subbiesrock

It seems he's working through a backlog currently, I've got my first piece on order at the moment and went for it after reading about his stellar service across various sources.

Be careful to understand the difference between 'Genuine Leather Croc/Gator grain' and 'Genuine Gator'. The former is calf veneer stamped with a pattern (spottable from a mile away) and the latter is genuine gator/croc. Absolutely no rep dealer will offer you a genuine Croc/Gator strap. They are not upwards of US100-300 for nothing... From rough estimates, gator is roughly twice the price of crocodile, FYI. EDIT: The link is to a nice strap, nice find

Mafia II Soundtrack - very nice

That bloke with the tribal tattoos down his arm has some awesome taste in watches...

The bridges aren't particularly thick to begin with, and the guilloche pattern seems to be milled in rather deeply... hmm... then the original has Cotes de Geneve engraving on top, you have your work cut out for you, but what a great project!

Couldn't agree more

Brilliant lesson Red, I've had my eye on the Portu series for a while, and this is indeed a unique piece. Is the movement a decorated 6498-style movement? The very long adjustment lever looks distinctive. To get the effect as in the gen would require custom machining of the bridges - not an easy feat but doable.

The impression is warranted, nuff said

*drools* We can agree that they're all Brilliant

Cool watch ...is it?

You Yanks should consider yourselves lucky to pay so little for top quality booze... The Aussie dollar is .95 to yours at the moment and we pay double these prices, minimum. I couldn't get these prices Duty Free... As for the Flying B, not my cup of tea in particular, but they're going for 13,000 on FeeBay and similarly on other websites.

The mere fact that this question provokes such passionate discussion is very interesting to me... In my limited experience, having admired luxury watches from afar and only fairly recently gotten into the rep world, it seems that they really are the truest reflection of status, and Rolex have certainly captured that essence through clever marketing and positioning and, let's be honest, their watches aren't bad In terms of comments, the Breitlings always get comments like 'what are those numbers around the end for?', the Panerai always gets the 'why is that metal circle covering the windy bit for?' but for me the skeletonisation reflects the true artistry and passion of mechanical watches, watching the escapement oscillate back and forth is utterly mesmerizing... Mechanical watches are cool ;o)

What an interesting gizmo. Definitely a vacuum tester if it involves a pump in that configuration, maybe it's so that any air is released from the watch rather than into the watch, but I assumed most testers worked in that way? Either way, a great buy, let us know if you find out what on Earth it does.

PMed for contact details. I'll hunt around for an online catalogue. Cheers

Fellow RWGers, I've been having a look at various places trying to find a reasonably comprehensive online catalogue of Seagull movements available for retail purchase. Most of what I find is in Chinese and seemingly aimed at bulk purchases. Do any of you know of a place where you can buy single Seagull movements including in various levels of skeletonisation and gold/silver finishes? For example, Getat has mainly 6497s available in nickel and PVD with two skeleton options but seeing some of the offerings on the Bay, there are many more out there. Cheers guys.

For daily office wear. Elegant, classy, yet sporty: Navi Montbrillant Datora - not sure if this is technically a Navitimer... For a bit of evening bling: Navitimer World But the grail is the original and best: Navitimer Tricompax:

Would you two like a moment?

Absolutely... You get a vibe, one guy was buying really random 99 cent items and then reselling a Panerai strap as GEN. I don't think so. Another guy's previous purchase was a woodgrained Mercedes Benz E Class steering wheel for 1500 Euros and was reselling a strap... At least the second guy was semi-plausible In every case, receipts receipts receipts. If they can copy a rubber strap and engrave metal to such stunningly precise accuracy, then they can certainly copy a barcode and some printing for a sticker to put onto a ziplock bag... Buyer beware!

eBay? Everything on there is fake mate... Deployants and rubber straps are difficult to tell apart and there's a massive trade on eBay for such items. PAM and Breitling parts are so expensive and their REP counterparts very cheap and of good quality, it makes sense. Funnily enough, the only relatively safe place to buy GENs is at a place where people know the difference, ie, RWG ;o)

I had exactly the same experience. The sikscreen effect you talk about is actually a method of laser etching. The technology is relatively cheap and does a very precise job, but it looks nothing like machine engraving. I came across two buckles, one etched inside and engraved clasp, and the other engraved inside and etched b wings on the clasp. Swapped parts, the engraved one is 95% to the OEM. Loke everything GEN and REP, there are obviously differences (like quality of engraving etc) that can distinguish the two. The laser etched ones are clearly not GEN-like. Also, the finishing is evident, I've found the reps are not burnished properly and have sharp edges, a GEN would never have this. I had a closing issue on mine, a simple bending and it's OK now. The dead giveaways on eBay? When a person claims in their post that they are selling a personal GEN item for whatever semi-plausible reason, and their selling history reveals about 15 similar sales with precisely the same listing... Who buys 15 straps and realizes that 'they just aren't for me'? Common sense prevails, some Rubber straps in particular are almost 100% like the GENs, it males sense that there's a roaring eBay trade on such items. Authenticwatches.com is probably all real, but thei markup is absurd and well over Breitling AD retail.

Wow... You'll never know what you will see down the fruit juice aisle

HAHA! His slogan: 'you're ALWAYS guaranteed a solid deal at Shabby-Deals.com... ... ...NOT!'

Welcome from Melb, lots of Aussies here it seems, and most important - you'll be poor in no time ;o)

Agreed, it's unfortunate that people are so gullible. Buying a watch on eBay should always be prefaced by a read of this forum ;o)

PAM California Dial