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I agree with this statement: "As a watchmaker on this board I can provide some insights in how we work. No watchmaker (who is in his right mind) will ever accept 100 watches for repair, service or whatever in one single time frame. On average we are talking about 20-30 watches at a time for watchmakers who do this for a living. And let me tell you that those numbers are already very difficult to handle for one man." After reading about MD2020 I thought about a repair guy I knew for years. I did some case/bracelet/crystal work for him and here is basically how he did it: Never take in more than 20 watches at a time...battery jobs being the one exception. Keep in mind that crowns, gaskets etc can be a real problem for battery changes in many brands...TAG Heuer and Breitling crowns for instance. Many times it is better to 'send them on down the street'. Do not take in rusty, disassembled, or replica watches. Enter each watch in a log book with customer name, contact information, description of watch, defect if known, and take-in date/time. Make a note of obvious nicks/scratches and have the customer sign and date the ticket. Tell the customer approximately when the watch will be ready and notify them if there will be a delay as soon as it is known. Write 'Will Call' on the ticket if the customer will drop by in a week or two to get the watch. Notify the customer after a reasonable time has passed and the watch has not been picked up (usually 30 days). If it is a 'You Call' ticket...call them and let them know as soon as it is finished...3 times maximum if no answer or no reply to messages. Make a note in the log book when calls are made. After 120 days from the finished repair date, the watch may be sold for charges if no response from customer....it plainly stated this on the ticket that the customer signed when they left the watch. (He kept 'orphans' for years and hardly ever sold one. I bought a watch in 2005 with a 1973 repair date on it.) Keep all watches to be repaired in a locked box with customer info on each one. Keep all finished watches in a locked box with owner's name along with date of completion and date/time of contacts. Never have more than 5 watches apart waiting on parts at one time. Do nothing to the watch (cleaning etc) until all of the parts are in hand. If you can not get the parts in a month or two, put it together and give it back to the owner at minimum or no charge. Chronographs are an exception...let the owner know up front that there will be a minimum charge for taking the mvt apart and putting it back together if no parts are available. Do not get overly friendly with customers because anyone in the watch repair business can get too many 'friends' real quick. 　 Rule #1...Business is Business.

Yes it is Marlins. A beauty!!

A note to the OP, I now have a policy of serving established forum members who participate in our hobby. Unfortunately many TDs, SV and modders including myself have had issues with newer members. As a result I have implemented a policy that new members must meet one of the following criteria, have at least 30 posts, be established members of other flora(rep or gen) or have at least 3 positive feedbacks. Nothing against new members we were all new once, but this gives them a little time to do their homework before making an impulse buy and obtain some knowledge about what they are getting. Thanks A!!! Thanks M!!! You are correct the list is getting longer and longer and like everyone else I am waiting in frustration......When they finally show up all hell is going to break loose..... Triple Huh???? I sell worldwide, many to Asia, but no one in China has ever bought from me, closets is Hong Kong.

Old 2915 goes traveling: Bonus for you Ebel fans:

I love that camera. You can put all kind of vintage 16mm lenses on it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Come on guys, between all of us, we have more than enough business experience to help figure this one out. For online payment systems surely we could utilise one (or more) of the following; Authorize.net: http://www.authorize.net/ Google Checkout Dwolla: https://www.dwolla.com/ Stripe: https://stripe.com/gb Braintree: https://www.braintreepayments.com/ 2Checkout: https://www.2checkout.com/ There are numerous possibilities. Granted not all of them will be feasible, but surely using an imperfect alternative is more suitable than RWG going down the pan... And who says we must stick to only using one system. In the world of finance diversification equals safety. We tried putting all our eggs into the PayPal basket. Now we need to play the game smarter and be more adaptable to the changing payment world.

Det er jo snart Jul BTW Love your watch!!

OH Jesus here we go................................ Two things my friends one, the only end result in this tit for tat is a closed thread ,we ain't there yet but we will be. Number two ,I am very sympathetic for the watches you guys have out there incommunicado (you know that) but we have another thread we really need to think about. We have lost PayPal again and it ain't coming back, how long do you think we are going to last without funding. I had PMed back and fourth with the chief trying to find answers months ago as we realized it was just a matter of time unfortunately nothing presented an acceptable solution.Desperate times call for desperate measures maybe some of our past ideas may seem more palatable now, I will revisit the exchanges. Let the guys who need to get there watch biz straighten out do just that and the rest of us should be brainstorming a way to solve this pressing and serious problem. http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/162197-pp-closed-our-again-againand-i-am-personally-banned-from-pp-for-life/page-2#entry1263410

