Peseux 7001 was a fun page to write. Used in a ton of nice watches, and a very pretty movement.

Lots of good stuff for this post; been meaning to clean out the inbox.

Athaya Vintage parts

I've been spending more time on HomageForum; despite the name it's a fun place to be. Lots of people making their own watches, and a lot of good pointers to interesting ebay auctions, sources of parts and such. Via that I found Athaya Vintage, which carries all sorts of stuff:

Worth a look.

Junghans Meister handwind

Via Mike Stuffler on WUS, this stunning new Junghans model with Peseux 7001 hand winding movement:

(Image credit: Junghans via WUS)

At 37.7mm by 7.3mm, this is a super-slim classic. The crystal is either mineral or polymer, which detracts but for roughly 1,000 Euros I'm still interested. Utterly classic and even sexier than my RGM 151P.

More to come on this one; I will do a news item for Ablogtoread.com on it.

Segmented polyurethane strap

Since I got the Damasko DA44, I've been having fun buying straps to wear. 20mm lugs, drilled, make this easy. I was trying to buy this from Panatime:

(Image credit: Panatime)

It's a cross between a bracelet and a dive strap, with individual segments of hard plastic and metal pins. I like the idea and hope to get one once they're back in stock. 40 bucks, not bad.

Glow in the dark

I was shopping around the Panatime site (also bought some spring bars) and found this:

(Image credit: Panatime)

I got it yesterday, and it is awesome. Glows like mad, very smooth and comfortable. I kinda expected a gimmick that I'd not use past the novelty stage, but the silicone is actually thick and super comfortable. Looks great on the watch for that bold summer look, and the glow at night is phenomenal.

25 bucks. Total win.

Steel, titanium, PVD and more

Forgot to post this to the news, but I've an evolving page written on Materials for watchmaking. Damasko and Sinn steel in detail, with numbers and charts. And IWC titanium, and sapphire, and more. I have more work to do on it, but I'm happy with the data on there now. Have a look, and don't be afraid to leave comments.

I was pondering a post on marketing, how companies generally proceed from 'selling the engineering and features' to 'selling the Veblen goods', but these two comics do the job better and are good for a chuckle too.

Let's lead off with the SMBC:

and follow up with Basic Instructions:

Incoming Parnis skeleton

I've long been a fan of inexpensive skeleton watches, and with some positive balance in my Paypal account from the sale of my IWC, I was keeping an eye out. From previous posts I had a certain model in mind:

It's a Parnis, in a homage Panerai case with Chinese-made ETA 6498. Not a fancy movement by any means, but I like it.

For me, a skeleton watch is an occasional treat, not a daily wearer. Kind of like a truffle. So I don't want to spend a lot on it or obsess about it, just get something fun and affordable.

I was IMing with James and he suggested looking for one in the Radiomir case instead of the dive case. D'oh! Of course! Who needs a dive crown on a skeleton?!

So here's what's inbound from ebay: (seller jimka_eshop)

(Image credit: jimka_eshop)

(Image credit: jimka_eshop)

(Image credit: jimka_eshop)

Things I like about this one:

• The case and movement are matched in size. Big, with lots of room to appreciate the details.
• Handwinding movement, so no rotor to block the view
• Simple screwdown crown, easy to wind and go
• Subseconds at nine o'clock
• Simple dyed-blue wheels and stamped decorations on the bridges.
• $105 shipped That's a heck of a deal.

Alternatives suggested on Twitter:

• The Swatch Irony. I reviewed it on WR and it's probably of similar quality, maybe even worse. Meh.

There's not a lot else in this price range, and if you're getting your first skeleton I highly recommend trying an inexpensive one first. You probably won't want to wear it very often, so it's a logical place to spend less.

Sigh. I posted the PDFs and this morning, my connection was completely unusable:

What you see there is the Apache access log and firewall traffic graph. My DSL link has been 100% saturated by some asshat from Poland who decided to download the entire 3.6GB. From his Win98 box.

For now I'll let it happen; if anyone knows who this is have him send me postage and I'll mail him a goddamn disk gratis.

Pro tip: If you're going to be that guy, at least have your download tool pause a few seconds between files.