment. That's a little over a minute per week, and it assumes the movement in good mechanical working condition (good lubrication, no corrosion, etc.). He'll keep it a few days although he won't spend much bench time working on it. The calendar time is needed to let it run a day so between tweaking its regulation a couple times, and then verify after another day of running that his tweaking hasn't gone too far in either direction. Some of how well he can tweak it depends on the balance regulator and how finely it allows moving it. Some have a screw for fine tuning its regulation; others do not.

Some exceptions in the high-range might be those destined to undergo COSC chronometer certification. COSC is expensive enough to push these exceptions into the upper end of high range pricing. It depends on the watchmaker whether or not the movement is adjusted before it's submitted to COSC for testing. Adjustment is most typically reserved for the luxury and prestige watch movements. It's very time consuming and quite costly compared to regulating a movement. Many of the movements from the most widely recognized of these brands are not only adjusted to three or five positions, they're COSC certified (e.g. Rolex and Omega).

Attempting to achieve +/-4 second regulation or better with any mechanical watch movement, no matter how well designed and adjusted, even the COSC certified prestige and luxury watch movements, is nearly impossible if the watch is worn daily. Such regulation accuracy exceeds that of the British Kew Observatory Standard! In my very humble opinion, achieving better than +/-20 seconds in a 24 hour period, typical of the factory specifications for unadjusted movements in the inexpensive, basic lines of mechanical watches sold for less than $200, with many under $100, is very good, and quite a few are much better than that out of the box. That unadjusted movement mid-range and high-range watches are typically +/- 10 second daily gain/loss out of the box is excellent.

Review: Atlantic Seacrest Large Automatic

2007-08-28T21:32:00.000-04:00

Atlantic Seacrest Large Automatic

A Swiss Made Watch maker independent of the Swatch Group, it's a relatively rare brand. Atlantic was founded by Eduard Kummer in 1888 at Bettlach, Switzerland as a firm named EKB that manufactured parts for pocket watches. It's not as old as some Swiss brands, but has a respectable history. In the early 20th Century EKB started making wristwatch ebauches (major portions of movements). During the 1920's, they started making complete "water resistant" watches and the name was changed to "Atlantic" to reflect their water resistance. Most wristwatches made at that time were not even remotely water resistant! During the 1930's Atlantic introduced auto-winding movements into their watches, and incorporated a "speedswitch" ratchet into their movements for quickly advancing the date in the 1960's.

Atlantic was nearly battered to death by the Japanese Quartz Revolution in the 1970's (like nearly all the Swiss watch industry). Many Swiss firms shifted marketing to Asian and Far East Third World countries that didn't have watch battery distribution or availability. Atlantic looked a much shorter distance East for a market, to the other side of the Iron Curtain, which also did not have watch batteries. To this day, Atlantic has a strong presence as a well-known high quality brand in countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Hungary.

Atlantic's primary models are the Worldmaster (25j ETA 2824-2), Worldmaster GMT (21j ETA 2893-2), and Seacrest (ETA quartz or 25j 2824-2). The Seacrest is more a collection than a model with a variety of dials, two case sizes (35mm and 38mm), and quartz or auto movements (in both case sizes). The basic style spanning all Seacrest variants can be characterized as Bauhaus simplicity.

This specific example is the large Seacrest Automatic; 38mm diameter and 43mm lug-to-lug. It's powered by a 25j ETA 2824-2 that drives dauphin hands around a pale gray subtle sunburst pattern dial. It's only 10mm thick; amazing for the ETA movement inside. Execution is superlative, with a very slightly domed sapphire crystal, sapphire display back, and decorated movement including signed rotor. The plain case is a high polish mirror finish. Bracelet is likewise mirror finish links. Although the band is only 2.5mm thick, which matches the thinness of the watch head, it's 20mm wide with solid, screw links and a concealed butterfly clasp. The lack of a bezel and large dial makes the watch appear larger than its actual diameter.

The simple Bauhaus style won't appeal to all. It's most decidedly a dress watch without any lume. Although a design with high polish steel hands and applied arabic indices risks having them visually lost on a pale gray dial, they don't in the Seacrest. They're simply not bold while their size and modest height above the dial surface gives them legibilty, even in lower light levels. If you prefer an Art Deco type style to the Seacrest Bauhaus, consider their Worldmaster collection.

Summary:

38 mm diameter
43 mm lug-to-lug
10 mm thick
20 mm wide X 2.5 mm thick solid screw link stainless steel band
ETA 2824-2 25 jewel 28,800 bph auto movement
Stainless steel case, crown and back (with display window)
Slightly domed sapphire crystal
Signed crown and rotor
Sunburst pattern dial
No bezel "All Dial" design

MSRP in the U.S. is $1050 (as listed by the U.S. distributor). With some careful shopping it's not difficult to find various Atlantic on-line dealers with the entire collection discounted to very reasonable prices. The large Seacrest Auto can be had for half the MSRP, often less. Takes a little searching to find the on-line dealers in the U.S., but the deep discounting it's worth the effort.

Atlantic's Web Site

Note: I have no affiliation or association with Atlantic, or any of their distributors or dealers, other than having bought an Atlantic Seacrest from a dealer in Switzerland.

