tmeister

no idea how to get a good PO, but as for reluming, Angelo in Spain is excellent...he bought a clone 3 years ago and relumed his and since then has been reluming many from Europeans...http://www.the-relumer.com/ You could ask him more about the better online sellers...mention my name to him....Thian in Japan.....

thanks for the answer....and yes, I have heard that he Seagull movements are getting to be very good, especially the Tourbillion ones.

case faults, yes, agreed, but it may be a crap shoot with some of the Asian movements (like with Alpha) but my two Asian POs are quite accurate and I would put them against any Seiko short of the their GS models.....I have 5 6309s and AGSs and quartz Seiko models...

maybe that is how Asians walk! hahaha! more pidgeon toed! (and I'm a Chinese Canadian!)

For the unintiated guys like me, what is the UPO Lite version? and an ETA chinese clone?? why not just get a higher quality asian movement like mine? (unless you are stuck on the ETA thing....)

interesting....the Asian shows the HE valve OFF the 10 marker...but caseback is not etched line my Asian mvt. model. The ETA has the HE valve at the 10marker, it says. Most will say take the ETA , but my chinese version with sapphire, HE valve at 10 , and etched back is very accurate....guess your call to save or spend the extra bucks....good luck...loving mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the heads up on the end of production of the UPO 42mm version. Mine does have the AR crystal and can be easily noticed by the blue tint..... Here are photos of it just taken this morning.... Would you be so kind as to enumerate the aspects of the 4th UPO 42mm for me? so I can decide what mine is?

Thanks for all the kind comments...and after checking the official PO site you are correct, the HE valve on the original is off the 10 marker. As for the HE valve, no, it is not too big at all...it does not stick into the arm in any way. I'm a newbie here and know zilch about all differences between the Chinese and Euro editions. But I trust my Canadian friend based in HKONG to have sourced a good one for me. Good meaning better grade of Chinese movement with Sapphire Xtal. I'll take more detailed shots of the caseback, HE valve etc in the morning for the forum. So far wearing it since Saturday - and today is Monday nite - the time is right on! As a replica with the Chinese and not ETA movement at my price of $75.00, I have no complaints whatsoever. The lume is great! (amazingly haha) and the black bezel version's bezel sounds more solid when turned than the orange bezel version. 2 to 3 years ago, my friend in Spain ordered the PO replica and examined it, amazing him for its build quality (he paid in the $200 range at that time) He told me the case was the same as the Euro models except for the ETA movt. which were priced over $500 then. He recently said that he has relumed many PO replicas for his Euro clients....which I gather he meant he relumed the hourly markers since on the Asian versions only the hands are lumed. In all, I am extremely happy to wear this recent version 42.5mm PO! Thanks for reading!!!

I also bought the orange dial PO 42mm awhile ago. This one keeps time fine but sometimes the date mechanism to crown time setting seems not to catch....once it does, the time is fine. The new addition Black bezel version (both chinese movements) looks and feels great! My friend in HKong got it for me and met me in Osaka giving it to me. He is quite knowledgeable on these and chose the sapphire version 42mm for my 6.5 inch wrist. The SS bracelet I had ordered from him, however, had a link problem so he will return the bracelet for fixing. I have no idea as to what generation it is. Seems the UPO 45mm is the only ULTIMATE My orange bezel version...bought the orange strap for it but too bright....so Installed Maratac MILSPECS on both models....

Got the PO black bezel version yesterday 42mm version with sapphire crystal, brought in by a friend from HKONG. This makes a compantion to the PO orange bezel version I have ..... Quite impressed with them..chinese movements in both......