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No misrepresentation here. Dealers said that the case is pdv and the bezel is ceramic. Which is what they delivered. BUT it is not 1:1 to gen, since the gen has both case and bezel in ceramic. I doubt they will be making a ceramic case, so, for anybody in love with the BB ceramic, he should go with this model.

I think a movement pic will not be enough. It is on the dial side all this modification, and unless one of our moders opens one up, I doubt we will have a view of it. The horror stories of the modified 7750 have to do with the design / execution of the modification. 7750's are in the genuine Hublot Big Bang, with modifications moving the 30min counter from 12 to 3, and the date from 3 to 4.5. I am not reading complains about that design/execution. Hope this time, our rep-makers did a better job. This breitling looks a lot more complicated, a real puzzle.

Great watch and great work by The Zigmeister. Any chance there will be a photo review of this modification? At least a narrative?

chwiss sounds ok, but there should be more letters from china, than from swiss..Chiness maybe?

I agree with The Zigmeister. This seems like a buyer's remorse problem. Explain to your buyer (and to his watchmaker) that there is no 6497 sold with these bridges sold from ETA. Panerai was buying ETA6497 and then putting on them their custom made bridges. This is what our rep makers are doing too. "Real Swiss 6497 Mov't with swan neck dagger" means : getting an original ETA and adding an asian copy of the panerai bridges, plus the dagger/swan neck regulator. Now, some people would argue that this is not 'swiss' any more. I think this is as "panerai and swiss" as it gets, without paying 1500euro for a panerai original caliber. -BUT- From the picture of your caliber, I am not sure if this is the case. Look here : http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=11128 . You see, there is a second type of caliber nowadays. Instead of using a genuine 6497, and placing the custom made(chinese)panerai bridges, some makers, started doing this by starting with copied versions of the 6497. From the single picture you posted, I think this is your caliber. An asian 6497, modified with the correct bridges. If you can provide with a better pic of the pallet and the balance wheel I could tell you for sure if this is an swiss+bridges or asian+bridges. When it comes to the sapphire, this is even harder to judge by pics. Maybe revealing the name of the originating dealer, could help us in guessing. I, for one, have hard time believing you were sent a sapphire back glass. I am not saying you tried to scam your buyer. I am wondering if you were scammed. Or even if one of our dealers was scammed. Especially if he did drop ship to you.. I believe you could just take the watch back before it creates any other kind of problems. You could end up losing both watch and the money. Or try to reevaluate your watch, and offer a partial refund to the buyer. Hope this helps.

5min/day is more than you can adjust using the +- found inside the back of your watch so don't bother opening it. It sounds like something a watchsmith should be able to take care of. BTW: you might want to leave it running for a couple of days and then check again for the rate. Some calibers run fast in their first days then settle. Eitherway, you should contact the person that sold you the watch and he should advise you accordingly.

Yes it is working. It just not 'live'. You have to record something, and then use this recording to assess how you did. I don't mind, and have had great succes in calibrating my PO from silix with the 2836 to very good standards. Plus it is a very nice tool to understand your calibers. I was shocked by how steady is the beat of a swiss 6497 in my pam183 that I purchaed from Paul like ages ago. It still ticks slowly but steady like a tank. Give it a try, and give us your comments

I am very happy to share with you people my latest find. . I always wondered if I should buy myself one of the machines that our watchsmiths have to calibrate and rate our lovely watches. I had enough of trying to figure out by trial and error the correct beat, and then wait for hours to see if I can get my watches in better rate. Yes, you can have your WSmith do it for you, but I have found out that this is a new hobby for me.. Like a jigsaw puzzle, or jenga Long story short, I found there is a software solution for it! Read on, and don't skip to the links The software I found can do the following: Features include: * Paper tape watch timing machine emulation with numeric and disk type readout. * Any beat rate from 1 tick per 30s (Atmos) to 400 cycles per second (tuning fork). * Amplitude measurement of lever and co-axial escapement; lift angle 20

Just like many of us, I am more interested in the function than the form of the calibers.If they are planing to change the bridges of a 6497 to make it look like an A SF240 or JLC8day (sounds like like Shaq on high heels, noway..), then I am not interested. If they are going to release a completely new caliber, then it is easier to copy an existing one. The problem here is that (unlike the correted bridges 6497) this long autonomy caliber can't find its place in more than a couple of models.. This is why it might be less profitable and riksier for them. I see more profit in replicating a 7753 or a valgranges a07.211.

