Nice review and great comparison pictures.
I still don't believe this is as nice a version as the V4. The V4 has a perfect he valve centered over the 0 in 50 on the bezel, proper size crown. Dial markers are correct to gen and the spacing on the Omega logo is correct. The ar treatment on the V4 is clear rather than blue. Also notice how the silver ring around the bezel is so much smaller than on the gen.
With the exception of the happy feet I still think V4 would be the clear winner.
That makes no sense at all. Why would they send it to Switzerland when they have repair centers locally. Maybe he misunderstood them when they said they needed to send it out for repair.
Damn, mine stays quite bright all night.
Of course any lume will lose the original brightness of the sun in a few minutes but it still stays bright enough to read in the dark many hours later.
It's not possible to get a rep anywhere close to the weight of of gen D/D which is solid gold. Gold is 2 1/2x as heavy as stainless steel and when you throw in the weight of the solid gold bracelet, the gen is going to be immensely more heavy than either a rep or a gen DJ.
Probably just the rotor that winds it going around. The only way to tell is to take the case back off and take a look. Make sure there are no loose screws.
Last time I heard,owning reps in the US isn't illegal. Just manufacture and sale.
But, I think you're jumping to conclusions thinking he stole them. As mentioned, he may be out of town or in the hospital or who knows what else. Until you go to his house and ask him, the rest is just speculation. The last thing to worry about is the cops being interested in a couple of reps.
If it's for sale, I'd strongly recommend buying this one from highoeyazmuhudee:
Only thing better is a gen. That and a new clasp and some fine grit sandpaper and you can have it looking like new in a few minutes.
And I've picked up several new Sub bracelets normally around $35. $100 for and insert and bracelet seem very high.