Jetsons

They are rep crown & tubes. I almost fell for the same trap but was saved by Ubi. Good thing you asked before taking the plunge.

Check out Don's croc straps. I have the black and for the price, it's hard to beat. BTW, Don is a total pleasure to deal with. Very reasonable shipping as well. http://www.homestead.com/rlx/DON8.html

Very helpful comparison and great pics, ff. Thanks for posting this. I hope this means that thet 42mm will inherit some of these improvements shortly. Improving the dial lume would a huge plus. The PO must be a huge hit for manufacturers so it makes sense for them to get them right. It finally seems that we're getting there. How is the clasp on this one compared to your gen?

A first......this one doesn't need much of anything.

Great post and observations, Rob! I agree that some reps have come a long way in the past two years or so. IMO, those with the ETA 2893-2 and 7753 are in a class by themselves but unfortunately, they were not around too long. I'm fortunate to have the two 2893-2 Pam GMTs and they are super smooth operators and COSC+ accurate out of the box. I'm scratching my head at fellfell's comments. Perhaps something was lost in the translation but it doesn't appear that way. In gen land, it's easy to spend well north of $1K on subpar quality in comparison to the reps I have experience with. They are way far from junk. It cracks me up when I see a quartz Coach for $300 or a quartz Cartier tank for $3.5K and I can go on and on. I'm more than scratching my head on fellfell's comments that any highly trusted member would misrepresent the origins of a movement for some sort of personal gain. That's the largest pile of nonsense that I have read in the 2 plus years I've been around. One thing Rob has always done IS to elaborately illustrate the quality and shortfalls of the widely used movements on these watches. I very much suspect that it fellfell were to carefully read Rob's reports on the various movements & study the included very detailed photos, his above post would be promptly edited or a correction posted.

Great work as usual, Randy! Amazing that you were able to source those yummy acrylic pearl inserts. I'm sure it took a great deal of effort to find the three homes. Cheers, Jet

Great watch, V! I've never been much into the white dial Pam but I sure liked yours. After reading through this thread, I can undestand why. Excellent strap collection. Enjoy! Jet

Beautiful pair, Leitz! The 127 is HUGE even compared to the beasty 1665. Too bad I don't have a larger wrist. BTW, great strap on the 127. Enjoy!

The old Sub today: b

and proud you should be, Mr. Tribal! You have added the two most important mod components IMO, to your 1665. Looks fantastic! It does not get much better than this. Enjoy! Jet

I wish you the best of luck, Arthur. If this happened to yours truly, I would immediately get the CC company involved and ask questions later. When the product received is so misrepresented, one can only conclude that a seller has less than honest intentions. It pisses me off when a tiny set of members attempt to take advantage of the goodwill and honesty of the majority of us. I do not understand why this would be but its happened too often of late. Hopefully, this situtation will be resolved to your complete satisfaction in very short order. Best regards, Jet

I believe your Tudor uses an ETA 2671. You can get these from Ofrei.com for $70.00 in the nickel finish. Swap the Tudor signed rotor from the original movement and you should be all set. Also, check Ebay for the movement, crystal & dials. The smaller rollie ladies' dials are usually available for a resonable price. You can also try a rlx AD and they may be able to oder some of the parts for you as well (not the dial). The rlx service center will make it look & run as new but at a cost.........the estimate is free. Best of luck with the project!

J, if you swap the date wheel with the noob, you're going to loose the very nice open 6s & 9s of the TW. Those are correct for the for the model TW. I had problems with one of the lugs not being centered. I spent a lot of time with one particular lug hole but finally got it to align properly. It's never as easy as one may may initially believe. Hopefully, yours willl align perfectly once drilled. Look forward to the progress ptotos. Your new dial is a big improvement over the standard TW issue. I need to swap dials on mine one of these days.

Excellent work, vaccum! Nice photos & thanks for sharing. Man, I wish I could do this. It would make it far easier to enjoy this hobby. Cheers, Jet

dluddy, vintage Marantz receivers were the business & quite collectible today. Excellent tuners and phono sections plus excellent smooth power. Nice vintage piece! DuDro, nice choice on the VMPS. I've listened to their monster floor models but haven't had the opportunity to check out their ribbon monitors. Dynaudio 1.3s on Osiris sand filled stands. Front end is Citation amp and preamp. Source is a modded Pioneer Elite CDP with outboard dac. Cabling, Homegrown Silver ICs & Audioquest Slates speaker cables. This is another hobby I'm usually messing with and can be more frustrating than watches.

Not too taken by the new Bond Seamaster specially in light their rather sizeable price increase. Too bad they replaced the proven caliber 1120 with the co-ax. Looks like they needed to justify the new bloated pricing. When it comes to the LE 007, Omega may have a tough time surpassing the original. They hit the nail on the head on this one.

Feek, with the LV you shouldn't have to drill assuming you have the correct case. It should be the new style case w/o the lug holes. You can probably pick up a pair of the 20mm double shoulder type anywhere for very little cash. Try that out before you spring for something more expensive. For OEM, you probably have to drill the bracelet and end links to accomodate the wider 2mm body of the spring bar.

Any quality steel 20mm double shoulder type spring bar should do the trick. Something along these lines, http://cgi.ebay.com/Two-Rolex-20-mm-spring...VQQcmdZViewItem or by the kilo, http://cgi.ebay.com/DBL-SHOULDER-19-20MM-S...bayphotohosting The rep bars are fairly crappy .

Many of these watches are are not cheap reps. They ones that I am fortunate to have in my collection, are darn good quality watches, period. The best aspect of clones & this hobby IMO, is the ability to collect long discontinued watches that one could only source second hand, most at astronomical prices. Used gen watches have their perils as well specially those that are sought after by collectors. After market parts, franken, poorly serviced and many other factors come to mind. I know as I collect and search vintage watches on a regular basis. My smallish clone collection consists mainly on MBW sport vintage rollies and 2893-2 movement Pams. All of these are exceptional vintage model time pieces in their own right. I have no doubt that if well cared for (as a gen should also be) they will provide many years of reliable service. Some I've had for over two years and thus far, they have proven me correct.

i believe your "old eyes" are correcto mundo! I hope that chap wasn't taken to the cleaners on this one. Gen red letter subs can bring a princely sum. Hopefully, the rest of the watch and paper work are legit.

My wife's 063 with OEM rubber strap:

I haven't seen anyone attempt to install the gen dial so hard to say if it would be a simple mod. They are pricey. Very informative post by cwai02 on PO modifications and OEM parts sources you may find helpful: http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=8428&hl=

Kruzer, you have more balls than I do. Good to hear your 2893 is okay. That Nanuq can be a bad influence. Regards, Jet

I dislodge on side and pressing down with my thumb on the top of the SEL, dislodge the second spring bar. With both bars out of the case holes, the bracelet should come right off. BTW, how's your new Sub treating you? Killer watch!

Sure, you can get it lumed & change the color/finish of the markers but the gen dial would have lost all luminosity by now. If you check out the photo gallery, you should find many examples of what folks have done with their 1680 and 1665 dials. The little white bump was a pearl (treated with tritium, I believe) encased in an acrylic surround. Gen vintage inserts are very tough to find and would cost as much as your rep, if not more. BTW, since you asked for mod suggestions, a new OEM or generic Tropic 127 would be a nice improvement on this guy. I've read they can fit some of the non-MBW cases but not sure which ones. Glad to be of help.