Guys, don't read too much into exifs.. They can be edited. I don't know why somebody would do it, but it is not encoded.. That entry is unbelievable.

What are the odds?

I know this is out of proportion, but the asian6497 seem to have a better PR than the swiss counterpart. Ok, this is in a well known caliber, and very less demanding in tollerences than the ones required for the top tier calibers. But, I have a feeling that we will see a real 8day. There are pocket watches made over 100 years old that do 8days. And if it wasn't for the panerai frenzy, we could get an angelus sf240 for something like 200e before restoring. I can't believe that manufacturing one angelus copy, in the light of "Factories have upgraded their equipment to include better CNC equipment", is impossible. (7 day autos and triple barrels are out of the question for me)

8day? Single release of a caliber that will have 8days PR? Or maybe the average of three releases :an iwc auto 7 day, an angelus manual 8 day, and triple barrel panerai 10 day? Hey, a man can dream, right? Any other educated guesses?

There are no dealers present as DEALERS in this forum.. See a dealer section? Nope. Reviews of deals, yes. But no offerings. This is measure in order not to shut down the forum under pressure of gen manufacturers.

Give me the tweezers, I will make him tell us more on this! Do tell about the propietary movements!! I would pay HBB or IWC CD money for a iwc big pilot with real 8 days reserve. Is there a preorder list somewhere? Do tell!! Or is it an angelus sf240??!!!! Do tell or I'll cast the spell of the asian 7750 slipping hour hand on all your watches!

You are correct, this piece of information will not change the way we are buying things. It is out of curiosity Inquiring minds want to know. I think he meant to say " they are not 4 times better done or 4 times more accurate to first reps we were offered when we entered this forum" . I am not supporting this view, but it looks he was not trying to compare reps to gens, but reps to super reps.

Does this mean that the prices of all rep's have gone up in Guangzhou too? maybe just the price of super reps? Can you please elaborate?

Don't despair. I had the same problem in the past. You just have to straighten the bezel. It might look like an impossible feat, but it can be done. I read the posrt that was warnign other people not to even try it, but lately I found that DIY moding is a hobby in itself!! I had to realign a bezel insert in two different watches so far, and the bezel became slightly wrapped in both cases. (PO45 and LV.. more so in the LV) Once placed back, tt would 'brake' and note turn unless I grabbed it with a cloth. Pop them out again, place them on a level surface, and check for the wavy gap. Then invent a way to unwrap it. I placed a cloth over a rod and then it was -eyeball-back on the rod-push with my fingers on the edge of the bezel than needed to go lower-eyeball again etc I know this is hard to get through words, so, this is why I said invent a way to unwrap it It is easier than you think. After you unwrap it, test it on the watch, without the retaining ring. (Don;t want to start from scratch right?) See if it turn smoothly and if the clicks are positive. If your watch has a 1cm wire to control the clicks, then straighten the long part of it, and make it bend a bit upwards. This will make it more 'positive'. If your watch has a small piston/spring setup, I think there is not a lot you can do about it. It is as good as it gets. I started from an almost ok bezel, went to a 'honey, I think I destroyed it' bezel, but in the end I have a better bezel than when I started. Remember that this is the only safe way to epoxy the bezel insert in place without risking glueing the whole assembly frozen. Good luck. George

I was browsing king's photo album and came across her latest addition: A new Portuguese has been released. Her pictures are too small, and I have no idea if they have worked on the problems of the caliber. -but- The dial has 3 ticks between the 5 minute markers..I know this might sound like total useless info, but it used to be one of the flaws and it has been corrected. The bezel seems different too. A bit less pointy. Hope we get to see some better pics soon.

