El Buzo is here

The watch is here!!! What a nice watch!!!
Apart of that, this watch is not like the others I have, this one was designed by a group of friends, and I had the chance to be part of the them.
Here you are El Buzo with a shark skin band hand made by Jacob's Straps

Android App test

Checking the Android app!
Today I've tried a new beer, Mary from De Prael. Not my favourite beer but quite nice and at a good price.
Let's see if I can upload the picture...

Beer tuning

BEER TUNING! Am I crazy? Maybe not crazy but a little bit freak...

This is the plan:

Buy some liters of an awful supermarket beer, boil this liquid with some nice hops, add some yeast and sugar and bottle again to make a second fermentation.

The awful pasteurized beer will not have any alive yeast, they kill all during the pasteurisation process, so we need to add new and alive yeast. I don't know if the beer will have enough sugar to make a new fermentation, so I will add some sugar. The hops will give more bitterness to the mixture.

What do you think about it? yes... I know I'm crazy :(

This is the recipe:

3l of an awful beer (0.67€ per liter)
10g of beer yeast (the one used to make bread)
15g of white sugar
2g of hops

we will see what hapens in 2 weeks :)

El Buzo in Elphinstone

The El Buzo prototype was in Sharks & Yolanda, was in the Thistlegorm... and also in Elphinstone!
We went to look for "big things" but at the end only few people of the group was able to see some hammerheads. We were not able to see them but we were able to take some nice pics of the prototype.

Casio TM-14, SKX-1000 & SUF-100

Casio is an important part of the watch history, and maybe the most important brand in the digital watch history, it seems now they are focused on the neo-vintage watches, the G-Shocks and some other watches BUT where are the nice budget digital watches from the 80s & 90s?

I would like to see watches like these TM 14 on the watch shops

 

or may be something like this SKX 1000

and why not the SUF 100 (Surfing Timer)

or... the TGW & DGW, aka Tri Graph & Digi Graph. These models are quite easy to find in ebay with prices over their original price.

Blancpain FF

There are few diver watches that made a milestone in the diver watch history. It is clear the Fifty Fathoms from Blancpain and the Submariner from Rolex are two very important watches on the diver watch history.
The Rolex Submariner is a very well known watch, maybe the watch with more fakes around the world, but most of the diver watch lovers will talk about the Fifty Fathoms (FF) with more enthusiasm than the Rolex Sub. Maybe because it was the first "diver watch", maybe because it is a not known watch out of the watch lovers world, but I think every diver watch lover would like to own an FF... better if it could be a vintage one.
Picture from Blancpain web site

On this post I don't want to talk about the Sub or the FF, I want to suggest you a blog that talks about one of the most important diver watches in the history, not so well known on the real world, but a Holy Grail for the dive watch lovers. The watch is the Omega Ploprof, and the blog is the http://omegaploprof.blogspot.com/
It is for sure the best Spanish blog about this watch and I'm pretty sure one of the best ones around the world. Take a look on it and tell me what you think about the watch and the blog. For Ploprof questions it is better to ask Neurona, I don't know anything about this watch :(

http://omegaploprof.blogspot.com/ 

Red Sea dive

It's long time since my last post, I've been quite "busy" this summer. Some diving trips toke all my spare time so I was not able to buy or repair more watches, but I still have a bunch of them in the "hospital".
Hopefully the diving trips were amazing, we did some of the most important dives in the world. Thistlegorm, Sharks & Yolanda, Ras Mohammed, Dolphin Reef, Elphinstone... very nice place to test the El Buzo prototype :).
Now the dive season is over, so I think I will have more time to spend with my watches, let's see if I'm able to post some pictures of them.

El Buzo shark skin strap

El Buzo with a handmade band. The band maker is Jacobo from Jacobstraps, here you are his web site http://www.jrartesania.com/
I don't like the divers with leather band... but this band and this watch are AMAZING!

PROTOTYPES!!!!!!!

Finally we have fully functional prototypes of El Buzo (the Relojes Especiales forum diver watch project).
The watch is terrific!!!
Pictures and explanations could be followed on these two links
http://www.relojes-especiales.com/foros/proyecto-diver-foro/detalles-buzo-fotos-prototipo-diales-183935/
http://www.relojes-especiales.com/foros/proyecto-diver-foro/primeras-fotos-prototipo-183887/
And here you are a pic of one of the protos. All pics are shot by a forum member, nice job, isn't it?

El Buzo in Harrybishop

Just arrived from my Easter vacation and thanks to Joan  I've seen our watch is on Harrybishop blog!!!
First was OceanicTime, now Harrybishop... what's next??
And we only have pictures of the watch!! What will happen at the prototype arrival?
Thanks to all!

Casio TGW-100

I have the watch for the Eastern vacation!
A Casio vintage watch, something special. Steel case, screw down back, Tri Graph, a nice TGW-100! It has a 827 module and it is made in Japan. As most of the early Casio watches it has a serial number marked on the case back (a good point, today forgotten by the Japan brand :( ).
Here you are a picture of this nice watch on my wrist.
Have a nice Eastern vacation!

NOS Digi and Tri Graph Casios

Nice group of NOS Casio Digi and Tri Graph.

Safety razor

Few days ago I received a new Gillette Fusion from a Gillette Spain marketing campaign through Facebook.
Two months ago I started to shave using double edge razors (aka safety razors), now I will be able to compare the old and newest shaving styles.
From the cost point of view the classic shaving is the clear winner but we will see what happens from the shaving point of view.

