sssurfer

Adapt - that is the nature of Capitalism

Adapt - that is the nature of Nature

Excellent! Thanks for sharing!

And yes, some hints about prices would be very interesting (I'm planning a trip to China next summer)...

I needed to revisit this... my success rate has been excellent of late... probably 3 in 4.

Tonite I reported an Omega, which was only questionable to the layman ( just a wrong description.. and a "good" seller) and it was pulled within 2 hours! This has NEVER happened before!

I sit here wondering if ebays' increased recognition, has any correlation to the increased endeavours of PP?

ie, If I keep winding up ebay, am I also increasing PP's surveillance?

Thoughts?

Offshore

I would seriously think about it, offshore.

I see it more likely eBay/PP people just scream "Hey, we are plagued with reps!" than distinguishing between fair price rep selling and scam price rep selling...

First of all, to this!

Then --

I seem to recognize this is a two-sided problem:

1 - The terms (or even the format) to be used. Here the discussion goes about 'ETA', 'sapphire', '1:1', etc.

2 - Rating the dealers according to what extent they adhere to the rules of point 1. Here the discussion goes about if they make a full upgrade of their websites, or 'just' add a FAQ section, or 'just' follow the rules in their advertisements here.

Here I'll focus on point 2 only.

What about a 'star rating system' this way?

1 star: no compliance with the point-1-rules ('just' a honest, customer-caring dealer -- else he would not stay here along, given the feedback system).

2 stars: only a website FAQ section in compliance with the rules.

3 stars: advertisements here on RWG in compliance, but a generally non-complying website (no complying FAQs).

4 stars: advertisements here on RWG in compliance, AND a complying FAQ section in an otherwise generally non-complying website.

5 stars: Full compliance with the rules, whether the dealer has a website or not (please note that this does not penalize dealers that do not have a website, but that are fully complying with the rules, e.g. TTK).

I also see no problem in the fact that a 3-star or 4-star dealer may post advertisements on just a few watches here. Once the system is running, he will likely get more sells from those trustful advertisements so he will get encouraged to post more offers here.

Currently, offers are going down on RWG because there is no difference between what a member can see on RWG and what he can see on the dealer's website. Under the system running, there will be a difference (naturally unless the dealer's website is fully complying too, i.e. the dealer already is a 5-star one). Here I see a positive encouragement any way: either to post advertisements here, and/or to upgrade his site to 5 stars.

Naphta and other petroleum-based solvents usually do the trick.

Common abrasive paste mixed with petroleum is even more effective (it won't scratch sapphire due to its hardness).

Capecod polishing cloths are based on petroleum-solvents and small abrasive.

Zai jian, Sash! Have a great journey.

I humbly subscribe the posts by By-Thor, tourb and TTK.

And also anyone who said 'who cares'?

Do PP/eBay/Echelon/TheBigBrother/Palladium/VERO/Etc really think to stop us this way?

Let's simply move to MB or whatever and let's PP reflect on whether they got more money from us or from the VERO program.

WB, Reg!

Hey all you smarties, what about quitting encripted talking and letting dummies like me to know (even if not to understand) what's happening? Or at least what you are talking about?

About EL, I'll miss him even without having taken a single piece from him. I felt him and I'll remember him as a communicative, humorous and intelligent member even more than a dealer.

Amazing! I love it!

Is this happening to anyone else.

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Date: Monday 12th of February 2007 10:03:36 PM

No problem here.

(And never had a problem with PM center only).

Welcome back, Mark, and thanks for the update and stamina!

(BTW, I have been in NYC just 1 time just 1 week and it hooked me for a lifetime)

If you removed the tape immediately after spraying (still wet) would this eliminate the fracture edges left from dryed paint?

I know there is a trick to this that is used by those that work on cars. When they do a two tone paint job (one color next to another) , they want a 'finished' edge between them. I just don't know the trick. Anybody here have a car hobby know how to do this?

Great tips, thanks!

I know noone with a car hobby here, but I am definitely going to have a try with the remove-tape-while-wet technique.

that's right my friend...you must either know Mr. Bonati himself, or be blessed from above.... the sweet, sweet Angelus movement....only 150 of those 203s in the world, and not all have even been allocated...

