my first post with pics

[makeitwork]

hello to all looking...

prepare to bore yourself, this got long

i just was messin around on the net and thought of my watch and found this site. i have an old bubbleback given to me by my grandfather many years ago. brushed stainless with the copper color face or i guess i have seen it called salmon. the #'s on the back are 182163 if anyone could sifer that for me... funny as it is engraved dale nancy 3-7-43. dale was my grandfather and nancy was his FIRST wife i never met. he was stationed on an island in the war servicing pt boats and also dove and always wore it back then. he had a band of semoans with him over there and always had funny storys and it sounded funny when he would speak the language. ahh the memories of grandpa, just a little "where it's been" there i guess

i always thought it was a rather peculiar watch and that it was a little rolex. i've had it now for around 14 years, got it back when i was a teenager. it's funny as most people that would mention my watch thought it was just some freaky old watch and why am i wearin that... i'd reply, look a little closer... then i'd get a "yeah right"...

i've had a few encounters of people stunned though that actually knew what it was. i was working at nordstrom in cerritos at the espresso bar back then and the display manager of , i wanna say, robinsons came for his daily coffe and then started acting funny when i handed over the fancy joe. his name was bernard, a cool guy. "is that a bubleback you got there? he says. ahh, my first person to notice. that was fun. he was all blown away that i had it and would often mention it after.

when i got it my grandfather had a nasty stretch metal band on there and i had a cheapo put on it that wasn't the retarded hair pullin stretch. i loved the watch. it stopped working but i still wore it as a reminder of my grampa. honestly, i don't exactly remember if it worked since i got it or not but i think it did.

well then a few more years of "what's that thing on your arm" as all my friends (remember i was a teen) had their big clunky gaudy twinkling $50 watches like fossils and what not that they thought were soooo cool and i had my little dirty ol thing with a brownish face that didn't work... didn't stop me though

one day at my pager store i opened a year or so before... remember those things... yeah, i had thousands of em out there. now i have thousands in the back of my warehouse... around 1998 i'd have to say a funny little hippie seeming guy that still had the smooth "hey man" talk comes in to pay his family's bill. like deja vu he starts acting strange and looking at me and my arm and here comes the "hayyyy... sss that a bubbleback maaannn.... next thing i know he comes back with a briefcase of watches and is showing me a variety of classic watches. turns out he's a watch dealer/broker/repair downtown LA name of art becerra, super cool guy, i actually ended up employing his son for a year or so later on. he looks at the el-cheapo band and of course is in pure disgust. you need a reeeal baaand maaannn... then i take it off and show it to him, he already noticed it isn't working and tells me he can probably fix it or know's who can.

well heck yeah i say! he takes it and also finds me a band he gave me for $100 and cleaned the face to a glowing shine and put new "glow juice" in the numbers as he calls it and put a new crystal. i believe i stil have all the old parts in my drawer as he did give them back. holy crap, it's working too and with the new band... what a beaut! i think he charged me another hundred for the service but whatever, i could care less and it didn't sound bad to me.

it stopped again a few weeks later though... he was a good guy though and took it back and had his "guy" that knew bubbles better give it a go. great, it worked again!!!

well a year or later, i don't really remember the "glow juice" fell out of the 1 on the 12 and was floating around in there and the face had dulled slightly. i gave it back to him and he said he'd take care of it, i think i did give him some bread again this time though. when i get it back i was a bit shocked, he had polished the whole thing out to a mirror finish... i was a little concerned that it ruined the value and it may very well have but he said he could put it back the other way easy if i want so whatever i guess. it really was awesome then though and cought many peoples eye, definately no - "what's that nasty ol thing" comments any more even though that was reptty much over after he took it the first time.

well i was thrilled and all was well... ehh... yeah... i was at dennys a few weeks later telling my girlfriend how much i love my watch especially now how it works (even though it would go like a minute fast every day, who cares) and it looked cool all polished out. well i must have put the curse on it as it stopped the next day... i never had it fixed again since, we'll just say it's resting. if i "set the time" as i will do on rare occasion to a few minutes fast if i'm meeting with someone so they don't think i'm a freak with the wrong time, it would run for 30 seconds or so. if they look my over i may be a little last, on time or a little slow but it's all good, after the meet and greet people rarely scrutinize you so even though i'm hours off later no one notices ;-) just the other day i did this and the darn think worked all day!!!!! i was like a kid in candyland, i was just blown away and all excited... well yep, that put the whammy back on it and it's back resting and here we are today. any suggestions on a particualr shop very familiar with old bubbles that could get it working? i haven't spoke to art in some time now and don't have that shop anymore or contact #'s. i know where he lives but have just been lazy, i wear it more to think of my grampa i dearly loved and as jewelry anyway. it would be cool if it worked again and i may be more inclined to send it to rolex if there's some old guru's that know these things better than their own hands...


pics and links:
http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/...6/9/27/bb1.jpg


http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/...6/9/27/bb2.jpg


http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/...6/9/27/bb3.jpg


http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/...6/9/27/bb4.jpg


http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/...6/9/27/bb5.jpg


http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/...6/9/27/bb6.jpg


it's getting scratched up as i wear it still regularly but if i want it polished out again it should be easy enough or i can get it back to brushed. i've learned a lot about working with materials since but i'd probably still leave that to a dealer just because. the band is getting a bit wobbly again also and could use some tightening but it has that "soft" flowing feel to it like this...

anybody have an idea of the value or did i kill that with the beautification... not that i'd ever sell but ya know...

until next time...

makeitwork

[JJ Irani]

Hi and welcome to TRF. Great post and thanks for posting. Hope you enjoy your stay here.

Cheers - JJ