jkerouac

I applaud for your great sense of style. I always thought Silbersteins would be great to wear to fun events like concerts, plays, or parties where truly creative people are there to express joy for life -- not corporate-type get-togethers where people are out to impress one another with flash. Some people may think Silbersteins are expensive copies of Swatch. To heck with them. They can have 10 or 20 variations of Rolex or whatever. If the point is to celebrate style and express your personality, you've done so in spades. Wear this watch well.

Cheesy title, even if it is one that Ian Fleming himself used. It makes me think of the series "Quantum Leap" and sci-fi movies. Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me.

I guess you have to define "messing it up." I am German as well, and one of the stereotypical scene of WWII movies is where the police verify that the hero has the "proper" papers. Of course the bad guys can create reasonable counterfeits, but identity technologies are becoming increasingly sophisticated and harder to replicate. So do we (the good, honest folk) fear the bad guys who can replicate these creds, or the government that can use them for good or not so good purposes? I trust the technology more than the government... or the government employees used to implement the technology. Would it help prevent some incidents of terrorism or other crimes? Possibly, or even probably. Does it translate into less public trust? Very definitely. The US is already a less desirable vacation destination because of the tightened immigration checks at airports, ports, and border crossings. I live just a few hours from the Canadian border, and we (and our Canadian neighbors) are very aware that it has become more of a hassle to cross the border. You may look like us, talk like us, and act like us in every way, but that doesn't mean we have to trust you. Compare that to Europe where borders between EU countries have melted. Ironically, as an American the new border restrictions make me feel less rather than more safe -- and I consider myself more wordly and cosmopolitan than most of my neighbors.

I don't have a problem with businessmen making a profit or even asking whatever the market will bear. I have more problem with fellow hobbyists with little or no knowledge tossing their money at dealers no matter what price they ask for. There are, indeed, instances when paying a higher price is correct. But I think the appeal of some reps is actually increased by virtue of the higher price tag -- Rolexes and Pateks etc. are more desirable in part because teh price of admission to the club is higher. This is a known marketing principle of luxury goods, and it is somewhat ironic that the same principles apply even to reps of those luxury goods. If the value-oriented rep buyers were to exercise their ability to not pay more than x amount for a rep, and if newbies realized that you don't necessarily get a better or more prestigious rep at $400 or $500 than you do at $250 or $300, then we would all be in a much better position.

In NYC particularly, that advice is probably good. Even here in Seattle, I have heard of bike messengers who have decent (read: more costly) bikes, but distressed them to make them look like beaters so they would be less likely to get ripped off. Quick release seat posts or handle bars? Not necessarily a good idea on a city bike. Of course one should also ask whether you have a good, safe place to store the bike, at home, at work, and anywhere else you might want to park it.

I'm not sure how you are defining a water watch or dress watch. although the Rolex & Omega clearly have the strongest water-related affinities. Are any of your watches water-proofed or tested? I picked the IWC, Hublot, and the 111 because IMO they are the most versatile. Cheers, and enjoy your vacation.

I just stayed downtown at the Wyndham Hotel on St Clair for a few days, but am back with the inlaws in Oak Brook for two days before returning to Seattle on Wednesday. Enjoy the downtown festivities, have a drink on behalf of all your RWG friends.... and above all, stay safe.

For streaming video, my ATT Tilt (aka HTC Titan) does a great job. One additional benefit, which I am using to post this: you can use the phone as a modem to connect your laptop to the Internet. The hotel we've been staying in this week wanted $16 or so a day for wireless Internet access, so I just connected the laptop and phone, pressed one button, and we're cruising. Very nice, and acceptably fast connection. Needless to say, you do want to have an unlimited data plan to do this.

If I were a collector, the rep of the year would be the one with the best margin. We can all make educated guesses regarding which models would top that list.

As The Zigmeister would say, simply finding a local watchsmith who says he will work on a 7750 isn't enough. You need to be clear about the level of service that you are looking for (complete disassembly, cleaning, lube, replace worn/broken parts, timing, etc.). Ken Berg is another member you can check with for down-under specialists. Good luck.

Another Sonicare Elite user, for the last two years. Before that we used what is now the base Sonicare. I switch back and forth between the Sonicare and a manual brush due to laziness, and depending which bathroom I'm using. But the Sonicare clearly does a superior job, and I'm no slouch at the "elbow grease" approach to brushing. A good investment, in my opinion.

Depending on how long you've had it, either a dealer replacement or a short visit to a watch repair person should take care of it. Repair might be simpler and faster than a full replacement. If so, you could still work something out with the dealer.

