db1

thanks for the tips Omega =] about tube tool: already placed an "order" @ julesborel for an all-steel one. emailed them to ask about paypal payment. i will probably only get a reply later on, cause of the holiday. Omega: i have also seen one post where pugwash said he's cutting a "groove" on top of the tube and unscrewing it with a sharp screwdriver- what an unusual, but pretty clever method to remove a tube! i never thought of that before i had seen his post (sounds like a good method in case you are sure you dont need the tube later)

just placed an order at julesborrel for the rlx tube tool. i thought i'll pay instantly with paypal right after order completion. it "transmitted" my order without asking for a payment method. how is that being done on julesborel? (btw: i dont reside in the US for the next 2 years, i wonder if they ship over-seas)

thanks for the info alligoat yeah i've got the tap, and will probably heat the tube before removal to loosen up the glue in there. after removal i plan to re-tap the hole any case (even if the threads are fine, the re-taping will clean the glue out) and then countersink the hole , then install the gen tube. i think the all-steel tool you mentioned on the link looks more durable then the one sold on the bay, i'll give that a try. do you know if the a7750 stem will screw-into the gen 7mm rlx crown nicely? or will need glueing ? db1

thanks for the input Omega ! yeah, i will not try to remove the rep tube with the rlx tool. but some people told me that after removing the rep tube and re-tapping, for the gen tube installation i better off screw it in with a proper tool, thats the way to go? or there a trick i hevent heard of ? =] i will buy a tool, just wanted to know if these sold on ebay (with the plastic handle for $39) get the job done right, maybe some member on rwg had used one of these and can confirm? \db1

Hi, before i buy a paperweight, wanted to get some more experienced-wise advice on a rlx tube tool. i have read all posts on the board about them, have seen about 2-3 version on diff. places online which sells for ~$34-40 i know there is that "popular" tool all over the bay with the red/orange/blue plastic handle that sells for $39, i have also seen an all-steel tool for around the same price somewhere on the net. maybe there is some more versions of this tool? which tool is the most recommended to use ? btw: if anyone has a good one and has no use for it, i am also opened for a 2nd hand buy =] i just need if for one tube replacement job, db1

like the title says, what eta movement will fit a gen 1601 datejust case, tube & crown? is it possible to fit a movement without hardcore mods to the case? (e.g. onyl spacer ring etc..) is it worth it to pay for a gen case on the bay for a franken? how can i identify a gen datejust case from a rep case ? as there are more than a few that pops up on the bay every now and than. this time its for my father, he's got a birthday in a few month and i thought maybe to collect parts and build him a super franken 1601 datejust any input will be appreciated. thanks and happy holiday! db1

nice watch wear it well !!

?

all of you had seen me posting about crowns & tubes, and taps etc =] well this is it, the rep is here finally after a dealer did not have it in stock for a long time after recieving payment, so he had refounded and i have ordered from king, she had it in stock and withen less then 2 weeks the rep is here. i have a gen set of 7mm crown & tube which should fit in, i also have the correct tap for re-tapping the tube hole for the gen tube. i have all kind of drills and one of them will be fine for the counter-sinking process if needed. now my question is- how do i remove the rep tube safely ? some had told me most of the rep tubes are hard to remove since they have glue holding them right out the factory. as much as i know these rep tubes also dont have the inner "teeth" like the gen tubes, so i am wondering in which way should i approch the unscrewing of the rep tube? about stem removal, last time i did it, it was with a DG movement , i pushed the stem removal button as winding position, it works fine with that movement, removing it, then fitting it back and works great.. do i remove the stem the same way on the a7750? winding position? (its a daytona secs @ 9, no date position here..) thanks for your help :-)

wear it well corgi! what a beautiful piece

hey, i just got home and the watch is with me =] wrote a small feedback here: http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=88630