Review: Enicar 150 Year Jubilee Automatic

2007-08-28T21:29:00.000-04:00

Enicar 150 Year Jubilee Automatic

Summary:

Commemorative edition celebrating Enicar's founding in 1854
39 mm diameter
11.5 mm thick
22 mm wide tapering to 18mm by 3mm thick solid stainless steel band
130 grams
ETA 2836-2 25 jewel 28,800 bph auto movement
Solid stainless steel case, display back and crown
Screw-down crown signed with Enicar logo
Sapphire domed crystal; slightly thicker than most
Sapphire display crystal on back
Signed band and movement rotor
Bold and bright lume on dial numerals and hands
Minutes chapter ring with 1/4th minute tick marks
Unusual, horizontal day display above the date at the "6"

As you might guess, I've accumulated several unusual brands, Enicar among them. This is a Swiss Made brand originally founded in 1854 that faded from sight and reemerged . . . more than once from what I gather in the sketchy histories I've found.

The most touted history runs from 1914 into at least the 1970's with the founding of Manufacture d'Horlogerie Enicar S.A. by Ariste Racine at La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1914 (moved to Lengnau about 10 or so years later). This is the same Ariste also founded another brand bearing his Racine surname. "Enicar" is "Racine" spelled backward. In a marketing strategy similar to that of Rolex, the company provided chronometers to explorers and adventurers, including two failed North Pole attempts. Its claims to fame include the successful 1956 Swiss Everset expedition lead by Ernst Reiss and the 1957 Atlantic crossing of the Mayflower II with a chronometer affixed to the ship's rudder and immersed for 50 days. In 1958, legendary race driver Stirling Moss became one of their spokesmen. The Everest expedition spurred large sales of the rugged and "weather-proof" Sherpa model (including divers). These vintage Sherpas can be found frequently floating in The Bay (along with other vintage models).

The company seems to have disappeared some time in the 1970's. I don't know if its current incarnation survived the 1970's as a very small company with a miniscule market or if the branding has been resurrected under different ownership. In any event, the brand's quality has definitely not suffered one iota. The name under its current ownership is living up to its heritage.

This example is a 150 Year Jubilee model created in 2004 commemorating the original Enicar name established in 1854. It comes in a very large and impressively lavish box. A large mirror finish 38mm stainless steel case with equally high polish solid link integrated bracelet and concealed butterfly clasp encase a decorated 25j ETA 2836-2 movement with Enicar signed rotor. The case is 48mm long lug-to-lug and the integrated solid link stainless steel band is 22mm wide at the lugs tapering to 18mm at the clasp. The crystal is thicker than normal domed sapphire. This display back is flat sapphire and the screw-down crown is signed with the Enicar "Saturn" logo. Even with all the steel and sapphire, weight is held to a moderate 130 grams.

Fit and finish are superb. The blue dial has a dramatic sunburst texture with bold white arabic indices and hands. The "white" is all lume. At night it glows like a beacon. Of note is the encircled date at the "6" position with the weekday above it horizontally, which requires a custom weekday ring. Even though the movement allows for bi-lingual weekday setting, the weekday is in English only, and the 2nd language setting shows only the midpoint between two weekdays. The printed chapter ring is easily visible, clean and very precise, its small size keeping it from being too bold compared to the rest of the dial.

A testament to thoughtful details in its design is the 2/3 size links found next to each of the clasp end links (also signed with the Enicar logo), which removal or addition of when sizing the bracelet allow for micro-adjustment. This feature isn't very noticeable until adjusting it! While some might find the dial a bit bold, I've found it exceptionally legible at just a glance and extremely easy to read at night, including visiblity of the diamond lume at the tip of the second hand.

Shiny and dressy enough for wear with business suits or formal wear, its bolder dial also fits well with casual attire, making one of the few I've seen that's suitable for a very wide range of clothing styles, activities and occasions. Want something unusual with a touch of class, including brand, that's well made with high quality materials, durable, and affordable? Check out the current Enicar collection.

Summary:

Commemorative edition celebrating Enicar's founding
39 mm diameter
11.5 mm thick
22 mm wide tapering to 18mm by 3mm thick solid stainless steel band
130 grams
ETA 2836-2 25 jewel 28,800 bph auto movement
Solid stainless steel case, display back and crown
Screw-down crown signed with Enicar logo
Sapphire domed crystal; slightly thicker than most
Sapphire display crystal on back
Signed band and movement rotor
Bold and bright lume on dial numerals and hands
Seconds chapter ring with 1/5th second tick marks
Unusual, horizontal day display above the date at the "6"

MSRP could not be found; street price is under $500 although dealers can be somewhat difficult to find in North America or on the internet. It takes some searching to find them.

Enicar's Web Site

Note: I do not have any affiliation or association with Enicar, or any Enicar dealers, beyond having bought an Enicar from a dealer.

Review: Tissot Seastar 1000

2007-08-28T21:26:00.000-04:00

Tissot Seastar 1000 Automatic

Tissot is a Swiss watch making company founded in 1853 by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Emile Tissot, in Le Locle, a small town in the Swiss Jura. Like most watch companies in the mid-19th Century, they made pocket watches. By the end of WWI they were making wristwatches as the popularity of them rose during the war. Their first round of financial troubles resulted in a merger with Omega in 1930 that created SSIH. The merger was financial and governance in nature. Both brands retained their own unique identities and product lines afterward.

During the early 1980's, Tissot was among a number of companies pulled under the umbrella of The Swatch Group which was formed by the Swiss banking industry and government to save the Swiss watch making industry from financial collapse caused by the onslaught of inexpensive quartz watches made in Japan. They are financially independent of the other watchmaking companies and brands within the group, and must maintain their own viability. Their financial stability has gradually improved over the past 30 years. During the late 1980's, Tissot made watches from unusual materials including rock, mother of pearl, and wood. While they were more of a fad, it showed Tissot's imaginative thinking and willingness to take some risk to try unusual concepts. Within The Swatch Group, Tissot is classified as a "mid-range" brand along with numerous others including Balmain, Hamilton and Mido.

