Rick James

Rick, I know it's an ongoing debate, but 1 lousy atmosphere is 33 feet of water. When you dive to 33 feet, you feel the pressure on your ears and eyes, it's not insignificant. Double that to 2atm and 66' and you're feeling it. Double it again and you're well below where most divers are comfortable, at 135' of pressure. At that depth your no-decomp bottom time is 15 minutes. It's a serious depth, and still 2atm shy of your test at 6atm.

Thanks for the insight! It makes sense that real world is probably more forgiving than the ISO standards. I don't scuba, though I want to try it. I do sometimes free dive with a mask and sometimes snorkel. I know what you mean, I can feel the pressure on a really deep free dive and that's not even very deep. I can feel it in my ears and strangely what feels like my teeth. I guess I can forget about the standards and just enjoy. Even the push button chrono rep i tested to 6atm was fine. I've worn non-screwdown gen TAGs in water for hours (100-200M rated ones), so I suppose I was concerned over nothing. I'll just test to 6atm and call it a day.

This one spent its life in chambers down to 2,000' and never had a speck of trouble, with annual checks on the seals and pressure tests. Then one day it flooded at 80' through the HE relief valve. It went straight to a Rolex watchmaker and he saved it. I'm wearing it as I write this ... absolutely bulletproof.

That's pretty awesome, that watch looks like it has some serious history.

@Nanuq

How many atmospheres of pressure would you say is a safe test to consider the watch wearable in a pool. I got my new water bottle built out and I can get as high as 6atm without leaking at all, I could push to 8 or more probably, but I don't want to ruin the rig. Do you think 6atm test is safe for swimming? I've been reading wikipedia/other docs and it seems that standards say 5atm is only good for washing hands and casual short term shallow immersion, while 10atm+ is for actual swimming. Is this true or can I consider 6atm safe for swimming in the "real world"?

Look in the section titled "Watches, Clothing & Accessories", it has a variety of dealers there.

Was it a leather, fabric or rubber bracelet that gave you an allergic reaction? Those materials are all different, and I wouldn't expect the replica to use the exact same paint/rubber/cloth/polymer/etc.. The stainless steel (SS) bracelets are just stainless steel. I'm not sure that you can be allergic to stainless steel.

You will see that the one we sell - http://watchbitz.com...d&productId=116

is made in China, but it is a quality piece of equipment. We have each one quality checked before purchase, and have now sold more than 100 with zero problems.

I may buy that unit, the price isn't too bad.

Be VERY careful in the use of compressed air, it can have fatal consequences if misused.

Yup, thats why you always wear your science glasses (goggles)! I also tried to quickly pressurize the container to 2x what I would test at, while out of the line of fire, it wouldn't hold that much pressure very long, but it didn't explode.

Even easier... make one out of a Nalgene water bottle. Drill a hole in the lid, cut a valve from a bicycle inner tube and glue it in the hole leaving a nice wide flap of rubber around the hole on the inside.

So I was bored after work while waiting to go out to dinner and made one of these. I was only able to test up to 3 atm because I kept blowing the seal on the Nalgene brand water bottle. The container needs a better seal. I tried adding a gasket and used epoxy to hold it down to the lip of the bottle so it wouldn't yield to pressure at the bottom and slide out of the way. Either way I tested out 3 watches real quick at 3 atm, one crono, one pam and one omega, all were stock reps that I got from joshua. Didn't see any major bubbling, just a few escaping the bracelet and other places air was trapped, so I guess they're cool for about 20m maybe.

Also I found this thread just now, which is hilarious, because I used the exact same bottle, and same sort of pump and everything. Only difference was I added a metal loop to allow me to tie a watch to the lid:

1. Check the trusted dealers listed on this forum. Shop around, pick the dealer offering the price/quality you want. I personally use Joshua for my off the shelf reps, his firm has always been great to work with.

2. Authorized dealers. If you live in a reasonably sized city or near one, call up the ADs in the area, try to see who's got the best price on the exact version you want. You can try used from ADs too. I wouldn't buy a gen from an unknown source, but the TAG F1 isn't a particularly expensive watch so you could take a gamble on ebay or auctions. Amazon does sell genuine watches IF it's sold buy and shipped by Amazon, this includes TAGs.

Wearing my PO today at the office.

Even easier... make one out of a Nalgene water bottle. Drill a hole in the lid, cut a valve from a bicycle inner tube and glue it in the hole leaving a nice wide flap of rubber around the hole on

Hang your watch inside the Nalgene near the top with duct tape, fill it 1/3 with water, pressurize that sucker with your compressor, then tip it on its side so the watch is submerged. Then release the air pressure thru the valve and watch for a BIG stream of bubbles.

