F14D_Tomcat wrote:
... I'm in trouble because my wife loves the earrings. To tell you the truth, they look really nice.
And now the obvious question: What did they cost?
Great jacket too, no wonder I've never seen one of those if only 3 were made.
Nothing like this one, but have a look at mine
http://www.breitlingsource.com/phpBB2/v ... 10&t=17786, it was "custom" made. Actually, it's a common aviator's jacket with my wife taking the time to saw by hand all those patches on it and it's about most Tomcat squadrons (lack of space for all them).
PS BTW, nice T-bird as well.

Actually, the earrings and pendant were my sister's idea. She has a very small wrist so all three removable links had to come off the bracelet when the watch was fitted for her. She says she will "never" sell her "beautiful watch" so obviously the three links were redundant. Having the jewelry made seemed to make sense as opposed to keeping the links in the box or even selling them on the 'Bay. When I tried to find a jeweler who would convert the links for me, I struck out completely. Seems that attaching 18K white gold posts and bale to 318L stainless steel was out of the question according to everyone I asked until... A local jeweler (unfortunately no longer in business now) told me his brother had just purchased a laser soldering machine for his business (cost of the machine was $30,000 USD!!!). The jeweler offered to ask his brother about the feasibility of bonding the gold to steel using the laser soldering machine. Long story short... it worked!

I can't find the receipt now but I recall it was somewhere between $450-500 USD, possibly an even $500 USD. Had it been necessary to purchase the links from an AD to make the jewelry, each one would have been an additional $250 USD increasing the cost another $750 USD at the time. I can tell you my wife certainly questioned the wisdom of spending that much ($500 USD) to have custom jewelry made and suggested there were plenty of other choices I could have made for my sister's birthday. From my perspective, I didn't really care. Sis wears and enjoys the jewelry and I feel with absolute certainty there is not another kit like that anywhere in the world. She has received many questions about that jewelry and many compliments about how nice it looks matching her watch.
Yep, her jacket is also one of her favorite accessories. Besides being so unique, it just looks nice on her and she enjoys wearing it a lot in the winter. She is not an attention seeking person but that jacket seems to draw attention wanted or not. I'm sure you understand because the same thing happens when you wear your beautiful jacket which your wife was kind enough to sew for you.

It is indeed a beauty. Reminds me of my first leather flight jacket when I flew military back in the sixties. Wish I still had that one. Some of the patches on it would be impossible to find today especially considering many of the ones I had were hand sewn. I do have three flight jackets now, one vintage leather with no patches at all, one Breitling Navitimer sport jacket and one steel blue/gray MA-1 Breitling wings/logo jacket. I"m considering sewing one of my Deuce of Spades FAC patches on the MA-1 but you know how it is - once you get started it's hard to stop...
Best,
Ron