While Tissot started as a "Manufacture" (making their own movements), they have been an "Assemblage" for several decades, and the watch movements they use now, both mechanical and quartz, are made by ETA, a movement maker in The Swatch Group. ETA has a long and renowned history of designing and making high quality watch movements. Tissot has an international market presence with wider international brand recognition, including within North America, compared to a number of the other Swatch Group brands.

Although they make a range of styles, their primary focus in the past few years has been sports watches, many of which are associated with car and motorcycle racing. They are the official timekeeper for NASCAR, and Danica Patrick, a well-known Indy Racing Leauge (IRL) driver is one of their "ambassadors," which has improved brand visibility in the USA. Others in their collections like this Seastar are associated with diving.

The presentation box the Tissot Seastar 1000 comes in is more than impressive. It goes above and beyond most packaging materials and workmanship quality I've seen used for watches in its price class, with a special compartment in the bottom containing a good sized book about Tissot and their history.

At 44mm x 52mm x 16mm and 180g it's Gargantuan and massive, especially compared to nearly all my other watches. The only other one in my collection that rivals its size and weight is the IWI Marine Diver (not quite as tall, but heavier). The lug width and heavy band is 22mm wide. A "true" diver, it's rated to 300 meters (1ooo feet) with a very solid and heavily protected screw-down crown, and a thick bezel.

My wrist is modest and this one definitely covers it completely. I knew its dimensions when I bought it and there was some concern it would look much too big for it. However, Tissot did a marvelous job designing its lugs, bracelet attachment and scaling the Seastar 1000. The lugs slope downward more than on most watches and the bracelet falls off around the wrist naturally. Every element is scaled so that no elements look unnaturally larger than the rest, a very pleasant surprise as macro-photographic perspectives can only hint at this.

Workmanship, fit and finish are immaculate. The polished areas are mirror finish and the brushed areas match texture throughout. The sapphire crystal is noticeably domed . . . more so than the others I have . . . without a "cyclops" magnifier. It doesn't need one as the crystal is a slight magnifier and date is easily readable.

The silver dial has a magnificent ultra-fine sunburst texture with high polish silver applied indices that do not get "lost" as they stand boldly proud above the dial. Of special note is the chapter ring with half-minute marks; this is the only watch I've seen with 30-second intermediate and shorter hashs around the dial. Printing is clean and straight with very sharp edges. Hands are bold without being so bold as to cover too much of the dial and the red tip on the seconds hand is a nice touch that makes it easier to see.

Lume is bold, bright and even throughout, on the hands, just outside the indices, and on the bezel ring. The bezel ring has one-minute detents and is very smooth with positive detenting that feels solid without any wobble or rattle.

Some may not like a display back on a diver, but this doesn't bother me. It has a "porthole" look embedded into the back held on with screws. Slightly off-center, the SCUBA diver and Tissot logo show on the decorated auto-wind weight when it's oriented in the correct position. The movement is a 25 jewel high beat 28.8k bph ETA 2824-2 automatic with date complication. As this ubiquitous movement is so well known, I won't say more about it here.

The solid machined links on the bracelet are thick and heavy to counter-balance the weight and scale of the watch head. Signed clasp closure is very positive without being hard to work and conceals a dive extension with equally positive closure. Removeable links have "split pins" and these were much harder to remove than with others I've resized. While this may be one downside and make resizing the bracelet difficult, it also indicates the pins will not work themselves out over time.

The signed crown screws down smoothly and the detents for date quick-set and setting time are positive. Knurling on the crown and bezel should make them easier to operate with light gloves on than with most watches. The crown guard fits the style of the rest of the case nicely and is a very desirable feature to protect the large crown without making it difficult to unscrew and use to set the watch.

Once I had the bracelet adjusted properly, the watch feels very comfortable and balanced on the wrist even though its high mass can't go unnoticed. The secret is removing the proper number of links from each side to keep the hidden z-fold of the clasp centered under the wrist when the watch head is centered over the wrist.

Overall Impression:
This is a phenomenal watch for its price point. I don't consider it a true "tool" watch although it could certainly be used as one. It's simply too beautiful to subject it to what diving would undoubtedly do to its case and bracelet finish! This is a watch that wants to stay beautiful! Those bothered by very large and heavy watches on their wrist should find a different watch; this one isn't for them. However, for those that do wear larger and heavier watches, don't dismiss the Tissot Seastar 1000 based on its much larger than normal dimensions and weight compared to other divers. You would be pleasantly surprised that it doesn't look or wear oversized. Tissot ordered up a "diver," told their designers to make it Biggie Size, and that's just what they did; very, very well!

It fits my modest wrist just fine!Tissot's Web Site

Note: I do not have any association with The Swatch Group, Tissot or their dealers other than having bought a Tissot from an authorized dealer.

Part 3: Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-08-27T02:56:00.003-04:00

Creating the Grid

Link to Part 2: Cutting the Dividers

The next problem was how to make the slots in the horizontal and vertical dividers so they could be latticed into a grid. A slot half-way up from the bottom on one and half-way down from the top on another where it intersects will allow them to form a lattice. The Plexiglas is 1/8th inch thick, therefore the slots should be just slightly wider than that (so they don't bind during assembly).

