Chuck Maddox’s Watch Blog

This page is a journal of my journey in the field of Horology, which is timekeeping. In other words, watch collecting. Which in my case is the collecting of chronograph watches. To contact me, email me at: cmaddox3@sbcglobal.net .

Name:
Location: Chicagoland, United States

The Extremely wordy version of my Resumé is located here: http://home.xnet.com/~cmaddox/resume.html

Friday, December 17, 2004

More phishing eBay emails...

Seems I get about 3-5 of these a week any more... Never click on a link within an eMail purporting to be from eBay, copy and paste it into a text editor and make sure it's not routing you to an anonymous ip address in this case: 200.211.73.11 ... If you do and fill out the form as directed some crook somewhere will have your Credit Card and the ability to bid on auctions for you. Isn't that nice of them?


To: cmaddox
Subject: Your Final Warning From eBay
From: "aw-confirm@ebay.com"

Place or Update Credit Card on File

Dear eBay Customer ,

This is your final warning about the safety of your eBay account. If you do not update your billing informations your access on eBay will be restricted and the user deleted. This might be due to either following reasons:

- A recent change in your personal information (i.e. change of address)
- Submiting invalid information during the initial sign up process.
- An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due an internal error within
our processors.


Your credit card on file with eBay

Card number: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-4322 (Not shown for security purposes) Expiration date: 11/05

Please sign in to your eBay account and update your billing information:

< http://200.211.73.14/.signin.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPIdllSignIn.php >http://signin.ebay.com/eBayISAPI.dll?SignIn&ssPageName=h:h:sin:US" >

If your account information is not updated, your ability to sell or bid on eBay will become restricted.

Thank you,
eBay Billing Department


eBay treats your personal information with the utmost care, and our Privacy Policy is designed to protect you and your information. eBay will never ask their users for personal information, such as bank account numbers, credit card numbers, pin numbers, passwords, or Social Security numbers in an email. For more information on how to protect your eBay password and your account, please visit User Account Protection. This eBay notice was sent to you based on your eBay account preferences and in accordance with our Privacy Policy. To change your notification preferences, click here. If you would like to receive this email in text format, click here.

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eBay and the eBay logo are trademarks of eBay Inc.

This'll get you laughing, When more is less...

 This'll get you laughing, When more is less... I just spied this article over at TimeZone and I had to share...


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83 Jewels too many? By Rob B, and Paul Delury

Thoughts on a current eBay offering...

Today over at OnTheDash.com's Heuer Discussion Forum, I discuss a currently running eBay auction and the advisability of actually bidding on the watch being offered...

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me are people who attempt to sell watches either as mechanical chronographs, or equipped with mechanical chronograph movements that possess a 1/10 of a second sub-dial. No one has ever made one of these on a wrist watch!

The auction is listed via the link above, my thoughts on this offering is available here. I'll post my summary here:

Folks, it's as simple as this... If you see a 1/10th of a second sub-dial on a chronograph watch and it's not a quartz watch, it is not a functioning chronograph and it was never produced by a reputable firm. Walk away! Heuer may have made that case, but the dial is very suspect and the seller doesn't know a lick about what what's he's stated in the auction listing.

Anyone someone says that "The watch was given to me out of a hugh collection of my (relative's relationship to the seller). (s)He was an avid collector of both high end vintage and new watches, (s)he always bought the top of the line watches which I seen him pay thousands and thousands of dollars for." RUN away! The chances of any of the story being true is infinitesimal

-- Chuck


Links to more Gallet info as requested by Chris M.

Chris Meisenzahl asks relating to my posting of my latest Gallet acquisition:

“Do you have any more info on the history of the brand and/or movement? I'm interested in learning more.”

Here are some links to Gallet's site... It's a very interesting tale.

The first Gallet to become a citizen of Geneva, was Humbertus Gallet, from Bourg-en-Bresse, France. He has been registered in the register of citizens as a citizen of the city Geneva on April 16, 1466, Involved in the watch business since the 1700's, Importing watches into Chicago as early as 1864 (The firm that would be come Omega in 1894 was founded in 1848, Heuer in 1860 by comparision), Supplied watches to the British Army in World War I, and developed the "Flying Officer model for the U.S. Airforce prior to World War II. The company declined with the onslaught of the Quartz and Japanese "invasion"s of the 1970's and 1980's and I personally had thought that the firm had been long out of business when their current website (under new management after the brand name was sold in 1996) miraculously appeared a couple of years ago. I was very moved to hear that Gallet was back, for I had resigned myself to their extinction previously.

