Bork99

Two of the subdial hands separated from the tube when I removed them from the old movement; the third came off with the tube, and thinking that piece was redundant I actually took the time to carefully remove it. Doh! So I understand what you mean with "single piece" all too well :-) They do say good judgement comes as a result of lessons learned from failure...

@krpster thanks for the info - that explains a lot, especially that the subdial hands and the tube are supposed to be a single piece! Mine are not :-( I'd post pics but my macro skills are a bit lacking! This watch actually came with that A07.211 movement (see http://www.1-pc8838.com/cp02001-mile-miglia-gtxxl-chrono-limited-grey-a07211-p-4295.html), so the replacement movement should be OK. I'll get in touch with Joshua to try to source replacement hands and go from there...

So in the interests of advancing the hobby, I attempted my first real (i.e. not just resizing the bracelet) DIY watch repair and I've screwed the pooch. I have (had?) a Chopard Mille Miglia GTXL chrono with the grey face and the "12" and "6" on the crystal with a chrono that wouldn't stop running. I took it to a local repair shop that came recommended who held onto it for 6 months and from whom I eventually got it back in a worse state than before, apparently because they could not source the necessary parts. I decided my best bet at this point was a movement swop and so I ordered a replacement movement (A07.211, basically oversize A7750 from what I understand) from Joshua and a watch toolkit from Watch Bitz in Australia. Parts and tools in hand, yesterday I proceed to disassemble the watch to attempt the swop. Things went OK until it came to the hands. Under the loupe it became clear that either I or the repair shop had not been as gentle as I thought with the hand extractor and the hands are quite scratched up. But my problems are worse than that. If I try to remount them, the hour and minute hands seems to spin freely. It almost looks like the pin in the new movement is slightly thinner than the holes in the hands. The problem with the subdial hands is even greater: The pins (I'm probably using the wrong terminology) coming up from the movement are far thinner, and seem to have had some sort of spacer tube on them in the old movement. In my ignorance, I've lost two of the three spacers (one in the disassembly, and one because it went SPROING out of my tweezers), and frankly I'm not clear how to reinstall them anyway. I could give up here but there's not much learning in that. I'm going to contact Joshua to see if I can order a new set of hands and tubes(?), but if anyone here can help with correct terminology (so I know what to ask for) and installation tips (to avoid screwing up again) of the little spacer tubes on the subdials I'd really appreciate it. And a last question - the face was glued to the old movement - any tips on what sort of glue to use for this application? Thanks!

I got a Ferrari California with the 7750 movement about a year ago. I noticed the movement had stopped while I was wearing the watch a while back, and tried to reset the time and wind the watch a few turns to get it going again, but no luck. I ended up (gently) pulling and pushing the crown in and out a couple of times, and winding the watch as far as it would wind but it never started. I stuck it in the drawer planning to try to get it repaired, but I noticed now that the spring seems to have unwound itself, and that if I try to wind it now there's some intermittent resistance, so my guess is whatever was wrong with the movement, there's now also a damaged gear. I'm guessing my best bet is to try source a replacement movement rather than a probably expensive and unjustifiable repair on a cheap Asian 7750. Any advice, or tips on where I can find such a movement for a good price? Also, I don't yet know of any watchsmiths around here (Johannesburg, South Africa) so anybody who has any advice in this regard please chime in!

On the 316F issue: it does become something of an "honor among thieves" situation when they are actively in the business of selling knock-offs! Same goes with the "servicing" that's offered here and there... I know about the sunken date-wheel; it's unfortunate and an obvious tell, but since I'd decided to get a B01 rep anyway that's the same no matter which version I buy. Pulled the trigger on the "ultimate" - should be here in a week or two...

