What's the difference between acrylic, mineral, and sapphire crystals?

The see through window above the dial is commonly interpreted as Crystal.

An acrylic watch crystal is a kind of plastic, being ductile, which has the advantage of being resistant to shattering, but prone to be scratched quite easily. Fortunately, scratches can be easily removed from acrylic. See Note*1 below for rework.
Mineral crystal is a kind of glass, which is more scratch resistant than acrylic, but not as as good as sapphire. Mineral crystals are also somewhat better at shatter resistance compared with sapphire. Unlike acrylic, scratches in mineral glass are more difficult to buff out; and unlike sapphire, mineral glass will scratch. In my opinion, the mineral crystal seems to be a poor compromise between the two extremes.
A sapphire crystal is indeed made of synthetic sapphire industrially, which is a transparent form of corundum, or aluminum oxide (Al2O3). It is extremely hard (Moh's scale 9), theoretically it will resist scratching by most substances short of diamonds. However, if it is struck sharply from the right direction, sapphire will crack. Despite the relatively large size compared with sapphire gemstones, sapphire crystals aren't very expensive (approx. $20). However some of the curved synthetic sapphire can be a few time more expensive as due to the manufacturability.
A cheap Fake watch usually used Mineral Crystal which is not as clear and transparent as the Synthetic sapphire. This is one of the way the tell this is Grade B or Grade A Fake Watch. Some grade A Fake watch uses synthetic Sapphire!
Attached Picture is a Older Rolex Day Date Ref. 1803 dated 1972 which was only having
Acrylic Crystal, where the newer Day Date Ref 18338 dated 2003 on the right is using Synthetic Sapphire.
Rolex Acrylic Crystal is just HKD$250 and a Synthetic Sapphire is approximately HKD$900.
A Rolex Acrylic Crystal is warmer and the new synthetic Sapphire is cooler when you place you watch to you cheek.. some of the people prefer the older watch just because they warm they are warmer….more closer to the skin temperature!
Note*1
How do I remove the scratches from an acrylic crystal?
Good old-fashioned toothpaste is a good start. Start by buffing a little bit onto a clean fine cloth over the area of the scratch. Rub lightly, and rinse with a very slightly damp cloth. Repeat until scratches are gone.
Note that there are also purpose-made polishes for this purpose, such as Polywatch , Crystal-Kleer or Brasso. Tsim Sha Tsui Snob

Orient Manual Calendar Automatic Watch

This is a large size 40mm Calendar Automatic watch, 100m Water Resistant, made by Orient Watch Co. Japan.
The Display here on the picture is 2011 Nov 27 Sunday… Well, of course this is not perpetual calendar. What Can you expect with HKD$1280!? I bought it at Dundas Street when I Passed by this undistinguished watch shop. Let me check the accuracy of it.
Dundas Street Snob

What is The best Collectible Rolex We should Buy Today?

You want to tell about which current model Rolex is the most collectable? And which model is the best selling from each brand? First, best-selling and collectable almost rule each other out. The truly collectable Rolex watches that fetch the highest prices are those that were produced in a very small series or even had a manufacturing default. So Does it mean a Platimum Rolex Date Day is the best Collectible. I don't think so.
A Collectible watch may contain or fulfill this factors:
Always having a Good Movement
A Good technologic Achievement
A Memorial item
A limited number of production A Must
A Hit watch at certain time later, retro Style
Not necessary Beautiful.
A Good Brand Value, Always important factor.
A Rolex Date Day is A Beautiful good Technological Achievement as it is Flag ship of Rolex
But does not mean it is Collectible as generally they are made in Volume production.
It's similar to stamps. The run of the mill stamps are worth nothing. The odd misprint can be worth millions because they are so rare.
Rolex is an ideal case for that because they produce industrially. Thus in principle you don't get collectability from Rolex watches. However, certain versions stand out and are indeed super desirable (Black Explorer, Vanilla Sub, Comex Sub , Paul Newman Daytona, McQueen Explorer II, Ferrari Red Dial). Rolex are industrial but some rare one off watches will fetch up to HKD$1,000,000. The opposite are super rare Patek Philippe 1953 World Time Enamel watches. There are only 3 per pieces. The highest price was around $4 million. This proves that rarity and technical complexity as well as aura are the driving factors in collectability and value.
Thus it is for watches. New collectors should do their own research and they should march to the beat of their own drummer when it comes to collecting watches, but there are still some general trends, histories and situations that influence the long term values of many watch brands and many models of movements.
So what is the Best Collectible Rolex that we should Buy today!?
Rolex Submariner Ref. 116610LV Green bezel green dial
Rolex Explorer II Ref 216570 Orange pointer Black Dial

