Tuesday, 16 June 2026

Watch Carefully

I watched Ford vs Ferrari the other night and loved it. However right at the end I went "wait on a minute" hit pause and had to go back because suddenly Shelby was wearing a different watch. So I watched the end of the movie but the next morning I wanted to explore what I'd seen. So I grabbed a few shots and tweaked the gamma and found this:


I wish there was better to be had, but it is not any watch Shelby was wearing in the rest of the movie, and nor is it Ken Mile's watch.

I posted on Reddit a question but got nothing (well stupidity) and one suggestion I'll come back to. I asked the Google prompt (AI) (which is based on the majority opinion of whatever any twaddle is written on Reddit) has only the two well known versions.


Now we know its neither of those because the Carerra is a bicompax design (and this is tricompax) and we know that Kens watch hasa black face with white subdials (seen here clearly while he was doing pre-race reviewing of the track).


getting back to that Redditor suggestion; he proposed that it may be a Rolex Daytona ...


which it might well be, as from this angle the black bezel leans in that direction. If I try hard enough I can imagine the Rolex Crown on the watch crown.

What's so strange to me is that nobody else has noticed this little mystery.

Saturday, 6 June 2026

Blew a fuse

So, the other day I went for a ride and found that my headlight wasn't working (I was on a short ride). I tried high beam and it was, so I thought "blown bulb" however ...  it was then I noticed that my neutral light was very dim and that the indicators were not working properly (not blinking).

After I got home I pulled the headlight off and checked the bulb.



All was fine, which wasn't a relief, because now I had to find what the problem really was. I lifted the seat and found that a fuse (was blown). 

Now its worth revisiting the bike and note that its not "original". As you can see below the airbox is missing and you can make out a tray under the seat which holds most of the electricals:


Including the slim battery:


which has a "quick plug" type connection with a built in main fuse (of the blade type).

It was rated at 15A and I noted (in the manual) that the main fuse should be a 20A. I replaced the fuse then I checked wires to look for some sort of short (wire rubbing against inside of the metal bucket is a candidate) and all appears fine.

This leaves me with 2 questions:
  1. what caused the fuse to blow
  2. how then (with the fuse being blown) was my high beam getting power?
So I pulled the fuse and put my Multimeter (set to Amps and it reads up to 10) and began looking for problems. I quickly found that the headlight worked sometimes, but with a bit of movement went off and the meter rapidly climbed. I'd then turn off the light and resume after "moving it till it was ok again".

It took me a couple of days (no more than 4 hours each session) to work out that it was actually the loom rubbing against the steel of the bike ...


because when I relieved this (lifting up) the much higher power drain went away and the headlight operated normally.

I looked around and found:


1. the loom ran under the cable for the exhaust valve decomression cable and



2. the loom ran under a bracket which supports the tank from wobble. I thought perhaps if this was lifted up it would free the loom from fouling the bracket and consulted the manual:


ahhh hah ... so somehow this had been put together wrong some time back (probably 2016 when it was imported into Australia).

So I re-ran the cable back under the loom and ran the cable over the support:


which then lifted the loom away from that cable:


and took the weight off where the loom goes into the headlight support bracket.



... which I also "splinted" with some plastic (cut a section from a 2L milk bottle), some duct tape and a cable tie (which should also prevent it pulling out of that (if it feels so inclined).

So, its now been test ridden and seems to be doing ok ... 

I fully appreciate that there will be some copper getting atmosphere in there now, which is less than ideal, but to do that job I'd have to strip back even more than I did as well as undo the loom searching for the wire, cutting and joining in a new piece and putting it all back together (probably adding several hours).

Lets see how long it lasts :-)

Monday, 25 May 2026

Claude the confident bullshitter

Its really interesting now that DuckAI is providing the "thinking" responce of its AI's as well as its output. So I asked Claude:

User prompt 1 of 2 - 5/25/2026, 3:19:41 PM:
what is the etymology of the finnish word 'myrsky'

and it thought and answered:

"Myrsky" (meaning "storm" in Finnish) has roots in Old Norse. The word is believed to derive from Old Norse *mórskaðr* or related forms, which refer to storms or rough seas. It's part of a broader Germanic/Scandinavian word family connected to words meaning storm, tempest, or violent weather phenomena.