Also needed to decide which should have the upper slots and which should have the lower ones. Sounds trivial, but it can affect structural strength. The two overwhelmingly common orientations for the tool case are resting on its bottom or resting on its back (when closed). When resting on its bottom, little if any force would be exerted on the dividers. Not so when resting on its back. The weight of the watch in each pocket is resting on a horizontal divider. Since the watches will be at the tops of the pockets, their weight will be more on the top half of the horizontal dividers. Very little force from the weight of the watches will ever be exerted on the vertical dividers in normal use. Therefore, the strongest latticing would have the slots in the upper half on the vertical dividers and on the bottom half of the horizontal dividers. Forces tending to flex the upper portion of a horizontal divider at the back of a pocket will push it against the slots on the two vertical ones on each side attempting to compress them against the back of the case, and the dividers are much less likely to break, especially if the case is dropped several inches from its handle during transport.

Plexiglas, like most rigid plastics and other brittle materials can crack at sharp corners, the crack migrating from the corner outward. This is why the corners are almost always radiused slightly as it tends to inhibit cracking. The slots are only going to be just over 1/8th inch wide, but they'll be just over 1-3/8 inches long. Easy to cut each side of the slot, but not so easy to cut across it at the end, and the corners there should be radius. The solution? Kill two birds with one stone. Drill a hole 5/32 inch in diameter, just a tad wider than the slot needs to be, centered on where the slot needs to end. This provides a radius around the entire end, and eliminates the need to cut across the end. After the holes are drilled, straight cuts using the band saw down each side of the slot to the hole will create the slots needed. Significant time was spent scribing the Plexiglas for the hole centers, and the slot sides before doing any drilling or cutting. Making the hole and the slots just a hair wider than the need to be allows for a little slop in drilling and cutting, and ensure no stress is placed on the sides of a slot when assembled, something that can also precipitate a crack forming eventually at the end of the slot. Whatever slop or looseness there is will be hidden and tightened up by complete assembly along with the padding and upholstering; provided it isn't too sloppy.

Now for the drilling and on to the drill press. If you have a variable speed drill press, its RPM should always be set up for the drill diameter and the material being drilled. Here's the table under the sheave and belt cover on mine. Had to move the belt to another set of sheaves - it was set at a much too low RPM for a small drill diameter and plastics. Extremely important for safety! Ensure a machine with a huge motor on it is UNPLUGGED before doing things like this. The belt in a sheave can take the end of a finger off in the blink of an eye, and not even slow down.

Next was setting the depth of the drill. Notice the wood table on the drill press. Actually, it's 3/4 inch thick and there's a cast iron table under that. Reason for the wood? If the table is accidentally drilled into, the wood can be replaced much more easily for much fewer $$$ than a cast iron one. Even so, drill presses have a stop to prevent that (if it's used properly). A piece of scrap 1x6 will serve as the "backstop" underneath the Plexiglas strips and the drill depth is set to no more than half its thickness.

Now we can start drilling the holes and the score lines can be seen.
There were many holes to drill, but it was finally finished.
Back to the band saw to start cutting the sides of the slots. First slot was done, a lot more to go! The jury rigged fence used to cut all the strips of Plexiglas the same width is now gone. Additional care is needed now to not break any of them.

Just to make certain everything is working as planned, I cut the smaller right side dividers first, and assembled them on the band saw table. Yep, they fit together just as planned.

But would they fit inside the case as planned? Another Happy Day!
And how does my biggest watch look? Is there enough space around it, or were the dimensions botched? Looks like there's just enough; didn't want the watches rattling around either. Looks like I got it right. On to cuttting all the remaining slots in the rest of the dividers.

Finally done! Here is the lattice of dividers, assembled now inside the case, along with my largest watch (Tissot Seastar 1000) in one of the pockets. Doesn't have to look pretty, just has to fit together and be strong enough. The padding and upholstering with Ultra-Suede will cover it completely.
And a close-up of the spacing around the Tissot. Looks like just enough space around all four sides for the padding and upholstering, and the watch will be slightly snug into the padding to keep it from rattling around during transport.
The next task was cutting foam padding and gluing it onto the dividers.

Link to Part 4: Padding the Dividers

Part 2: Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-08-27T02:55:00.002-04:00

Cutting the Dividers

Link to Part 1: Introduction

The Lowe's tool case came with two long dividers, about 12-1/4 inch long, that can divide the case interior completely from front to back. Unfortunately, they only provide two of them, and getting more isn't possible (unless one buys more cases). I'm going to need more dividers of the same size. The question became the material to use. I had more than 18 watches when I bought the case and have even more now. It would be nice if it could hold more. Should be able to get 7 across with padded dividers more closely spaced and might be able to fit 4 rows of them for a total of 28. Even if only three rows will work, 21 is still a few more than 18.

The next question was the materials from which to make my own dividers. I just happened to have some Plexiglas sheets laying in Ye Olde Junque Box, left over from my Dad's when I cleaned out his house after he passed on. He taught me well: Don't throw things away, especially raw materials and hardware, that might be useful in some future, unforseen project; reduces trips to hardware stores and keeps money in one's pocket. It also just so happened that their length and thickness was exactly that of the long dividers (sans padding) that came with the tool case. These could be used to create some of my own additional dividers. I also had some suitable foam padding material and a can of adhesive that will adhere the foam to the Plexiglas without damaging either. Dug out the small square, a steel rule and a scribe from the tool bench. Measured an original divider, laid out the shape of it on a sheet of Plexiglas.

