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HELP! Planet Ocean stuck on wrist

Donn Chambers
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josiahg52 josiahg52
… after things like an engine falling of an overflying aircraft and landing on me sitting in my recliner.

So, this ALMOST happened to me (if you consider the engine hitting about a quarter mile away).

When I was junior and senior at the University of Texas at Austin, I lived in a mobile home park on the east side near where Riverside crosses Ben White (for those reading this who may be familiar with Austin geography - I know there are a couple). We were in the flight path of Bergstrom Air Force Base (this was before it was closed and turned into the airport). An F4 jet on approach to landing had an engine come off and the plane crashed into a storage building up the road, about a quarter mile from my trailer. I had just passed the place a few minutes earlier and was pulling into by parking spot when I heard the huge “boom.” Didn’t know what had happened until I saw the news later.

Luckily, the pilot and weapons officer were able to eject and no one on the ground was injured.

This was in 1988, and most of that area was scrub-land. Can’t imagine what the damage would have been if it happened today.
 
D
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Charlemagne1333 Charlemagne1333
I was going to suggest a blowtorch, but I think @blufinz52 ’s hacksaw idea would give a cleaner cut.

A blow torch won't cut Stainless Steel of any variety very easily and would be a particularly messy affair any way one looks at it👎

I suppose if I couldn't pry it open with a screwdriver of some description, I would've reached for a Dremel tool with a little cut off wheel in it and got to work on the smallest removable link near the clasp or probably the end of the clasp itself where it locks together if the clasp was deemed to be no good anyway.

After that, I would probably start looking around for a NATO strap rather than risking the cost and inconvenience of another clasp.
It's interesting that it's a known issue and annoying and no doubt disapointing for those affected.🙁
 
Yehoshua
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JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
You should have told the store manager that being shackled and held against your will resulted in horrific emotional trauma and that the only recompense was to give you that watch for pain and suffering.
That's an American approach...
 
JwRosenthal
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Yehoshua Yehoshua
That's an American approach...
True.
The Canadian approach would be to apologize for the inconvenience to the shop.

The British approach would be to just pay for it with a stiff upper lip and it’s yours now.

The French approach would be to get into it and it becomes a new kink.

The Japanese approach would be to profusely thank the shop owners for the experience of being shackled.

The German approach would be to ask for 3 more- one for each limb, and see if they had a leather mask and ball gag to match.

The Australian approach would be to break their thumb to get the watch over the hand and then smack the clerk in the face with the watch….then go out for a beer after.
 
JimInOz
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Donn Chambers Donn Chambers
...................An F4 jet on approach to landing had an engine come off .................

What! Just "fell off"? I had mates at Amberly who worked on F4s, and every time there was a scheduled engine change the Sumpies (engine techs) suddenly had other things to do. Getting an engine out was a major task, I can't imagine one just falling out.

Maybe a double engine failure?
 
Dan S
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Hopefully it worked out ok for the OP and his wife. I think this sounds like it could be a stressful situation, to be traveling and suddenly find that you can't remove your watch. OK, not life-threatening or anything like that, but definitely not fun. I like to remove my watch when sleeping, showering, working on my laptop, and in other situations where the watch could get dinged up. I suspect it could really affect my enjoyment of the watch in the future as well, and it might even change my feeling about the brand.
 
Omegafanman
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I hope they get it fixed ok and it works out better than that other old forum member.......... then again a few members have said bury me with my watch on and dont tell the rest of the forum the location......
.
 
Safe pair of hands.jpg
Annapolis
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Omegafanman Omegafanman
I hope they get it fixed ok and it works out better than that other old forum member.......... then again a few members have said bury me with my watch on and dont tell the rest of the forum the location......
.

Skeleton hands. Very polarizing.
 
Donn Chambers
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JimInOz JimInOz
What! Just "fell off"? I had mates at Amberly who worked on F4s, and every time there was a scheduled engine change the Sumpies (engine techs) suddenly had other things to do. Getting an engine out was a major task, I can't imagine one just falling out.

Maybe a double engine failure?

My recollection (and it IS over 30-years old) was that they found an engine in a field west of the crash site, so the implication was it had come out/off before the crash. Tried looking up articles online, but just found one about the crash into the building. My memory could be wrong, but that’s what I remember.
 
JimInOz
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Donn Chambers Donn Chambers
My recollection (and it IS over 30-years old) was that they found an engine in a field west of the crash site, so the implication was it had come out/off before the crash. Tried looking up articles online, but just found one about the crash into the building. My memory could be wrong, but that’s what I remember.