Today, Bernard Gallet the great grandson of the family patriarch Léon Gallet is one of two people (I'm aware of) that remain involved with the current firm that bears the family name of their ancestors... Jack Heuer, the father of the Heuer Carrera is the only other person I'm aware of, both are employed as advisors to the firm that bears their family name.

Gallet's Current Collection appears to be built around ETA and Valjoux base movements for the most part. Gallet's Historical Models were based around a variety of movements including Venus, Landeron, Valjoux and their own Excelsior Park movements.

-- Chuck


Thursday, December 16, 2004

New (to me) watch arrival: Gallet by Racine...

Just before I suffered my Kidney Stone attack on Monday, I received this Gallet I purchased off of eBay (seller's pictures):






(Movement is an Excelcior Park c. 40-68 (same as my Excel-o-Graph) a real nice movement someone should revive!)

Hopefully I will be able to take some "family photo's" of my Gallet's (which number 7 wrists and 1 pocket timer currently) in the near future.

Enjoy!

-- C


John Deithelm back? -XX numbers not precise?

I spied this on TZ Omega Forum this morning:

dwk Posts: NASA Speedmasters / Omega vintage info [Dec 16, 2004 - 02:26 AM]

In answer to a question I asked Omega Vintage a couple of months ago about Neil Aemstrong and Buzz Aldrins watches I thought you might be interested to read the response.

This has come from John Diethelm who is well known on this forum and seems to have come back from retirement. Certainly vintage information service seems to be back on line.

It is interesting that the movement number info doesn'e tie in with the details of Neil's watch, but as we all know the movement number dazte is +/- 2 years.

What I have learned is the date, July 1966. I have now asked for info on my own 105.012 which from its movement number is very close to Neils watch.

Also of note is Omega's opinion of the date suffix eg 105.012-65 does not mean 1965 was the date manufactured although the general view is that usually the watch wouldn't have been much later.

I had asked what ref Buzz's watch was (105.003, 105.012 or 145.012?), it appears Omega don't know or don't want to tell!

Regards,

David

Dear Sir,

We have the following details from our archives :

OMEGA - Speedmaster ( watch worn by Neil Armstrong during the Moon Landing operaiont in July 1969

Mvt N° 24'002'981

Manual winding chronograph movement of calibre 321 - 17 jewels

Watch reference = ST 105.012 ( the other numbers are of no importance and do not reflect the age of the watch !

Manufactured and delivered to our Agents in USA = July 1966 ( then delivered from New York to the Nasa at same date

herefore, and this has been confirmed by the NASA, the above watch is displayed now in the Smithsonian Museum.

However, the watch worn worn by Buzz Aldrin has certainly had the same range of serial number... but has been stolen from him and never found since ...

Also, serial numbers are basically not used for a special year, though it has to be taken into consideration that the chronograph movement of cal. 321 has been produced from 1946 until 1965, when then changed in new calibre 861.

The serial numbers are not relating for special given years, though it might be considered as movement numbers around 21'000'000 and 22'000'000 mostly have been fitted to watches produced in 1965 / 1966.

Best regards

For OMEGA Ltd - Vintage Information / JRD


David, That's big news if John's back... What was the date of his reply to you?

John's email was sent 14th December 2004 and my question was around 10th October 2004.

It's also interesting to hear that the -xx part of 1960's~1990's case reference numbers isn't a directly tied to the date of manufacturer as we thought. I have to admit I always thought it was interesting that my 105.003 supposedly sat on a shelf in Switzerland for nearly two full years before being shipped out to Iran.

Thanks for the information...

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Ordering Japanese Speed/Seamaster Books on Amazon

Neil (UK) Posts:Seamaster books from Japan?...... [Dec 15, 2004 - 07:11 AM}

I remember somebody posting details of how to order from Amazon Japan and I gave it a go some time back but couldn't manage it due to there being no pics on the site of the books in question. I have the "Speedmaster Master book" and the "Space and watch book", can't read Japanese but find them good reference for the pics. Be grateful if somebody could explain in laymans terms how to order the "Seamaster book" or any other watch books of interest. Can they be obtained in the West?? Thanks.

Here is Steve's Post on the books...