This is My Suggestion only!
HK Snob

What is the best Selling Model for Rolex In HK?

The Most recognizable Rolex Model is no question the Fluted Bezel Date Just or the Day Date. As the Fluted Bezel stands out amongst the rest of the watch as an Icon of Rolex.
Rolex never published their sales figure on models, base on my understanding, it is estimated that 60% of Rolex watches sold are some versions of the Date Just.
Best Sportive model is Submariner, but it comes with one size, where Date Just comes with 3 sizes Men, Boy (mid) and lady, till 2009 that they introduced the Ref. 116334 Rolex Date Just for men 41mm size. So there are 4 sizes for Date Just, plus a few variants for different strap available, and the material for watch stainless steel, two tones, and Rose gold Two Tone. This creates a lot of variants for different people who does like his style and models. This Successful Strategy makes Rolex Date Just the Most Successful Model.
A Rough estimation this is the best Selling Model in HK
1. Men Stainless Steel Date Just Ref. 116234
2. Men Two Tone stainless Steel and Yellow Gold Date Just Ref. 116233
3. Men Two Tone stainless Steel and Rose Gold Date Just Ref. 116231 mainly because of the Chinese. The Date Just occupies approximately 50% of total Rolex Sales in HK.
The Submariner is very popular for professional divers, youth and sportive woman, celebrity and movie star. Since it has only one size, due to the effect of the Divers, Professionals, executives and Celebrities, Movies Star, the Sales is keep up with the Date Just, but due to one model only, their sales is approximately 6% of Total Rolex Sales units. The Third best Selling model is Explorer II.
So How About Date Day, as you know, Date Day is the flag Ship of All Rolex, only Gold is available, that has been marked as the Icon of the Big Brother’s watch, Presidents watch, CEO, CTO best favourite watch, as no one can afford if you are not the manager’s in the company, and in fact this gives Date Day a image of Older men’s watch. Yes, I seldom seeing men wears a Date Day if he is younger than 40’s.., So Date Day becomes a Status of Watch in your career.
HK Snob

The Rolex Hot item at Singapore Chang Yi AirPort Rolex Shop

Chang Yi Airport Rolex shop has the rare item that HK People is looking for such as The Rolex Explorer II orange Hand white Dial, they are selling at SGD$12,000.00. Price has been deduced the GST 7% already, where as the list price is supposed to be SGD$10300. They have no stock for Black dial which I think is Better than White as the Orange Hands inner portion is black, so the yellow arrow hands looks apparently to be “ floating arrow"!! When I look at it, I feel that it is large, but a bit large than it is needed. I think it is not as attractive as I was thinking of. So I thin I will switch from Black Dial, which I have to see and start to tell how does it looks. May be it is not as beautiful as I am thinking. Anyway, I did not buy the white dial Explorer II Orange hand!
Other rare item is Submariner , they have limited supply of it. There also they have Milgauss orange hand white dial. So why should Singaporean come to HK for shopping for the Rolex!?

Singapore Snob

What are the materials used to make watch cases?

