doug

I've watched all the episodes and, yeah, I tend to agree with you. While it is riveting and disturbing televsion, I'm not responding to it in the same way I did his epic Civil War series. I'm watching them all, but almost more with a sense of resignation than the eagerness with which I looked forward to the CW. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I think it may have something to do with being constantly bludgeoned with the brutality of the war, which has far more immediacy and impact because of the video footage vs. the photograph visuals in the CW. It's almost like I'm watching the same footage over and over, the only change being the setting: here Tarawa, there Normandy; here Pelileu, there the Bulge. What Burns does do is dispell the notion that WW II was the "Good" war; a necessary war, for sure, but as this series shows there wasn't much good about it. Nobility and sacrifice, definitely, but savagery on both sides, as you'd expect from something this prolonged and hideous. Tonight we get Okinawa and Hiroshima, so no reprieve here! Still, I have to say that althought I've watched a lot of WW II stuff and done a lot of reading about WWII, there was an impressive amount of information here that was new to me. The "message", or subtext, is not explicit at all, but as you watch you really can't help but draw comparisons between WW II which touched directly almost every American and the current mess in Iraq that affects so few of us in any direct or personal way. Bottom line for me: Burns has put together a stunning tour de force that makes you want to turn away from the screen but you can't. Still, there is something about the fundamental sameness of each episode (and maybe, given the kind of war WW II was, that's the idea) that has kept me a bit more detached than I was with the CW series.

Good thread. Thanks for starting it. I'm eager to see how other members weigh in.

AP Jules Audemars 3120. Joshua carries this one.

Classics all. Hard to know whether to laugh, or cry. Either way, pitiful.

3 watches from Eddie. All superb, all delivered fast, all my questions answered promptly.

My god, this was like a doctoral dissertation. Great reading! Many thanks for posting this.

Damn handsome piece! I've been vacillating on this one for some time, and these photos may have just kicked me over onto the BUY NOW side. Just a great-looking watch, especially on the brown leather strap. Agree, too, and totally that The Prince is among our best dealers, if not THE best. I just bought a PAM Arktos from him and am wholly satisfied with both the watch and the communication/service. Thanks for sharing your outstanding photos.

I think Jay and Angel have boxes and papers for several watches, including Breitling (www.silix-prime.com). I think it's about 50 bucks.

I bought this same watch (black, ss band) from Trevor. Fast delivery, good post-sales service, best price (at the time I bought it) of any dealer.

Forgive the naivete, but is there a "most efficient" way to autowind your watch, that is a specific way/direction to rotate the watch while holding it that produces the most running time per movement, i.e. up-and-down, circular, tilting one way or the other back and forth (like a teeter-totter). Or does it make no difference as long as you are moving it? Since this is the way i will have to wind this watch, thought I'd ask. Thanks.

I would not ship it back, not a good idea at the best of times, for many reasons as reported by many members here...

Not a problem not being able to hand wind it, some asian genuine brands are not capable of being wound with the crown. As long as you can set the time and date when you put the watch on, it's not an issue...

RG

The Zigmeister,

Thanks for the reply. I wouldn't have the foggiest, re where to even find a new crown. One of the posters suggested that I just "give it a swirl and slap it on your wrist". As I said, the auto wind seems to work fine. My question: Would it be okay to just do that, that is rotate the watch enough to get it going then just start wearing it, let the autowind do the work, and not worry about not being able to wind it manually, or would this crown/no manual wind issue eventually stress or damage the overall movemen? At worst, the absence of the manual wind is an inconvenience, so maybe I'd be better off not trying to ship it back to China and just live with the flaw.

Thanks, The Zigmeister. Yeah, the movement itself seems to work fine. I held the watch in my had last night and rotated it for maybe 4 or 5 minutes nonstop and it ran for about 7 hours before shutting down. But I sure as hell don't want to do this every time I decide to wear it. So the problem, as you say, is in the crown somewhere. I emailed Trevor and he asked for photos of what was wrong, so I apparently did a poor job of communicating the problem to him, and will try again. Thanks once again for your reply, and for all you do for this forum.

I bought a Navi serie speciale from Trevor, but the watch will not wind manually. I turned the crown clockwise 30 or so times, and nada: running seconds didn't move. There is no resistance when I (try to) manual wind, no sound either; it's as if the stem is not connected to anything in there. Oddly, the auto mechanism seems to work. If I rock the watch back and forth, the running seconds hands starts. About a minute of this produced a running time of just under 2 hours. But it won't manual wind. Any thoughts on this? I assume that the mechanism is defective, but having no horological expertise, can't figure out why the auto works but the manual doesn't. Am I missing something?