It won't be a good comparison, because I will compare one of the most advanced modern razors, the Gillette Fusion, with a low cost Chinese safety razor, the Weishi 9306. To use a known safety razor such as Merkur, Edwin Jagger, Gillette, etc. should be a better option, but the Weishi is my only safety razor, so I will use it.
The blades used on the safety razor will be the Gillette 7 o'clock sharp edge (yellow box). A well known blades, made in St. Petersburg (Russia)

Digital steel watches

Nowadays to find steel cased digital watches is quite difficult. Apart of some high end Casio watches and the expensive Seikos we have to look for vintage digital watches. Here you are 3 of my metal cased watches. The Riquartz ones are stainless steel while the Thermidor is chrome plated metal.

The three watches are in a nice NOS condition. The big Riquartz has the price tag and they all have the protection plastic on their screw down case backs.

Casio MD-503

It's long time since I bought my last diver watch, but finally an ultra cheap diver watch arrived last week.
The watch is a Japan diver, a Casio diver. The small brother of the mythic MD-703. The new watch is the MD-503, a 100m diver watch, quartz as all Casio watches.

The MD-503 is made in Japan (Japan A) and has a serial number at the case back, as Casio did time ago. It has the same module as the MD-703.
A black NATO band is on the way , I think is a nice band for this kind of light-diver watch.

El Buzo in oceanictime

El Buzo, the Relojes Especiales & Crepas watch project in oceanictime.blogspot.com!!!
Very good news for all the people involved on this project (around 300 people from the Spanish watch forum Relojes Especiales), our watch in named in one of the best (or the best) diver watch blog.
I think we are on the  good way, now it's time to not to slow down the project and to go ahead, even with more energy.
As I said on my previous post about El Buzo, I'm very excited with this project. Is the first time I work on this sector, all my previous experience was on the Automotive & Motorcycle markets and it's nice to me to learn about one of my hobby. Apart this time I'm "working" for pleasure, not to get money at the end of the month, so this project is even more important for me.

Old style shaving

Today I want to talk about a new "hobby", so I will not talk about watches nor diving but WET SHAVING. I've started to use a double edge razor (DE razor) or a safety razor. 
It is a new world for me, razors, soaps, pre-shaves, after-shaves, brushes, blades, new things to search on ebay :)
My first safety razor is a Weishi 9306C an easy to find and cheap but nice DE razor, a must have for the people who is starting on this world like me.

Casio Game watches

The watches arrived last Friday were Casio Game Watch! I said several time I did not want to start to buy these watches, too many models, to high prices... but now I have 5 of them :)

The watches are not in perfect conditions, they have some scratches, the owner did not change the batteries carefully, but they work nice. I have to buy new bands and I will have 5 Casio Game Watches ready to wear.

2 x GA 7 (Aero Batics - module 688 - Link to Digitalwatchlibrary)
1 x GR 5 (Winning Racer - module 687 - Link to Digitalwatchlibrary)
2 x GF 2 (Scramble Fighter module 685 - Link to Digitalwatchlibrary)

The watches are here :)

The watches are here :)

More watches on the way!

New watches are on the way!!!!!! 5 watches, Made in Japan, digital...
I said several times I would not like to start to collect such kind of watches, I need to orient my collection at that type of watches are quite expensive. BUT as usually I did not follow my words and I bough them.
I will not say the watch type neither the brand nor model... do you recognize the letters GA, GF, GR?? :)
More news soon :) 

Jenny watch cleaning

I was not able completely clean the Jenny case. I've tried all my weapons. Water with soap and a toothbrush, ultrasound cleaning machine, solvents, garryflex ... Some dirt spots are still on the case but most of them in not so visible areas.
Here you are the cleaned components. Case, case back, ring & plexi

I don't know the original polished - brushed combination, but my guess was... The top surface brushed, this was the easy part, this part was quite nice and I could see the brush direction. The other areas, sides, back and diagonal surfaces have been polished. It is not a glass polish but a shiny polish. The ring is also polished, it looks like very nice.

Now it's time to clean & polish the band to finish the watch :)

Jenny watch

A new dirty watch arrived today. This time is not a digital watch, it is a Swiss made automatic watch. 
I think I won't ever have a Jenny Caribbean watch, so I bought a Jenny watch but not a Caribbean. 
The watch has a ETA 2789 caliber, 25 jewels day-date caliber.
I tried my new ultrasonic cleaner but this watch is too dirty for this modern devices so I will need to go to the traditional cleaning ways, it will take more time but I hope I will be able to clean it.
Here you are the watch. 

At this moment the watch is disassembled and I'm trying to clean it. You can see the dirt of the case in the following picture.

The only thing that is correctly cleaned is the glass. It is a plexi glass that is polished using Xerapol and is ready to be installed on the watch

I will post more pictures of the Jenny watch cleaning process, that seems to be loooooong. 

Fin springs

We are setting up our scuba dive gear for our next trip to Mexico. One of the new components, brought by Santa :), is the Tusa fin springs. The construction quality looks VERY nice, specially the ends (the bonding area between the springs and the fins). I'm not able to say if they work nice or not because I did not have the chance to check them. After the trip I will try to make a review.
Here you are two pics from Tusa web site.

El Buzo renders

A lot of small details have to be defined before to make the 1st mock-up. Nearly all the design is closed but the work is not already finished. Here you are the crowns. The time adjustment crown has the Crepas logo. Crepas is the brand who will make the watch. The GMT crown has a symbol with the same shape as the GMT hand. The hands are also a 100% new design, so we are not using stock hands, we will have exclusive hands for this watch :) I'll talk about the hands in a future post.

 And a GMT crown detal