nelly

Just a word of caution on the MBW Nautilus, I just sent mine to The Zigmeister for servicing and the movement turned out to be a lashed up ETA/Asian movement that needed a lot of work to get working properly.

I see it as paying for a banana and getting a lemon

Having been on the sharp end of one of these high priced "ETA" watches that turned out to have a franken ETA/Asian movement inside it I have to agree with The Zigmeister. My view was that going for the ETA movements was a longer term option where parts and other watchmakers that could service the movements were likely to be available. If it now turns into a situation where the A7750 is the only reliable option then what happens when The Zigmeister is no longer around to service them (and I hope that is many, many years down the road Rob . Of course the only other option as Dluddy points out is to actually start purchasing the watches with the knowledge that you are likely to have to swap the movement with a "certified" ETA movement purchased separately, which starts to become expensive real quick with the recent increase in both rep and ETA movement prices OR start purchasing cheaper reps and stocking up on DG or Miyota movements. In my case, I think my days of buying "ETA" reps are now over.....

The Zigmeister said it had a list of problems - Movement defective - would not run with balance [censored] screw tight. Top jewel too far out - pressed flush with main plate. Shock units - Asian parts quality poor Hairspring out of round - fixed. Not exactly a glowing recommendation.

Just a heads up to all those thinking that the MBW watches are a notch up the quality tree (as I did...). I just had my MBW PP Nautilus serviced by The Zigmeister and it turns out that the movement inside is not a genuine ETA movement at all, apparently it has a genuine ETA base plate but the rest of the mechanism is all Asian..... That just SUCKS

@fishgodeep, Is that a "new" DSN 036 ? The dial looks MUCH better and the movement has the proper brushed crown and mainspring wheels on it

One of the calmest, most rational posts I have seen on this subject. Long may the ranting/b*tching and justification continue, many of man's finest achievements have been fueled by it. Let's face it, if we all agreed with each other the world would be a very dull place

@Scoobs, If you don't mind me asking, where did you get Miyota movement from? Was it sourced from another watch or can you get just the bare movement? Regards, Nelly.

Scoobs, As you say to each his own....there are two sides to every story and here is a little piece about why I personally decided to deal with Neil. I have ordered many watches from Neil and despite taking a wee bit longer than some other dealers to arrive, they always DID arrive. So I decided 8 months ago to order two of the MBK watches he offered, the PP Nautilus and the AP RO. These were subsequently confiscated as part of the Thai customs crack down, however as Neil stated at the time he had given his commitment on these shipments so he would make good. I subsequently tried to order a watch as part of the group buy, but Neil told me he would send it to me gratis in return for patiently waiting for the MBK replacements, that he also had the PP in house but was still looking for the RO as he knew that I wanted the one with the closed back and the only ones currently available were open backed. Well one week ago I received the replacement PP from Neil via Narikaa and in this morning's post I opened up a parcel to find the gratis group buy watch sitting in one on Neil's trademark gold bags. So far he has remained a man true to his word and that's why at least some of us were happy to deal with Neil.

I again state that I abide by the ruling of the admins and their collective decision, this forum only thrives because they have successfully moderated the usual descent into abusive chaos that reigns in many other parts of the net. I made my point about personal responsibility, I will now leave it well alone before I get tagged as a troublemaker

Teejay, This is somewhat my point..... Members had ample opportunity to read Neil's posts, so if they ordered from him then they took the risk that they too would be on the end of one of his scathing posts, complaining about "bullying" after the fact just smacks of the "it's always someone else's fault" syndrome that is infecting our society.

Ken, thank you for the response and clarification. I would actually vote for transparency, however I do understand this forum is not a democracy and the admins do enforce to a very large degree significant levels of fair play and impartiality.

As I stated I fully understand the reasons for the eventual ban, but I believe the trigger was Neil being reduced from collector status. If this was not originally about his rudeness or outstanding watch issues, what was it ? That's the bit I don't understand.

I am probably going to get flamed for this but I have to say it anyway.... Firstly I can fully understand the Moderator teams reaction to be being personally threatened and I have absolutely no problem with that. However like sam_tgg, what I fail to understand is why his status was reduced from being a collector in the first place. There have been problems with a number of dealers in the past however no action was taken, why this time? Was this triggered by the issues around the group buy, does anyone actually know just how many watches from that are still outstanding? From all the posts I have read it seems that there are just a minority of very vocal members who have made it almost a personal mission to paint Neil in as bad a light as possible and didn't like it when he responded in his usual combative way. Neil's illness does not appear to be something he just "made up" to cover the problems as some people have insinuated, several trusted members have corroborated it. So for all those members that are out by a few $100 and who believe this is a good outcome, look within yourselves, there are no winners here, not the forum, not the members and certainly not Neil. One final thing that really makes me mad, and this goes out to all those members that started this and continually talk about "normal" business practices - YOU had your own PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY in this debacle, YOU had ample opportunity to read the posts concerning the way Neil does business, if YOU didn't like what YOU read then YOU shouldn't have ordered from him, it's as simple as that. YOU were the one that made the decision to engage in an ILLEGAL activity, so don't expect the normal rules to apply. If things go wrong then post the feedback in the appropriate forums, turning it into a personal vendetta smacks of revenge, and that never leads to justice.

You may have to make some purchases from Kenburg so that you can blend in with all that leather and mahogany