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"Like everything else, the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know" That is certainly true. The more I learn, the less I know for sure, and the dumber I feel. One of the great mysteries (to me) in the replica watch world is why cartel vintage rlx case makers can not will not make accurate cases. Noob, ZZF, ARF etc. have very good modern replica cases and a complete running watch from them will cost less than an empty 'replica connoisseur' vintage case that sells for $600 to $1500.

A Gilt PCG I spent 2 years building. All Gen except the Midcase which came from Singapore at $950.00

Minty! You are my spirit animal ❤️

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Yep- it was the picture angle. This appears to be gen. Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk

When I was young and stupid(er) I was on a business trip to Puerto Rico and ran across a guy selling Submariners with (gasp) AUTOMATIC MOVEMENTS. I had to have one. I wore it proudly, constantly mesmerized by the dark blue of its dial and bezel insert. It was breathtaking. So walking home from work one day I passed by Ben Bridge jewelers in downtown Seattle, the Rolex Authorized Dealer. I went in and admired their watches, tut-tuting under my breath that they were all black. All missing that distinctive and handsome deep blue tint. To my eye they were otherwise identical. The sales girl sauntered over and I allowed my lovely blue Submariner to peek out from my sleeve. She immediately spotted it, and sizing me up as a man to be reckoned with, asked if she could hold it? I gingerly handed it over and she looked it over, then asked if I was happy with it? I said yes, but admitted it does gain a bit during 24 hours. Like 5 minutes. So she took it back to their watchmaker in the back room and wasn't gone very long before she came back, holding it at arm's length like the rotting corpse of a dead fish. She handed it back and said "you know, that's not a real Rolex". Truer words were never spoken! I drew myself up to my full stature and said "of course not! the money I saved on my purchase paid for the trip where I bought it". Sheesh. It's amazing I survived my youth and stupidity.

Q..."How good is a Yuki (dial) if compared to the Cartel one really?" A..."The cartel dial isn’t terrible, but the lume pretty much is, fakes are never identical, it is simply an impossibility from a production point of view, never mind cost constraints." I agree. Lower tier cartel watch lume is probably the lowest grade lumey toon stuff they can get...about one step up from glow in the dark lipstick. Yuki dials are almost always better than cartel dials in my experience. I have a few assorted Yuki dials from 6 or 8 years ago up to 3 or 4 years ago and most of them are pretty good. One exception is a pair of '5512' dials with ratty printing...the letters look like ''''''''''''" under magnification, not a solid line, and the letters appear dimmer than usual because of the segmented lines. Also have a Yuki '5512' dial with very good letters but the lume has a green tint to it that looks a bit too green for me. Otoh I have another Yuki '5512' serif dial that is as good as any aftmkt dial I have owned. I had a woody for 5512s a while back. Have a higher $$ 1655 dial (can not remember where it came from) that is not much better than the average cartel '1655' dial and have a Phong '1655' dial that is very, very good. The higher $$ dials can be hit or miss imho and the best aftmkt dials that I have came from 'IG44' but that seller is long gone. Basically, with dials it's the luck of the draw and how critical you are. "The good ones are so close that only a very few can tell and usually under close inspection and magnification, but there always will be differences." True. I have one genuine Lemrich 'Mk I' 1680 dial and if you compare it to a very good aftmkt dial you can see a difference but mostly due to it being 40+ years old, the lettering etc on a very good high $$ aftmkt dial is very close. "Can the ETA one be installed on the 2183?" If you mean a common Miyotaclone 2813...not without cutting the dial feet off. "When you're starting out in this hobby everything looks great and no matter what you buy, you wear it proudly." Thanks to RWG (and Nanuq) I am becoming a seasoned repliker collectiker. Now I wear my quartz submareener after dark instead of in broad daylight.

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"...on the same boat looking for Omega Parts on the bay..." I know what you mean. I have used up almost all of my omega 5xx and 7xx parts with no more in sight...at a reasonable price that is. The quick set models where you push/pull the crown to advance the date have a problem with broken setting parts and spare parts have just about dried up. Have one old ruffy dress type ygf front loader 'watermaster' and was going to change it over to a no date model because of missing parts but can not find an affordable case, been looking for a year or two. Found a dial right away but no cases out there. No Mo Oh-Meega Parts.