Franke

Thats a massive piece of steel. My god, it must weight a ton! The main issue on this will be the rubber band. It WILL break. All china rubber bands are crap, more or less. Du menar alltså att knappen inte påverkar ringen alls? Är det en helt vanlig dykar ring alltså?

On my wishlist is a case back shot. That thing seems to be really nice. And also a techie about the bezel macanism. Is it working or not?

We are eagerly awaiting an in-depth review.

All common sense tells me to back off. But any person with just a little bussines orientation can see the potential. I value your advice, and i think i will go for the sample. But thats it. It

Yeah, i know, it´s risky bussines for sure, and it would of course be ideal to operate from whitin the big C. Unfortunately i do not live there anymore. (I´m not of chinese origin.) But is it worth spending time? Maybe not. But still tempting.

After a couple of months searching an mailing, i finaly reached a factory in china that produces replica watches. The reason for me to do this was dual: 1. In my quest of understanding the rep bussines, i have tried to understand these replicas actually are made. Who makes them, what is the pricelavel, are there ETA

Very nice working review.. Thanx.

The actual numbers of ACTIVE users is the most important data. Any forum should cleen the register once and a while. Say for example that you remove all users applying to these criteria: - have zero (0) posts - hasn´t been active for 180 days if this was done to this forum i guess the numbers would drop by at least 10-15%. On RG significantly more, i´d say 30-40%. In order to keep a forum alive, the numbers should have some relation to reality. Theres absolutely no point at all to have registred users that in fact are permanently absent. But on the other hand, these numbers are important when you try to attract advert money...

In 1953 Sir Edmund Hillary wrote to his trusted supplyer of timepieces after successfully reaching the summit of Mt Everest: "I carried your watch (Rolex Explorer) to the summit. It worked perfectly" Sir Edmund Hillary Today i write to you: " I carried my explorer to the summit. It worked perfectly. Franke Only difference from 1953 is that my Explorer is from my trusted dealer, and my summit is Mt Fuji. Mt Fuji summit, Japan 090610. Sunrise. Moments before "Banzai" begins. A great moment. Please note time 4.23 AM. All good japanese are supposed to have climbed the hill at least once in there lifetime. These two sweeties made it in time to the summit. They were properly dressed. For Shibya shopping. Probably never been outside of the metropolitan city before. The black hat used to be mine, i gave it to her as she was almost freezing her ears of. Me and my main man. I got a touch of altitude sickness at about 3000 m. (Fuji-san is 3,776 m (12,388 ft) Got worse during the night, but on the top we were all happy. Photogear in background. Japanese guy took the pic. Sun rises in the land of the rising sun.

About the whites, im not really your man. Take a look at By - tors reviews, he

Very nice. Wear it well.

Thanx for the kind words and tips. I can not disasemble the piece in the extent needed, so i just stick with the stupid cyclops for now.