After marking the Plexiglas with the scribe, I put it on top of the original divider to see how well it matched up visually. No problem. The bottom corners will have to be notched to fit the radiused edges and corners inside the tool case, like the dividers it came with. I'll be darned. The same coffee mug got into this photo as in the one shot a year ago when the case was new!

Now to cut the sheets into strips the correct width. The inner material used in the originals is some form of Plexiglas, Polycarbonate, ABS or similar material that flexes slightly. This inner, stiff core is exactly 2-3/4" wide. What to cut the Plexiglas with was the next problem. They need to cut very straight. I could use the 10" table saw and its rip fence, but don't have the appropriate extremely fine toothed blade to cut sheets of plastic . . . nor do I want to buy one (carbide tooth blades are $$$). However, it can be done with a band saw with a 15tpi blade. Alas, nearly all band saws do not have a rip fence. They're usually used for scroll work on thicker materials. An expedient fence using a piece of scrap 1x4 of Douglass Fir (left over from a completely different project; another reason to keep certain scraps around), a couple of deep C-clamps, and a small combination square can set up a fence on the band saw's table quickly. Don't forget there's a kerf width to account for in measuring where to set the rip fence! Plastics can also chip and crack when being cut using a power saw, even with extremely fine-toothed blades. A bit of thin masking tape covering where the cuts will be made helps prevent that.

If the band saw looks vintage, it is. It was my Dad's and when he bought it, the thing was already very vintage. It was made circa 1933-1936! Requires a separate motor (they didn't come with one integrated into the saw then). The wheels are cast iron, and balanced (small drill holes in the edge around the rims). Takes a second or so to spin up, even with a 1/3-horse motor, but they're Mondo flywheels -- takes a LOT to slow them down once they're up to speed with all that rotational momentum spinning around. Saw doesn't bog easily! Bed is very heavy cast iron, ground dead flat and has remained that way since it was made nearly 75 years ago. Wouldn't trade it for a brand new Delta! They don't make 'em like they did this one any more.

Two sheets were ripped and the bottom corners were notched in short order. Got three dividers per sheet for a total of six cores for home-brewed ones, in addition to the two the tool case came with.

Although I had double-checked beforehand - measure twice and cut once - off came all the tape and they were checked against an original. Perfect match dimensionally (by eyeball comparison; close enough for me). Now to see how they actually fit, and whether or not I can get seven across. Pulled out my TISSOT Seastar 1000, my largest watch (at the time), and started spacing them . . . Happy Day! I can fit seven across with enough additional space for the padding that will have to be put on the dividers . . . and the new dividers are just the right thickness and length to fit perfectly into the shallow slots around the sides of the tool case.

Now for the cross dividers. This entailed measuring more dimensions, and then designing exactly how to fit everything together into a grid.

Sometimes something is discovered during a project and a better idea comes along resulting in changes to the original plan. That's what happened as I got started making the dividers to go across the the tool case. It's about 18 inches wide, so the design question was where to put one of the long dividers the case came with, and how long to make the cross-dividers for each side of it.

Started working out the details of the spacing for the cross-dividers. The Bad News: Four rows will not fit, only three. This means it will end up holding 21 watches, not the 28 I had hoped to achieve. The Good News: I discovered by complete serendipity that the second long divider fit perfectly as a cross-divider if the first long divider was placed where one of dividers made yesterday would go.

Hmmmm . . . needed to think about this. Good spacing of the three rows (for the pillows in my watch boxes) didn't consume the entire case either. There was a bit of space left over. It could be consumed by additional padding, or it could be worked into some small cubbyholes for accessory storage. A design revision ensued.

I cut more long dividers from additional panels of Plexiglas on the band saw. The first four would also have to be shortened, and short cross-dividers would have to be made, 5" long, to go on the right side of the case. I could cross-cut using the band saw, but that's painful trying to make a straight line. There is no miter slot on the bed, unlike a table saw. I could also jury rig a cross-cut miter guage that would slide along the edge of the bed (using an old wood drafting T-Square; I have several from which one could be sacrificed and retained for future use). Nope, more than I wanted to do for this, and didn't want to dismantle the jury rigged rip fence just yet. More strips might have to be made (if cross-cutting existing ones were botched). Aha, the miter saw still had the abrasive non-ferrous material cut-off "blade" in it! Strips were cross-cut using it very carefully to ensure proper dimensions, and very slowly to keep from melting the Plexiglas (which I discovered it would do quite quickly with the first cut).

Now to see if everything fits. Yep! There was also a trip to the local fabric store to look for suitable material to cover the padding that would be laminated onto the Plexiglas. Told the Better Half where I was going. She immediately felt my forehead to see if there was signs of fever. Then she presented me with a list of stuff she wanted! Also suggested I look for Ultra-Suede after looking at my watch boxes to see what they're lined with. Got to the fabric store and I was the only male there the entire time. Ultra-Suede it is; texture and feel is just like the material lining my watch boxes. Got a yard of it for about $10 (the bolt is 54" wide). It was on sale at half price! Should be enough to cover everything. Also remembered the "other stuff" the wife wanted. The last photo in this part shows all dividers in their planned locations, and some of the coffee colored Ultra-Suede can be seen in the lower left.

Next step was making a lattice out of all the Plexiglas dividers, the subject of the next part.

