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

Let me "contribute" by clarifying my statement from last night.

When I say that I don't see what the big deal about this is, I mean just that. Neil has been banned from forums before and he as either been let back in or he hasn't. It has never meant that he has stopped being involved in the rep community or that he has really ever stopped being a dealer, collector, watch expert, enthusiast or whatever everyone is calling them these days. It has also not ever slowed or changed his way of doing things. I have seen Neil blow up at Admin and Mods of just about every forum he has been on. For just about every reason you can think of. He has bashed members of the same forums over and over again and he is still around. He has stalked members of different forums and attacked them for anything that they say. People have yelled from the roof tops that Neil is a terrible dealer and people have still bought from him. People have yelled at the other people yelling that Neil is a fantastic dealer and people have still bought from him. People have complained about the amount of time it has taken him to deliver and other have still bought from him. People have completely flipped out and posted on every forum that Neil will not contact them and others have still bought from him. There are those that hate Neil with every fiber of their being and there are those that are faithful TTK loyalists to the end.

So what has really changed? Neil won't be on THIS forum. He didn't die and he hasn't stopped being involved with watches. He will probably continue to be the same person on whatever forum he is on and he will probably continue to offer the same amazing/crappy (depending on your view) service that he is famous for. The people that hate him don't have to deal with him, here at least, and those that are so very fond of him can still get in touch with him via skype, email or other forums. Now, some of you know me and some of you don't have any clue who I am, either way it doesn't matter. I have not been on the forums in close to a year (long story), but I can tell you one thing with out reading a single thread besides this one. Things have not changed and I somehow doubt that they will all that much.

For what it is worth, I respect the decisions made by the Admins. I think you guys probably put up with far more crap than I ever would have and threats against anyone are never a good thing. So, congrats on taking care of the membership and hopefully everyone involved can move on from here.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled rant/b*tching/justification already in progress.

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.

I've never had the opportunity to deal with TTK in person, so I only can judge him from what I've read on the forum. I've always wondered after reading so many negative posts from and about TTK why people wanted and still want to do business with him. But I guess to each his own.....

Anyway, the facts are very clear: we cannot tolerate any personal threats from any member on this forum. A big thanks for the Admin/Moderating team for making such a hard, but inevitable decision. This is what RWG is about: protecting it's members. And sometimes that means drastic but necessary solutions. That's why I also agree on the initial decision to temporary suspend the collectorship.

Just my 2 cents.

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

As Yellomen pointed out above, Neil is a bully, plain and simple. People are saying that 'in person', he's very different to how he posts. That's great. That's fine, but most people don't know that. All they have to go on, is the way he posts: Abusive, condescending, and unnecessarily hostile. If he feels the need to post in such a manner, he cannot blame people for judging him by that style of writing.

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.

@nelly many things are discussed within the Admin section which never sees light of day on the boards, this is the same on all boards, there never was and never will be full transparency........and I'm sure the members don't want it either.

Ken

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.

I'm just going to add this single post to this thread before I go back on my forum leave:

Sure, the timing on this is not the best and to be honest, I do not like this at all. But TTK has made his own bed here. This is not about his customer service, him being rude or members who have not received their watches yet (Most likely received the watches you have ordered from him, because TTK has never scammed a member).

There is only one reason why he has been banned from the forum: The threats I have received from him, both in writing via Skype chat and also by voice, via Skype. I have up until two days ago considered TTK to be a good "online" friend, but I will not tolerate threats from any forum member and that is the reason he is no longer welcome here.

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

And for god sake don't sell the camera Neil, where else would we sad gits get our regular dose of hard core watch porn

@FXRAndy,

I have some friends in Prague, how far out of the city are you willing to go and what sort of facilities / price are you looking at?

PM me if required

Neil-

I do hope for a speedy recovery on your end.

On the issue of protecting the membership I find that one particularly galling. This forum has sacrificed all kinds of revenue calling out scams and questionable practices. The level of posting by some dealers is substantially less on this forum verus others for exactly that reason. And on The Zigmeister, you could not be more wrong. This is the only forum that has forced questionable modders off the forum. And as a result this is the only one where The Zigmeister will post. As for why he posts less than he used to that is once again a function of the membership. Whenever he has negative things to say about other work he is attacked. He long since concluded it is not worth it.

Kruzer,

I am was in no way implying that the forum doesn't work hard to protect the members, I know it does. I was trying to make a point about personal responsibility, it's not the forums fault if something goes wrong with a transaction, people should take it as a lesson learnt and move on. This was very evident when people were calling on the moderators to "do something" about the Crippler fiasco, implying that these forums and the moderators involved had given some kind of implicit guarantee when allowing someone to sell here.

What most surprises me in all of these posts is the belief that some have that -

a. This is some kind of normal business we are dealing with here, it's not, in many countries it is completely illegal both for the seller and the purchaser and therefore when you make ANY transaction it's a RISK.

b. This board is here to protect members, it's NOT. It's a forum for giving us a way to make informed purchases thus reducing the risks involved in these transations, nothing more, nothing less.

As for Neil as a dealer, it has been said many times on this and the other boards first choose your dealer, then choose your watch. I too have watches outstanding from the shipment that was originally confiscated by the Thai customs 7 months ago, I received the PP Naultilus that was outstanding a week ago and still have one outstanding. Despite this my past transactions have led me to believe that it too will eventually come through, it takes time yes, but I have 20 odd other watches I can wear in the meantime so it's not exactly killing me.

I also got stung by the Crippler affair, however I refuse to engage in the continual hand wringing that goes on concerning that, I think people forget that without this and other forums, MOST transactions would end in the same painful experience.

And before anyone flames me, I am not Neil's boy toy or some other such juvenile rubbish. I recognise him for what he is, a watch afficienado who was deaing with reps way before any of us even knew they existed. Yes he can somewhat caustic in his responses, yes he leans towards the eccentric and yes it does take a certain degree of patience to deal with him but so far as my dealings are concerned he has always kept his end of the bargain and to me that means a lot.

Neil, I do hope you get better soon, not only have you allowed me to collect some wonderful watches, but part of the reason this forum is so damn addictive is the wonderful mixture of calm debate and passionate discourse that essentially keeps this forum alive and well, without you I fear it would be much diminished.

Thanks for taking action on the info, it's a good sign

That's the one from Paneristi I was talking about. They are both pictures of gens, so if it is a trick of the light it's pretty unusual ! Where's the CSI team when you need them

Dluddy,

What about this one posted from Blowers ? it really doesn't look like a trick of the light as it does on the BCE.

Well it would be nice if he thought he was selling A7750 but was shipping ETA7750s instead, however sods law always prevails

I'll drop him a PM and warn him of the dangers of misrepresenting his goods.....

He may be a good dealer but someone should tell him not to post incorrect pictures on his site. In the description of the 2006 red/black Daytona it states it's a high beat Asian 7750 but the movement pictures appear to show an ETA 7750.

On the second hands question that has been posed in previous posts, I have seen pcitures of a used Pam063s up for sale that had a matt black seconds hand (and no it was not the lighting) as well as the ones on Paneristi that shows it with a steel one. So unless the ones on Paneriti are pre-release shots of some kind it appears that there were two different variations released.