Yea that's essentially how what I was thinking of would operate, you would have to tip it over after letting some pressure out. Though one model I saw had a mixer built into the tank, which would allow you to submerge the watch with a very small modification to it, just like a real tester would. The major benefit to my idea is that it would allow you to release pressure very gradually as it's a inherent function of the tank. The downside of the tank is that I'd have to carve a window into it, as well as the higher cost. Here is what they look like: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41rSgFx8dsL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

I may try your method though as a quick test, probably use quick steel epoxy to hold it (I love that stuff, it's damn near indestructible if bonded right.) If i feel like derping around with it, I may try the tank idea later.

I had a question about the pressure testers. I understand completely how they work, but I'm curious about quality of sub $1000 models. I see a few brands listed on Amazon and other markets for as low as $200-300. I know these are only rated to 6 atmospheres or so, but I don't drive. However I don't wanna buy a total POS that won't work at all. I was also thinking about how simple the device itself is, seems like something I could make from a $100 paint pressure tank. Those things are steel and it would just need a polycarbonate window cut into it and I'd be good for 100psi (>6 atm) easily, powered by the compressor in my garage.

Has it had AR redone? or is it just good photos

I don't really know too much history on the watch. The AR does look decent, I'd say out of my watch box, this one looks closer to a gen AR wise. It has that AR reflection at an angle, but dead on it's not cloudy.

All of my other reps were purchased from Joshua. They are clearly not as nice AR wise, when compared with a gen watch. The AR on the gens is so clean that you almost can't tell there is a crystal there (over black dial) unless you look at an angle and see the AR in the reflection. My reps on the other hand all stand out by looking almost cloudy when looking dead on. It's not bad when the reps are on the wrist, but next to a gen you can really see the AR/crystal difference. This Graham rep stands out way less next to a gen watch, so maybe something was done about the AR. There is a small scuff in the AR, but I don't know if I'm going to bother getting it fixed, I have other watches I want to get serviced first!

but I hope you checked your wrist before you left.. !!

lol, not sure what that's supposed to imply :-P

Picked this watch up from blackbard tonight, he's a really great guy. Showed me some of his other watches too, really really nice stuff! After a hit of polish this watch looks great.

How hard is it to change the dial? Sounds like something beyond my skills. Business/computer stuff, sure, watches, I'm a nub. I have some watch tools, I can open the case back, re-size em, etc.. I've put a screw that came looks around the rotor back in place one time on a rep, lol.

your pretty picky eh?

anyway I just looked at my Super Avenger Blacksteel and it does have the loop, but the brietling logo is printed on this models dial, not a badge like the regular SA. Just anohter option if you really want an SA and dont mind a PVD watch.

I'm not that picky when it comes to smaller stuff, like the font being off a little on a dial, shade of lume on a PAM, or the hand stack on a Rolex (though I don't like Rolex). The logo is just too annoying for me since i would notice it every time I'd wear it. I'm thinking about the PVD, but I don't know if that's my thing. I'm also concerned about the finish wear, how is your PVD holding up, any wear, rubbing through, etc?

I really like this Breitling, I've seen a few gens in the $5-6k range, not toooo terrible, may have to buy one if I can't find a decent rep.

I own a couple of gen swiss watches, so I know that the rep quality is never close to the real deal under magnification, but I don't want one that I can tell is wrong on a 800x600 pixelated QC photo :-(.

Yea Joshua said no one has ever complained about it before, but it really stuck out for me. I've never seen a Breitling logo without the loop inside the B. I guess I'm going to go for the Omega or a different Breitling model. The lack of loop is going to annoy me too much. It's such a beautiful looking watch otherwise, makes me sad.

Here is what im talking about, rep is in red, gen is in green:

http://i.imgur.com/V7LOh.jpg

I looked at a review from the sticky on this watch, and you can see the flaw in the review as well, though the review doesn't seem to mention it:

I've been looking at the Super Avenger (2008) on Joshuas site. You can't tell in the pics on the site, but the QC pics he sent me seem to have the wrong Breitling logo. It doesn't seem to have a loop in the flying-b between the wings. The gens seem to have the typical loop inside of the B rather than touching the vertical line of the B. I asked for a better pic, but they're insisting its fine and saying I should just zoom in, but it's only a 800x600 pic, so obviously i can't zoom in past 1:1 without distorting the image. It also seems like its just a little crooked.

Is this just how the Super Avenger reps are? Or am I looking at a newer/wrong gen?

Thanks guys! I'm pretty happy with mine so far. I've worn it fro the last 3 days just to see how it will blend into my rotation.