Hey freddy, thanks for your input! both positive and not-so positive input is welcome! this is why i had opened this thread i wanted to hear any opinion. well i had gone through many photos of the real thing and found out: - the rep's sub dial spacing is terribly off (probably by a little more then 2mm?) and the sub dials "ring" color is also a bit off. other then that- i had seen the rep had a crown that is too "think" in compare to the gen (i could fix that with the gen crown & tube set i have) and of course the case back is not so flat like gen. i also understand there is nothing to do about the dial other then spending a few g's and building a franken like ubi's, which right now is out of the question for me even though they are the best daytona frankens i've ever seen. so i'll let the dial stay with his flaws. about showing off the rep in front of "gen guys": i never pose my reps as gens, not in front of normal people and not in front of people who has the gens. and anyway- the gen people, a pretty big percentage of them- can't tell a standard swiss-eta sub as a rep, i know people who just bought a luxury item cause they wanted to have it and have the cash to spare. but they know nothing about it in particular. (some other knows there business very well- but not too many of them) i wear the watch cuase i like it, not cause i want people to think i have the gen =] i feel good about wearing my reps with the flaws, knowing- that i can not even get an %80 gen looking watch for under $300 while the real article is about $12,000-15,000 so i should "live" with the visual flaws, i'll rather that then a faulty movement. do you think i should mod the gen crown & tube into that rep? (i have seen the gen vs. rep crown on these- and it looks like a big diff.) thanks for all your input guys

Hey, well hopefully my rep had passed customs and i should receieve it by monday. i am so excited! well, i've got a few reps..a few breitlings,one pam, one rlx sub etc.. but i've never had a "real" daytona rep in my hands! i only have had the cheap "POS" faux chronos (day-date subdials type) rep which was my first ever rep , bought for about $60 back in time (2.5 years ago). then i have bought from an rwg member a faux-chrono-secs@6 daytona which i also liked but it wasnt doing anything killer to me and ended up sitting in the drawer. and i really like that rep! sitting very nicely on my wirst, not as heavy and blingy as my bentley GT, but has a classic look and feels great, then i decided i want an a7750 daytona, of course i can not take the risk of the faulty modded movement, so i decided to go for the secs @9 model, yeah i know the sub-dial spacing is off and maybe some other small details- but i prefer a reliable rep with small "not noticable to the naked eye" faults then a faulty movement (also have a set of gen tube & crown for it which i would maybe keep in mind for later, hmmm- well, also a sealed pair of genuine 16520 pushers! but these are hard to find, maybe should keep them for a higher end project) hope i will not be disappointed, some people told me its a great rep for the money, some other told me its a terrible total-give away rep etc.. here's a photo of the same model i have ordered: what do you guys think?

@ fxr andy: is there any other case (other then the WM9 (?) ) that can fit a seagull st-26 correctly in it? btw: i can see on the bay, on a regular basis, the selling of the so-so "genuine" gold colored ETA movements, which were already "disqualified" by The Zigmeister as being real %100 gen swiss ETA, but more likely to be- very high end- great 1:1 (inc, stamping) copies of an ETA. and they sell them pretty fine, putting in the decription the same "%100 genuine ETA movement made in swiss etc etc.." line. those being sold for about $70-$120 each, depends on the seller. i DID happen to see a few genuine ETA 7750 on the bay, and a few genuine 2892 and similier movements, but not many of them- and the few i had seen for sale were not brand new or new stock, they were in "almost new" condition with a branded rotor (movements were removed from a branded watch) but its also hard for me to believe anyone is being able to get these in the 10-20+ pieces range. even if he's using a"lady size movement" which is gen ETA- i think it would be fair to advertise the right words in the description such as "this watch has a genuine lady size ETA movement modded to run with a sub date wheel.." etc.. i believe the only good answer for this thread , would be somebody here on the board which already has this WM9 rep, and needs for some reason to open the caseback (either for servicing or just to see if he got what he paid for?) and take a good photo of the movement he had got in the watch. db1

well thats my thought: IMO, and as much as i know- there is alot of HYPE in the rep world anyway, on both sides of dealers and buyers, all types of hypes (including waterproofing of reps, solid gold reps, swiss vs. swiss copy mvmts.. etc..) it might be it- that a specific rep is advertised as having a genuine swiss made in swiss movement, and it actualy doesnt come even close to that! after all- we get what we pay for right? the last time i have seen a new stock genuine ETA 2892-A2 movement for sale it was about $380. therefore, i dont believe in paying about $500-550 for a rep, advertised as having the real gen thing- when i know only the movement costs about %85 of this price! which makes it simply impossible to be real. anyway- i think it doesnt mean a dealer should lie to us! as i always say- i rather know im not getting a genuine item, pay the right price for a non-gen item and be happy with my item, then paying big money for a "gen" item that appears to be not gen after opening the case back. i believe The Zigmeister could give as the best opinion about this movement issue, if that watch ships with a gen swiss eta as advertised or not. about seagull st-26, these chinese movements IMO are one of the best quality non-swiss movements i have ever had experience with (currently have a seagull movement in a PAM fantasy white dial luminor PR) they finish these movements quite nicely, and the movements seem to be very well assembled and running well for a long time, also the individual parts of these movements seem to look well machined. (did i say the st26 looks close to a gen ETA 2892 ? thats a bonus) i've heard st-26 movements sells for about $80-90 each, is that true? if so- sounds like a decent swap for a noobmariner =] db1