There are many types of metal to be used for making watch cases, Solid Yellow Gold, Pink Gold, White gold in gold like 9K, 14K and 18K, nowadays, gold case is almost 18K (75%)
Stainless steel is used to be the most common material for case. The High end watch is often made of Platinum or Titanium.
Platinum is a very heavy metal, and gives a shiny white metallic appearance. Unlike gold, pure platinum is fairly hard and resistant to scratches (similar to hard stainless steel). For this reason, it is often used in 95% purity (i.e. Pt 950). However, raw platinum is expensive to be used, not only because of its rarity, it is tough and the tooling has to be changed for not more than 3 cases, so manufacturing cost of high. But also because it is used in higher purities and requires more effort to work into a final shape. So as traditional practice in marking prices of watch, Platinum is used to be the Most expensive line of the Watch, then Pink gold, White Gold, yellow gold.
Take Rolex watch Price as for examples, make it a stainless steel as 1. the Two one is about 1.7X Yellow gold is 4X, Rose Gold is 5X, Platinum is 7X.
Other case materials which one will run across occasionally (especially on the vintage market) are Sterling Silver (92.5% purity silver), Coin silver (80% purity silver), nickel silver or silveroid (not silver, but 66% copper, 24% zinc, and 10% nickel), nickel, and nickel plated steel. Also, more recently, one can even find watch cases made of ceramic (zirconium oxide, Rado has been using for many years as used recently by IWC) and aluminum (used in conjunction with other metals, as currently used by Porsche Design and BVLGARI.)
Titanium is a relatively light-weight metal, with a hardness exceeding that of most steels. It also has a poor heat conductivity character, which means that it won't carry heat away from your skin as quickly as steel or aluminum (i.e. it will feel warmer to the touch - sometimes you'll see claims that titanium "remains at skin temperature" - this is technically incorrect, any more than a small piece of wood stays at skin temperature). Several varieties of titanium are available. Titanium has some interesting mechanical properties: it can "rip" when cut so it is difficult to machine, and two pieces of titanium pressed together can "weld" themselves together.
This latter property is why it is important that watches with titanium cases and backs have the casebacks removed periodically - the threads can actually rip out of the case if left undisturbed too long.
Later trend like AP introduces the carbon Fibre that has to be molded under hi temperature and pressure.
Rado has been using unscratchable ceramic material to make watch for many years..
Plastic watch case has vibrant colour that has no limit at all, but the sweat that goes into the plastic will ultimately changes colour of the plastic, the plastic will become brittle after years. It may crack. So only cheap watch use plastic to make cases.
So what is the best material to make watch cases, my opinion is Platinum as it is precious metal that has a dull silver grey colour. Rose gold because of the colour is beautiful and classical look. White gold as it is like stainless steel, good low profile metal for cases, yellow gold that shines the way forever when you wear it on your write. Titanium is good for sport watch as it seem has it unique colour and super light weight yet strong to resist scratches, Ceramic is not a good material a sit is too cold on my hand. Plastic is limited to be used for low cost watch I believe, though there has been a trend for expensive watch case to have some plastic parts on the watch cases Like AP. But I don't like it at all.
Attached picture is a Rolex Oyster watch case made of solid single piece of 18KT Yellow Gold.

HK Snob

What is a watch winder, and do I need one?

Collectors who have more than one automatic watch may have "difficulty" keeping any one watch going continuously. This leads to increased inconvenience especially if perpetual calendars and moonphases must be reset. A solution has been invented - the automatic watch winder.
The idea is quite simple, to strap the automatic watch on to s socket which is mounted on top of a geared motor, which then moves the watch enough to keep it wound when not worn on the wrist. That way, one can choose to wear any watch at any time, and not have to reset the time or calendars. In theory, this device should be simple and cheap.

In practice, it's not as easy as it sounds. First, while an automatic watch has an overwind protection mechanism to avoid damage to the movement, if the overwind mechanism is constantly used for hours at a time (i.e. though constant turning, rather than the unpredictable movement of the human wrist), the lubrication of the mechanism is worn out faster. This means that watch winders must be designed to only make so many turns per day, and to let the watch sit and run itself through its power train. Furthermore, since automatic winding mechanisms vary from watch model to model, the winder must be designed to have an adjustable number and direction of turns per day. Finally, mechanical watches are considered luxury items, which means watch winders are doubly so - due to the small number of people who would actually want one.

