crystalcranium

Are those loose subdial hands floating around under the crystal on Yang?????

I just re-read the question and it struck me differently than when I responded earlier. This unlimited budget fantasy is also going to be a daily beater. Let me say that owning a $60,000 Breuget or a $10,000 Zenith that I would have to wear every day would give me ulcers. I might have to tape bubble wrap aroung by wrist to go outside. So I guess the actual choice would include ruggedness as well as extravagance. No chance of keeping a Timex Ironman under the couch pillows for beater use?? Guess not. I would have to pick....I'm sorry to say...probably a TT Sub. It would be the only expensive, impressive watch I would feel safe in wearing everyday.

Exactly!!!!! Fact is, I finally reached saturation point with my watches. I recently sold three reps because I just couldn't wear and appreciate everything I had and I found myself looking at the watch box each morning and picking the same 5 watches, so the garage queens got sold. It didn't break my heart so it was a good decision.

I've loved it for years and Seiko has been manufacturing it for a long time so it is a classic piece. The only thing that stopped me is that it's a massive watch with a small dial because of the size of the Seiko alarm chrono movement, but it's still a great techno watch. As far as the trade, you got a genuine Seiko flight chrono for a fake XXXXX????? I'd say that's a good deal any day!

No contest. Genuine Omega Seamaster Professional Chronograph Diver. My rock, my redeemer and sustainer.

Some important updates. My wife doesnt hate the Oris TT1 Date in blue. That's quite an endorsement from her! My preference, of course, would be the regulator Oris diver because of the bullet proof certification etc... but it is an odd looking watch and a little over the budget (but this wouldn't be a typical decision from me without pushing the limits a bit!). I love the 1000M diver but it only comes on titanium and I don't want a 44mm watch that weighs 75 grams. So if it's going to be an Oris diver, it looks like the 300M SS Blue dial/bezel diver. Also under serious consideration is the Ball engineer Diver II. Does anyone have any information on the modern history of the Ball watch company? I know the ancient history of Webb Ball and the railroad watches but this company looks like a Swiss buyout of the name with no real lineage to the Ball Watch Company from 1890, like Hamilton watches have no real association to the Hamilton watch company from Lancaster, PA. The Fortis and Sinn watches are a little too austere and functional. Still open to suggestions!!!!! For those of you suggesting watches <$1000, I really want to spend all of this money in one shot!!!!

Oh man, what a photo! If I just had $2000 to spend, I'd get one in each color.

Does anybody here really think Cartier has a "Smash the replicas with a hammer" division???? Might they confiscate it????? It's a possibility. I would hope their first contact with a customer who came into an AD with a fake to have it serviced would be to kindly and gently tell them they had been had, not that they were trying to put one over on them. Only an idiot or a tragically mislead spouse would take a fake into an AD for service. I'm certain they have seen this happen many times innocently. My guess is that he will get his watch back with a kind explaination that he was scammed, not that he's a counterfieter.

Ha Ha .......AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!...Crash ...and now back to Charlie Chan.....

My point is you have already narrowed your "it doesn't look like a genuine" focus down to a resolution sensitivity that putting genuine link chronos side by side wouldn't be able to pass. There is manufacturing variability in genuines across the board. The fact is, your Tag looks close enough to the real thing that you can wear it with confidence that only a rep owner, who has knowlege of what's bought and sold in our dirty little secret, would know that a replica of this watch even existed. Sure, rub your toy to your heart's content,...love it ..enjoy it. I get a kick out of shining up my toys too but not in the pursuit of perfection. It's not a real Tag Heuer Link Chrono!!!! It never will be! Even if you get the outside looking 99 44/100% like the genuine, isn't the fact that an ASIAN 7750 lives on the inside going to eat away at you???? You know, Ofrei sells ETA 7750 movements with Tag Heuer on the rotor!!! Another $325, and your watch is almost there.....Oh yeah...the crown.....OK, just another $75 and I'm almost there....oh yeah, no lume.....$50.....and so on and so on and so on.....

Take it easy fellas. I remember obsessively cleaning a gold plated watch until I scrubbed off the plating in 6 months. The tag is a remarkable rep but it's not a genuine. When you lay it down next to a genuine you will notice differences in fit and finish. But.....why are you doing this and what would cleaning your watch every day so it maintains that "genuine shine" do for you?????? Hate to break it to you but no matter how much you rub your Tag, the genuine genie will never appear. Enjoy it for what it is...one of the best replicas ever produced. Don't spoil the owning experience by obsessing over showroom shine.

".....welcome aboard oh chef of da future..... Hey, I remember 25 years ago putting an oil pressure gauge, water temp gague and a tach in the dashboard of my dodge colt. I thought it looked great. No one could tell me I was putting earings on a pig. Mod guys are great...I agree...it's just not for me. I've got real watches to blow my money on.

lots of possibilities. The rotor might be loose. Most cheap winders hold the watch at a 45 degree angle to the floor, not 90 degrees which is ideal for optimal winding. Another possibility is that your winder is not giving this movement the 650 turns per day this movement requires. The rotor can be poorly lubed so the gentle action of a winder doesnt overcome the friction but the more vigorous motion in wearing overcomes this..... If it stays wound on your wrist and you can manually wind it, it's probably a rotor problem that's not very severe.

Don't know much about Submariner nuances but I can see that the gold looks fake. Maybe it's the photography. TT subs are pretty notorious for dial and band color variations from the genuines.

I've done these calculations hunderds of times and always come up with the same answer...it's not worth it. The only watch I would consider modifying would be an MBW but for the cost of the watch and the standard modifications, you're looking at close to a grand. There are too many genuines, great looking genuines, in that price range. I think the mods phenominon is an extension of chasing the holy grail here of getting a watch that no one would know from a genuine for a fraction of the cost. I think the chase is folly. For what it would cost for me to build a frankenmariner from the MBW start, including finding a 3135 movement, I could buy a 10 year old sub on ebay. I love my reps but I have no illusions that they are genuines, dispite the addition of factory equipment.

Very nice collection!!!

Wow, keepem coming guys. Who said $1000 was the knife's edge between [censored] and gold? That Ball watch has grabbed my eye more than once before. I had no idea it was affordable.

The Oris TT1 and the Fortis are calling to me. The only thing I don't like about the massive Oris is that it's titanium. I think a watch that big ought to weigh 250 grams on my wrist. Any time I pick up a large titanium watch, it feels like it's made from balsa wood.

Oooooohhhh!!!

Pics?????

Just came into some disposable cash. What would you get for 1K. I'm looking for some new ideas so no Speedmaster automatics please

Now I know what a junkie feels like. Thanks to RWG for coming back online!!!!

Bravo....now that should finish it yes?????

Another example of replica misuse. Mr Bigstuff about to take a fall. What kind of money do these people make that doofus passes off a Cartier as genuine to his wife? If I came home with a $5000 watch on my wrist some day without discussing it with Mrs Cranium, you can be damn sure she'd want to know where I got the money, why I spent it without talking about it, how irresponsible it was....and I don't think it would be on my wrist for very long. If I'm going to scam my wife, (just a hypothetical honey!!!!) I'd buy a genuine and pass it off as a fake to her. At least that way I'd get to keep it.

Well said, official word, good night!!!! Let's move on