crystalcranium

Jeeze, not bad at first glance but who the hell is going to believe me in a $200,000 watch? Is this a "concept" watch? Some of the Basel/Geneva 2006 unveilings were unbelieveable. The craziest one to me was the Jacob and Co. The Quentin, a 31 day manual tourbillion that had rolling printed wheels to display the minutes and hours. It looke like the insides of a 1960's vintage adding machine with a remarkable 1 month power reserve.

I think Paul's site has been down for about 4-5 days now. Is this unusual? Now the message is no longer "Account Suspended" but "site can't be found".

My fingers were meant to be grilled and put in a bun with mustard and relish. I have enough trouble picking up a dime.

I think these guys, (and ladies) must have fingers like concert pianists. I have fingers like Ball Park Franks so I don't think I'd make the first cut at a watchmaking camp.

What gives them that magical alchemey of "feel"??? Is it the 440 stainless? The fit and finish?

Well, let me reiterate my question. From what you are describing, the modifications difficulty curve is pretty steep on a MBW dispite its' reputation. With quite an investment of time and resourses, you can get a great replica that will fool just about everyone except a genuine vintage owner. What about those of us who have a $250 "best modern" version???? Isn't that so much closer to perfect than a vintage MBW out of the box? Wouldn't some tweeking of the crown guards, a new case tube and genuine crown, an OEM bezel filed to fit put this one in the same catagory of accuracy????? There are "best moderns" out there that are so close out of the box, why can't they be put through just a few of the "reconstructive" paces the MBWs have to go through to achieve 99% status? Who is going to know my CN sapphire crystal with a 2.5X cyclops isn't an OEM aftermarket replacement?????

Looks easy, just like changing the oil!!!!!

Actually, the car analogy was perfect. It wasn't a criticisim of your auto mechanical skills, just a metaphor for how lacking your skills would be in the mechanical watch world. I also am a great believer in tinkering as a learning tool. I would suggest a 25x eyepiece, a hand puller tool, a set of micro screwdrivers and a sharpening stone to further hone them, a set of micro tipped tweezers, and a well lit work table high enough to steady your arms on if you want to ruin only a movement or two and not every one you tinker with, as a start. There are some great how too reviews from Ziggy in the repair forums but a few books on mechanical movements are probably a investment. There are $8 chinese movements available from clockspares.com if you want to experiment on movements only and not a $100 watch.

Well here's my old mantra about replicas. I NEVER assume any sort of water resistance about them no matter how much they look like a water resistant genuine. Spalshes from washing hands near wide open chrono pushers would explain it. Dry it out ASAP and never get it near water again!!!

I'm not a watchsmith but I don't think the humidity is having a direct effect on your watch fogging but perhaps, your forearm sweating from the heat is. It sounds like a loose caseback or perhaps an incorrectly seated and greased o-ring in the caseback. If the back can be unscrewed by hand without tools, it probably is inadequetely tightened. Open it and remove it carefully keeping the dial and crystal of the watch pointed to the floor always and set the watch down in the sun, indoors of course, for several hours. I have also used a drafting lamp with a 75 watt bulb hovering about 8-10 inches above the open watch back for several hours to dry out the movement. If the caseback is tight, de-fogging can be achieved by opening the crown and using both of these methods but the bottom line is the source of infiltration must be determined or the watch will fog again. Remember, if there is enough moisture in the watch to fog, there is enough to corrode the movement. Quick drying and not exposing the watch to moisture until the cause of the breech is determined is manditory to avoid ruining the movement.

Here here Now there's a grown up. Anyone else care to step up to the plate????

