Cheese

Just a note about how to deal with pp. If you afraid of charge backs, you need to open two separate pp accounts. Get paid in one and one the funds are there, immediately transfer them to the other account for withdrawal. See, pp will transfer money between their own accounts immediately, but they will make you wait a few days for the withdrawal. Most sellers get scammed by buyers who do charge backs in the first few days after the transaction, before the seller has a chance to withdraw the funds. By transferring the funds to another account, you insulate your seller’s account from that.

Another thing that pp does not like is transactions without descriptions. They like to know what is being sold. In that case, you can setup you second account to sell “subscriptions”. They seem to not be to concerned with exactly what that is.

I’ve never had any trouble removing bezel inserts. In fact, on most all of my reps they have fallen off and I’ve had to re-glue them. Of course I tend to swim in my watches, and most reps use cheap two-sides “tape” to hold the insert to the bezel, so the water softens the glue.

45, but I look like 35 and feel like 25!

I have a TT YM and I think it’s great. I’ve compared it to a friend’s genuine TT sub and yes, side by side, if you really look, you can tell the rep’s gold is not quite the right color, but otherwise, the rep is just fine. It came from King and supposedly, the midlinks are solid 14K, but I am guessing they are really more like 10K that’s been plated. The bezel and insert are obviously not solid, but when properly cleaned and polished, everything looks great. In fact, I wear it at least twice a week and other than a few self-inflicted dings, it looks great.

We always say - choose your dealer, then choose your watch. Some dealers will guarantee a delivered watch or a refund, while others will say the shipping is at the risk of the buyer. It’s up to you to choose which is the best deal for you.

Me: Mercedes-Benz ML55 (2001 - about to trade for a 2003).

Wife: Just traded Audi RS-6 for a Lexus (IS350 - yuck, but it's her car).

Now listen here Mr Cheese, the next time you decide to neglect us we are all pissing off to Casa Blaca..........and then you will have something to complain about

Uh-Oh! I’m going on vacation next week and will likely not have time to check in. I hope RWG can stay in one place at least for that long!

If you folks are referring to the bracelet pin removal tool that you twist to force the pin out, try to get a hold of a few spare pins for the tool because they are notorious for snapping . I have some and am still very careful. I oil down the pins in the bracelet first as mentioned, then gingerly force the pin through the bracelet hole, I stop just when enough of it is out to get my pliers on it, then I pull it out.

If I'm in the market for more watches with pins in the bracelet,I'll consult the Borel catalog again for a better tool. Last I looked, they have much more durable versions of the cheap kind.

I have this one:

From Ofrei

It has worked well. I've adjusted somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 links with it so far (helping out friends and co-workers). I have not (yet!) snapped a pin, but it came with three so I'm still good for a while.

You could try a light solvent based cleaner, perhaps Brasso, to get off the tarnish. Maybe even a car cleaner-wax. It may just do the trick. If you get it off, you can retard tarnish/wear but applying a long lasting car wax or sealant. I just added my trusty Collinite to a gold plated bracelet.

My wife has a soft jewelry cleaning cloth that has some very light solvent in it and it takes care of it. I just have to remember to clean it about once every few weeks so I don’t have a big orange blob of tarnish appear. I had some really bad tarnish problems on my previous TT YM from Paul. I ended up using a Dremel bit that was pre-coated with light rouge and it got rid of it, but I was always concerned this would take away lawyers of plating.

And even better, we also discovered how many licks it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop.

Well, that’s it! Now I’m really upset. I think the only thing that will cure me is…

A new rep!

I bought a TT YM from King several months ago. I e-mailed her beforehand and specifically asked for the best one she could get with solid gold. She said it has solid gold midlinks, but the rest (including gold on SEL’s, clasp, bezel) is plated. The watch I received is virtually identical to the one I had bought a year or so ago from Paul and even has the same tarnish issues on the midlinks. I do not believe it truly is solid gold (and probably can’t be for the price). It’s still a nice watch and I wear it often, but it have to keep after the tarnish.

Yea we finally discovered who had the best sub just in the last week.... Too bad you went on vacation cheese

DAMMIT!

What I am most disappointed at is the quality of its bracelet..

Some joints of the bracelet were not moving smooth..at first I didn't know why..

Anyway, I had to resize the bracelet..so I tried to remove the iron shafts with a driver..

some of them were easily removed..but 2 of them were not moving at all !

These iron shafts are too thick to be fit in the hall..I think in the factory, they inserted these shafts with a hammer.. This was the reason why some joints were not smooth..

So I had very hard time removing these stuck-in shafts with pliers and hammers in my watch tool set..

As others have mentioned, you need to get a cheap bracelet resizing tool. Even genuine Omega SMP bracelets are a PITA to resize and they can also be very stiff when new. Trust me, one of the best parts of a SMP rep is the bracelet!

Other things that I don't like in this watch are bezel pearl and date window.. there was a scratch in the triangular area of the bezel..and pearl is not flat..it's concave ! ...and the date font is not centerd in the window..and the white color of date wheel looks like cheap hardboard paper..

A rep is a rep – not a genuine. You will need to learn to live with these flaws and inconsistencies. IF not, then poke around eBay – you might find a genuine for under $800 if you're lucky.

FYI - when speaking with Marrick, I know that he ran into some issues putting the gen bezel on the rep. Marrick will give you the details....great guy

As for the inserts of ebay - aren't pearls on those "aftermarket" bezels way too big?

Here’s a link to my genuine vs. rep SMP:

SMP Compare

As for the pearls, the aftermarket bezel insert I bought for my 007 has an excellent pearl, much better than what came on the rep. The only issue is the color – it’s a bit too “purple”. I am guessing the black version would have better coloring.

Yeah, I’ve been incredibly busy and unable to spend time on RWG, so I go back and find the whole place is dead (well, except for Dempsey) and this place has started? Oh well, it’s good to be back!

I’d go with the 3-series. The Z4 looks cool, but it’s built to a “price point”. The 3-series drives much better – both in handling and comfort.

Nice car! The lease on my wife’s RS6 is up this month and she’s looked at the FX45. I think we’re leaning more toward a Cayenne, though. It’s really too bad the new ML63AMG isn’t out yet because she likes the new ML (hates my old ML55), but she’s so used to the power of the Audi, she’s hooked and won’t go “backward”.

In addition, I was looking to see if they sell the bezel inserts seperately from the bezel and they do not. I'm looking to get an insert on another watch myself, so I'm in the same boat as you.

My advice would be to go ahead and get the whole bezel – it should fit the rep and you’ll get a genuine click ring, too, so you get a nice 120-click bezel.

If you just want an insert, check with eBay seller X-Jewelry-Center. It’s not genuine, but very close.

Better to just buy several reps with the different bezels you like.

Holy cow! This seller's name sounded so familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. I finally searched my Internet cache and found it! I was looking for a car on eBay and came across this:

ML55

I was looking at the seller's feedback and he had bought from this loser. Well, at least that's one person we can warn.

Genuine SMP bezels have 120 clicks and are very tight. Reps usually have only 60 and feel a bit sloppy. It is possible to fit a genuine bezel and click ring to a rep, though.