What you REALLY want is stitched black leather. Consider:

i had a very similar experience with a master gunsmith. I contacted him about restoring and old LC Smith shotgun that belonged to my grandfather. I visited with him at his shop, and he had some amazing and very valuable shotguns in his safe and on his bench. His rules were similar to the amp guy. he told ne that the repairs would take from 12-15 months, as some of the work like the case hardening and and lock blueing was sent out as there were guys that could replicate any of the old brands case colors. He told me approximately what it would cost, and if he ran into anything unusual, he would call me before proceeding. He told me in no uncertain terms to not call him, he would get in touch when it was done, i asked him sort of jokingly what happened when folks called. His answer was " i put their shotgun back together if i have started work on it, and send it back, no second chances! I was impressed. Never called and about 15 months later he wrote me that it was ready, i could come by and pick it up. Suffice to say, it looked better than the day my grandfather brought it home. If you set the rules and stick to them, people will respect you more, and the ones that won't comply are probably people you don't want to deal with anyway.

Marlins!!! Happy that arrived so quick. Enjoy!

The issue here in my oppinion is one that all people who woork openly as modders on a board will get unless they strictly control the work load Having 17 watches waiting for work is way to much! this hapens because we all need work doing and it is hard to turn it down, you get PMs by the thousand, asking for work or advise, and then when you take the work on people want updates, now this is not wrong, you have sent your watch, paid your money and you should be entitled to that update, but we have one example above where the customer says himself he was in touch 2-3 times a day, that all takes time and disturbs you from the work at hand, now if you have 17 jobs waiting for work and every one is in touch 2-3 times a day!!!!!! MD2020 if you want to survive this you have to get all these jobs and people satisfied and then and only then if you take on more work then A set limits of what you have in the queue, B Tell people you will not reply to every PM but provide an update once a week if it is taking longer than expected (and i know it does what with waiting for parts ect) C Do not take on any work that you are not sure that you can do D Chose your customers, There are some people on here that i would not work for in a million years. E do not take on work that you cant afford to mess up, like working on a 1570 that you cant afford to replace any parts that you may break (parts for these are not cheep) I personaly would give this advise to any one thinking they are a modder, or even a qualified watchsmith, the internet and forums may be a great place to get lots of work but one slip up and the world knows about it. So MD, it is down to you now to sort this out, there are no excuses, you enter into a contract with people then honour it, we all know life happens, it happens to us all but we have to honour the contracts we made. To any one who thinks they have to send work MDs way, give him time to sort all the current issues out before you do!

marlin's modded just arrived!!now we need all the experts to make a detailed comparison next to the eddie lee version with gen crystal and swiss mechanism!enjoy!

Still in conversations with my friendin terms of what can be acheived, but I realise that ideally i need to be able to offer - 1. Remove existing engravings,laser etchings etc properly back to factory finish 2. Offer correct period engravings across a number of Vintage Rolex sports models(That's my thing) 3. Ideally be able to offer casebacks like the 1665 My idea is really to offer NOS looking work, or if you want it Aged then i'm confident i can also do this nicely DH

Something a little different today

The first qc pics I got last week (black) had exactly that flaw, the ones I got today have not. Seems to be (at least) two different bezel batches around. I too didn't notice it at first, I had almost convinced myself that the bottom misalignment was due to angles or something. The danger of doing qc with an iPad, I guess.

On my wish list right now: ...to be able to hold my promise...: "No new watch within the next twelve months!" So maybe next year: Tudor Hydronaut II Franken Tudor 79260 Gen or Franken...we'll what's on the market at this time

For TC to start making: 1. Ceramic Subs 2. IWC Ports 3. Blancpain Aqualungs 4. Breit Navitimers 5. Omega Speedies 6. And the complete PF Journe line. 7. To be given free copies of each watch above for making such an excellent suggestion.

Me rather happy....

Guys,we can continue to discuss what Mike should have done until we are blue in the face. I believe we all agree that a simple communication would put many members at ease. Going forward, now that Mike has seen concerns by many on the board, hopefully lessons learned, Mike can improve his communication with members some way some how.

From all my watches my Exp II with pinholes is my favorite: Rolex Explorer II 08 by Bidle, on Flickr The Patek Nautilus 5711/1A 010 is also among the favorite because of the unbelievable nice dial. Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711/1A-010 14 by Bidle, on Flickr

I am so hyped for this one Looks good so far. Bezel color and pearl look gen like. Hopefully we will be able to preorder them soon.

Maria Sharapova -O