I have the exact same watch and was impressed. However, my experience was not so good as my watch arrived so devoid of any oil/lubricant that it was as dry as Vegas in the summer!! It stopped on and off and then eventually I could not wind it. The Zigmeister did his magic but the dry dirty movement soured what could have been a positive experience.

Ouch, that sucks :-(. Sound's like a factory defect to me, I'm guessing Josh doesn't open them up. I do have a lot of watch tools at home, including a case opener, so I cracked it open to look and everything seemed to be fine.

Hey gang. I wanted to post some pictures of this rep. I think it's a pretty solid watch. I would say it's this PAM is a pretty good replica. The biggest thing that stands out is that the color of the lume (under normal light) isn't white enough. It's not noticable when you're outside in the bright sun, but indoors it kind of jumps out at you a little. That's really the only thing that jumps out to the naked eye.

While it certainly wouldn't fool you into thinking it's a gen, under magnifiaction it also looks pretty darn good. There aren't any particularly rough edges and everything is reasonably well aligned. I bought a rep TAG from Joshua last year and while I'm still very happy with the rep TAG, it wasn't nearly as good as this rep PAM. Under magnification, the rep TAG stuck out like a sore thumb when compared to my gen TAG. I wouldn't need more than 2 seconds to determine it's a rep. There is not enough percision in the edges (rough edges) and the alignment of the numbers. However when looking at my gen TAG under magnification I can't spot a single rough edge/imperfection. I don't own gen PAMs and maybe there are glaring issues I'm not seeing. I'm going based purely on the general quality of printing/finish/etc.. So that being said I really think this PAM rep is probably as close as it gets to perfect, for the money, much cleaner than the rep TAG I got (C16 carrera). If I needed it to be any more pefect, I'd buy the real thing. If I disregard the lume color, I would have to think about it before I'd decide that it's a rep, even under magnification.

Today is my Ulysse Nardin - one of my all time favorites. Gets a lot of wrist time.

I love UN watches. Who do you think makes the best rep? Where did you get yours?

Thank you for the insight! I'll be posting pics when I get my rep and do a few comparison photos .

chieftang,

Thanks for the reply. I'll check the QC pics when I get em. I ordered a slightly different model, but this video on his site seems cloudy too: http://www.1-pc8838.com/tgca00111-carrera-43mm-chrono-ssss-a7750-p-5947.html

Would you say that's representative of reps in general? My gen doesn't look that way on camera, irregardless of light. It's not the end of the world I guess, but just curious if it's normal. Wonder how much a gen or high quality crystal would cost and how much to replace .

Is that pretty common with Joshua's higher end stuff? I decided to order the watch ($360 shipped), but hes gonna show me a QC photo so I can see first. I saw a few others that have been posted on this site (the 43MM TAG Carrera) and they seem fine.

Wearing my gen TAG Heuer Formula 1 today:

So my buddy got a Submariner rep from Joshua a few months ago. I got to check it out yesterday. Pretty nice rep considering it was the lowest priced one that Joshua offers (like $130 or something.) It looks convincing from a distance, however once you start inspecting some things came to attention. One thing that really stood out for me from a reasonable distance was that the crystal (not sure if his cheap rep has sapphire or mineral) seemed tinted or cloudy.

So I started comparing it to my genuine TAG Heuer F1 CAC111D. I got mine about 2 years ago from an official dealer and the sapphire is still perfect. On mine the sapphire is very very clear. From 1 ft away you can't tell anything is in front of the watch face unless you smudge it up with your fingers. It also doesn't glare or cast much reflection. If you want to see what I mean: http://i.imgur.com/SJtY2l.jpg

His seems to cast a lot of glare and you can definitely tell there is some kind of mineral/sapphire in front of the face from a few ft away. The best way I can describe it is if you left the protective film on the watch, or another products that come sealed with protective film. So my question is if this is normal for reps? Is there some quality issue with the sapphire used in reps? I kind of figured they all (reps and genuine) use synthetic sapphire and I'd imagine that it's not hard to find high quality sapphire considering people have been making synthetic sapphire for quite a long time now.

I want to get a TAG Carrera rep since I really can't bring myself to spend that kind of money on a genuine one and really love how it looks. I'm worried that the sapphire will be just like my buddy's rep and that would be a bit of a deal breaker. Any thoughts guys?

Yea that would be my fantasy watch. I always wanted the daydate pres model. Though I'm a business owner I would never really spend 20k on a watch... Seems retarded. I could buy a low end gen rolex, but they dont look like what I like. So is that a good quality replica, meaning it works well? Has anyone bought one of those, i couldn't find much info on em.