Durability of reps

[altesporsche]

I always see posts about how delicate some reps are or reps in general and how people somewhat baby them and daily wear with no real beating on them. I wore a nicely built Panerai 009 on a rubber strap offshore for 5 years and even sent it to the bottom a few times on an ROV manipulator arm to see what happened lol  120M of water and I still wore it for years after. I should see if I can find the screen shots from our cameras. This one now has a Rolie dial and I wear it quite a bit at home with its years of real patina  

Earlier this year I started using a V2 Explorer with the SA3135 on a nato strap out here and I pounded the [censored] out of it all summer long, in very hot and moist environments, constantly around 38000 kilowatts of generators, on my wrist turning wrenches and smashing the hell out of equipment with sledge hammers. This was put through abuse that it would have never seen in years of daily wrist use and the thing kept on trucking and still not without a service is running -5 sec/day. I have cleaned it up and put it on a leather strap and my fiancée wears it now alongside her gens lol  

My latest is a Bell & Ross BR03-92 that I picked up a few months back in a used sale on here somewhere. not sure what movement is in it as I have not opened it up yet but right now it has survived two of probably my most labor intensive hitches in a while and even its PVD coating is holding up after some nasty knocks against rough metals, tools etc..  surprisingly I like this thing as a work watch.. its had two allen head screws from the strap go missing but the strap is still holding on and I hope it does for the next two weeks until I get home.

Any ways this was just my little story about my experience with reps and being really really hard on them.

     

 

Cheers everyone and happy Friday from Offshore Africa !!!

[Nanuq]

You might enjoy this old topic:

http://rwg.cc/topic/2412-how-tough-is-a-rep-submariner/

[Sogeha]

So that is the history of the Nastymariner ?

Most imortant point of note is that the series ii you now drive is way cooler than the Disco. Disco has a better chassis though which is why I like the looks of one and the chassis of the other

I'm still surprised, I thought you would be all Dana axles, small block, rock crawler

 

[Nightwatch]

Looks like a challenging, interesting and tough line of work. As long as one is able to sort out the minor hickups in the beginning I find them to be very resilient as well, no complains yet, they stand the test of time quite well.

[altesporsche]

3 hours ago, Nanuq said:

You might enjoy this old topic:

http://rwg.cc/topic/2412-how-tough-is-a-rep-submariner/

hahaha I love that !  this was my idea when trying to test them in my type of environment, wanted to see the punishment the could take and still perform and look good.

 

Nightwatch I agree ! if you get one that's good from the beginning then it will last, they don't need babying, they need to be worn and worn like you would wear any watch.

 

I have a few old school fellas out here that have been at this for many years, we call them dinosaurs   but it seems the work watch of choice back in the day was the 5513 / 5512 and 16610 submariners. I see a lot of them out here and offshore around the world and in pretty worn and loved condition... I've tried to buy a few, but no one wants to sell them. Apparently a lot of the drilling contractors used to give them as gifts to crew on board for well performing rigs back in the day. One of my safety officers here that just retired after 35 years offshore has a 5513 that looks amazing and all original that he traded with a colleague back in the late 70's  for a quartz watch because the original owner of the sub said it didn't keep time well. As it turns all this watch needed was a service as it was not serviced since it was given as a gift from Saudi Armco to the guy back in the early 70's lol  I have been two years trying to get this guy to sell me this watch.  its an amazing watch and a great story behind it.  

 

Cheers guys !    

[kernow]

Any of my reps that have crapped out have done so whilst sat in the watch box. If I'm using them they seem to keep ticking fortunately. None of them get babied, that's why I have reps. The thought of mountain biking in a $4k gen scares me!

[Sogeha]

 

I wouldn't be worried about my watch as much as my trousers

[Mike on a bike]

The thought of mountain biking scares me, no watch needed!

[Nanuq]

Pfffffffffft!  You just gotta do it where it's soft and fluffy when you fall. 

 

[automatico]

I have worn replicas doing some rough outside work and they have done Ok.  They all take a beating cosmetically with nicks, scratches, crystal and bezel damage etc.  Seems like the Asian 21 jewel models are the toughest mechanicals with swiss eta coming in second.  As for genuine rolex...broken balance staffs, a few broken rotor jewels, and a few tangled hairsprings, but that was when I was younger and more active.  In my experience the 3035 was the most fragile of the automatics but never wore a 1030 in rough conditions.  Parts were easy to get back then so a little internal damage did not matter very much like it does today. 

[Mike on a bike]

To get back to OP's topic my self, I have had many many pass my door and no problems to speak of. I do however stay away from chrono models so that helps so my three hands just chug along. Now this may be due to my practice of wearing gens to work although no serious pounding going on there anyway and my major activity is kayaking and again due to water hazard I wear gen, no sense taking chances. (sort of beached due to frozen lake in my backyard!)

[Nanuq]

Likewise back to the OP's question, I'm fairly hard  on my reps and they never fail. 

I wore an MBW Sea Dweller to hockey practice for years.  One time a solid hour practicing slapshots rotated the minutes hand backward by 15 minutes, and that was the only "damage".

I regularly toss a watch in the deep end of the pool and challenge kids to fetch it.  No problems.

I mountain bike 4-5 times/week with a watch and my left wrist has a perma-bruise from the watch beating my arm to death over bumps.  Happy happy.

I cut 3-4 cords of firewood with a saw affectionately known as The Fear of God  then split and stack it by hand.  The Sea Dweller, Frosty Flake and Big Gonzo have all taken their turn and survived just fine.

I take a couple to Hawaii a couple times per year and subject them to blazing hot sand, seawater, spilled icy beers, you name it.  No problem.  I neglect to rinse out the salt until the bezels refuse to turn, and they don't corrode.

This summer I re-roofed my shed, built another shed, built a garage and re-leveled my deck with hand tools, and the watches ticked happily without missing a beat.

 

[indywatchguy]

Great post C! Thanks for sharing! I'd agree I wore a "subpar" low grade Omega SMP 300 for five years as my daily beater with zero issues. Even swimming and diving in Cancun. Sold it last year M2M and they're still enjoying it!


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