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SmoothOperator

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Posts posted by SmoothOperator

  1. Vertu - The Hermes Birkin Of Cell / Mobile Phones

    in The looney bin

    Posted · Edited by SmoothOperator

    Another release .. this time without engraving. (Actually .. I have it confirmed .. this is engraved Veptu .. hard to see because of the lighting)

    186904-5673.jpg

    186904-5674.jpg

    186904-5675.jpg

    Vertu Signature replica

    * Internet browser frequency: GSM/GPRS:900/1800

    * Color: 24K White gold plated

    * LCD: TFT; 260.000 colors

    * Battery specification: 900MA

    * Talk-time: 3 Hours

    * Standby-time: 245 Hours

    * Languages: English

    * MP3

    * MP4

    * 2 Mega Pixel camera with video function

    * GPRS

    * 64M memory (expandable to 2 GIG)

    * USB connectivity to computer (can be used as external storage device as well as able to recharge the battery via computer)

    * hands free function

    * SMS

    * MMS color messaging

    Includes: 2 x Lithium batteries, charger ., hands free, USB cable.

  2. Canon In "d" Major Or?!

    in The looney bin

    Posted

    quote:

    This is the re-synched version of Canon Rock performed by funtwo. In the original version, the audio was 250 ms out of synch with the video. In this version, I have re-synched the audio and also de-interlaced the whole clip to make the image look a bit more crispier - all from the original 6MB WMV-file funtwo uploaded to a Korean music-site many months ago. With the audio back in synch, you can now hear the "missing" bit at the end of the song, which all the other funtwo clips on YouTube lacks.

    You can download the MP3 and video from www.gigabit-connection.info

  4. China Announces New Anti-piracy Crackdown

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Joe Mcdonald, Canadian Press

    Published: Sunday, December 17, 2006

    China announces new anti-piracy crackdown as Treasury Secretary Paulson visits

    BEIJING (AP) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confronted mixed signals as he arrived in China Wednesday for trade talks, with Beijing announcing a renewed crackdown on pirated goods but also running up a record trade surplus with the United States.

    American officials are trying to play down expectations of breakthroughs from the talks led by Paulson, Washington's point man on economic ties with Beijing, and Chinese Premier Wu Yi. The talks are billed as the start of a wide-ranging "strategic economic dialogue."

    In a prelude to the visit, Chinese and U.S. companies announced a series of deals, including the purchase by U.S. retailer Home Depot Inc. of a chain of Chinese home improvement stores and the sale of GE Aviation jet engines to a Shanghai airline.

    "Commercial engagement built on fair, effective rules is the foundation of the healthy, strong and continually growing trade relationship that we envision between China and the United States," said Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, a member of Paulson's delegation, who attended the signing ceremony for the deals.

    The anti-piracy campaign announced Wednesday will target producers and distributors of illegally copied movies, music and other goods, the official Xinhua news agency said. It follows a 100-day-long crackdown launched in July that targeted vendors.

    "The campaign will hunt out producers of pirated movies, books and software and break their distribution chains," Xinhua said, citing the government's anti-piracy agency. "The smuggling of pirating equipment will be severely punished."

    China is believed to be the world's leading source of pirated goods ranging from Hollywood movies to designer clothes, sports equipment and even medicines. American officials say Chinese piracy costs legitimate producers up to US$50 billion a year in lost potential sales.

    Washington has warned Beijing might face a formal complaint in the World Trade Organization, with the possibility of sanctions, if it fails to stamp out the illicit trade.

    Such government campaigns and business deals are frequently announced ahead of U.S.-Chinese meetings as Beijing tries to mollify American critics of its soaring trade surplus with the United States.

    American business groups are pressing for quicker action and have appealed to Paulson to take a hard line with Beijing over its currency controls. They say China's yuan is undervalued, giving the country's exporters an unfair price advantage.

    U.S. officials say they also want more Chinese action against piracy and more access to the country's service industries.

    Home Depot's president of international operations, Annette Verschuren, would not give a value for the purchase of the 12-store Home Way chain.

    GE said its sale of engines to Shanghai Airlines to power new Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft was worth $550 million.

    Also signed at the ceremony, were deals by Oshkosh Truck Corp. to sell U.S.-made airport rescue and firefighting equipment to an airport in eastern China, and a deal between VeriSign and the China Netcom Group and the Ministry of Information and Industry to set up a system to help create domain names.

    Despite the complaints about the trade deficit and piracy, the United States has benefited from growing ties with China.