Basically, you need to fill out your credit card information and the shipping address on their website after you've added the book(s) you wish to order into your cart. I personally use the translation on Excite click on the right hand radion button after pasting in the URL to translate to English) to decode the Japanese to something my monolinguistic mind could comprehend, but Babelfish has Japanese translation sinve I ordered my copies (and spares) and is much easier to work I believe.

In essance, you need to do the same type of form filling you would have to do to order a book at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, or Amazon.ca ... It's just the language is the barrier and you'll need to use a translation program to get the deed done.

Feel free to email me directly if you still have questions...

BTW, there are probably other books on similar topics if you look around... I have in the past and it's been very interesting.


Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Beware “Second Chance” Phishing on eBay auctions...

Saw this post over at Watch-U-Seek's Pilot watch forum today and thought I would share it:



Ebay, another warning.... Posted by: Ron Engels ® [12/14/2004, 20:43:33]

I'm a big Ebay fan. Several watches I've bought so far, and mostly I'm very satisfied. However I'm careful, and do my homework.

This happened yesterday.

I was the high bidder on a nice Breitling Navitimer 806. Not for myself, but I promised to keep an eye out for one for a good friend of mine. I was outbid. That's fair enough.

The same day I got an e-mail that looked to come from Ebay. I was offered the watch as a "second chance" offer because the winner backed out. This is not uncommon. I've had that happen before, and as a matter of fact I've sold a watch myself using the "second chance" offer to someone that was the second highest bidder after the winner didn't pay. What was funny though, was that the e-mail didn't look like an Ebay address, and the name of the guy was different then the Ebay identity that sold the watch.

I then sent an e-mail to the seller, using the original e-mail address from the auction. The answer was as expected. The 'second chance' offer did not come from him, so someone else was trying to get me to send money for the same watch. He obviously used the data that you can get from Ebay after the auction has ended, an saw my e-mail address and my high bid. Nasty.

Ron


If you get a "second chance" offer like this, do your homework and contact the seller of the item in question to confirm he or she sent the email. Otherwise you will be taken! I've received phishing email like this and I always check it out before I reply.

-- Chuck


Member of Omega Info community to visit Bienne...

A well known Member of Omega Information providing community mentioned to me the other day that he was planning on visiting Bienne in the next week or two... Among the questions I asked him to pose to those in the know at the Omega Museum was the question of when the Delrin Brake was phased in, the relationship(s) (production dates/similar features, etc.) between the 105.003/105.012/145.012/145.003 c.321 Speedmasters, and the dates of production for the Mark Series and c.1045 series of Speedmasters. We have a good idea as to when most of these models were announced/added/introduced to the product line, but little to no solid information about when they were dropped from the product line.

I know that given enough time I myself could probably come up with hundreds of questions to ask, and I don't want to burden anyone with asking or answering all at once during a visit. But if you have a question or questions that I might be able to forward along. Please post a comment to this post, and I'll forward it along.

No promises though!

-- Chuck

Administradia: Scheduling thoughts...

Howdy. Just a note for future reference. Typically Tuesday is my best day of the week to do pictures and scans. So if anyone needs/wants pictures or scanning of stuff I have on hand... the closer to a Monday night deadline for a request, the closer it will be to the top of my stack for attention on Tuesday.

On a related note... I endured a rather severe Kidney Stone attack yesterday and going into the evening. I was feeling "ok" in the morning... not great but ok... was chatting with Frank N. from about 1 to 3:30pm and I started feeling pretty lousy. By 5 and 6 o'clock I was within about a minute or two of saying "I simply can't take any more of this" and starting to head to the hospital about a dozen times. This continued until about 7:45pm when I managed to pass out and I woke up about 2:30am feeling about 90% better. I'm still feeling about the same, a little worn and weary from yesterday and last night, but so much better than then.

In case you were wondering... All kidneys produce stones, there are basically two type, one which are like very tiny smooth pebbles which usually are benign and pass from the body with no noticable effects... The second type look very crystaline, not unlike a 3-D snowflake or a Jack (think caltrop) from the old child's game...


But even these "Edgy" stones don't typically cause problems until they start to move, and boy when they start to move! I've heard that Kidney Stones are the closest pain a man can experience to what a woman feels when giving birth. I've had migrane's, toothaches, etc. that were unbearable, but at least I could move around to a position where I was only miserable. Last night the only way I could bear the pain was to distract myself from the pain by moving around.