Oy Vey!!!!! I think I destroyed two asian 21j movement replicas before I learned my lesson. The tolerances in a mechanical watch are unimaginably small for those of us for whom the small scale of mechanicals is fixing a vacuum cleaner. Although this is a piece of jewlery, don't get an ultrasonic cleaner anywhere near it! Using compressed air to "blow out the dust" from the movement would be the equivalent of washing your fine china with an industrial strength power washer while it's still in the cupboard. Mechanical movements are remarkable micro machines. The difference between an inadequetely oiled jewel bearing and an oiled to specification one is a quanity we can't fathom yet it makes the difference between a well running watch and an unreliable one. There is no application that works in the "macro" world that will do anything but damage these "micro" mechanicals. Leave the work to the well trained professionals who understand the 25x magnified world they work in.

Here we go.... "My girl friend is prettier than your girl friend fat boy....." "Wanna make somethin' out of it???" "Yeah, you and what army????...."

Hey, let me add a little Emily Post manners lesson here smiley faced icons aside. How about "Perhaps you misread my earlier post etc......" as an introduction to your point? I'm sure By-Tor needs no one to defend him but his replies were curteous and professional. Let's not take a great discussion out to the playground please.

Offline again this morning. Message stating account suspended.

Very soft and padded. Stll a little stiff though. It's only 3 days old

Under straps and bracelets in the links section. 24mm creama colored for Breitling. Croc grained leather for abput $35!!!!!

Thank You Pugmiester!!!!! Speed reader you know!!! I think I'll be posting an inordinate amount of photos in the coming weeks!

OK, Here we go

I love it!!!!! ooops, help http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/34/1222216ed9.jpg http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6707/bentleywy6.jpg Hope that works

If the slightly wider inner bezel ring would be an object of your "replica flaw" obsession, then I would say yes. The flaw is more prevalent, I won't say obvious, on darker dial models, in pictures any way. I'm also dead serious in my recomendation of the light colored strap as an accessory. It picks up the color of the lume on the markers and hands, and my wife who, is a natural QC expert in most things, was blown away by the dramatic improvement in overall appearance over the steel bracelet and the dark brown strap I originally bought for it.

I don't know about Swiss Watches but he is a major golf nut and a regular on the celebrety Pro-Am tour in the States.

The Bentley GT is an amazing replica. And as far as it being the hottest thing on Canal street, when they make an equally amazing LV or SD or SUB, I'll buy those up greedly too dispite their ubiquitous replica status. The uncrossed t on the replica is understandable, it is almost invisible and the t in Switzerland on the genuine looks uncrossed. I have asked several other watch nuts what they think about this flaw and on first inspection of the caseback, they usually say the t is crossed. The rehaut depth is a minor issue and disappears on the white dial version. I'm not quite sure how the color wheel works, but I switched out the metal bracelet for a "crema" colored, croc grained, BOB strap and that particular color makes the dial "pop". The contrasts in color between the slide rule inner bezel, dial and sub dials are much more apparent with this color strap. The dial is silvery white to the bezel's eggshell color and the subdials are greyer than the dial and more silvered. The "Certified Chronometer" that follows the perimeter of the hour counter subdial is much more noticeable. This replica even has a tiny engraved "B" on the outside of the bezel. I don't know if this is a trademark of all Breitlings with the metal bezel, but it is an impressive detail. Most of all, the new 7750 is amazingly smooth. I love the sound of this watch in a dead quiet room. The high frequency movement sounds first class. As for "not fitting the profile of a typical Breitling buyer" by getting the Bentley GT, what's your point? I imagine they do sell a few of these things. It would take someone with either tremendous knowlege of the replica vs genuine nuances to recognize this as a rep, or tremendous balls and gall to call it out based on purchase profiling. I know how to stare down the latter and have a laugh with the former.

THANK you very MUCH for YOUR comments. I don't KNOW if YOU know this OR not but we have A newbIE secTION that does JUST fine welcoming NEWcomERS to the FORUM. But THANKS for your ENTHUSIASM!!!!

Great inormation here answering my initial question! So it looks like the MBWs provide the best platform for genuine modifications but are not particularily accurate reps in and of themselves. I suppose after I'm finished collecting the 8 or 9 "best reps" out there I'll get into buying a genuine mods platform and build me a better one.