cross posted to RWI... Hello everybody, I am the silent guy at the end of the class... Been here (rwi1 etc) for more than 3 years. Dealt with couple of people, but haven't tried the cartel yet ( ) End of intro. Let me start by saying THANK YOU to ALL the dealers for risking their current lifestyles to provide us with better reps. I hope they made a profit out of their services. Really do, otherwise they might stop providing this service (and then we are back to canal street quality.. puke!!) Apropos thank you to our website/fora owners/admins, for their help has been a catalyst! Knowledge is power, and communities support that equation. And a big thank you to all the people who spoke up, knowing it might ruin their NEXT deal with one of the offenders (not only the 3cartel's..) And after the buffer, on with the main course: All of our dealers have at some point being less than truthful to us. And for every one complaining customer, I am sure there are 10 silent&satisfied ones. Complainers are more vocal. Not all deals will go smoothly, and when we are talking about an under the radar business, it is hard to keep up ISO standards. We should expect that, or go out buy timex@walmart. Sure, I waited Neil's sub for 1 month after paying ems, and paul delivered a 183 after 4 months (crazy sale incident). So what? Both chaps (sorry to put you in the same sentence Neil with Paul )) delivered and put some extra effort in it too. Neil replied and sent tracking number (ems-useless anyhow!) and Paul sent a free bezel for a LV-SM along with a replacement for a faulty crown for 196 i got from him. A satisfied customer here. Same goes for river and narikaa. Have been following the cartel 3 (king is old timer for me..he seems as if he is a relative of some of the makers or something! ) and haven't decided to buy something from them. I have been interested in less mainstream reps lately and they seem focused on these. Actually they seem to be opinion leaders in this. They have come to be a representative OR shaper of the rep industry. I have no idea if they are just pretending to be, but their polls and last offerings/sneak previews are pointing to that direction. SO, a big thank you to them for that! Keep pushing them Makers! And since they have said they have personally invested in the new generation of 1:1 reps, I will take them up on their word and thank them for that too! BUT, when you are in for the profit, you should be prepared for the LOSSES too. manufacturer f@qd you on costs? Retooled without you knowing about it? If you pass this loss to your customers, be prepared to get hammered. This is what is going on. People flock this place to avoid get scammed... And by scam 90% of people mean paying for A and getting B. Hey, we might not feel cheated if you said B+ and delivered B-. And this leads me to the next argument. ALL dealers use little white "lies", just like TOP Models use make up! And these guys are the TOP of the industry! It is up to us to read between the lines to find what we like from what is AVAILABLE and at given PRICE. Some deal less communication in the mix, some use flattering aliases for the calibers/glasses, others use light tents to bring the best out of their offers. We have repeatedly rewarded them to do so. Who's to blame now? Hey, I have been looking at Neil's choppard 1000 gt. All these nice photos, but not one direct of the crown.. Found one in silix site and it reads something like "1000 ALI GTV "whatever. Guess I will sit out on this generation unless I get a straight shot! What about the bell&ross.. br01. Hey, I don't care that much about the caliber in a watch advertised as a 1:1, that has ETCHED allen screws on its back. Please...This is POLEX level!! What to do now? Read the poll, voted too, but I will propose here a more radical solution. Let customers post reviews of watches IN the offering of the dealer. And have a sticky topic in every dealer's section so that people can leave feedback. Make it a POLL while you are at it and post their grade in the front page. Let's see if this will raise the quality of services. George PS: What bothers me most about the cartel is price fixing AND the opportunity it creates for a single strike that will take the whole rep industry down. We need to hedge guys!

EL gone? The guy made his initials a mark of quality for us old timers.. Feels like losing touch with a friend. I am waiting for a good bye topic from eddie.. Maybe Thor can forward it to us? Even non trading, we want him back! C'mon! Say it isn't so!

Hey, will you extend this invitation to an expat working in Warsaw too? :-) PS: I am about to test customs in Poland.. any advice?