Watchlords

Many thanks for the appreciation of my small collection -- particularly as it does not conform to the norm for watch forums (only one diver for instance).

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

July 14th 2020, 1:47pm

First - you should be aware that no one is prepared to cut you any slack over your youth. In his last professional race in 2007, at Watkins Glen, that “Paul Newman guy” qualified on pole - at age 81. Amid the euphoria he proclaimed to a sports reporter, “...it feels good - it makes me feel like I’m 77 again!” And he was a watch guy, soooo...

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the welcome.

Could never hope to compete with the exploits of Mr. Newman -- but am still able to get some fun out of the motorized wheel-chair . . . .

3Flushes wrote: ↑

July 14th 2020, 5:18pm

I especially like your fetish for turned dials, man, beautiful.

An old artist friend of the family from Germany had one of those Benzingers with the guilloche skeletonized dials- spectacular. I've never seen that Zenith, awesome, also, too.

Thanks. Yes, I picked up the Zenith because I wanted a moon-phase in my collection, and it is one of my favourite implementations. And the dial immediately appealed to me -- so much so that I decided to try to find a hand crafted one.
Jochen Benzinger is not really a watchmaker (although he turns out around thirty pieces each year). His real skill is being one of the German industry's leading hand engravers (and hand skeletonizers, and "guilloché main").
The Subscription is rather more flamboyant than my normal taste, but, luckily, in real 42mm scale it looks a lot less gaudy than it does in close-up photos. Again, I love both sides of the thing.

Welcome, your taste is impeccable.

bobbee wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 2:39am

Welcome, your taste is impeccable.

Thank you, Sir.

Welcome to the asylum...you will be assimilated...resistance is futile..one Hell of a collection, though!!..

Well, color (or colour) me impressed.

A Meistersinger and many Glashuttes and a Zenith all getting along.

That is a spectacular collection of watches. Wow! Good for you!

Thank you for the display and welcome

oh, man... I love that collection... and welcome!

Thanks for all the kind words, Gentlemen (I assume).

franklin wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 6:30am

Thanks for all the kind words, Gentlemen (I assume).

svaglic is a lady, a first class one.

koimaster wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 7:47am

franklin wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 6:30am

Thanks for all the kind words, Gentlemen (I assume).

svaglic is a lady, a first class one.

Thanks. But, is there another type?

franklin wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 7:54am

koimaster wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 7:47am

franklin wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 6:30am

Thanks for all the kind words, Gentlemen (I assume).

svaglic is a lady, a first class one.

Thanks. But, is there another type?

I choose not to discuss my soon to be daughter in law.

Lovely. A most impressive and very tasteful collection - and not an Invicter in the bunch! A hearty welcome, sir.

Hidey-Ho!

Holy shit, what a collection. Mein Gott!

I am just floored.

Superb! I’m a big fan of lightness, too!

I particularly appreciate how modern wheelchairs have the general appearance of a Caterham... perhaps just a touch too contemporary to be one of Chapman’s originals. What a hoot! I learned to hate them in a multi-make airport endurance race... so light, so nimble & agile. A real pain in my arse, as “you people” are known to have said one.

What’s it powered by?

franklin wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 1:08am

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

July 14th 2020, 1:47pm

First - you should be aware that no one is prepared to cut you any slack over your youth. In his last professional race in 2007, at Watkins Glen, that “Paul Newman guy” qualified on pole - at age 81. Amid the euphoria he proclaimed to a sports reporter, “...it feels good - it makes me feel like I’m 77 again!” And he was a watch guy, soooo...

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the welcome.

Could never hope to compete with the exploits of Mr. Newman -- but am still able to get some fun out of the motorized wheel-chair . . . .

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 6:57pm

Superb! I’m a big fan of lightness, too!

I particularly appreciate how modern wheelchairs have the general appearance of a Caterham... perhaps just a touch too contemporary to be one of Chapman’s originals. What a hoot! I learned to hate them in a multi-make airport endurance race... so light, so nimble & agile. A real pain in my arse, as “you people” are known to have said one.

What’s it powered by?

To make sense of the answer to your question, I need to give you a little background.

Firstly, I don't race; I sprint (one or two solo laps of a racing circuit from a standing start, against the clock). I assume that North America has something similar. Sprinting as a discipline has two disadvantages against racing: because your track time is limited to bursts of around 100 seconds there is no time to redeem a significant mistake, and, if you come to grief, there is nobody else to blame.

Secondly, I go in a "road-going" class (meaning that the car is street-legal (just)).