Link to Part 3: Creating the Grid

Review: IWI Marine Diver Unitas

2007-08-26T17:44:00.000-04:00

IWI Marine Diver Unitas

Summary:

44 mm diameter
52 mm length lug-to-lug
13 mm thick
24mm wide X 4 mm thick solid screw link stainless steel band
250 grams
ETA (Unitas) 6497-1 21 jewel 18,000 bph movement
Sandwich lume, high gloss deep black dial
Stainless steel case, crown and back
Heavy screw pin band attachment
Sapphire slightly domed crystal with underside AR coating
Sapphire display back
Lock down crown and butterfly clasp with pushbuttons
Seconds sub-dial

International Watchman, Inc. is a small company located in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. Like a number of very small watch companies in the U.S., they are technically a "Private Label" firm. The watches are custom made for them with IWI's name and logos by an "Assemblage" in Switzerland.

IWI has quite a range of mechanical watches. While a few "dress" models are offered, most of them are Diver, Pilot or Quasi-Military styles, including a line of GMT variants. They offer many more models and variants than most other watch companies of similar size, including a good number of Women's watches. IWI uses excellent materials, including Swiss Made ETA movements in all their watches. Their entire offering appears to be mechanical; browsed through their catalog and could not find any battery powered quartz models (including in the Womens' models and in their "Dress Watch" line). This one is the "Marine Diver Unitas" with silver hands and it's on an optional (at extra cost) stainless steel band. It comes with a see-through "display back" that allows viewing the mechanical movement inside.

Although it's not the largest watch they make, the Marine Diver Unitas is still quite BIG! It's the first thing noticed when opening the box. A 44mm case diameter on a cushion style case with a comparatively thin bezel and very large crown guard that protrudes 6mm from the side of the case to completely surround the crown makes for a watch that looks even larger than its dimensions. Other case dimensions: 52mm from lug tip to lug tip, 13mm height, and 24mm band width between the lugs. Case, crown and bezel are made of solid 316L stainless steel. Both crystals (top and back) are sapphire, and the top crystal is very slightly domed with an AR coating on its inside to reduce reflections. A watch head this size made of these materials will be quite heavy; it's over 250 grams. Dial is an extremely high gloss, deep "India Ink" black color. The dial is actually a "sandwich" with its very bold hour indices in arabics and batons cut out in the upper dial much like a stencil. The lower dial under it is coated with luminescent paint (either Luminova or Super-Luminova). This design gives the dial a unique 3-D appearance different from most other watches. The hands are highly polished silver color batons with a wide center stripe of Super-Luminova (variant models have gold hands or blued steel hands).

The overall concept for the Marine Diver Unitas is derived from the large wristwatches used by the Italian Navy (Marina Militare), notably by their special manned torpedo commandos of the 1^a Flottiglia Mezzi d'Assalto formed just prior to WWII in 1938. Two years later in 1940, at about the time Italy joined WWII, its designation was changed to Decima Flottiglia MAS. The Italian navy was the first to use "frogmen" and human guided torpedoes. These SLC (Silura a Lenta Corsa; Slow Running Torpedo) commandos would be transported to their target area by submarine. Once released from the sub, each torpedo (called chariots by the British) with a crew of two would ride it to their target, detach its limpet mine warhead, and attach it with a timer on the targeted ship. The crew would then use the torpedo to ride back to the submarine.

Although their daring was high, their success rate was low with a very high casualty rate. Even so, for the small size of X^a-MAS during the war, they managed to sink over 200,000 tons of Allied warships and merchant ships from 1940 through 1943 prior to Italy's armistice with the Allies. Although some of the commandos stayed with the German military until Germany's surrender in 1945, SLC manned torpedo operations ceased in 1943 with the armistice. Italian commando units were formally disbanded and banned at the end of WWII, but the X^a-MAS was resurrected when Italy joined NATO in 1954. A number of nations, including Italy, continue to make and keep manned torpedo commandos, and train commando crews for them.

I opted to have my Marine Diver Unitas delivered on the optional 24mm wide, very thick, solid 316L stainless steel band with machined links. Each link is actually two pieces held together with a pair of flush machine screws on the underside; one part has a high polish mirror finish and the other a brush finish. The band is attached to the watch head using heavy screw pins, and removable links have screw pins and center tubes. Don't drop and lose any tubes when resizing the band; they fall out of the link centers easily when the screw is pulled! Clasp is a hidden butterfly deployant with positive closure and tabs on each side that must be pressed inward to open it. The steel band also comes with a pair of "half links" about 2/3rd the size of a normal link. This allows resizing in 1/3rd link increments by using one, both or neither of them. It also came with a "stock" leather strap (minor upgrade to crocodile) and I had a butterfly deployant (also an option) placed on the strap for delivery. Put the leather strap on the watch head briefly to size it, and it installed easily. While the strap is impressive and quite well made, as is the very solid deployant, I prefer steel bands over leather on my watches. Even so, I may swap between the two occasionally in the future. In spite of its size, it wears well on my smaller size wrist very comfortably, even with the very large crown guard. The trick to wearing a hidden butterfly clasp without it digging into the wrist is proper band sizing, and adjusting its exact location. I tweaked this for a half day using the 2/3 links to micro-adjust its size, and by moving a link from one side of the band to the other.

