Usil

Ok. Miss Understood, SuperSpySquirel, Rocket754... Nice to know that we are not alone in our obsessions. Nice bike Rocket754. I was out last night with our group and we had 2 girls. One on a Yamaha and a BMW. Girls like bikes in France. Usil

I am from Keller, now living in Paris, France. Welcome, Usil

Is the first one you did? This looks fantastic. Can you detail the process? Your picture is fine. Usil

It seems like everyone here is male. Why is that? Usil

I am glad this had a good ending. I don't know Neal personally but I like his watches and his sence of humor. Reminds me of the good old days of tennis with McEnroe and Connors and before them - Nastaci. Things are too boring nowadays. Usil

I just finished timing my IWC power reserve and was successful in getting it to about + 2 seconds a day. I had just finished and had greased the o-ring ready to put it all back nice and tight when the display glass fell out of the back. It is possible that I pushed on it and made this happen during my handling of it but in the off chance it actually is loose, it kind of defeats me sealing up the watch water tight without addressing this issue. What can I do to insure it stays in place and water tight? I am looking for a relatively easy solutions here as I want to do it myself? Besides press fitting it back in place, is ther something else that some people do and have good luck with when this happens? Usil

Sorry to add my 2 cents but it took a long time for me to get the courage to use the internet for purchases because of the scams. I finally started to use Pay Pal and you are right it is dead easy for the buyer but I am once again uneasy about using other means of electronic payment. My problem is that I like TTK watches and the ease I had grown accustomed to to buy his watches. If he is not able to sort out Pay Pal, this is a problem for me (not him) as I am not likely to change from using Pay Pal. I already stopped using Silex Prime and I liked their site but do not go there any more. So, sorry for all the Pay Pal issues but it looks like my choice to buy from is getting more limited. Please this is nothing aginst TTk and I see the issues he is dealing with. This is from my side totally and my comfort zone for making internet purchase options. Maybe I am alone in this feeling and I will just have to get over it. Any way - best of luck to Neal and I do hope this is worked out because I want to buy another watch from him. Usil

I know it is difficult to have this happen but most of us have been laid off at one time or another and I can tell you from those I talked to that 'ALL' of them moved to better things. In the US, 5 years (average) is about what you would consider normal before moving on or getting promoted but after that it is cheaper for a company to hire a new recruit than to keep you. Also, the salary increases become less so to manage your career it is sometimes best to consider moving on unless there is a good promotion system in yoiur company. All of this is speaking in generalities but this has been my experiance. Best wishes in your future endeavors and keep your watches, they will continue to bring you pleasure. Usil

I am relatively new as I just started this year but I am impressed that it looks like we do have an impact on getting better reps from the manufactureres. They must be listening to us if they are far better now than they have been these past few years. This is real supply chain-consumer awareness. I find this amazing in all of this. So, my picks... 1. Definitely PAMS. I never even new about these watches before I came to RWG. Now, they are one of my favorites. More intersting designs and of couse the 187 for well under 300 is a must. Vintage - I am still looking at these. So far, I have not caught the bug for these but don't let that stop you - plenty of others like these. 2. Breits: I love them almost as much as PAMS. If I want a chrono, Breits are what I want. Ones that are not, however, balencing on the edge of catastrophe if they are actually used. 3. IWC: This should have gone before the Breits in my list. Accurate IWC REPS would be greatly appreciated. 4. Bell & Ross: Interesting watches and I saw some originalss in Paris the other day. Nice and big (46mm). So why 39 mm for our current REPS? This needs to be fixed. Thats my short list. Hope Trusty has more to say on this later on. Usil

Middle Row - Far Left = TTK's Vintage Breitling Navitimer. Box order: I kept the PAM's and Breit's together and everything else just slid into open slots. Kept the dress watches in the bottom as they look kind of out of place if they were in the top rows. I don't like Rolex and avoided getting one until I saw the Anneversary Sub with Green Bezel. That I liked so I got one. I have to say, it is a handsom watch and has a nice feel on the wrist. The PO - what can I say. Dynamite watch and feels perfect on the wrist too. IWC: I like IWC but the reps leave a lot to be desired. Wish they were up to speed. VC's, PP's and FM are just plain classy. These give me a lot of pleasure and sometimes it is hard to pick one. OOPS, I just ordered a Fiddy. Where am I going to put it??? Usil

I was playing around with watches tonight, cleaning them up a little and decided to take a picture of all of them together. I was going to take this shot with my good camera until it was stolen but this will do for now. I also have an IWC Big Pilot (not pictured) that I have been playing around with off and on for the past month trying to make it more accurate. When I bought it, it gained about 7 minutes a day. Now it gains about 2 seconds a day and I just applied silicone to the o-ring and sealed her up. I thought I would start practicing on this watch as it was not very expensive. For the past year, I bought these mostly from Andrew, 2 came from TTK, my favorite PAM (63 with 2893 movement) from Eddylee. I have had good success from these trusted dealers and the forum has been very helpful. Since my box is full, does this men I have to stop buying reps? Usil