For reasons lost in the mists of time (but definitely the fault of FoMoCo), the most common cut point for sub-classes is 1700cc. The smaller class attracts a nicer sort of person, less prone to bragging about the size of their equipment. As, in general, there are more tuning possibilities available for 1600cc engines than the (nowadays) less common 1700, I use a 1600cc four cylinder Vauxhall (GM at the time) unit. But that is a bit like claiming that certain watch brands are Swiss. The truth is that only the engine block and robust little crankshaft are retained from the Vauxhall engine. It produces 214 PS (metric horsepower) with the hard cut at 9500 rpm. Mated with a six speed sequential gearbox featuring clutchless "flappy paddle" changing, it becomes quite a pleasant little weapon.
According to the data-logger, 0-60 mph is in the low 3s range (depending on my capability on the day -- no electronic gizmos to help). No matter how long the straight, the only way it could exceed 130 mph is with a strong tail wind.

The ideal power for the chassis would be 250-270 PS, but that is unfortunately not available from a reasonably tractable sub-1700.

What do you race?
.

Falstaff wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 9:13am

Lovely. A most impressive and very tasteful collection - and not an Invicter in the bunch! A hearty welcome, sir.

Thank you for the compliment.

I'm sure you will think this strange, but Invicta is one of several brands to which I have never felt attracted.

Luckily, we are all different

franklin wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 1:19am

3Flushes wrote: ↑

July 14th 2020, 5:18pm

I especially like your fetish for turned dials, man, beautiful.

An old artist friend of the family from Germany had one of those Benzingers with the guilloche skeletonized dials- spectacular. I've never seen that Zenith, awesome, also, too.

Thanks. Yes, I picked up the Zenith because I wanted a moon-phase in my collection, and it is one of my favourite implementations. And the dial immediately appealed to me -- so much so that I decided to try to find a hand crafted one.
Jochen Benzinger is not really a watchmaker (although he turns out around thirty pieces each year). His real skill is being one of the German industry's leading hand engravers (and hand skeletonizers, and "guilloché main").
The Subscription is rather more flamboyant than my normal taste, but, luckily, in real 42mm scale it looks a lot less gaudy than it does in close-up photos. Again, I love both sides of the thing.

The subscription is incredible in the flesh, so to speak. Incredible hands, that guy.

I thought the Zenith was hand turned- jeeze it's beautiful. Is that oil pressed? I can't find shit about it.

Great stuff.

franklin wrote: ↑

July 16th 2020, 4:57am

Falstaff wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 9:13am

Lovely. A most impressive and very tasteful collection - and not an Invicter in the bunch! A hearty welcome, sir.

Thank you for the compliment.

I'm sure you will think this strange, but Invicta is one of several brands to which I have never felt attracted.

Luckily, we are all different

We are indeed different - and some are more different than others. My remark was intended to be tongue-in-cheek. We are the bane of Invicter (note the intentional misspelling), their Nemesis, a veritable bete noir - the dread embodiment of their every nightmare. Again sir, welcome to our noble company.

franklin wrote: ↑

July 16th 2020, 1:08am

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

July 15th 2020, 6:57pm

Superb! I’m a big fan of lightness, too!

I particularly appreciate how modern wheelchairs have the general appearance of a Caterham... perhaps just a touch too contemporary to be one of Chapman’s originals. What a hoot! I learned to hate them in a multi-make airport endurance race... so light, so nimble & agile. A real pain in my arse, as “you people” are known to have said one.

What’s it powered by?

To make sense of the answer to your question, I need to give you a little background.

Firstly, I don't race; I sprint (one or two solo laps of a racing circuit from a standing start, against the clock). I assume that North America has something similar. Sprinting as a discipline has two disadvantages against racing: because your track time is limited to bursts of around 100 seconds there is no time to redeem a significant mistake, and, if you come to grief, there is nobody else to blame.

Secondly, I go in a "road-going" class (meaning that the car is street-legal (just)).

For reasons lost in the mists of time (but definitely the fault of FoMoCo), the most common cut point for sub-classes is 1700cc. The smaller class attracts a nicer sort of person, less prone to bragging about the size of their equipment. As, in general, there are more tuning possibilities available for 1600cc engines than the (nowadays) less common 1700, I use a 1600cc four cylinder Vauxhall (GM at the time) unit. But that is a bit like claiming that certain watch brands are Swiss. The truth is that only the engine block and robust little crankshaft are retained from the Vauxhall engine. It produces 214 PS (metric horsepower) with the hard cut at 9500 rpm. Mated with a six speed sequential gearbox featuring clutchless "flappy paddle" changing, it becomes quite a pleasant little weapon.
According to the data-logger, 0-60 mph is in the low 3s range (depending on my capability on the day -- no electronic gizmos to help). No matter how long the straight, the only way it could exceed 130 mph is with a strong tail wind.

The ideal power for the chassis would be 250-270 PS, but that is unfortunately not available from a reasonably tractable sub-1700.

What do you race?
.