An important factors for Watch winder is the magnetic flux leakage. It should not have significant leakage that would magnetize your Expensive Watch. Battery driven motor is preferred as it is quiet and less electrical interference. Two size A battery cells can run continuous for two years. Some of the cheapest one of watch winder is HKD$800 and more expensive Watch Winder is sold at HKD$1,000,000.00.

A Mechanical watch is prone to get easier for wear and tear if they are set to run on timer for more than one year. If I had too many watches I had rather manual set the time before I wear it, only concern is Perpetual calendar that is hard to set-up. I know many people even does not care the day and date on their calendar perpetually at all,

All of this means that manufacturers for the consumer market must not only make their winders mechanically foolproof to avoid damaging watches, but they often construct the winder comparably to a jewelry box. The upshot of all this is that most consumer’s watch winders with programmable winding are expensive - often costing several hundred or thousand dollars.

While cheaper professional models exist, these often do not come with programmable settings, as the maker assumes that they would be used in a watchmaker's shop.

Some Cheap Watch winder has a lousy watch capture and lock device, you expensive watch may drop out and get scratched when you are travelling.

Last word - winders are not a necessity, they are a convenience. You should decide whether they are worth it based on whether you feel inconvenienced resetting your automatics occasionally.
HK Snob

You're not ready!

You’re not ready!
You’re young.
You haven’t been with the company all that long.
You’re not quite sure of your position.
Maybe in a few years, when you’re a little bit established.
But not yet.
Of course, if you disagree, you can visit an official Rolex jeweler!

This is a famous Rolex Advertisement for Rolex Day Date set with Diamonds in 1980’s!
HK Snob

Don't leave home without it!

There was AMEX card Ad in 1986 in HK TV: “Don’t leave home without it?
Now I should say that Don’t leave home without my Rolex!
The attached Rolex Day Date is the all time favourite for works, shopping, Yam Cha, Monday to Sunday. as it is a typical low profile watch because it is white Gold. Matches easily with your clothes, white shirt with aligned harmony, Black shirt with glows of great lustre Contrast!
'From the top of the world to the bottom of the sea, Rolex proves dependable'
Rolex advertisement, 1954’
Founded by Hans Wilsdorf in 1908, Rolex have always been a manufacturer of firsts; first wristwatch to receive Chronometer certification, first with automatically changing date, deepest sea record, fastest Speed record on bomber jet, first with an oscillating winding rotor as is still used today and the first waterproof wristwatch too. Can any other manufacturer boast this much provenance? No! that is Why Rolex is always my first Choice of Watch!

HK Snob

What does "adjusted", "unadjusted" and "regulated" mean?

An "unadjusted" movement is a movement where no attempt has been made to ensure that the daily error rate in several orientations (positions) have been minimized or optimized across the positions. An "adjusted" movement, therefore, has had some extra care in ensuring that the variance in accuracy between several orientations is minimized.
Watches are typically adjusted to 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 positions. Traditionally, they are ordered as follows:

1. Dial Up
2. Crown Down
3. Dial Down
4. Crown Left
5. Crown Up
6. Crown Right
For example, a watch adjusted to two positions include positions 1 & 2 from the above list (i.e. face up and crown down). Similarly, a watch adjusted for 4 positions has been adjusted in positions 1-4, and so on. Watches can also be adjusted for isochronism (i.e. constant time across varying states of wind) and temperature. Some manufacturers (Franck Muller, and Patek Phillipe) adjusts to 8 positions (the above six plus two half-way orientations); though this is a bit over-the-top, but that takes a lot of works to achieve that position accuracy.
All Rolex Chornometers are adjusted to Five Positions! refer to above Picture.
A "regulated" movement is a when the overall rate of the entire movement (either adjusted or not) is brought into correct absolute timing. Unlike adjustment, this is a simple tweak, which moves the daily rates of all of the positions up or down without intentionally changing the relative rates in positions.