    U.S. imports of low-cost Chinese toys, shoes and other goods have held down consumer prices and added to retailers' profits. American companies are seeing growing revenues from operations in China to tap the country's growing consumer market.

    China's imports from the United States in the first 11 months this year rose 23 per cent over the same period last year to $53.9 billion, according to Vice-Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun.

    He said total U.S. investment in China stands at $121.3 billion.

    Paulson is accompanied by Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke and four other cabinet members - Commerce's Gutierrez, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.

    U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab and the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Stephen Johnson, also are attending.

    On Tuesday, pressure on Washington for action mounted when the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. trade deficit with China rose by 6.1 per cent to $24.4 billion.

    The U.S. deficit with China is running at an annual rate of $229 billion, far above last year's $202 billion deficit, an all-time high for any country.

    © The Canadian Press 2006

    LINK to ARTICLE click here

  6. U-boat Watches!

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by SmoothOperator

    U-boat .. i love em .. pretty cool history as well ..

    the Watch that never was: the U-Boat line is unusual, it was a design from the early 1940’s that never was produced due to the political situation in Italy at the time. In 2000 all the original plans, samples, and drawings were recovered and the watch line was finally created. It was mean as a commemorative gift for U-boat commanders .. the watch like the U-boats sank and were lost to history. The one day, a lucky man stumbles upon the plans and bingo .. finally makes the watch that never was.

    I think a "sleeper" for sure and as swdivad pointed out .. "we'll be kicking ourselves in ten years because we didn't buy one and they're worth 30k LOL"

    Just make sure that you get a SWISS mechanical Movementl. U-boat, like our reps .. come with different movements. and also come with different crystals. You can get a mineral cyrstal, quartz U-boat for cheap, but who'll want one.

    As for the lefty design, this is part of the whole U-boat thing. sorta like Jimi Hendrix and his guitar.

  15. So No Real Spectacular Watches For X-mas?

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by SmoothOperator

    There are 5 new PAMS for Christmas .. PAM186 (already released)+ the NorthPole + 3 "others"

    Also .. there's the AP Offshore, Breitling Steelfish SuperOcean and Chronomat Evolution, the Chopard Mille Miglia Gran Tourismo XL, the Hublot Big Bang that are definitely coming.

    Don't forget that the Bell & Ross (46mm) should be here as well.

  19. The Ultimate Replica Bags

    in The looney bin

    Posted · Edited by SmoothOperator

    definitely keep us informed of your findings :)

    Found this too .. interesting read .. I like the bit "the only difference is that some of the

    counterfeits are better made than originals."

    From The Star, Malaysia

    Issue 21 March 2002

    Bags of Trouble

    Brand names are an addiction for Asian consumers, but now many have

    found a cheaper way to get their fix. Meet the 'super copy'-so good it

    fools even the experts

    By Velisarios Kattoulas/SEOUL and TOKYO

    FOR SOME TIME BEFORE leaving for vacation in Paris, Katie Kim had been

    in a dilemma: Should she travel with her favourite "Chanel" shoulder

    bag, a counterfeit bought in a Seoul market? Taking it with her, the

    South Korean university student risked being collared by customs

    officers and losing it-no small matter since she planned to carry it

    sightseeing and shopping. In the end, she threw caution to the wind.

    But Kim (not her real name) soon came to regret it. Although she

    sailed through customs, the day after she arrived in Paris her bag

    started causing her problems: Its shoulder strap broke.

    At home in South Korea-where lawyers estimate counterfeiters produce 1

    million fake European handbags and wallets a year-Kim might have been

    more cautious. But she was bored. For all its history, Paris lacked

    Seoul's gritty verve. So, on the home turf of the $54-billion-a-year

    luxury-goods industry, Kim decided to create her own excitement: At a

    Chanel store in Paris she buttonholed a clerk, and asked Chanel to

    repair her bag under warranty. "I was curious," she said afterwards.

    "I wanted to know whether the counterfeit I'd bought was any good."

    Answer? Yes. Despite examining the bag closely, Chanel employees

    failed to recognize it as a fake and-with profuse apologies-repaired

    it for free. Luck was no doubt on Kim's side. But there was another,

    more important reason why her brazen prank succeeded: Her bag was what

    counterfeit connoisseurs call a "super copy."

    Since about 1997, such high-quality fakes have been turning up in

    increasing numbers at counterfeit markets-and in police busts-in

    Seoul, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Los Angeles. Of course, illegal copies of

    famous French and Italian brands are nothing new; there's been a

    thriving trade in them since at least the 1970s. What makes the super

    copies different and more worrying, however, is that even experienced

    employees of companies like Hermes, Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and

    Prada find it hard to spot them. "Sometimes," says David Campbell, an

    expert on counterfeit luxury goods and director of operations at

    Pinkerton Korea in Seoul, "the only difference is that some of the

    counterfeits are better made than originals."