The large case size is needed to house a 17 jewel 18,000 bph ETA 6497-1 hand-wind with an impressive 56 hour power reserve from full wind. Doesn't seem like much except the movement was originally created by Unitas in 1950 for pocket watches, hence the "Unitas" in the watch name. Mens' pocket watch movements are not small. The ETA 6497-1 is 16.5"' (Ligne, 1/8th of the old French inch), a very old measure of movement diameters still in use. That's 36.6 mm in diameter; it's also 4.5mm tall not counting a dial and hands. Add a few millimeters all the way around around its diameter for a steel case to house it and whatever watch is going to use one is easily over 40mm diameter. ETA gained rights to Unitas' movements when they absorbed Unitas (and several other movement makers) during the latter part of the 1970's when The Swatch Group was formed to save the Swiss watchmaking industry financially. ETA kept Unitas' movement caliber number and it's still often referred to as the Unitas 6497 even though it's made now by ETA due to widespread recognition of it's original "brand identity." That a movement designed in 1950 is still in production nearly 60 years later without any significant redesign is a testament to its exceptional performance, durability and reliability.

Execution, fit and finish is excellent. The case is highly polished, the crystal is extremely clear (due to its AR coating), and the crown lock is firm and very positive in closure without binding. Dial and hands are impeccable in finish; difficult to achieve with a deep black high gloss dial finish. Out of the box it's running slightly fast, about 5 seconds per day, common for a new movement until its pivots wear in, which takes a few months of daily use. The huge, solid wood box the watch came delivered in is the largest and heaviest I've encountered. It's equally well finished with size and weight in keeping with the watch it contained. All are befitting a wristwatch in its price class and I've been quite impressed with it. The IWI Marine Diver Unitas is not a "true" dive watch as its water resistance is rated to 50 meters, nor is it intended to be. It's a "desk diver" with its concept derived from the watches used by the Italian Navy decades ago. A real dive watch is rated for 200 meters or more water resistance, and if used for diving, or even swimming, should be depth tested annually.

International Watchman does not publish a price list on their web site beyond pricing for bands and other accessories, and they do not have a published MSRP. Their business is geared for wholesale sales to department stores, and brick & mortar jewelry stores which set their own pricing. Depending on options (steel band, exotic leather band upgrade, etc.), and specific variant, retail prices among dealers for the Marine Diver Unitas are usually well under $1000.

Summary:

44 mm diameter
52 mm length lug-to-lug
13 mm thick
24mm wide X 4 mm thick solid screw link stainless steel band
250 grams
ETA (Unitas) 6497-1 21 jewel 18,000 bph movement
Sandwich lume, high gloss deep black dial
Stainless steel case, crown and back
Heavy screw pin band attachment
Sapphire slightly domed crystal with underside AR coating
Sapphire display back
Lock down crown and butterfly clasp with pushbuttons
Seconds sub-dial

International Watchman Inc. Web Site

Note: I do not have any association with International Watchman other than having bought one of their watches and several accessories for it (delivered with the watch).

Review: Xezo Air Commando GMT Automatic

2007-08-26T14:59:00.000-04:00

Xezo Air Commando GMT Automatic

Summary:

Limited edition of 500
43 mm diameter
54 mm length lug-to-lug
12 mm thick
22 mm wide X 3.5mm thick solid screw link stainless steel band
180 grams
ETA 2893-2 21 jewel 28,800 bph auto GMT movement
Stainless steel case, crowns, bezel and back
Sapphire crystal with date cyclops and underside AR coating
Sapphire display back
Signed screwdown crowns and band clasp
200m water resistance depth rating
60 minute rotating bezel
12 hour internal rotating ring
24-hour GMT chapter ring

Xezo is little known brand based out of Sugarland, Texas. They are technically a "Private Label" and have the watches they design made for them by an "Assemblage" firm in Switzerland. They also sell pens (much like Mont Blanc sells pens and watches), briefcases, and sunglasses. It's a brand name of mens' accessories.

Their watch line, all made in Switzerland with Swiss ETA movements under the Xezo brand label is first rate, using excellent materials, and spanning a variety of styles. ETA is part of The Swatch Group and is now the largest movement maker in Switzerland, having absorbed most of the major Swiss movement makers and rights to their movement designs when The Swatch Group was formed (including A.Schild, Unitas, and Valjoux). Most are battery powered quartz, but a few like the Air Commando are mechanical auto-wind. It's a numbered, limited edition of 500; the example depicted is #30.

The Air Commando is called a GMT because it has an additional complication (watch jargon for a time-keeping feature or function) that adds a fourth, 24-hour hand to the dial that rotates at half the rate of the normal hour hand. On this watch, the extra hand is colored red to distinguish it from the others. In addition to the large 12-hour arabic numeral indices for the normal hour hand, there are smaller 24-hour arabic indices for use with the fourth hand. This extra hand can be set separately, in one-hour increments, from the time displayed by the seconds, minute and (normal) hour hand. It allows setting the watch to a second time zone. Many set it to GMT (aka UTC), hence the watch's "GMT" classification, although it can be set to any time zone desired.

In addition to the 24-hour GMT complication, there are additional features designed into the watch to provide a traditional, early 20th Century aviation timing function. Before modern avionics and sophisticated navigation electronics were put into cockpits, pilots would plan long flights with "legs" and the time to be flown along each azimuth, or leg of the entire flight. The normal crown at the "3" is used to set time and the GMT hand. The second crown at the "10" turns a secondary 12-hour chapter ring inside the watch. These are designed to be used for timing up to 12 hours in hours and minutes. Align the zero index on the bezel with the minute hand by turning the bezel, and align the secondary 12-hour chapter ring "12" with the hour hand using the secondary crown, and lock it down. Elapsed time can now be read using the secondary chapter ring and bezel. The rotating chapter ring controlled by the second crown can also be set for a third time zone (read using the normal hour hand), giving it a secondary function.

