Laco Baumuster B Blued Hands: Who's in, who isn't ?

[hotnerd]

Ok, since nobody is taking the lead, I will email Mr. Pfeiffer on Monday to begin the blue hands order. Some thoughts for this weekend on the blue hands:

- First, regardless of which blue hands we receive, the best thing is that Frank_be has corrected the shape of the hands and will send the vector file to Laco (when Frank_be has completed his daytime work). This should correct the thin hands and add to the authenticity.

- The blue hands have to be ordered in the minimum quantity of 100 (50 sets) from the Swiss supplier. The suppliers in Switzerland are very cautious as to who they sell to due to lot of politics behind the scenes. Laco is a small watch company, so they do not have many suppliers that will sell to them. There is only one supplier that will customize the hands for Laco. That supplier requires minimum quantity of 100 hands.

- We cannot combine Baumuster B 100 hands with Baumuster A project since the shape of hour hand is different. The supplier will consider that as separate order of 100 hands.

- Do we have all 50 Baumuster B owners willing to participate in blue hands project? Unfortunately not. In hindsight, we should not have placed blue hands as an option, but as part of the features with 650 euros watch price.

So, I will explore all possiblities with Laco on Monday to get at least 35 real steel blue hands. If not possible, to get painted blue hands. Will this be acceptable?

Cheers,
Bhanu

[Erik_H]

Thanks for driving this, Bhanu. I really hope we can come to an agreement of the steel blue hands, our watches are near to perfection and this is the only missing bit. I am willing to go all the way with our project and I hope more than the 35 who have already showed their interest will voice up. It is no or never, get the perfect Laco B or for ever regret that the watch is only "almost there".

Erik_H

[Nalu]

Per my previous post, I'm willing to buy two pair of blue steel hands.

[Piccolo8]

Hello all,

I was unfortunately too late for this fantastic project. I am even new to this forum but please allow me to post a comment.

Why don’t you ask/allow LACO to launch Baumuster “B” UNLIMITED EDITION featuring blued steel hands with the price of 650EUR?

By this way, Mr. Pfeiffer can order at least 50 pairs of blued steel hands or possibly more for a better price than 100EUR.

I know the result of your discussion over the thread “Laco Baumuster "B" UNLIMITED EDITION" but if you take a poll now, you might get a consensus.

Those who missed “B”LIMITED EDITION might be glad to buy UNLIMITED EDITION with blued steel hands. I will, definitely.

Best wishes,

[Janne]

+ 1 ,Piccolo8 !
Maybe Laco will offer the "unlimited B" only with Blued steel hands?
If they use them on all the unlim. B's, the order will exceed 100 units, and bring the cost down, from which we also will benefit!

[ht8306]

Hi Bhanu and Erik,

I'm in. Thanks for driving this Bhanu, and I agree with Erik that I do not wish to look back and say that the Baumuster B was almost there just because of another EUR100.

Henry

[Crusader]

+ 1 ,Piccolo8 !
Maybe Laco will offer the "unlimited B" only with Blued steel hands?
If they use them on all the unlim. B's, the order will exceed 100 units, and bring the cost down, from which we also will benefit!

I thought the "unlimited B" idea was discontinued by Laco in favor of the "limited A" ?

[Nalu]

I thought so also Martin. The blued hands issue was yet another reason (though less significant) for my support of the Unlimited Bau B watch from Laco.

[Janne]

I thought the "unlimited B" idea was discontinued by Laco in favor of the "limited A" ?

Yes, you are right, I forgot. The title of this thread confused me.
So no chance of getting the cost down, unless Laco moke a larger order to fit them onto one of the existing Laco "Baumuster almost B" watches!

If we have to order 100 units, and only 32 takers, does it mean we will need to split the total cost among us 32?

Would the hands be less expensive if the steel was chemically blued?
You see, I keep looking and comparing the 55mm and 42mm with a loupe, and this is what I think:
The blued area is really thin ( less then 0,5mm) on the 55mm, even thinner on the 42mm. Is it really worth it spending this money on such a small detail as heatblueing.
Do not forget, the hands need to be shipped and installed too!
So we are looking at maybe 150-180 euros for each watch??
Initial estimation was 30 Euro plus installation.

How do we know the original hands were heat blued??
I have looked back through the threads, but all I find is opinions, not real facts!
The Laco was made in Germany by a German workforce. A country known for it's efficiency.

Would they really have spend the time to heat blue and get a large failure rate in wartime??
I somehow do not think so!
I think they used a chemical process, unless somebody shows a WW2 spec document stating that the hands had to be heatblued.

It is never too late to rethink. I know that if we "32" change our minds, the majority of "the 50" will order them.
I guess that the 16 absent do so becauce of cost. I understand them!!
I think we should try to bring the cost down to a more accesible level, so we ALL can get the perfect watch!

To keping the cost on this level, we have excluded 1/3 of the LE B owners.
And more will bow out if the cost will go up!

So, I think we should rethink, and get the hand chemically blued, if this is not possible, get the painted-blue ones.
Just my 2 cents.

[Piccolo8]

I thought the "unlimited B" idea was discontinued by Laco in favor of the "limited A" ?

In my understanding, LACO offered LMITED A idea to use up remaining materials from LIMITED B project because there were some negative opinions when UNLIMITED B idea was introduced.

To realize blued steel hands project, if LIMITED B 50 owners take a poll now and say OK for UNLIMITED B, there is no reason why LACO stay away from the idea of UNLIMITED B for more WUS members.

I assume they can produce more cases and get more movements (=modified 2824) while waiting for blued steel hands.

By the way, according to Mr. Pfeiffer’s comment forwarded by Bhanu, he wrote “LACO will not offer the "Unlimited Edition B" through watchUseek forum”.

From this sentence, I understand that he is still having an idea of UNLIMITED B for outside of WUS markets.

Isn’t it better to ask LACO to produce UNLIMITED B with Blued steel hands exclusively for WUS members, than let him sell similar watches outside of WUS community?

It is a WIN-WIN solution for LIMITED B 50 owners( to cut down cost for blued steel hands project), other WUS members and of course, LACO.