My father had had numerous kidney stone attacks while he was alive, there is a heretity component to getting them as are certain foods and drinks, which I try to moderate on as much as possible. I myself have had attacks from the time I was a teenager, but I hadn't had an attack in a good 8 to 10 years and I had forgotten how bad they can be.


Damn thing certainly felt like the crystalline entity from Star Trek: The Next Generation!

Anyway... This is just sort of a note to let you know that between me being a bit under the weather and with the holidays coming up I might be posting a little less frequently here for a while.

and I'm ok, I'm doing much better today.

-- C

From 18 months ago: "a hint of ‘truth’” on the c.33xx...

From the “Things I find while looking for other things department” I bring to your attention a post that Tucker made 18 months ago... First is Tucker's post unadulterated with my comments:


Author: Tucker Topic: A hint of "truth"... [May 06, 2003 - 05:04 PM]

might be found in this post by Marcus Hanke on a UN forum, which describes the development of the Omega 3303 movement and touches on the 3313:

"...the Omega movement [3303] of the Seamaster [AC Chrono]: Being a designated premium brand within the Swatch Group, it was clear that Omega should go beyond its hitherto used ETA/Valjoux movement bases. The Piguet 118x, which was produced within the group, was an obvious choice. However, Omega always had a reputation of producing sportive watches for everyday use, and the Piguet movements were already infamous for being fine, but delicate. Therefore, Omega engineers teamed up with Piguet specialists, and created a new chronograph movement, based on the 118x's general layout. However, the new 'engine' was designed larger, in order to better withstand shocks. The subdial layout was changed into the more traditional configuration of the small second at 9, 30 minutes-counter at 3, and the 12 hours-counter at 6. Finally, it was designed from the outset to incorporate George Daniel's co-axial escapement, which is exclusively produced by Omega. While the actual movement production is made by Piguet, it is no doubt that the main development effort must be credited to Omega, and I think it is only just that Omega claims this movement as its own."

Maybe that description raises more questions for you than it answers, but I don't believe that the 3303 or the 3313 incorporate any elements of the Omega 2500 movement.


Next is Marcus's thoughts on the c.33xx movement interspersed with my comments...

“...the Omega movement [3303] of the Seamaster [AC Chrono]: Being a designated premium brand within the Swatch Group, ”

Sorry, I wouldn't use "Premium" to describe Omega's place within Swatch Group. Maybe Flagship, but the Premium groupmembers within Swatch are Bruget & Blancpain, not Omega... Quoting again:

“it was clear that Omega should go beyond its hitherto used ETA/Valjoux movement bases. The Piguet 118x, which was produced within the group, was an obvious choice.”

I disagree... To me it would seem more natural for Omega to team up with long time partner and develop either a new exclusive movement, or embelish an old one. Omega and Lemania have a long term (50 plus year) established track record of working well together and producing products that are the envy of the industry. Given some R&D funds and a mandate the sky is the limit (and maybe not even the sky is the limit) as to what an Omega/Lemania joint venture bring... Such a watch could be a new "Clean-sheet" endeavour or something based on a model that Lemania already has available:

This Eberhardt uses the rarely seen and nearly forgotten Lemania 5195 movement. It doesn't take much squinting to imagine the type of watch Omega could produce with this dial configuraton. Back to Marcus's thoughts:

“However, Omega always had a reputation of producing sportive watches for everyday use,”

And Piguet does not. Lemania does, but ...

“and the Piguet movements were already infamous for being fine, but delicate.”

Infamous? As in what we say next has happened before? Can anyone else read this last part as being fragile?

“Therefore, Omega engineers teamed up with Piguet specialists, and created a new chronograph movement, based on the 118x's general layout.”

In my opinion based does not have the same specific definition in this case as is typically used in the watch industry. Based in the watch industry means started from the same movement complete. In Marcus's usage, the 1185 was the BASIS or starting point from which the new design was created from. The c.33xx has about the same amount of commanality with the c.1185 as the Browning High-Power does the Colt .45 Automatic. Even though each product came from the same designer or firm (Piguet in the instance of the watches, John Browning in the case of the pistols) they remain very unique products and there is little or no commanality in parts between the old and new product.

“However, the new 'engine' was designed larger,”

As I mentioned in my article: The 3300 is not based on the 1185.

“in order to better withstand shocks.”