Not all have been allocated?!?

Angelus 240: two of them have been recently sold en eBay, one @about 1000 Euros, the other @ somewhat more than 500 Euros. Quite cheap, considering that they usually sell @ 2000+ USD.

I missed both them.

Well, for a complete inspection he's saying "take it to your jeweller", not "take it to a RWGer"!

Very interesting thoughts. Sadly I have no clue about.

Thank you all, folks, for your nice words! And please excuse me for a special thanks to our watchmaster The Zigmeister.

Also thank you, Brian. Actually, a removable card tape was exactly what I used to protect the metal parts of the hands from the spray. But removing the card tape left a slightly serrated lume contour, as I said in the post.

That was because the lume on unprotected parts was continuous with the lume fallen on the card tape. Separating the two lume parts was performed only by tape removal, so with no real control on the 'fracture' line.

Maybe one just needs to cut a neat and straight line with a precision blade between the lume that has to remain on the central part of the hand and the lume that must be taken away along with the card tape. I need to get the nerve to give it a try, but I am a little scared from the chance to go too deep with the blade and ruin the lume and/or the metal of the hand...

Oh well, that was just a first try. Maybe that better results will come along with experience.

…although I will admit it’s weird to see 203s for sale for 200 bucks!

203? Did I hear someone telling '203'?

127 USD.

Yes, a bit weird. Especially considering that in the Sotheby's Hong Kong auction, Oct 2006, a 203 has been sold @ 77000 USD.

Rep stuff...

Welcome aboard, best wishes for you to enjoy this place as much as we do!

It seems I stumbled on a new, easy and inexpensive way to relume a dial (a sandwich dial, at least).

As this post is going to be long and possibly tedious I am going to put a "quickstart" section first. Those only interested in a "how to" treatment may stop after that section. Further reading is recommended for modding geeks only

Quickstart

1 - Separe the two layers that your sandwich dial is made of.

2 - Remove the lume markers from the inside layer with a blade or so.

3 - Apply a white spray paint as a primer on the inside layer.

4 - Apply 3-4 coats of this spray lume paint on the white paint.

5 - Put the two layers together again with some drops of a glue.

Done.

If you have room enough between the dial and the case, so that you are not afraid of increasing the dial thickness a little, you may also add a disk of this vinyl lume sticker between the white primer and the spray.

In this case you cut a disk of the vinyl sticker with the size and shape of the dial, then stick it on the white primer, then apply the lume spray on the sticker (no more than 2-3 coats now).

If you use the sticker you may leave the white primer out -- but it would add some percent to the overall brightness anyway.

Here is the result on my 203 ("8 giorni brevettato") from Narikaa:

Rationale

The glow powder from Lebel Enterprise (ReadySetGlo and GlowPaintPro on eBay) is an economic and effective alternative to Superluminova (SL), but it is too coarsely grained so it needs to be crushed/milled in advance to a finer powder in order to use it for reluming. The milling process is tedious and it may alter the powder color and brightness duration.

Recently Lebel Enterprise came out with two new products, a spray lume paint and a lume vynil sticker, that might overcome those limitations. I decided to give them a try.

Details

The spray is made of photoluminescent crystals mixed in sort of a gum resin medium that, inside the can, is kept fluid by means of solvents. Shortly after spraying, the solvents evaporate, and the crystals adhere to the sprayed surface thanks to the medium, that rapidly dries too.

The final surface is quite hard and decently finely grained. Not so finely to use it to relume markers on classic dials (at least I think so), but good enough for sandwich dials.

Both the spray and the vynil sticker are of a good light green color, but they are quite different in the duration of their brightness.

The vynil is exceptionally bright (even more than SL), but very short-term. In one minute or so it decreases to the level of the spray and SL, then it goes even lower. I do not recommend to use the vynil alone.

On the other hand, the spray starts with a lower brightness, but much more durable.

Spray applied on vynil takes the best of both: high brightness (even if not so high as the vynil alone on short-term) and durable.

Comparing them to SL, and assuming 100% brightness for SL, we get:

- Short term: vynil alone 120%, spray alone 90%, vynil+spray 100%.