HK snob

What does "17 jewels" mean?

Higher grade watches use a jeweled movements, which means that jewels were actually been used in the movement. These jewels are functional - they are used as the bearings for the wheel trains and in high wearing parts such as the escape lever and impulse jewel.
Most manual wind watches will have a standard complement of 17 jewels.
Automatic winding movements will add about 4-8 jewels to help most efficiently transfer the relatively small rotor forces into winding the mainspring. An automatic Winding watch will normally have 25 jewels.
Special Movements with additional functions such as chronographs and calendars, can up the total number of jewels tremendously. For example, the IWC Il Destriero Scafusia (claimed to be among the most complicated wristwatches) has a total of 76 jewels to accommodate the time, perpetual calendar, rattrapante chronograph, repeater, and tourbillon functions - and this is a manual wind watch.
Why do they use synthetic ruby?
Ruby is significantly better than steel in handling the forces involved, never wear out easily and providing a super low friction surface suitable for both high-load as well as high-speed motion. With modern production methods, they are cheap USD$0.1
Ruby is technically known corundum, and is a crystallized form of aluminum oxide (Al2O3). In pure form, corundum is white in colour; trace impurities are added to change the colour - to red in the case of rubies. It should also be noted that any other colour of corundum (including clear) is known as sapphire. Ruby is used because it is an extremely hard and provides a smooth surface for the wheel pivots (and other steel components) to operate on. In a mechanical watch, there is a constant force applied to the pivot of every wheel in the wheel train, which is applied by the wound-up mainspring… Without any jewels, the steel wheel pivots would very quickly wear away the bridge and plate material until the wheels came out of alignment, and the movement would crash to a halt. In the inexpensive watch of yesteryear, the pivot holes may have been provided with hardened metal bushings.
Are more jewels better?
Not necessarily. As noted above, a typical hand-wind movement today will have only 17 jewels as a full complement. Some really high-grade or ultra-thin movements will add a few extra jewels to further protect against any wear, but even these top out at 21-23 jewels.
Only those pieces of the movement which are between the mainspring and the escape wheel are candidates for jewelling, as these are the movement parts that experience the higher forces or relatively higher speeds of the mainspring or escapement. Other components, such as the motion works (i.e. hour and minute wheels), calendar mechanisms, and winding train are not under this constant stress, and thus arguably do not need jewels.
One will occasionally encounter a quartz movement with 4-6 jewels in it.
As a historical note, there was a "jewel craze" about 50 years ago, where manufacturers, under the belief that the public thought more was always better, came up with 75 or even 100 jewel movements. They are decorative Jewels.

HK Snob

Seiko Kinetic Watch

The capacitor is inserted under Copper plate at 7 O'clock position.

Is Seiko Kinetic Watch does not carry battery!
The answer is, No, it does not carry a battery,
But instead it does carry a Capacity!
The Kinetic watch power is relied on a mechanical rotor to generate electricity when we move the rotor. It will charge up the capacity and that battery will be used to maintain the power of the Microprocessor and all the steppers driving the analogues display.
When the watch is un-touched or left behind more than a 24 hours, the hands of the watch will stop, that is going into a hibernate mode to save power. That is a very good feature of Seiko Kinetic. When you pick up the watch again, the hands will be moved to the current display time.
The beauty of the Kinetic watch is mechanical movement for power generation and runs at the accuracy of the Quartz Watch at about 0.3 seconds a day.
The Draw back of the Kinetic Watch is that still it contain a Capacitor that you might have to replace after 6 to 10 years after the capacitor wears out. And it is quite expensive. The watch that I have shown here is required to replace the capacitor for HKD$280 after 7 years.
Next time I would like to buy a pure mechanical watch instead of Kinetic version from Seiko!

