alligoat

Putting the 6263 on a black strap looks cool. It would be even more convincing w/ the Rolex logo on the clasp. It gives the watch a different feel or look, should we say- more vintage maybe. I have the same watch and I think I'm going to have the hand on the six o'clock subdial immobilized. That way it won't bother me as much. Of course, my real "to-it" project (who knows when I'll get to it) is a DW V72 kit so I can put my V72 movement in it and get as close as possible to the real thing.

My advice is to keep looking around and asking people. It took me a while to find a guy here in Houston. I was using a small independent guy and he was ok, but he really wasn't excited about reps. Then I ran across a guy who really loves watches and has a wholesale repair business. He loves to talk about them and is excited that I'm interested in them also. He works on everything from Rolexes and Pateks on down. You might also talk to other watch collectors in your area, this is how I found my guy. Working on an ETA isn't a big deal, but remember that you can swap out a movement sometimes for less than the cost of repairs.

@ sydneysider, if you look at the ofrei movement link posted by ridnwind, you'll see that the v7751 is a day date moonphase movt and it's cheaper than a 7753. Kinda ironic. I have a watch w/ the 7751 in it- day, month, date(w/ a pointer going around the perimeter), 24 hr hand and chronos- a Jean Marcel Grand Complication that cost $1500 (slightly used) and I thought it was a good deal, But you're not going to find a rep w/ that movt in it- way too complicated. I'd love to find a better deal on the swiss 7753- it would make for a kick ass swap in my 6238 when the asian 7750 gives out!

Or you could have something in the movement itself that is keeping it from running. Last month my GMT 2836 quit running. I noticed that the movement wasn't tight against the top of the case and so I opened the case back and saw that one of the tabs that holds the movement in place had broke and the part was lost in the movement apparently. My watchmaker took out two screws and removed the rotor and the part of the tab was stuck in between two gears. He took it out and voila, the movement started running again. He put the rotor back on, put in a new tab and I was ready to go. It took him less than two minutes to fix it! More than likely it's not a big problem, but it sure helps to have a watchmaker who will work on it! Good luck.

I found a rep Carrera chronograph w/ what I would assume is a quartz movement at a rep site, www.2002watch.com/, but I couldn't get back into the site later. The rep was $249, maybe we could source it thru one of the dealers here. It looked like a nice watch. The Carrera chronograph (gen) w/ the automatic movement is nice, but pricey at $1600-1800.

Yep, and right next to the black dial was the silver one, which is different from Andrews, kinda a two tone silver, w/ inner and outer circles. The Bernard Watch might be an earlier or later model/dial, or Andrew's might be a simplified dial. I just ran across these Tags yesterday and I especially like the cases and clean lines, but I know nothing about them. I opened a TWG TT datejust tonite and I think the movement is Chinese. It had the red wheel (overlay) to look like a Rolex movement, but I don't know what a Miyota looks like. Swapping an ETA movement in would be tough because I don't know if hand sizes would match up.

For $108 what do you have to lose? The real thing w/ the ss bracelet runs $1045 at www.bernardwatch.com/ I've bought a few of the TWG $100 specials and they've all kept good time except one, and I'm going to take it to the watchmaker and see if he can regulate it for not too much money. Also, the dial doesn't look like the pic at Bernard Watch. I'm not sure if the Asian 21j is a Miyota movt or a Chinese movt. Of course, you could ask Andrew if he could get it w/ an ETA- it would probably add $100 to the price.

One of my early watch purchases was a TT Zodiac "Red Point" Dive watch for $250. I took it scuba diving last summer down to 100ft which is as far as I'm going! The watch did fine. Ironically, the dial says automatic, but the movement is quartz- must have been at the tail end of the production run when they were switching from auto movts to quartz. Last year I bought my nephew a Zodiac Desert Shadow Chrono for like $125 on the bay- quartz w/ wr to 100m as I recall. He's been happy w/ it. Not like a rep, at least you can go swimming w/ it! I ran across a place in Florida yesterday that sells older Zodiacs, red points, silver points, stuff from the 90's and prices ran from $500 up to around $1500. Collector's items now.

The one thing that caught my eye was the thick date font. My 1978 sub has a much thinner date font printing. The dial is very nice though, especially w/ the open 6's in 660ft.

Hi Ziggy, Here's another 7750 I ran across on ebay out of Hong Kong. Looks Asian to me but the guy claims it's ETA... http://cgi.ebay.com/Valjoux-ETA-7750-Watch...1QQcmdZViewItem The 28,800 bph is confusing (or misleading). What do you think? Thanks for your time. Mac

Great watch and great pics. Understated elegance. I'd really like one like that with the white dial and gold stick markers- to hell w/ the diamonds!

It was thru Richard Brown that I found out about this (actually RWG1) website and TRC and all of the good dealers out there selling decent reps. Thank you Richard. It saved me a ton of money and frustration. By reading his book, I was able to learn more about what the key features of a good rep are and of course, since then, I have increased that knowledge many fold by learning on this and the other forums. And like many people here, I still hang out on gen forums, pretty quietly, but to learn and enjoy and I do collect gens, reps and knock-offs. And what about a fifth category of rep..., beyond decent. Modified and improved, we see them here all of the time. Ubi refers to them as clones! Others call them Frankenwatches. I just like to think of them as custom watches. Cool. And at one tenth the price.