Considering the number of watches sent in for repairs, and the number of watches returned from repait with the claim cause of failure being "Shock damage" it seems that Piguet/Omega has failed in their attempt to produce a watch with effective shock protection.

“The subdial layout was changed into the more traditional configuration of the small second at 9, 30 minutes-counter at 3, and the 12 hours-counter at 6.”

Also mentioned in The 3300 is not based on the 1185.

“Finally, it was designed from the outset to incorporate George Daniel's co-axial escapement, which is exclusively produced by Omega.”

So the responsibility for manufacturing and assembly of the c.330x movement (non-CoAxial) is Piguet's not Omega. However, in the end Omega is responsible for the movemetns they place into their products.

“While the actual movement production is made by Piguet, it is no doubt that the main development effort must be credited to Omega,”

I don't know that I could make that statement based on what I know. I don't know how much input Omega had on the c.33xx weither it was complete, or suggestions... I can't go that far on the limb to assign design responsibility to Omega. Omega doesn't seem to have a very good record on internally designed chrnograph movemetns. And I'm referring to the ill-fated Omega attempt to build an in-house split-second chronometer-chronograph in the late 1990's before giving up and going with a Eta/Valjoux 7750 base.

“and I think it is only just that Omega claims this movement as its own.”

In the end they have to take the credit and or responsibility for this movement. For Piguet is not a company that the average watch purchaser deals with.



Where does this old post get us?

Well, a) It seems pretty obvious that Omega knew that the 1185 wasn't up to the rigors of everyday use like the estabished Seamaster and Speedmaster lines. The c.33xx is Omega's attempt to develop the concept advanced by the c.1185 Piguet into a viable sports chronograph with all that entails. b) It seems increasing more certain that Omega believed that they could design out the fragile-ness of the earlier c.1185 movement and turn it into a middle end movement they could compete head to head with Rolex's Daytona models. Unfortunately it hasn't been as easy to ruggedize and make reliable the 1185 derived movement as they had hoped. It seems (to me anyway) that they might have gotten better results taking a rugged and capable movement and tuning it to meet COSC requirements (like they did with the c.864 and c.1041 Lemania movements), than taking a fine but delicate movement and ruggedizeing it for everyday use.

Perhaps next time they'll take the other path... Hopefully they will learn from this. -- C


Monday, December 13, 2004

Citizen Revives Bullhead chrono in limited edition…

Ran across this, like so many things, while looking for something else:
 
New CITIZEN ECO-DRIVE "Movt E210" Limited Edition
Order Now!! " The first released edition was sold out"
Please wait for the second release ! Only 500 pieces available.
Listed Price : 105,000JPY (US$ 986)
  • Case : Titanium
  • Dial : White
  • Strap : Titanium
  • Crystal :Non reflective curved Sapphire crystal
  • Size without Crown :41.00 mm x 46.00 mm
  • Movement : E210 Eco drive 8 months
  • Chronograph function : 1/5 sec, 12 hours
  • -10 ATM water resistance
  • Power reserve indicator
  • Alarm
  • Anti magnetic
  • +-15sec/month

It's great to see Citizen reviving this interesting concept from thirty years ago. It's a great look!

-- C


Op-Ed: Shame it never happened… i.e. Trust but verify!

Nervously eyeing a Heuer Monaco, Steve McQueen sat in the racing car's cockpit, waiting for the grueling Le Mans race to begin. Once the flag dropped, this uncompromising, self-styled rebel of the 1960's was off with a loud VROOM, striking a uniquely dynamic and aggressive pose as he carved up asphalt. Magnetic statements were typical of McQueen. The unflappable, rugged hero of The Magnificent Seven (1960) and The Great Escape (1963), he epitomized star power. But as this iconic figure hurtled across the French countryside, showcasing his (real life) prowess behind the wheel, Man conquering Machine was only one of the potent celluloid images. Occasionally flashing that big and bold (1970) Monaco on his right wrist, McQueen also underscored the aerodynamic sleekness of this soon-to-be-popular timepiece, its rakish American personality, and the overriding fact that cars and watches are an incontrovertible marriage of mechanical wonders.

-- Ed Kiersh: WatchTime October 2002, Page 48

Wonderful story, Beautiful imagery, prose paints a vivid image...