People seem to love or hate the B01, and I'm about to pull the trigger on the black dial roman numeral version. I see Joshua's just (today) added a new version of this model to his site, billed as"Ult V 316F". The main differences seem to be 316F (probably as opposed to 316L?) steel, and individually removable rotating bezel guides. "Individually removable" just sounds like "they will fall off over time" to me - anyone know if the gen has these to? Any opinions on whether this one's worth the extra $50? The pictures on Josh's site are unfortunately as good as unusable as any real point of reference these days thanks to the giant watermarks. I understand his motives but it doesn't help us buyers one bit!

Had my eye on the RB II for a while. It would be my first AP, and the most expensive rep I've bought to date, so the sec @ 12 horror stories have me a bit concerned. Angus and Peter both offer movement servicing for US$ 120 at the time of purchase. Since I don't know any good watchmakers in my area (Johannesburg, South Africa) this seems like a good way to go. Has anyone got any experience with the servicing these fellows offer? Is it on a par with good watchmakers elsewhere, or should I rather keep looking locally? And/or anyone happen to know of watchmakers in my neighbourhood that do good work and will work on reps? Sooner or later I'm going to need one! :-)

I bought my wife a Chopard Happy Sports ceramic rep with a white rubber strap. She loves the watch and has been wearing it daily since she got it a week or so ago, but over the weekend wore it with a new red coat, resulting in some red marks on the strap edges. I've tried the typically recommended soap and water and alcohol, with some fairly brisk rubbing to try and get the colour out but no luck. I'm worried stronger chemicals wll damage the rubber, but at this point it's either that or I need to resort to ordering a new strap anyway! Any one with any cleaning tips/advice? (Other than "don't buy white rubber straps" ) Thanks!

Davidsen came back with a price of $430 for a "swiss" movement 036 with sapphire crystal, cannon pin fixed, and relumed dial and hands, shipped. Looking at the pics, and comparing with photos of the gen, this certainly looks like it's more accurate than Josh's version in a lot of small ways. I guess it's probably the way to go but it is quite a bit more than the watch on Josh's site. Any indications of what one would pay to have the cannon pin fixed and the dial and hands relumed otherwise?

Thanks for the feedback gentlemen. @Adrenalin - Yes, I know, already spent way too many hours lurking, reading and learning. @Mickey - I'd come across Davidsen, and I gather his watches typically cost a little more (well, double...) than the two I was looking at, but if they have the major problems fixed it might be worthwhile longer term rather than trying to sort out the issues afterwards. I dropped Davidsen a note to see if he can get me a 036... On the other hand, trying to fix the problems myself could be fun! Maybe starting with the "cheap" 177H is the way to go. @Hookey - $1000 is toch wel veel, ik zou het liever wat goedkoper gedaan krijgen! But I checked out Greg Stevens - some nice straps there. Bookmarked! I'll wait and see what Davidsen says and figure it out from there!

Looking to buy my first Pam and I'm drawn to the Ti models which I plan to wear on a chunky brown strap. In particular, I really like the tobacco colour of the dial on the 036, but I've read mixed reviews of reps of this model. Josh seems to have a new one, though, which may or may not be any good? On the other hand, I like the 177h's sandwich dial, which of course the 036 is not. I've seen opinions that the deal Josh has on the 177 H with free shipping is great value for money, and it would leave some cash for a nice strap... I know that in terms of accuracy neither one will fool too many experts, but I'm looking for some input from the Panerisiti on the forum - What should a noob like me consider when choosing between these two models? I'm not planning to do any mods, at least initially, at least in part because I don't know of anyone in South Africa that could assist me and shipping the watch around the world would get expensive real fast! These are the two I'm looking at: 036 - http://www.jpc8118.com/pn03602-titanium-to...497-p-5503.html 177 H - http://www.jpc8118.com/pn17705-series-tita...497-p-4580.html Thanks in advance...

Hello everyone, new member from South Africa here. Was given a replica Tag Heuer as a gift and decided to do a little research on this interesting industry. Happy to have stumbled across this forum, as clearly there are a lot of scam artists out there, but it's nice to see there's a thriving community of hobbyists as well. Frankly, a little amazed at how far people will go with research and mods! Looking forward to digging a little deeper and expanding my collection...