alt.watch.obsessive

War of Watches Looms In Neutral Territory Rolex, Swatch and Rivals Battle Over How Swiss a 'Swiss-Made' Timepiece Should Be By MARTIN GELNAR August 25, 2008 ZURICH -- Swiss watches need to be more Swiss. That is the call of some of the biggest makers of one of the country's best-known luxury exports. Worried that too large a proportion of a Swiss watch is, in fact, made outside Switzerland, big manufacturers such as Swatch Group SA, Cie. Financi

By...Bi...Bye...Buy!

I agree it does feel odd Chronus the first time you realize there is no reason to keep the Mido or Rado or whatever case and pitch it.

...and it will sit lower.

Yup...Looks like a Rolex to me. Great work Ubi! BTW, you guys have good eyes. I can't image there's a single gen owner (other than one of us) who could pick their endlinks out of a lineup.

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but "synthetic saphire" from Josh and Andrew means plain old glass and/or plastic. So it will scratch, especially since it's domed, which is a real give away. I have an old 212 and while I LOVE the model, I would go with a model with a real saphire crystal. Then you can beat on it a bit.

This surprises you? ;-)

There's usually a clutch in the crown when the spring is compressed that is not included or at least not working on most reps. It's not a problem with the movement (there is no "neutral" in the movement...if the stem turns the right direction the movement winds). A longer stem as Freddy notes might help activate the clutch, but I wouldn't worry about it.

Beautiful watch Stephane. I think people underestimate how much of the "inflated" price of these gens reflects the time spent regulating the watch.

FM and put in a real dial. Most folks who like big sports watches seem to find the FM palatable. Too bad the Porto rep (non-chrono) is not just a bit better.

Yup, always has been.

What's a KL?

Looks fine to me. I don't know why folks are acting like Rolies just got ugly in the last year. Does this replace the SD or is it essnetially another model along with the regular SD?

Well if Gnarls Barkley is down with it I gotta have one

Ignore the black/white issue... Inconspicuous Consumption About seven years ago, University of Chicago economists Kerwin Kofi Charles and Erik Hurst were researching the

I'm on your side T, saying it is GOOD that you are making the PAM crowns. Great work.

I will not miss this board as in I do not want to skip reading this board because I like it even though I don't have reps... The man is in the process of bringing us PAM crowns there Carl.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the buckle with the Gondolo comes with ingraving on the top (visible when worn) which is dead wrong. A modern Patek rep absolutely needs the buckle to be right.

Yea, the Casablanca I saw looked like it had been there awhile. I'm under the impression the FM crown has become more (for lack of a better word) Rolex like over time and this looked like the old one so I couldn't compare. I could be COMPLETELY wrong about this. At any rate, I was on a mission to look at hands, not crowns

So like many of you I have a FM rep with a genuine dial and good crown, but I've always beed "worried" about the hands. The hands on mine are the good rep hands, but they still flash a very bright and reflective blue, unlike other genuine blued steel hands I've seen (other than an Invicta I saw at Costco...not a good sign). So I went to an AD in Vancouver over the weekend expressly to check the hands on the gen (I find it helps to know what you need to check in advance and pictures lie about this kind of thing). Very nice little watch district they have there, ironically about three blocks from the area with all the homeless shelters. This AD was one where you had to ring the doorbell to get in...very cool. After I took off my master compressor geographic and set it on the counter the salesperson and I were fast friends, so I tried on everything. Stainless casablanca, gold master banker for 30 grand (choke) which was very big and HEAVY. Anyhow, my conclusion...the rep hands are surprisingly good. The gen hands are very blue, and highly reflective, only appearing black when viewed from a few certain angles. So this is one watch where you want the Viagara blue flash from the hands. Score one for the rep manufacturers, as long as you can replace the dial without knocking the paint off the hands.

I've seen genuine straps described as having slightly curved springbars as well. There's actually a tool to bend bars without snapping them.

It should be a 2836-2 and I assume you mean the winding rotor on the automatic? I don't think anything can really go wrong with the rotor that wouldn't result in complete failure, so your probably OK. If it really is making more noise one of the screws holding the movement in place might be loose and rubbing against the rotor.

"and you still have the tag on it by the way" LOL

The only thing I will say about this design is the "double bezel" look is a throwback to designs from the 60s and 70s, which I've always been fond of. Here's a watch I own. The new Breil Manta is actually OK if you search for a picture, but they need to go back to the old style bezel/rehaut.

The problem with the noob is not the mag. The dial cut out isn't quite tall enough. File it out and it's perfect. Then you have an appropriate amount of "white" above and below the number. Number looks too magnified to me on the new one. But, time will tell...