One of the biggest differences between rep and gen pens in my experience is the quality of the clips. As nice as the barrels, caps, and logos of the rep MB pens that I have purchased might be, all of the clips felt and looked like they came off a $5 pen rather than one that cost several hundred dollars. Only my dragon pen, which I bought through the forum but am not even sure is a rep of a particular brand, has a decent clip.

I love this watch. Whenever I saw the gen at the AD it took my breath away. I would have purchased this rep, but I seem to recall that the gen dial markers are much lighter. Still, it's a beautiful rep.

If I could only have one Pam, it would be the original 192 chrono with the super smooth "Lemania" movement. My first Pam remains my best Pam.

Awesome look. Congratulations. I have an inexpensive first generation non-chrono that is very nice for what it is. I've thought about moving up to a nicer version, and this two-tone chrono just might be it. A great sporty look that would also wear very, very well for a night on the town.

OK, I enjoyed the Christmas skin for a while ....... but finally I couldn't take it any longer and forced a switch back to the classic RWG skin. It's not that I'm a total scrooge, just that the countdown clock was making me really tense every time I looked at it. I really, really do not want to be reminded how many days, hours, minutes, and seconds are left to shop for Christmas presents and send out Christmas cards. I have always been and always will be a last minute shopper and card writer. By the way, if Bond, James Bond is wearing the latest Planet Oceans these days, I wonder what watch Scrooge, Ebeneezer Scrooge would wear? It would have to be fairly precise so he could be certain that Bob Cratchit isn't cutting out early from work to be with that Tim varmint or his other critters.

Who on the board would like Victoria to prove her point? :laugh: As for me, most flaws are too small for me to detect them on a watch unless I can study it up close, and for some time. So I'd say it comes down to a general impression of the person's dress and bearing, and a general impression of the quality of the watch, including the quality of or lack of AR, the general finish of the case and quality of markings, the roughness of the movement. It's a gesalt, rather than individual bits of evidence.

Fantastic pictures of a fantastic watch. Thank you very much for sharing.

I have a Chopard GMT 7750 as well. Of the three new 7750s in my collection, this is, I think, the best. It just feels better than the others, even if the second hand is a bit jerky (documented in other threads, and apparently this appears in the gens as well). And it is simply one of the most stunning reps out there. Still, because I love this watch I plan to send it to The Zigmeister for service early next year so that it enjoys a long, long life.

When the question of how old I am comes up, I frequently have trouble remembering my exact age. How much of a geezer does that make me? But to answer the question, next month I will "celebrate" my 52nd birthday.... I think (mmm, what was the question again?)

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you, LR, and to all of our merry band. We have very much to be grateful for.

Ironic, but I'm in the process of booking a room in downtown Chicago for the holidays myself. My wife are visiting her sister in Oak Brook between Christmas and New Years, but don't want to spend the whole time with family. Instead we'll pretend to be tourists on Michigan Ave. (My wife lived the first 35 years of her life in Chicago and I lived there 12 years.) for three or four of the days between Christmas and New Years. The choices are between the Drake for perfect location and tradition, and the Intercontinental for its awesome pool -- and possibly the Wyndham, which is just around the corner from the Drake and has a pool and is offering a pretty nice discount package. But I think it's going to be the Intercontinental.

The MM GMT chrono is my busiest watch, which violates a lot of the prejudices (or preferences) I have in watches -- numbers on the bezel (used to indicate GMT time), a cyclops (I really don't care for them) and the black subdial on white dial layout (my Speedmaser started out with this layout and I never really warmed to the watch until I had a black on black dial installed). Yes, it's busy, but it all works. Possibly my favorite rep. The rotor noise problem applies to the non-chrono Mille Miglia Gran Turismo XL with the Asian movement. A very small spot of lubrication should eliminate the noise. Funny, but I avoided buying the 029 specifically because of the numerals on the bezel. On the 063 the 24 hour indicators are fairly small numerals on the outside of the dial itself, and still retain a rather clean look. The only extraneous element that mars the 063, in my opinion, is the cyclops. I do, however, like the tuxedo dial on the 029, and that is an extraneous design element, although an extremely attractive one.

It's only clutter if it serves no function. So one man's clutter is another man's necessity. Diamonds on a watch, for example, don't serve any function that is meaningful to me. Date wheels and GMT hands, on the other hand, are extremely useful features, more so than numerals on bezels. Unless you are a diver or actually use them for timing purposes, I find numbers on bezels to be the an unnecessary piece of busy-ness. Having said that, I still love all of my watches with numbered bezels, including the SMP, which I am wearing today, the UPO, Speedmaster, and Chopard Mille Miglia GMT. Along the line of thought that you are pursuing, I wonder what percentage of RWG members' collections are made up of chronos and what percentage is non-chrono. I just checked my collection, and mine is split between 5 chronos and 7 non-chronos.