It's a shame it never happened…

For while Steve McQueen drove in LeMans, the Movie, he never actually raced (to my knowledge) at LeMans the event

The deal was set for McQueen to spend the summer of 1970 doing principal photography for the movie, McQueen had even purchased a Porsche 917k and was planning on entering it in the race. Enter Mario Andretti, who said in an interview that LeMans was probably the most dangerous race in the world because of the extreme breadth of cars in the race, from Prototypes like the Porsche 917L and Ferrari 512M that were capable of topping out at over 240 miles per hour on the long Muisanne Straight to race prepared, but comparatively anemic Alfa's and Porsche 911's of the day. Andretti probably had an alteriour motive or two considering that he was put behind the wheel in a desparation move to salvage face in the 1970 Sebring race that February when a year old Porsche 908 driven by the late Peter Revson (one of the Revlon Cosmetics Heirs) and McQueen (who was wearing a cast on his broken clutch foot) very nearly won after attrition took out all of the 1st line Porsche and Ferrari contestants. The backers of the film gave McQueen an ultimatium: Drop out of the race or lose backing for the film. When faced with the decision to race for real for one day, or race all summer and have his dream film be made, McQueen wisely choose the latter, and today we can enjoy this film.

The reason I bring this up, is one of the things I learned to do when researching products I was intending to buy over 20 years ago, was to read an article or review and boil it down to facts, opinions and value judgements. And to really scrutinize what was printed. In these days of political operatives spoofing historical documents, and network news departments not doing the most basic of fact checking that would cause the reporter or editior of a High School Newspaper to be booted off the paper, there seems to be a dearth of research and fact checking by the authors or editors of many publications. I will give you another example...

“THE SPEEDMASTER PROFESSIONAL CHRONOGRAPH FROM OMEGA (1957) It was an entirely normal Speedmaster Chronograph from Omega, water-resistant and with a tachometer scale on its bezel, that NASA ordered on September 29, 1964, subjected to grueling tests and ultimately selected to serve as the official astronauts wristwatch in early 1965. On March 23, 1965, the chronograph with the columnwheel Caliber 321 made its first flight into outer space aboard the Gemini 3 space capsule. The model was renamed the Speedmaster Professional in 1966 in recognition of its professional performance on the wrist of astronaut Edward White during his historic space walk. The same timepiece also accompanied Neil Armstrong when he took mankind's first giant step on the lunar surface on July 21, 1969.”

Classic Timepieces: 50 Wristwatches CHOSEN BY WATCHTIME'S EDITORIAL STAFF, WatchTime December 2001, Page 70

Mr. Armstrong never wore his Speedmaster when he went EVA on Apollo 11! This is pretty basic and easy to check.

I'll admit that my Article on which watches were worn on/near the moon had only been posted in TimeZone Classics since June of 2001, but I had posted, in essessance, the same article twice previously although I rewrote it each time. However, all of the websites from which I drew on to write that were up, and locatable via Google, Yahoo, or anyone of an number of other search engines.

When writers, editors and producers of material neglect, either accidentally or intentionally even basic back-checking a smart reader/viewer must do that themselves. Don't take the printed or broadcast word as gosphel. Look a little deeper at the basis for what is being said and scrutinize it for it's value and worth.

-- C

P.S. Although I used two examples from WatchTime magazine, do not think that I am singling them out. It happens that Jeff Stein sent me a link to their archive pages and the two passages above struck me as being in error. Unfortunately, other watch magazines, other publications in general, and most media have similar gaffes. I'm likely not immune either… So scrutinize me too! As an esteemed U.S. President once insisted “Trust but verify!”…


Delrin Project Update: Info from JM...

From: jean-michel
Subject: delrin brake a follow up
 
Hi Chuck
 
I am back from Sweden, the trip was OK but cold :-)
Welcome back! Cold here this morning!

on the Delrin brake topic , here are pics of a speedy pro I have just spotted on e-bay France : a speedy pro dated 1978 with ... a metal brake !

mine is date 1977 and have the delrin brake ! confusing isn't it ;-)

I don't make up this stuff! I just report it...

but Omega had perhaps introduced the Delrin Brake in production during the 77-78 period which might explain why you can find in 77-78 period both types of brakes ...

any oppinions ?

I agree with you, this might be a transition period when they switched over in bit's and spurts. I'll keep it in mind when updating the Delrin Project.

cheers

JM

Thank you for your efforts JM!

Here are a couple of additional pictures JM sent me:

-- C