Great job Avitt! Those cg's are awesome as is the rest of the watch. Bravissimo!

You could always keep an eye on ebay, esp. the reputable sellers and maybe pick one up in your price range. Most retail places are probably going to be up in the $3000-3500 range. The later models, 80's, might also be in your range, but I'm not keen on the later dials w/ the white gold trim around the hour markers. Good 60's and early 70's models in nice shape are probably going to run more. You also might try some pawn shops in you area, of course, it might be easier to call around first. Good Luck!

Where's Ziggy when you need him? The most reliable (best built) asian 7750 is the new one in the IWC chrono or the latest model Daytona (where the running seconds have been moved to 6). But moving the running seconds to 6 involves additional gearing which could jeopardize performance and reliability over the long haul. Was the 7750b1 where the subdials on a late model Daytona rep were moved above the centerline axis to mimic the Rolex? Or is it just a later version of the old asian 7750? And I don't know where an asian 7750 w/ subdials at 6, 9, and 12 fits in- the two asian 7750's I own are 3, 6, and 9! All I can hope for is that the 7750's undergo a transformation and are improved! At least my two old 7750's are doing ok so far. @ tmark, an asian 7750 w/ subdials at 6, 9 and 12 wouldn't have extra gearing, but would be a later model copy of the swiss 7750 w/ the same dial configuration- can't tell you if it's reliable. Hopefully the Chinese are working to improve the quality of the 7750's!

Back to all of the Valjoux movement posts on ebay. Does anyone know who time4u.net is that keeps bidding on all of the v72 movments? Is this guy building 6263/5's?

To add to Dachshund's comment. I'm not aware of any reliability problems w/ the Swiss 7750, nor am I aware of the subdials being moved on a Swiss 7750, such as has been done w/ the asian to move the running seconds to 6 from 9. It wouldn't make sense, why screw up a perfectly good swiss movement!

The Asian 7750 has subdials at 3, 6, and 9. 21,600bph. Automatic The Swiss 7750 has subdials at 6, 9, and 12. 28,800 bph. Automatic The Asian 7750 is a descendant of the old Swiss 7750 and it's predecessors, the 7736 and the v72, which had the subdials at 3, 6, and 9. I believe that the old 7750, the 7736 and the v72 were all 18,000 bph and 17 jewels, manual wind. At some point a long time ago (20 years?) the 7750 was updated to 25 jewels and gven a rotor to make it an automatic. It is also with day/date or just date. A Swiss 7753 has the subdials at 3, 6, and 9, 28,800 bph and automatic. It might have 27 jewels, but I'm not 100% on that. I'm not sure about an Asian 7750 w/ subdials at 6, 9, and 12, although it wouldn't surprise me. You can read Ziggy's post on the new Asian 7750 w/ the running seconds at 6 and his latest comparison bet. the Swiss 7750, old Asian and new Asian for more info.

Based on Ziggy's post on the new and the old Asian 7750's awhile back, my Navitimer from TWG last month had the old 7750. It is running fine so far and it's very close timewise. I took the case back off to inspect the movement and had one hell of a time getting it back on. I finally took it to my watchmaker and he had to grind down the retaining ring which holds the movement in place so he could get the threads on the caseback to engage with the threads on the case. He had to leave out the rubber gasket in the process. Rep engineering!

Been there, done that! Pulling the crown is a little bit tricky. If you do it incorrectly, you'll mess up the keyless works and it sounds like that is what has happened. Last month when I did that, I took my watch to my local watchmaker and he fixed the problem for $30. It involves taking the watch apart partially and then reassembling it. If you have a local watchsmith, it might be quicker and easier than shipping to Joe who is just getting back on his feet these days and running behind. But if you're going to have other work done by Joe, look around here or on TRC, cause he is only taking calls at certain hours of the day and his email is backed up- it could be awhile before he gets to you. Good luck.

@ Collector and Avitt, I wonder if DW would happen to have a source or lead on those bridges?

I love these reviews, but I could care less about Pam's. I keep thinking they'll start growing on me some day, but nothing yet. However, I am hoping that the improvement in quality of Chinese watch movements will continue!

The whole point is that you can build a 6263/5 for say $1000-1500 w/ a v72 inside and maybe the Rolex bridge, too. I doubt you could find a gen 6263/5 for less than $10K and a good one is going to run $15-20K and up, up, up! The price differential is pretty high between a good rep and the gen these days.

I have the 50th Anniversary GMTII with the modified 2836-2 with the 24 hr GMT hand. I haven't taken it apart to see how they modify it, but when you pull out the crown to the second stop and turn it one way, the date advances. Turn it the other way, and the GMT hand advances, but it only goes in the one direction- clockwise. It came from Silix-Prime.

Rolexralph has good 1680 dials from time to time on the bay- $150 to 169 say. And like Ubi said, correct, and probably not repainted