Ulysse Nardin Hourstriker Rose Gold

G-Shock...but not exactly a watch
Hope this is ok here...it sort of relates to watches. Designed along the lines of a G-Shcok watch, its a "G-phone"...shock and water resist. I had to change providers to get it, but having gone through a couple of phones in which one was dropped and broken and the other got soaked and quit all together, I figured like the watches, this phone would be a good bet for me. I think Casio has a video blurb on their site about it.

New Hamilton fan
Although I've never been a "watch person", I recently became interested in '40s Hamilton wrist watches, so here I am.I picked one up on fleabay (a Hayden) and I was immediately hooked. Maybe it was the hours I watched my father work on pocket watches when I was a kid. Now at the age of 50, I wish I had paid more attention back then. I've got a couple of "beater" movements coming for practice and spare parts and, with a bit of help, I hope to learn to work on them. I also acquired a copy of "Practical Watch Repairing" by Donald de Carle. Unfortunately, it seems that information on the nuts and boltsof working on these pieces for someone on an "independent study" program like mine is a bit hard to come by these days. At least there are still resources like the members on this site.We'll see how this works out.If anyone has advice or can point me at other sources of info I would greatly appreciate it.In the meantime, thanks in advance and I hope that one day I can contribute to the pool o

AP v. Hublot
I am looking for some advice (although I already think I know the answer). I purchased a new AP and I want to sell another watch from my collection to fund it. I am deciding between selling an AP Rubberclad, Stainless Steel, Black Dial (H Series -- the last dial) and a Hublot All Black Ferrari. Any advice is appreciated.

New strap for the Transocean Chrono LE!
Alright, I love the mesh bracelet. The vintage look, it's uniqueness. But this was a combo I was really looking forward to trying out, and it didn't disappoint! Although almost identical, the strap is a Hirsch thick calf, not the oem Breitling calf. It still needs some breaking in, but is a very high quality strap and a great deal compared to oem prices.I think this is how I'm going to wear it for a while.

Rolex's card validation process
Take my words with a grain of salt, but I got a glimpse of the Rolex card validation process today. The AD ran the warranty card through the regular credit card machine and made a charge of $10.00 to the card. The card slip came out as Approved, and the card type was actually indicated as a Mastercard, which seems to make sense, as the card number (on the back right edge) begins with 549728, which corresponds with a Mastercard Bank ID Number:https://iin-bin/bin/549728.htmlSo it seems that the Rolex Warranty Card is secretly some kind of Mastercard underneath!Not sure if this is well known knowledge (I haven't seen it around before), but I thought it was pretty cool!