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exelonman

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Posts posted by exelonman

  1. Hi,

    I have recently become a member of the RWG. My post have two parts, first one is a short story, the second is a request for help with a small ( by size) problem. If it can be helped that is.

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    Part one.

    I bought my BCE rep 2 years ago back in 2008 in Beijing Pearl Market. Buying it was quite an ordeal. It is a large building, There are several stalls on a main floor where there are tons of rep/fantasy rep and other watches. There are more on the upper floor (I think 3rd oh my memory... , watches electronic and jewelry) and then one above you have more store looking like shops with "better" quality merchandises (meaning that they do not have the very cheep stuff. I have done some research on reps and wanted BCE automatic. First I went to the upper most store, and after looking at the rep at the front store, I asked for better quality one. First they have said these were the best they had, but after bit of back and forth I (we) was led to a room behind where they had the real deal. They had 2 levels of quality the better one with AR coating, which they called "the swiss machine". The price asked was outrageous, equivalent of $2000 US but it went quickly down to ~ $500 US, at which point I have pretended I wanted leave when we found that the door was locked from the outside and my wife freak out, and there was no more bargaining!

    Few days latter I have repeated the bargaining at one stall on the main floor (no doors which made my better half feel better) the difference being that after rejecting several examples, and asking for "even better quatity" the girl that was selling them told me that it would cost a lot, to which I have said that I can pay more for good quality, after which she called up and the watches were brought to her stall within 5 min.

    The bargaining for "the Swiss machine" was similar, with exception that the initial drop to about $300 US was easier (but not easy) but ultimately she would not go lower then 1250 yuans = ~$200 US, all theatrics with leaving and coming back included. She was actually very calm and nice at it, after the deal was done I gave her 100 yuans "tip", she appeared very surprised and happy. What I got you can see on pictures below. Being called "Swiss machine" one would think it has ETA, but frankly I do not know. It is rather rare version (for gens) with Arabic numerals, has AR, it works very well, though bit fast did not measure it but ~+15 sec per day. I have used it as my primary watch for the last 10 months, after my Acutron got crashed. I have dunked it in the water sailing on many occasions (fresh water) and it works fine. Even though used regularly there are no scratches.

    Now the funny part is that I took it to a local watchmaker to re-size the bracelet, first he admired it, then cursed it when trying to take apart the links calling it cheep Chinese fake, and that he did not wanted to brake his tool ON A FAKE. As it turned out he has never seen Breitling bracelet, I got video from Y-tube and did it myself in 10 min, as it turned out he did not take both screws out thinking it was a push link.

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    Part Two

    When playing on a boat 15min marker must have gotten caught in a line and snapped away ( I kind of remember it). Initially I thought the screw went loose like a few from the brace before I locked threads, but no! the remaining of the screw shaft is there. I have found the gen replacement for ~$150 US (steel marker and screw), bit steep if you ask me.

    The question is can somebody point to a source of replacement (marker plus screw or w while bezel) for this BCE? And while you at it, where can I get the screws for bracelet. (My local watchmaker is unlikely source of such info). Thanks for any info.

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    I wish I have found RWG before for there is so much good information here, including info about sellers, now I think I am ready to buy again, this time without 12 hours flight, tough for bit more money.

    Nice watch! I purchased some reps while in Guangzhou adopting our daughter and it was "fun". I would contact Mary or Ruby and they should be able to find you a complete bezel.

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