HK Snob

How to replace battery and get it started for a Citizen Minute Repeater

This is the proper way to change battery of the Citizen Minutes Repeater (limited to 1000 pieces).

Just follow the instruction on the label on the back of the watch cover as shown.

You can set-up yourself in less than 5 miniutes. No need to send to Citizen Service Centre.

I have done these three times already. The battery can last about 4 years.

HK Snob

How Much the Accessories of your pre-owned Rolex Valued?!

Sometimes, the pre-owned Rolex can be more expensive than the new Rolex,, why as because that is discontinued, or those were limited production.
We have to go for shops buying these pre-owned or used Rolex Watches...
How to tell the value of the accessories?

This is purely a reference only
For example for Date Day
If the strap is not from Rolex… it value will be 1/3 of the original strap a Original pre-owned Rolex President strap is approx HKD$40,000. Whereas a local made Rolex Strap may cost about HKD$12,000
Original Box – HKD$500
Original Warranty certificate- HKD$1,000
Original Purchase invoice HKD$300
Rolex booklet and operation manual, HKD$500
Leather Passport holder HKD$500
Rolex Oyster Seal HKD$100
So a fully equipped Rolex may ask you for HKD$100,000
But purely a same Rolex without the accessories, come with local watch strap may just cost you. HKD$60,000 or less estimated… Sometimes the Rolex Repair slip that is also an important Reference as it tells you Rolex has accepted to service the watch, as only if Genuine Rolex will be serviced in Rolex Service Centre. Attached a sample of Rolex Service Slip on a Rolex DD.
Next time when you buy….check the watch carefully! HK Snob

How to tell a Rolex Case has been polished or not…

Well, if you find a beautifully Rolex which looks like new… whereas there is another one may have lines of scratches and traces of usage… everyone will pick up the new one first, but I do hesitate… all we have to check the case has been polished after leaving Rolex Factory.
As if they have been polished many times… though it looks like NEW, but the Rolex oyster curvature and profile may be lost. And the watch looks a bit “Thin”. When you pick up a new Rolex, is “Fat” meaning that they have muscle on all corners, slugs, and it look wider.
The how to tell a Rolex case has been polished? I usually look at the for surfaces of the slugs. If they are original un-polished, it has a rectangle shape with shape corner edges. if the watch has been polished , especially by non-professional operators, they look filmsy and the rectangle will be gone.. If a professional operator could polish the case removing all scratches and lines and at the same time restoring the rectangle, yes, it can, but the overall watch length will be shortened.. Experienced Watch collector can easily tell by comparing two Rolex side by side to tell the length of it…but most of the cases, the about check can tell how much the case has been polished and is good to serve our purposes… and most of the case, the Shop keeper will be hesitate for a customer to do such a stringent body-checks!
A polished case will lose it value. But not too much if they have been polished lightly. But if we are buying that Rolex for Collection, of course the first choice if going to the un-polished one…
In another cases that non Rolex AD Rolex may be Restored… so you do have to check also see if that has been undergone some polishing works to restore the original luster with trade off of the "Fatness" of the Oyster.
HK Snob

A Very Enchanting 14K Solid Gold Omega Seamaster De Ville with Art Deco set-up

A Vintage OMEGA Seamaster De Ville. 14KT Yellow-Gold, automatic with Date indicator! I believe it was made in the 60's whereas Omega watch making manufacturing technology was at the summit of the whole 20 Century. Who will resist this Art Deco Watch Dial Design? The case is very Excellent in condition and likley not to be opened not more than 2 times. One minor flaw is that Watch was a gift from wife to the husband.... Or a rich lady given to the beloved man... This Gold Omega may be sold in HK at about HKD$2,800 in the 60s' that is an equivalent to some Clerks 9 months salary! Now it is about HKD$7,200. Case, Crystal, Dial, crown and Movement is Original. Can you buy an Automatic Gold Watch of the current production with this amount of money?
HK Snob