    In any event, for about a 10th of the price of the real thing,

    top-notch counterfeits are openly on sale in South Korea day or night.

    In Seoul, probably the most popular place is Tongdaemun. The high-rise

    mall seems constantly packed, stays open late at night and boasts an

    entire floor crammed with some 50 stalls selling counterfeit

    brand-name bags and wallets.

    Typically, to thwart efforts to crack down on their illicit trade,

    counterfeit dealers shy away from putting super copies on display, or

    even keeping them at hand. But if shoppers spot something they like as

    they leaf through glossy 500-page catalogues featuring every

    conceivable brand-name handbag, wallet and belt, store clerks rush off

    to fetch one from secret stashes nearby.

    No less troubling for Europe's luxury-goods makers, South Korea's

    counterfeiters are busily exporting their wares worldwide. Korean-made

    copies account for the largest number of counterfeits seized in Japan,

    while in the U.S. they consistently place in the top three. On both

    sides of the Pacific, counterfeiters sell super copies by word of

    mouth, on the Internet, at discount stores and sometimes even by

    placing suggestive ads in small local newspapers. A Korean

    counterfeiter based near Tokyo says he sold 100,000 super copies in

    Japan alone last year. At the same time, working with overseas Koreans

    in Los Angeles, he has now started shipping his forgeries to the U.S.

    In many respects, Europe's luxury-goods makers are victims of their

    own supercharged advertising campaigns. The ubiquitous leggy models in

    their glitzy magazine ads have helped create a demand for brand-name

    handbags that at times appears to defy logic. At an International

    Herald Tribune conference in Paris late last year, Christophe Girard,

    director of fashion strategy at luxury giant Louis Vuitton, Mo't

    Hennessy, or LVMH, argued that even in bad times people sought the

    validation and reassurance offered by luxury goods. "The quest for

    pleasure" is timeless, he said. "It even happens in war. People want

    to enjoy themselves." True enough: In Japan, which has suffered a

    decade of economic gloom, the lust for brands has seen women

    continuing to buy luxury goods in phenomenal numbers. In 2000, Louis

    Vuitton sales in Japan rose 16%, topping the ¥100 billion mark for the

    first time.

    But shoppers also seem increasingly happy to get their brand fix in

    other ways, too. And the super copies are only fuelling that

    inclination, says Hidehiko Sekizawa, executive director of the

    Tokyo-based Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living, the research arm of

    a Japanese advertising agency.

    "Japanese shoppers have always been very fussy about quality," he

    says. "Now that the counterfeits are hard to distinguish from

    authentic products, they no longer mind buying fakes, even though they

    probably own a couple of authentic bags. They save the genuine

    articles for formal events like weddings and parties, and dinners and

    dates, and use counterfeits on rainy days, or to go to the supermarket

    for milk." By contrast, in places like China and Korea, where

    $500-plus handbags are out of reach for all but a tiny minority, women

    simply ignore the real thing altogether and buy glossy counterfeits.

    In other words, whatever the size of their purses, consumers no longer

    seem to regard buying counterfeit luxury goods as a crime. According

    to a survey of 500 Japanese schoolteachers by the government-funded

    Consumer Education Help Centre, 20% had bought counterfeits. Of those,

    63% bought them because they were cheap, 36% for fun

    and-significantly-25% because they were of high quality.

    It's impossible to know whether such attitudes are widespread, but a

    South Korean journalist (who asked not to be named) suspects they

    might be, at least in Korea. "Every woman in Korea owns at least one

    counterfeit bag, even my mother," says the journalist, who happily

    carries a fake Gucci bag to interviews with politicians, police

    officers and officials.

    "You can tell women on the subway are carrying fake bags because any

    Korean who can afford genuine European luxury goods doesn't take the

    subway," the journalist adds. "She drives or is driven." If she's

    right, then almost one in two women on some subway lines in central

    Seoul is carrying a counterfeit.

    In all likelihood, the "Chanel" bag Katie Kim took to Paris, was made

    at a factory like the one run by Charles Nam (not his real name) in a

    converted farmhouse south of Seoul. From the exterior it looks like

    every other building nearby. Inside, state-of-the-art machinery and

    skilled workers churn out super copies by the thousand. In one room,

    50 women sit hunched at sewing machines assembling super-copy wallets.

