Omega SeaMaster Aqua Terra 39mm Stainless Steel On Bracelet 2503

First Post, Thanks Everyone!
Thanks to everyone for what I've learned reading this forum! Sauntering through all 85 pages, I've read about a third of the threads and enjoyed them immensely. I have five vintage Hamiltons that I wear regularly and it was fun to discover so much about them! Watches were a "big deal" in my family, when I was growing up. No one collected them, but watches were a frequent gift in our clan. Holidays, birthdays, a bon voyage no occasion could pass without someone getting a new watch for us to "oooh and aaah" over! Hamilton and Bulova were the favorites. The fun that went along with those early celebrations certainly sparked my passion for watches. I've gathered up a fair collection over the years, although I'm not as ardent as many here!Now, all of a sudden, I've acquired several watches and a problem! My problem is a watchmaker who's an 83 year old "enabler." Whenever I stop by his shop he unearths some ancient timepiece from the dark recesses of his vault and decides it needs

Longines watch window shopping in Atlanta
I had the opportunity to do some window shopping for watches while in Atlanta. Went to a well-known watch retailer at a big, fancy pants mall there. I saw many watches I did not expect to see: Breguet, Patek, Ulysses Nardin. All very nice but I don't pay that much attention to watches I can never own. Two watches really set me off. One was a Girard-Perregaux 1966 Full Calendar in pink gold (Yes, I know, very unownable for me but beautiful and almost as important, very legible). The second was this Longines Conquest Chronograph with a ceramic bezel and stainless steel bracelet:Wow. This watch is something. Elegant and substantial. Very clear and easy to read subdials. The integrated pushers seem just right. Even the caseback looked great. The real deal sealer to me was the ceramic bezel, something just pure and elegant about it. The downsides? No lume. The retailer was taking a flat $250 off of Longines and I knew I could do better elsewhere, but really the only thing stopping me was th

New strap for the Typhoon....
Just got this great strap from G. (George) in Greece.....split leaf2 by blingmeister, on Flickr

Some Pretty Incredible Before and After Pictures..............
Hey guys!I bought this 1901 Transition Waltham on ebay about a week ago and it arrived early this morning (whoohoo, the mailman came early today!)I was sort of stumped when it came to the case material of this Illinois Watch Case Company "Arrow", the "Arrow" name was not in my list of names for IWCC cases. I thought that it would be 10k gold filled possibly but it turns out that it is just a gold colored base metal of some sort, it does NOT appear to be gold chrome plated so I am still kind of stumped on that front. Anyway, this transformation from an absolute piece of junk to an absolutely beautiful antique American wrist watch took me about 10 hours of non-stop work. The original transition Roman numeral dial was in rather bad condition, it had several hairline cracks and scratches and one of the dial feet was broken off so that one when in the scrap bin. I was going to use a nice 17 jewel Riverside that I have been saving but SALLY made me think twice about this decision. She really

INCOMING!!!!!!! My grail just landed
I love it! I am debating on getting the tang to make it more comfortable. Anybody run the tang buckle instead of the deploy? I also ordered ordered the rubber strap