Fantastic! I can appreciate the balance between just the right amount of power to wring everything offered from the chassis and tires (for a specific class or set up) which then let’s you focus on smoothness... a sorted car is a thing of joy, and it’s much more fun to drive a slow car fast, than it is to drive a fast car slow! Essentially, that’s how I clobbered some big Healey’s with my nicely set-up Mk II Sprite (1275cc & Weber). Light, nimble... but live rear axle, 1/4 elliptic springs and damn lever shocks with a king-pin front suspension... so, largely crap. But light, and f-u-u-uuuun! I can only image a sequential gearbox - a very nice touch that cuts time and reduces fatigue and, potentially, -gasp- mistakes!

Although I ditched the Sprite, I’m happy to flog anything with four-wheels and a seat. There is a very fun crap box racing series here referred to as the 24hours of Lemons... it is both farcical and fun. And some pretty aggressive racing... hey, it’s crap, I’m taking this line, squeezing you out, and force you to tuck in behind me. Bump bump, clank - we each lose a mirror... maybe black flagged, maybe not... For that nonesense a group of friends and I campaigned a hopped-up, supper-cheaty, ‘84 MK I Golf GTI.

For more civilized outings where there exists a certain expectation of wheel-to-wheel with NO contact, I have been racing a Porsche 911 off and on over 29 years. Also instructing, time trialing, auto crosses (“gymkana”?) general clobbering in whatever could fit my schedule & was within a day’s tow. But there is certain truth in the idea that keeping a car competitive over years of rule book evolution with similar but distinctly different rules enforced at different clubs is yet another fabulous way to burn cubic dollars. For years years we fell into a 3.0-litre modified class but in time that evolved into 3.0 to 3.8 N/A based on a confusing points system based on modifications deviating from stock. Which put us smack in the middle of a ridiculous group of the fastest cars that completely outclassed us:
In time, our car evolved to carry significantly less weight (1950#) and more displacement at 3.6 litres... but, you know, by then the class also accommodated turbocharged everything. Which put us right smack in the middle of a ridiculous even faster group of the fastest cars that completely outclassed us:
So, these days the most recent changes on deck are coming along slowly, the racing schedule essentially not existent for the time being. The engine is fresh, but the gearbox is toast, the cage has now expired, as have the belts... Fuel, slicks, oil - everything requires a deeper budget now... I still love it, and get misty eyed when I’m a shoe in someone else’s car, but I have other project in process, too, so “Ol’ Reliable” sits here patiently and reminds me there is work to be done... I’m pretty sure it also said something like “leave yer wallet”, which is always a good time to go back inside.

Not to high-jack your introduction... I, along with others here, admire other mechanical things as well... but watches and cars go together like Gin and Tonic!

Great collection, looking forward to more images...

Nuvolari wrote: ↑

July 16th 2020, 9:49pm

The engine is fresh, but the gearbox is toast, the cage has now expired, as have the belts... Fuel, slicks, oil - everything requires a deeper budget now... I still love it, and get misty eyed when I’m a shoe in someone else’s car, but I have other project in process, too, so “Ol’ Reliable” sits here patiently and reminds me there is work to be done... I’m pretty sure it also said something like “leave yer wallet”, which is always a good time to go back inside.

Not to high-jack your introduction... I, along with others here, admire other mechanical things as well... but watches and cars go together like Gin and Tonic!

Great collection, looking forward to more images...

Cost of slicks is another reason for competing in a street-legal class!

Several of my friends compete under "single marque" regulations, and they also suffer from specification creep as the marque brings out new models. The kit-car regs have remained the same for around two decades, and are simple: <1700cc, car-derived, normally aspirated, regularly available road fuel -- everything else is free. Luckily that has meant that my little orange bomb . . . .

. . . has been nationally competitive for a decade without many changes. It's a little overweight (like its owner): cast iron block, complex gearbox, air-bottle. But, it's extremely agile and easy to drive -- gear changes mid-corner, at least in the dry, no problem.

In pursuit of real lightness, and the spirit of Chapman, for a couple of years I tried a 220 PS Hayabusa engine (different class of course: slicks). The ensemble was 60kg lighter than that which I am now running, and obviously rather faster. But, it was temperamental, less than totally reliable, and brutal to drive. When it decided to turn a bearing shell on the fastest part of the Lotus Cars test track (probably the most money per millisecond I've ever lost in my life), I called it a day and returned to nice reliable Vauxhall power.



Back to watches: if I can find (I'm very new here) a suitable sub-forum, I'll write up a couple of my favourites -- probably including a Moritz Grossmann as there has been some disdain shown here.
.

Well done, Sir!

But, yeeeaah... that con-rod - it’s uuhhh, it’s a little “out of spec” after the unconventional heat-treatment...”

I doubt there is any real disdain... just a bunch of opinionated smartasses - which is why this place is more fun than half-a-gallon of red ants!

For Tazio