The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Here you go Roff, try these guys -

http://coatingservices.umicore.com/umic ... atings.asp

They seem to do DLC work on optical components, but I bet they wouldn't turn their nose up at something a little different.....

(This one is UK based, but I bet there are similar places the world over)

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Driver8

Site Moderator

My mind is turning......

Actually I'm thinking I may have a weekend project for Aleister - if he's not too busy swallowing dictionaries

I know people in the Knife collecting hobby that used to send batches of stuff to get DLC coated in the US/Can all the time... don't think they do it as much anymore, but it has been done. They used to have a 10 knife minimum at a time, but if you wanted to pay a premium i'm sure they'd do your bracelet for not too much. Ross might know something about that too.

Having said that.. the Blacksteel is technically not full ling sized at 45mm.. its 1mm shy

Congrats on the 2 new lings!

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BreitlingSource Admin
http://www.breitlingsource.com - http://blog.breitlingsource.com

I don't care about the full ling status - who the heck cares about 45mm vs. 46mm ( ) - I just think that a black steel Pro II would be pretty cool.

Roff,
Congrats on the 2 Lings, very nice

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Breitling Super Avenger White, Steel
Breitling Superocean Heritage 46 Black, Ocean Racer
Rolex Submariner Bi-Metal, Yellow Gold/Blue
Panerai 112, Black Leather (Soon Hopefully!)

I've done a little research - looks like the main concern is that the coating will wear off over time where all the links rub against one another and where the outside of the bracelet rubs - we all know how easily they get little scratches.

Still trying to find out if that would be a concern with DLC or just PVD, but the other thing that I thought of was a leather / croc / whatever strap, but with red stitching instead of the normal Breitling white. The red would pick up the red from the hands and outer ring of the blacksteel and would likely give it a totally different look.

Decisions, decisions.....

Now that is a great idea.

And now in my acceldebt voice: "How can you not care about full ling status? You need the FULL LING with the 24mm lugs where the bracelet expands into the watch. ALL is the FULL LING, the FULL LING is ALL."

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BreitlingSource Admin
http://www.breitlingsource.com - http://blog.breitlingsource.com

Yeah the red stitching is growing on me - just got to find something of good enough quality.

I'll officially be full ling soon enough - going to have to take a break for a little while on new acquisitions - 3 in less than a month is a little excessive, but my next new piece wll likely be either the TT Havana dial Legende or a Grey Violet Motors - I don't think acceldebt would deny me membership with either of those.

In terms of PVD then yes it will wear off over time, but if reports are to be believed, DLC should last a lifetime. I read somewhere that in testing, a 1μm thickness coating (i.e. approx 5% of the thickness of a human hairend) increased the service lifetime of the item being tested from a week to over a year, and 2μm thickness coating would increase it from a week to 85 years. Considering that a watch surface could be expected to last somewhat more than a week, I guess it'd be safe to say that a decent coating would indeed last a lifetime.

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Driver8

Site Moderator

Sorry, been busy flying over to Tokyo and trying to adapt a bit...

Sumimasen (sorry, that is), just because I'm into material science doesn't mean I have the necessary equipment in the basement.

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid

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Collection: http://s540.photobucket.com/albums/gg32 ... mview=grid