Could be. I've seen some weird shit with aircraft over the years. Like 500lb bombs ejected downward from the wing, and then floating behind the wing and coming back and punching down onto the wing. May have actually been a release test on an F4, but I don't have the film any more and my memory is less than perfect nowadays.

If the plane got into a severe aerodynamic "beyond the envelope" situation it could be possible for an engine to depart the aircraft.
Glad the crew got out.
 
MRC
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JimInOz JimInOz
What! Just "fell off"? I had mates at Amberly who worked on F4s, and every time there was a scheduled engine change the Sumpies (engine techs) suddenly had other things to do. Getting an engine out was a major task, I can't imagine one just falling out.

An old friend of mine was an airframe guy for the RAF F4s, and he loved that aircraft. He also had responsibility for the installation of the engines but not the internals. When Thrust SSC was in build using ex-RAF R-R Spey engines he volunteered to be their engine installation guy and went to Nevada for the record run. He's the one sitting on the car, closest to the tail.

Thrustssc.team.750pix.jpeg
 
M
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. . .and here I thought this thread was going to be another "it's my newest watch and nothing else has been getting wrist time lately."
 
Dan S
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M meglos
. . .and here I thought this thread was going to be another "it's my newest watch and nothing else has been getting wrist time lately."

No, it's about things falling off of airplanes.
 
bigtriangle68
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A Andtylertooth
Hi. I could use this forum’s wisdom here: my wife has a Planet Ocean 39.5mm steel on steel (215.30.40.20.04.001). She wears it daily and last night, for unknown reasons the clasp is jammed and, as a result, she cannot take the watch off. Were away for a long weekend so we don’t have any tools with us. Any advice?

We were planning on going o a local watch shop to ask them undo one of the link screw and get the bracelet off that way. Any other ideas? Is this a known issue with an easier, DIY solution that I’m unaware of?
Thanks!

Did you get it off? If the Planet Ocean has screw links in the bracelet, just get a screwdriver and unfasten one of the removable links.

What's the common failure mode of the twin push-button clasps? Does one of the springs fail?
 
efauser
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I had the same issue but chose to cut off my hand to remove it rather than possibly screwing up the bracelet.
 
Annapolis
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Can’t speak for anyone else, but with my two failed clasps, I don’t believe the springs failed—it wasn’t like the pushers suddenly became loose with a seized spring inside (if that makes sense); instead, it seemed like the pushers themselves jammed. I was never able to ascertain whether the cause was crud or a lack of lubrication or something else and Omega never bothered providing an explanation. FWIW, I never submerged the watch or exposed it to grime or tried to clean it with any kind of chemical cleaner or anything. I’m sure it was exposed to the usual things: sweat/skin oil, humidity, etc.

I was able—once or twice—to get the pushers to pop back out by inserting a toothpick into the holes on the inner part of the clasp. But this didn’t always work.

My AD was great to work with and was embarrassed and apologetic about an issue she admitted was unacceptably common with the Seamaster clasps. It’s a shame as it’s not a bad watch, otherwise.
 
JwRosenthal
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efauser efauser
I had the same issue but chose to cut off my hand to remove it rather than possibly screwing up the bracelet.
Sorry, you should be posting this on the Rolex Forum.
 
tikkathree
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Yehoshua Yehoshua
That's an American approach...

Oh dear. Now I'm thinking about "Me again" Markle or Wales or Windsor, whatever her surname now is. She'd have plenty of exaggeration in her protestations of victimhood and traumatisation. Having observed her with her husband during the ceremony of his grandmother, HM Queen Elizabeth II's funeral, I'd love to know what she was thinking... "why isn't my best friend giving live interviews from Westminster Hall and Windsor Castle?", "So if I hadn't had a tantrum and dragged him kicking and screaming to California, my husband would now be where in line to the throne?", "I haven't got a f'ing clue what's going on here, somebody get me out?"
 
D
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JimInOz JimInOz
What! Just "fell off"? I had mates at Amberly who worked on F4s, and every time there was a scheduled engine change the Sumpies (engine techs) suddenly had other things to do. Getting an engine out was a major task, I can't imagine one just falling out.

Maybe a double engine failure?

I was thinking the same thing.
It's not as if an f4 is built like a b52👎

I think it was in reference to news reports of eye witness accounts from somebody who knows this guy that was driving past😉
That's how these usually work out.

Anyway, I think you are showing your age a bit with mates that worked on f4's
I remember the f111's coming to Amberley as a young fellow and was invited to go out there when the f18's came but I couldn't make it due to more pressing matters to attend to.
Edited:
 
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