The word entered Finnish through contact with Scandinavian languages, particularly during the medieval period when Swedish and other Nordic languages had significant influence on Finnish through trade, cultural exchange, and Swedish rule in parts of Finland. This is a pattern seen with many Finnish words that have Scandinavian origins.

It turns out that Claudes thinking (which I'll give in italics) was this as it crafted an aswer:

Claude Haiku 4.5:
The user is asking about the etymology of the Finnish word "myrsky". This is a straightforward linguistic/etymological question about a specific word...

Basically thinking "That's easy!!" ... Well, the answer sounded ok  to me.  So (being interested) I asked a follow up question

User prompt 2 of 2 - 5/25/2026, 3:20:29 PM:
so, in Old Norse does it mean dark sky?

It was here I noticed a lot more activity on the thinking. So, when I reviewed  the thinking, despite its confidence it turns out that Claude may not have been so certain:

Claude Haiku 4.5:
Actually, I'm not entirely certain about the exact Old Norse etymology ...


The thinking as it turns out was:

The user is asking whether in Old Norse the word means "dark sky." I need to be careful here because I made a claim about the Old Norse etymology in my previous response, but I should verify if that's accurate and whether it specifically relates to "dark sky."...

right ... 

So, AI is not even "second hand thinking" its "hold my beer while I go dunning kruger" in this case (and perhaps many cases).

The scene if you don't know it:



Just so you know ...

Wednesday, 20 May 2026

Watchdives Submariner WD7922

I noted that Watchdives had changed their logo from that Shield with the name in it to a Trident ... perhapsit was always like that and I missed it, but I thought I'd have a go at the Submariner 6538 style  (which turns out to be a homage of the Tudor Black Bay, itself a homage to the Sub 6538) that they sell under WD7922 with the Seiko VH31 mecha-quartz in it for that 4 ticks per second second hand (and the accuracy). It arrived today and I'm very happy to say its met and even exceeded my expectations. So firstly I'll show this picture of it on the strap I like to use (and because Blogger uses this as the thumbnail for the article)



Dimensions of the watch are:
  • case width = 37mm
  • bezel diameter = 38mm
  • thickness = 11mm (10 not counting the rise of the glass)
  • lug to lug = 45.5mm
  • lug width = 20mm
  • watch head (no band or bracelet) = 54g (Note, the Rolex is 73g)
Making it a very comfortable fit on a 6.5" wrist like mine.

The watch came in a nice carbon-fiber look case


with a nice touch on the zipper ...



Quality of the bracelet is perfect and clearly its end links are for this exact watch case.


note the double "quick release" heads there (which make removing the bacelet much easier than any bracelet I've taken off) and the beautiful job on the milled clasp).





That I bought this for US$92 (I don't know how they do it) the quality doesn't end there with a sapphire front glass that features AR (I guess on the inside).


The operation of the bezel is the best I've had yet on any watch and while I'm at it, I really like what they've done with the bezel. Gone is that bloody terrible full gloss polished ceramic found so many times and instead we've returned (I assume to) coated alluminium. I love the gold on black.

The lume is as I expected (good) but I haven't taken any lume shots yet.



The red triangle on the lume pip is somehow metalic looking and indeed the pip has a framing of gold just like the dial markers, hands and the Rolex of the day did.



So for someone with a preference for a light, no fuss accurate watch that needs no winding, but a new battery every couple of years. 

Now the question which I guess everyone is interested in is "how does it compare to the Bond"


so, let me leave you with this overlay which I've scaled based on the dial and dimensions of the case width (not the lug to lug). Photographic perspective (including lens) is slightly different (and I made a close guess on what they used in at Sotherbys).



Clearly there are differences in the case and the lugs between (not only) the Bond watch seems sligthly different to the version of that auction.  Lastly, let me put it up against my Seiko SRPE (which does not have a divers bezel)


Here the dial does look bigger but when overlaid its been done with the use of a chapter ring and a lot less bezel. If a divers bezel was to be included the diameter would need to be bigger or the chaper ring trimmed back (and a smaller glass like the Watchdives has).

To me, ultimately, for the price and for everything that it is as a watch: the Watchdives is a winner.

PS: I found this (link) an interesting read comparing the Black Bay to the Rolex 6538.