    In another room, 50 more women add the finishing touches to super-copy

    bags. Half of what the women make is Louis Vuitton counterfeits, with

    the rest split evenly between Hermes, Gucci and Salvatore Ferragamo.

    Nam, who says he runs six other counterfeit factories nearby, is coy

    about how he ratcheted up the quality of his products. The

    accumulation of skills over years helped, he says. He also benefited

    from the Asian financial crisis that rocked the Korean economy in the

    late 1990s. By destroying hundreds of small Korean leatherwear

    factories, it left him with a larger pool of workers to hire from.

    Yet, he says, the main reason for the sudden increase in quality was

    Europeans; in particular, rogue individuals in Europe's luxury-goods

    industry effectively running training courses for counterfeiters.

    European artisans are also helping modernize China's counterfeiters,

    says a New York-based intellectual property rights lawyer.

    Law-enforcement officials in Korea and China have yet to uncover hard

    evidence of such collaboration, but the New York lawyer has no doubt

    it takes place. "The Italian brands are all supplied by

    subcontractors," he says. "Some of them have technicians who have been

    hired from time to time by companies in China-often to work in joint

    ventures involving Italian investors-and no doubt they have shared

    'secrets' with Chinese companies that have ended up making

    counterfeits."

  22. Vintage Vacheron Help!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hi Tonton,

    Any luck identifying the watch? Would help if you had a shot of the Movement.

    To me .. it looks .. late 1950's .. similar dial can be seen on a Minute repeater .. ref: 4261. Lot 226 from the Antiquorum Catalogue 2005.

    Is there any numbers on the case?

    I would describe it as:

    stepped bezel

    Dial: silvered with applied yellow gold baton indexes. Yellow gold baton hands.

    As for the movement I would say that it's a Cal 9"' 1003, 17 jewels, straight line lever escapement. ref: 6704/3 .. (but of course this is a guess .. I would need to see the movement itself to be sure) This movement was first launced at Basel fair in 1955 and several thousand examples were produced in collaboration with the Lecoultre factory.

  24. Flyback vs. Rattrapante

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Flyback vs. Rattrapante

    2. Rattrapante and Doppelchronograph mean the same thing, and differ from a Flyback function, as Feder Haus as defined. However, some Rattrapante chronographs use a flyback function (I believe the Dubey patented mechanism from the late 1940s).

    This statement is misleading ... Dubey did not patent a rattrapante chronograph which uses a flyback function.

    Dubeys patent and the focus of his work was to invent a more "economical" rattrapante as the price for this function was high and it was in the strict domain of brands like Bretling, Butex and Patek Philippe.

    Dubey's patent was called the Index-Mobile. Once the chronograph is started .. to read intermediate time .. you would depress the pusher. This pauses the index hand (so you could read it), but the movement continues. The index remains paused as long as the pressure is maintained on the pusher. .. when you release the pusher .. the index catches up to the chronograph hand. This is where some people have wrongly called .. "flyback" ... it is actually flying forward.

  25. Flyback vs. Rattrapante

    in General Discussion

    Posted · Edited by SmoothOperator

    My understanding .. and I think this is fairly correct .. FLYBACK and RATTRAPANTE are very different.

    There are many manufacturers who call "Rattrapante" - "flyback" and claim that that it is french for flyback. Rattrapante actually means .. "CATCH-UP" ...

    This is the main cause of confusion.

    Classic Rattrapante .. uses two superposed hands. This permits the measure of intermediary time by stopping one of the indicators while the other continues its course. .. Additional pressure on one of the pushers allows the stopped hand to "catch-up" .. or "rattrapante" ... This function is used for timing events such as athletic competitions or motorsports. A normal chronograph if paused would not be able to measure say the runners up time .. or the next lap. This is what a Rattrapante was designed for. So you could pause the chrono and take note of the winners time, then "rattrapante" the chrono .. and repause to see the runners up time. .. Or similarly .. you could pause the chrono and measure the LAP time .. and "rattrapante" the chrono to continue measuring the next LAP time.

    FLYBACK originated from Aviation .. where the need for "timing" aerial manouvres required the chronograph to be able to time manouvres without having to reset the movement. What I mean is... pilots needed to be able to time each section of a manouvre. Bank left for 27 secs, sharp right for 38 secs, climb for 54 secs, rolling sommersaute for 25 secs .. etc. ...

    A normal chronograph .. you would have to PAUSE, then reset .. then restart ... valuable seconds are lost .. so the FLYBACK was invented .. so you wouldn't have to pause the movement to restart. The movement FLYSBACK to zero .. and is measuring time againg from zero .. with only ONE push of the button.

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