Dear forum members. let me introduce myself. My alias is Franke and i been a RG member for some time. Just a couple of weeks ago i was asked by J-C at RG to mod the Rolex section of that forum. To make a long story short, that ended up with me beeing banned of the forum. First i was banned for two weeks, but after posting here yesterday the ban was changed to infinit. That sucks. As well as RG management and vb skills. I was very surprised when i saw that other old RG mods also found this forum, Zeb and Anubis for example. And the discussion surrounding the departure of mattuss, from whom i got my DD btw. (Still working perfectly mate) Anyway, have seen this forum since jan -09, but my postings have mainly been on RG for reasons that i can´t understand today. This forum seems to be so much better managed. I want to start of with a thread i wrote some time ago on RG, on my fav rep. The Explorer II. Enjoy. - - - - Greetings, my first rep was a Rolex Explorer II. It was a RMB 150 piece from the infamus xiangyang market of Shanghai. I was looking for a watch, and the Explorer looked nice, so i got it. I just assumed that no one ever could imagine if was a fake, it just looked sooo good. I was wrong. When i saw my new watch, i instantly promised myself never to wear the old one again. Ever. So, today i recived my Noob Explorer II from my trusted dealer, Andrew at Trusty time. This is a stunning piece, and i will go through every detail, exept from braking the caseback as i dont have the proper tools for this move. Nor will i remove the bracelet, commented below. The Explorer, introduced 1953, and the Explorer II, introduced in the early 70 was never any of Rolex big sellers. I would guess that its connected to the rather silly advertisments of it (The E II) as being a tool for the speleologist. How ever whants to be one of those, when you can be like James Bond (sub)? Futhermore, the E II only comes in SS and is claimed by Rene Jeanneret to be part of Rolexes "Tool watch series" along whit Sea-dweller and the GMT. (not GMT master II) When it comes to the E II you basicaly have two choises: Black dial or white dial. By-tor claims that the white dial is the only possible option for a tru Rolex connaisseur, and he might be right. Personally i dont feel quite comfortable in white, for the same reason that i would never buy a white BMW M5, nor a white tuxedo. So i just stick with black. Ok call me conservative, but i guess its just a matter of taste in the end. Personally i think that black is the right choise for a nonsens free piece like this. It just so versatile, light weight, no extras, no rotable bezel, nothing. Just perfection. The only thing i don´t like about it is that stupid cyclop. Why in heavens name did they ever put it there? If someone has a good method of removing it, i be all ears. The date window is large enough on this model to be seen perfectly whitout a magnifying glass. Looks so ugly to me. While were on the cons, the lume is not very strong. Usual rep lume i would say, nothing like my ever glowing DSSD V3. You also have a pricetag to consider. Trust have these starting at a nice entry level of USD 108 for a vintage ref:1665 to the premium 2006 M series ref:16570 with correct hand stack at USD 348. I decided to go for the mid range Swiss ETA @ USD 248. I can live with the fact that it has the wrong hand stack. Heck, no one will ever see this, and its an unimportant detail that will never show. Not many people even know that there is a specific order of the hands anyway. Some geeks will stress that the "Swiss ETA" is not really swiss ETA. On this matter i choose to trust my dealer. Why not? Ok, the movmt. might not be produced in switzerland, but in one of the sub contractors somewere in asia. I go like this: If i buy clone (nanning, Seagull etc) i will be screwd when it fails. If i buy ETA i might be able to find a horologier that can make service (dealer says its refundable if found not ETA) or even fix it, as spare parts should be availible. And IF its really an ETA it´s at least as good as any Breitling!! The piece im about to review here is as follows: Replicated item: Rolex Explorer II M Series of 2006 Movement Swiss ETA 2836-2 Dealer Andrew @ trusty time http://www.tt88time.com Manufacturer The Noob factory (I have no idea what this is in reality, exept for a producer of replica watches) Pricetag USD 258 as of 090601 My collection now consist of: "Super" Sea-dweller, Swiss ETA DEEPSEA V3, clone (shame, should have gone for the ETA) "Noob" explorer II, Swiss ETA Day-date II 41 mm Blue face, "Super" president link Breitling superocean on leather. (Cant find decent mesh for this one) ------------------ So, the piece came with express speed out of the big C as of today (060612). I was very happy with the delivery, alwas speedy and safe, no customs hassle. Perfect. Just been unpacked. Overview Another angle... Overview Closeup of the dial. Note "Rolex" aligned @ 12. The hand stack is incorrect. The GMT hand is individualy adjustible. Movement has a very precise feel upon adjustment, dates popping over perfectly. Dial The rehaut is as By-tor (King of Explorers) usually tells us a very important detail on the E II: On this model its very nicely replicated. Its present enough to be visible, subtle enough to show the depth. Note also the very crisp hour makers. Dial/rehaut closeup Rehaut agin, this time @ 6. Note the M serial and crown. Crown is not visible to the bear eye, my macro is making it stand out in this pic. Dial whit serial Bezel. In my opinion the edge of the bezel is one of the most important details. It is critical that this detail is correct, if not, its an instant give-away. Here it´s perfect. Bezel edge Crown. The crown is not correctly replicated. I should have a little "bulb" on the top. It has not. So it looks a little flat, and it rides almost on the same level as the crownguards.On the real thing it comes up about 1.5 mm more. Crown has the Rolex logo underlined, stating single locking system, apart from the tree dots on trippel lock system pieces such as the Dweller. Crown Another shot of the crown and CG´s. You also gets a feel for the thickness of the watch, its correct at 13 mm. Sideview shot. Caseback stikcker. Im not sure if they come whit this anymore, but it has the correct model number, 16570. This just have to go, sooner rather than later. Caseback sticker The most impressive part of the watch is the bracelet. I tell you, its absolutely immaculate. Its hollow piece, but very, very tight indeed. This is no short of the real thing. Bracelet Im really picky about the endlinks, and these ones did not fail me. Ultra tight to the case, and correctly numbered whit 78790A. Im tempted to take the bracelet of, but it just sits so tight, i dont wanna mess whit it just yet. Bracelet endpiece Screws. Just look at that. Perfect! Bottom of screws Screw heads. I got tears in my eyes, just so beautiful. Screw head. The screws were a little on the loose side, so when i adjusted the bracelet the remaining screws were locktited down. Locktited screws The brecelet links are hollow, and have the correct screw locking feature, meaning that the screws goes in to the piece before it sits in. You can see here, the screw being long enough of going in to the piece. Bracelet pieces Bracelet lockingplates is nicely replicated. No bluryness what so ever in this print, and the blades are tight, just like the original. Bracelet lock Just a little detail that adds to the perfection. This machined groove is also present on the gen. Clasp lock The clasp head is somewhat shorter than the counterpart on the Dweller as the E II is not accomodating any extension. Bracelet head Overview Ok, thats all for now folks.

Problem! I cant post. There is no new thread button or anything. What is this? Please help.

Tony, thanx for commenting on my article, it tells me that people are actually reading it, and i like that. I enjoy to really look in to things before writing articles, and this particular passage was based on quotes from this book. In chapter 12 discussing submariner and sea dweller on page 261, it says, and i quote: "The watch, which has only been availible in stainless steel, has never been out of the Rolex catalog in over 20 years,