tr4driver

Fleed, This is a beautiful watch, but one thing I don't understand is why everyone wants to mar the plexiglas crystals on their vintage watches. Polishing the crystal is very easy, and I keep the plexiglas crystals nicely polished on my genuine vintage watches regardless of how badly the cases get nicked/scratched up or how much patina the dials have. Again, beautiful watch. I'd love to have one some day.

The end-links actually look fine. Gold on the edges. This is the wrapped bracelet.

It's not perfect, but I'm happy with it.

Yep... been keeping an eye on the trade forum. Just never see a TT model come up.

Thanks everyone. I've contacted BK, but he's not taking any new orders right now.

Greetings... I'm looking for a decent TT sub, and found this one at Puretime: http://www.puretimewatch.com/index.php?productID=279 I am planning to go with the wrapped option on the bracelet. Anyone have any additional knowledge of this watch? Glaring issues, etc.? Thanks!

Yep, I believe all the 1665's had a bi-directional bezel.

The bezel is supposed to be bi-directional (same as genuine). I'm no sure you can tighten it since it is not constructed like the genuine (it uses a bent wire instead of the flat washer for tension). When I took mine apart, I had to remove the crystal retaining ring bezel insert to get the thing all seated back down properly, then reattach the bezel insert. The bezel by itself would no snap back on properly.

Which begs the question... Why is it exactly that these dealers are trusted???

I don't really think the color of the silver date wheel is close to the gen at all. From certain angles, it almost black out completely. I've handled gen watches with silver date wheels, and the color really doesn't change based on view angle. This one really does, and is much more difficult to read that the gen silver date wheels I've seen.

kbh... have you actually fitted a gen crystal to yours? I'm curious as to whether or not it really will work. The crystal retainer ring is definitely different than the gen ring, but it might still work. My overall opinion of this watch is that it's probably worth the $200 price, but not in the same league with the MBW/MBK version (for $370).

Yeah... I think I went too far with mine. I smoothed them up a little and will just leave them as is. Next time I go a little slower.

Yep. Took about 10 minutes with a Dremel and small paper sanding disk. I didn't even remove the crown - just kept the paper side of the disk against the crown. I ended up taking them down more than I intended. Easy to do with the Dremel. I'll be more conservative next time.

I think I may have taken them down a little too far.

I realize the genuine retainer ring is different, but you don't think a genuine one would slide down over that crystal?

Thanks for the suggestions. I popped the insert and was able to get it put back together (sort of). The bezel is still pretty loose. Again... very disappointed with this watch. The bezel construction is not as advertised by Andrew and Josh. I think a gen-like retainer ring/washer/bezel may work on this watch though. I just don't have one handy. On a related matter... Once the crystal retainer ring is off, should one be able to pull the crystal off fairly easily (assuming it's not glued down)?

No.

Yeah... I thought about that. The insert has to be glued into place, and I was trying to avoid having to apply glue while the bezel is attached to the watch.

Here are a couple more pictures of the new Josh/Andrew 1665 showing the crystal attachment and crystal retainer ring. The retainer ring is sitting upside down in the photo. I was attempting to show the lip on the top of it.

Well, I was having problems re-installing my bezel assembly on the new 1665 that Josh and Andrew are offering. They advertise that the bezel is the same construction as the genuine; however, it's got the bent wire instead of the flat washer retainer. My problem is, I can't for the life of me get the thing to snap back into place. The crystal retainer ring has a slight lip on the top of it that I assume the wire has to pop over. In the process of removing my bezel, I think I may have pulled the crystal retainer up slightly as well because there was a gap between the bottom of it and the base of the case. Anyway, I pressed it back down, but when I tried to then put the bezel back on (with the wire in place), the base of the bezel just went loosely down to the base of the case. The wire never hit the lip of the crystal retainer ring. If I pry the crystal retainer ring up slightly, I can get it to catch (kind of). Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed with the false claims by Josh/Andrew that this thing is constructed just like the genuine. It's obviously not. Maybe if the crystal retainer ring was replaced a genuine bezel might work(?). Anyway, I can't figure out how to get the bezel wire to catch on the crystal retainer lip with the retainer pressed all the way down. It seems that the retainer isn't high enough, and the bottom of the bezel hits the base of the watch before the wire in the bezel hits the lip. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.

This is the double red version of the watch I bought from Andrew. Josh and Andrew have the same pictures/watches.

Granted, the rep game is a bit of a crap shoot, and I agree with most of your comments. However, I'm not sure that there is a way to categorize the claim "Same Bezel Clip-on Construction as Genuine!" anything other than a lie. Calling it marketing is very generous IMHO. I did buy one, but I knew the risks ahead of time, and I'm willing to live with what I got, but at the same time, I believe that the trusted dealers here should have some degree of accountability in exchange for their trusted status.

Response from Andrew: "MBK is not constructed for the genuine... The bezel parts have to modify to accept a bezel genuine" He didn't even bother to address my issues about the bezel construction of *his* watch. Oh well... live and learn I suppose.

I emailed Andrew and included a picture. I'll see what his response is. Seems to me that this watch is pretty useless as a base for modding.

Disappointing.