This is important information. Providing quality control info and actual go no-go stuff like this is invaluable. Please never leave the forum. Usil

For the price you got a good deal even with the few small issues. We all have to expect some of these small things happening as there is not the tight quality control as originals. For the price, and after you get comfortable with reps, these are things you can work on your self. Read and learn from the experts here. Usil

This is more than just wearing reps. I have bought watch tools, I do light maintenance, I read the threads on repair and may get into it a little more seriously as I learn more. This is a Hobby- like many others I have and I enjoy it immensely. Plus I enjoy learning about these watches. And the forum is great fun. This is no way just wearing reps, as I would not be doing all these fun things with 6000 dollar watches. It's fun. Usil

Thanks to all for the contributions of good information. This is what this forum is famous for. I wonder how many of us have a drawer full of bands we bought early on in our collecting that are just too short for practical use? Usil

HKTAN - I see them mentioned a lot of places but he does not seem to be listed in the watch accessories section. Is Aaron a member of this forum? Is there a web site to go to to view his straps? I just found a link to a photobucket for HKTAN1. But do not know a password to enter. Can anyone be more specific with contact information? Thanks, Usil

I have a large wrist and the standard 115/75 strap just does not work for me. I need 125/85 as a minimum and 130/85 is better. I have looked at a half dozen strap sources and while a few have selected sizes at 125/85 the straps I would like came only in the standard length. For those that have large wrists and buy nice leather or croc/gator straps (hopefully paying no more than about 100.00) for them, where do you get them? Anyone share their sources on this? or strap makers - contact me for options? Thanks, Usil

We need to give the newbies a break. Many have been on the internet for awhile but probably have little experience with news groups or forums. Now they want a rep and unless they make a big blunder and fall for the endless scam sites they luck into finding us. They may not have had experiance dealing with forums and of course they want to come up to speed as fast as possible so, heaven forbid, they ask for a little help from any of the many experts on the site. Yes, they did not read the volumes of posts with endless opinions to filter through and by the way, since they are not experts, how the hell are they to make sence of all of this. Yes, it is all there but how do they know what to accept as gospel or not? The answer is very simple. We create a FAQ that is sent out immediately to all newbies. Volenteers can work on it. Break it up into sections so it is not too much for any one person and have a system to update it maybe every 6 months. Let's welcome these guys and hopefully girls to the forum and stop being such sourpusses. The more that we have here buying reps, the better it will be for us as the stock moves quickly and better reps come out to meet the demand. Usil

Thanks, feeling much better. Insureance told me no-deal on coverage for losses. I am not worrying about it - need to moved on. Heading out to Vallle Chevreuse this weekend with the wife for a nice moto ride in the country. I am frustrated by the 'immediate gratification' crowd which includes many kids. While my wife and I both have degrees, we were unable to convince our children on the benefits of having a higher education. While they are all doing fine now, It saddens me that they could have had a higher potential which at some point in the future, they may wish they had pursued. Usil

Where are the scientists going to come from in the next generation? There is not only a gap between the rich and the poor - there seems to be a bigger gap between the educated and the stupid. I say stupid because they had the chance of an education and choose not to partake. Usil

Instead of using 1280 by 960 (306k disk size but 3.52 meg expanded when used), reset your camera to a more reasonable size for viewing on a monitor. 1/4 that should be ok. Then you won't be producing modem burners. Usil

I see some straps with finished edges. Hard to explain but it looks like they have a thin piece of leather covering the edge which shows the glued sides. Anyone know how they do this? Usil

We never NEED the watches we buy. They both look great. KEEP THEM. Usil.

Ryyannon, Thanks for the thoughts. I read your report on the GTG in Paris and was happy to see others are nearby. I have already filed an insurance claim. We will see what happens. Still plenty sore today and taking muscle relaxants, pain pills and anti-inflametory meds. Real challenge to extricate myself from the bed this morning. The one thing that I did not expect was the physical violence. I had heard that crime in europe is less violent - now I know. But on a brighter note, I still love Paris and what it has to offer. I have been here for three years and probably will stay another two. My job keeps me here and frankly, as long as my company pays me to live in Paris - I will stay. It sounded like a good deal three years ago and still does. I was going to wait till I retired in three years to start traveling but this has afforded me an excellent opportunity to do that and still get paid. My French is lousy, I guess no aptitude but still trying to work on it. Maybe a GTG in the future would be nice. Usil

I realize that I could easily have been knifed or shot so I am glad, too, that my wife brought me back to reality. I live in the 15th ar. so I had never expected this kind of thing to have happened. I have had three unsuccessful pick-pocekt attempts in three years and I consider this as part of living in a large city with a lot of tourists but like I said, in the 15th - I never expected to be assaulted. You never expect this kind of thing to happen to you so I will just take this as a lesson, hard as it is, and try to be more careful in the future. I wish I had been able to get a few licks in but I am 59 and they were early 20s. Maybe I need to take up Kung Foo. Do you think we are at risk wearing our expensive looking reps? Thanks for the good words from all. Usil