damn i hate scammers! i rather know what im buying and happily buy it, then paying for something that is not as advertised.

the best tip i have to add just for a precaution: be careful ordering from web sites you dont know! these scam sites pop on the web like mushrooms, be carefull, they either either overcharge you for a "swiss" watch which will actualy come with an asian copy, or sometimes they dont send any watch at all! or if you're lucky- they will charge you a big price for a "Swiss grade" (lol) watch and send you a cheapo' canal st rep. i advice you to look around the forums first before ordering a rep, look at our forum's trusted dealers listing, and buy only from a trusted dealer. this way you avoid being scammed, and get what you pay for. im currently waiting for a daytona in the mail my self good luck =]

WOWWWW !!! what a great job The Zigmeister! hands down

alligoat: yeah i meant that movement with the DD chrono module. probably misspeled it on title, wow thanks for letting me know i didnt see that. about a7750: The Zigmeister could do wonders to the a7750 movement with his proper service. i was more thinking about swapping to swiss 7750 for the reason of parts availability and "standard" (e.g. if i like the watch and wish to keep it for a long time, say the movement breaks down on me, then i go to a watchmaker, in case of a swiss movement it will be much easier to replace parts and\or inspect and service the movement) db1

hopefully king marked "gift" like i told her. "watch" is a nasty word @ customs, fingers crossed hopefully i'll have no problem. db1 =]

Toad: hehe... actualy not the first rep =] gonna be my 9th rep in the collection, but i had never tried EMS for shipping. i use to stick the lowest profile shipping all the time (registerd) to avoid risks as much as possible. as much as i have heard the "guys" triple check the "express" parcels (priority grade shipping = valuable goods?) thanks for your tip i guess i shouldn't worry then i'll let you all know once i get it (a secs @ 9 SS daytona from king) db1

hey guys, well- i guess king is super quick with shipping the goods! she shipped my rep almost instantly after completing my order and provided with a tracking number that shows well on the EMS.cn site. now, im kind of worried, i told her i want a "low-profile" shipment, but she had shipped with EMS.. which is IMO a big gamble when handling a rep, since once the SOBs see an express package/envelope they might think it hold something valuable and open it up. im a lil' nervous right now cause of that.. should i be worried? hopefully the rep is inside a bubble envelope and not a box (which maybe reduces the risk by a few percents) db1

how did you get dirt on the face and movement from it sitting in the drawer? i also have a GT (racing edition) with the black face (cream subdials) i am very satisfied with this rep, about the inner bezel- thats IMO the biggest, and one of the very few "visible" call outs on this watch. also the AR is an issue, even though the "racing" version came with light-AR, which is pretty good for light AR. the dail is very high quality and spot on the gen (have seen one in person) also the case is about %99.8 same as gen, for the Racing version- the case back is %99 like the gen, very good job on the case back there. the DW had the wrong font color (light red instead of maroon red) but i have seen a few "newer" reps with the updated font color, even though its still not %99 like gen (i believe its not that of a big problem to replicate a color that is sort of standard) i wish they would make an "upgraded" version with the correct inner bezel and Double AR out of the box- i would buy that one straight away! and i believe dozens on the board as well overall a great, beautiful watch. db1

i didnt. however i did find a source for gen eta 7753 for about $700. but had seen his email after he took off from the place where the movements where found so i can not tell him get me one. i think i'll get a standard ETA 7750 and have it modded with the a7750-tricompax layout plate. maybe thats the best solution for a low budget.

have seen the movement on eta's web site. where can i buy an eta 988.352 movement? didnt find it at offrei's any help appreciated.