Materials are first class. The case, crown and bezel are solid 316L stainless steel. The band is also of 316L stainless steel with solid, machined links (removable links have screw pins). Crystal is thick sapphire (aka corundum) and has an AR coating on its inside to reduce its reflectivity. The dial is silver with a deep engine turned guilloche sunburst pattern. Clasp is common "Z-fold" in style, heavy duty, with two side buttons to open it, and a flip-lock on top of it. Both crowns, the movement rotor and the band clasp are all "signed." Movement inside is the venerable 21 jewel, 28,800 bph ETA caliber 2893-2 GMT with Incabloc shock protection. Based on the 2892-2 with the GMT complication added to it, it's a movement usually found only in high end watches costing much, much more than the Xezo. The water resistance is rated at 200 meters (660 feet) depth, and is aided by both crowns being "screw-down." Out of the box new it's running about 10 seconds fast daily which is normal for a brand new mechanical movement. Should settle down in the equivalent of a few months of daily use as the pivots wear into their jeweled bearings, much like the "break-in" period for new automobile engines.

The Air Commando is a BIG watch: 43mm diameter (not including crown), 54mm from lug tip to lug tip, 12mm tall and a 22mm wide band. It can be worn on a smaller wrist quite comfortably, albeit it fills the wrist, and dimensions of case, crown, bezel and band are proportionate looking. Its size, solid steel materials and thick crystal make it a heavyweight as well, tipping the scales at 180 grams. There's no mistaking that it's on one's wrist when wearing it. In spite of its weight, the edges of the band and case have very slight beveling or radiusing, and it doesn't dig into the skin, nor does the solid link band grab and pull hairs on the arm (unlike wrapped and folded sheet metal bands). Overall execution of its design, fit and finish are quite excellent.

I'm surprised the Xezo Air Commando, also available with a black dial, hasn't seen greater popularity. As a numbered, limited edition, it's priced much lower than its contemporaries from the better known brands with the same movement and similar materials and quality!
Summary:

Limited edition of 500
43 mm diameter
54 mm length lug-to-lug
12 mm thick
22 mm wide X 3.5mm thick solid screw link stainless steel band
180 grams
ETA 2893-2 21 jewel 28,800 bph auto GMT movement
Stainless steel case, crowns, bezel and back
Sapphire crystal with date cyclops and underside AR coating
Sapphire display back
Signed screwdown crowns and band clasp
200m water resistance depth rating
60 minute rotating bezel
12 hour internal rotating ring
24-hour GMT chapter ring

MSRP is currently $700 for either the black or silver dial versions. Look for "special offer" discounts that come and go on both.

Xezo's Web Site

Note: I have no affiliation with Xezo beyond being a customer that bought a watch from them.

Part 1: Lowe's Tool Case Wristwatch Conversion

2007-08-26T13:49:00.002-04:00

Introduction

Lowe's home improvement store sells a sturdy tool case with a perforated foam insert that can be easily cut to the outline of tools or instruments to hold and pad them. It's quite inexpensive, especially compared to comparable brand name cases made by major tool and instrument case makers. It also comes with a handful of thinly padded dividers that can be used to create major compartments, and there are slots for them along the outer edge inside the case, and along the sides of each divider. The lid is has a solid piece of egg crate foam to keep tools or instruments from rattling around. Under it is a stiff hardboard with pockets for hand tools, much like pockets found in the top part of brief cases. Might be useful for some, but it's a pain to access as the egg crate foam must be pulled out to get to it. These cases have been popular among the "underground" of wristwatch collectors to hold between a dozen and two dozen watches for transporting wristwatches to gatherings of watch collectors. I've had one of these cases for over a year now. The outer case shell is well made and very sturdy.

The usual manner of setting up the inside is by carving out small blocks of foam in a grid to make pockets into which watches can be placed, and using the blocks that were cut out as "pillows" around which to wrap the watch. Sometimes the two longest dividers included with the case will be used to provide some stability to the large grid of pockets. I drew a grid in Excel to plan the pockets for mine when I first got it. Three rows of six pockets that could hold eighteen watches. Notice the extra space between the second and third columns, and between the fourth and fifth columns. The long dividers were used between these colums to add structural strength and stability to the foam grid. Looked for, but didn't find a photo of mine as it was originally set up. The photo on the right shows one that's used by a watch forum acquaintance of mine, Colby. He managed to get twenty-one watches in compared to my eighteen by using a slightly different grid configuration and omitting the two long dividers. Otherwise, the setup, filled with watches looked nearly identical to his.

The perforated foam it comes with works well except for two problems. When loading up the case with watches for travel, they must be transferred from the pillows they're normally stored on in dresser top watch boxes onto the makeshift pillows in the Lowe's case. With continued use, wear and tear on both the foam "pillows" and the foam grid eventually starts to break the foam apart (along its perforations). I've wanted to make my own padded dividers spaced in a manner similar to dresser top watch boxes that would allow using the pillows on which my watches are normally stored in them. Hopefully it would allow more watches in the case, either twenty-one or twenty-four. At the least it would make loading up the case faster and solve the foam durability problem. This is the saga of my Lowe's Tool Case conversion for transporting watches.

Link to Part 2: Cutting the Dividers

Too Many Hobbies -- Too Little Time

2007-07-14T01:44:00.002-04:00

As this blog grows, you'll see we're into all sorts of stuff.

Too many hobbies; too little time.

Hopefully some of the Do-It-Yourself projects we've done will help you with yours.