- Long term: vynil alone 50%, spray alone 90%, vynil+spray 100%.

By saying "alone" I still mean together with the white primer. Without the white primer, the difference in brightness is almost negligible for the vynil (some % gets lost anyway), but it is terrible for the spray alone, whose brightness drops down to that of vynil alone.

Here is a graph of the brightnesses of the different combinations along time. Don't take it literally, I did not have a photometer at hand -- but I did my best to preserve the relative proportions of the eye effects at least:

To get those measurements I used this test tablet, where the red-lined square is that of the combination I used (i.e. vynil + spray + white primer):

The instructions on the spray bottle say to apply at least 4 coats. I found that, unless you are spraying from a very long distance and for a very short time, 4 coats are too many, especially if you are adding the spray to the sticker. 2-3 light coats work better.

Have some tests and make practice until you get confident with the way the spray works.

About the white primer: I tested 3 different white spray paints: one declared as "acrylic", one just "synthetic", and one "for car paint".

On the acrylic and the "car" paints, the first coat of spray lume made them wrinkle. Those wrinkles got covered by the subsequent lume coats, but I suggest you make a try on a test surface before working on your actual dial.

Comparison with Superluminova

The vynil+spray+primer combination performed as good as SL both on short-term and long-term.

Below are shots at 0, 2, 15, and 180 minutes i.e. 3 hours (SL on the right).

As I am still trying to figure how to get very long exposure times with my camera, I have been unable to take useful shots after the 3 hours limit, and even the 3 hours shot is very bad. But I can assure you that the human eye performs much better than my camera (especially after adaptation in the darkness), so that the brigtness at 3 and 4 hours is still satisfying, and that even after 8 hours one can read the time.

Hands

I did not relume the hands on this watch, but I tested the spray lume on some other spare hands and I am uncertain about the results. A good brightness was achieved, but the resinous lume medium gave the lume boundaries a slightly coarse looking, especially if examined under a 5x loupe:

So I suggest to have hands relumed by a professional when possible, or to get new hands from Davidsen or so (this is what I am going to do, too). If that is not possible, then the spray relume becomes an option.

Should this work arise new ideas in other members, especially about reluming hands (that I still feel as an unresolved issue), I am very interested.

So which Pams do you feel are very accurate? I would appreciate that information

050 is very accurate

You should tell your pal that a)he ain't never going to see is watch again, and b)if he thiks he still feels the need to impress his wife with a fancy watch, or if he's afraid she'd think he's pathetic for wearing a fake watch, he has far more serious problems in his life than his rep.

I too have dabbled with Asians a bit......they are pretty fun to work with , but I always end up having to pick hair from my teeth.

Ah! Now I realize! I always wondered why American women seemed so ossessively inclined to shave. Now I have my answer!

As if this weren't enough they are also demanding the wristwatches of their victims. I can handle the loss of money as I am quit sure that my bankroll is sufficiently insulated as to take a 3-5K hit, but my watch collection is precious to me...

Nice story.

Then, why looking for a rep? Wearing just a plastic quartz (or nothing at all) when you go in such risky areas would not be effective enough in protecting your precious pieces?

I have to say... I can't decide between my 090 and my 028 w/2892A2!

About the 090, I simply seem unable to love its face... or maybe its yellowish lume color... but it gets almost no wrist time, actually.

About the 028, apart from its cost, and all the crazy modding it needed (true PVD, relume, crown [which I am still waiting for], cyclops [which turned out too strong on this model because of the 2892A2 small 2nd date lens], etc.), I am quite [censored] with the very 2892A2. It needs a lot of wrist movement to keep a decent power reserve -- much more than, e.g., my $108-Asian-21J PAM 104.

Thanks God there is the PR gauge to help -- but even it does not work so nicely as supposed on a 2892A2: when the watch stops, the PR hand is still pointing well over 0 (almost to 10, actually).

With all those moddings I already spent more than 1000 USD on this watch (watch included), and it still is way way less than perfect.

Oh well, maybe that with a new cyclops and the Palp's PVD crown (if ever) I'll became a little less critic on it...

But then, there will always be that "OFFICNE PANERAI" mark bothering me inside.

Bah!