Ditto on GlobalWatchBands. I've ordered several straps from them, all good, all delivered promptly. There is also a LOT of stock in all sizes on www.strappedfortime.com. Give them a look.

welcome, pollux. You're going to become addicted to this place. My wife and I have been to Ireland twice. Beautiful island, wonderful people, superb pubs.

Neil, I agree. This is a gorgeous specimen. I bought the VC version from you last spring sometime (also in rg) and love it for its uniqueness and retro art deco flair, that and how it curves nicely around the wrist. If anything, I like the Patek version even better. Besides, PP has had SO many watches over the years (I was going through a vintage watch collector's guide a few weeks back and there were literally dozens of pages of Pateks past, 95% of which I'd never seen), who in the hell would know? Bottom line is that this is one dazzling dress watch. Exquisite offering.

That looks like the case of a VC Toledo, the tiered, ziggurat (sp?) shape.

Outstanding little essay, The Zigmeister, one that provides some much-needed perspective in a forum filled with constant carping and nitpicking about things such as a logo placement being a tenth of a micrometer off, or the shape of a numeral being all but imperceptively more/less rounded than on the gen, blahblahblah.

I've been on the forums for just over a year and, even in that time, have been amazed at the difference between reps I bought, say, 15 months ago and those available today, most recently the IWC FA Jones. With a rep this accurate, why would anyone want to fork over $10,000-plus for a genuine? Or the Patek 3919 I bought from EL that is essentially identical to the gen. You'd have to A-B the two side by side and even then it would take some time.

I agree with you in that it's hard to see rep quality and accuracy getting much better than it is today (if it did, then you would essentially have a gen) and we should all be both thrilled and grateful to have access to such amazing watches at such low prices from such honest and reliable dealiers.

You are a tremendous resoure here, Zig. Keep the posts coming.

Both are nice straps, but they are 24mm lug width. The F.A. Jones is 22mm wide at the lugs, 18mm at the buckle end.

Thanks for the link, jack. I read The Zigmeister's post and subsequent replies. Too bad I didn't find these before I bought one of these. Whatever, the watch seems to be running fine now. In the non-chron mode. So maybe I'll just leave it like that and hope it continues to run.

Just read your comments, The Zigmeister. Wish I had read your initial review before buying one of these. I posted the following earlier; maybe this glitch is unique to my watch, maybe others have had the same experience. Whatever, I'll repost here.

My IWC Portuguese chrono from EL has worked fine since I received it, but yesterday when I started the chrono, the sweep second hand stopped dead at about 11 just before coming up on the 2nd minute. In fact, the whole mechanism shut down, the running seconds hand at the bottom also frozen in place. I pushed the top button to "stop" the chrono, even though it was already not moving, then hit the reset. Nothing. Did this a couple more times, and the second hand began moving again; ditto the running seconds subdial. Seems to run fine now, though I am reluctant to try the chrono again.

My IWC Portuguese chrono from EL has worked fine since I received it, but yesterday when I started the chrono, the sweep second hand stopped dead at about 11 just before coming up on the 2nd minute. In fact, the whole mechanism shut down, the running seconds hand at the bottom also frozen in place. I pushed the top button to "stop" the chrono, even though it was already not moving, then hit the reset. Nothing. Did this a couple more times, and the second hand began moving again; ditto the running seconds subdial. Seems to run fine now, though I am reluctant to try the chrono again.

Anyone out there have any ideas as to why this happened/what happened? And perhaps what to do/not do to prevent it from happening again.

Thanks.

I'm with avitt. Did the same thing: put a black croc strap on the watch because that's how the gens com, but decided that, as he says, the dark tan leather strap better complements the off white face and gold numerals.

Agree with rek001 totally, as per my post above. Every point he makes reflects my 6.5" wrist experience.

My wrist is 6.5" and the 45mm Black Seal looks fine on it. It IS a big watch, for sure.

I bought 2 watches from moscowstore.com maybe 18 months ago, several months before I discovered RWG, et al. I paid about $130 or so each for two watches, one an ALS, the other a Vacheron. Both looked great in the photos (which in retrospect were probably photos of gens; it's been a while so I can't recall), both specified automatic movements. It took almost 2 months for me to get the watches, and neither was even close to either the photos of the description. The ALS was huge, had some kind of greenish-yellow dial and was quartz with a plastic crystal. The VC was auto alright, but again looked nothing like the watch shown in the Web photos. It looked like some kind of rough draft sketch of a VC. I emailed asking to return both watches and, to their credit, they agreed. I sent both back (cost about $20 as I recall) and did get a refund to my credit card account about a month later.

Maybe they have improved in the interim, though I doubt it.

But with Joshua, Andrew, Eddie Lee, Ruby, TTK, King, etc. to deal with why in the world would you even consider ordering from a site like this?