calatrava

How about the Orient 60th Anniversary? Seems to be sold out at Orient USA, but you might be able to find it used on one of the watch forums.

Your watch might have been magnetized if it is running 15 minutes fast/day as opposed to 15 seconds fast/day. In any case, the adjustment described here will not be able to address a 15 minute/day issue. You should send it back to your seller, or bring it to a watchmaker.

That's a nice looking Tourbillon, unlike the initial photo, which is an open heart complication. I believe that the Breguets are individually numbered on the dial, so the number 3006 is part of the serial number.

I agree, I doubt that Breguet would have an open heart complication when they are famous for their tourbillon complications. The 24 hour hand is a GMT complication, the idea is that you set the 24 hour hand to the time you want to track, and then adjust the 12 hour hand backwards until you have the local time. This allows you to set a differential between the 12 hour and 24 hour hand, thereby allowing you to track two time zones.

Yeah, I missed it before posting, since the green text was rather dim, and it isn't something which is often messed up... one tends to look for the alignment of the indices, the cyclops, and the bezel.

Okay, this is a new QC photo, does anything look out of place?

Actually, just after posting this, I noticed that the GMT Master II text looks crooked. Any other issues I should look out for in the replacement?

Hi, this is a QC photo I received from Timesshop.net for their $130 Rolex GMT IIc special with Asian 2836 clone. Are there any issues that you can find? Thanks for your help.

I did a photo comparison of the genuine and replica Vacheron Overseas: Vacheron Constantin Photo Comparison

See the attached photo, in particular that of the strap on its own. It looks like the point of attachment of the bracelet and strap is the set of friction pins on the watch head.

I guess the 1:1 doesn't look too bad in diffuse natural light, but still doesn't seem to be up to the level of the gen. The photos I had previously were taken with flash, which seems to give the finish a harsher look. I guess I need to drop by an AD to see how the Nautilus looks in the flesh... By the way, the gen 5711/1A is in stainless steel, and not white gold.

These are photos of the MBW Nautilus Jumbo. Even though it is a truly legendary replica, it's finish is clearly closer to the new 1:1 Nautilus than the gen. The gen seems to have an almost sand blasted feel to its brushed stainless steel. I think even the very best replicas have a hard time with the superlative finishing on PP, VC, and AP watches.

I'm almost contemplating getting the legendary MBW Nautilus as well, since the quality of finish is supposed to be much better, even with the issues with the date font and the date window position. In terms of fit and finish, the MBW might be a more credible replica...

Some photos of the genuine Nautilus for comparison.

My VCO replica is from Hont, and from looking at the bracelet, it looks like the quality of fit is very dependent on how accurately the attachment screw holes are aligned, and how even and sharp the edge of the endlink is. I don't think this is so much a function of the dealer, as it is that there seems to quite a bit of variability in the parts used to put together VCO replicas. In particular, the number of caseback variants is quite staggering.

Another observation when viewing my replica under a 10x loupe... the surface of the polished bezel has small pits, even though it looks shiny to the naked eye. I believe this is one of the reasons why it doesn't have the mirror finish that the gen does. I remember from shop class the need to work though the various grades of sandpaper, otherwise it's impossible to get a high quality shine to a wood surface after lacquering. The same concept applies to metal finishing... it looks like they went from a coarse polish to a fine polish too soon, and skipped some of the intermediate polishing steps.

So, an update on my VCO replica. Since receiving it on Saturday, I've done some minor tinkering with it: 1. When I posted my initial comparison shots of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas replica, one of the things that bothered me was the improper alignment where the bracelet attaches to the watch head. So, I removed the screws on the back which attached the bracelet, and reseated the bracelet, and tightly fastened the screws. These caseback screws are more robust than the bracelet screws, since the screw head and threads are on opposite ends, unlike the bracelet screws. 2. I also filed down the edges of the links which come together at the clasp, since it was preventing the clasp from coming together securely, and I filed down one of the screws on the side of the watch, which attach the endlink to the rest of the bracelet, since it was sticking out, but was too tight to remove and reseat. 3. Used threadlock on the bracelet screws. Be careful with these screws as they are very weak. I sheared off the top of one screw head while resizing the bracelet, and had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to remove the screw. I find that reversing the direction when encountering resistance helps seat the threads properly, and makes fastening the screws more pain free. Anyhow, the fit is now much better, see the attached photos. I just wanted to say that flaws aside, this is really quite a decent rep, not quite at the level of the super replicas, but it looks credible on the wrist. Some things which could be done to the existing rep aftermarket include: 1. Polishing the polished indents on the bracelet links more throughly. Currently, it is not quite mirror smooth, and there is some unevenness to the polishing. 2. Smoothing then brushing the interior edges of the bracelet. Currently, the edges are not uniformly finished, some parts are smooth and some are brushed. Things which would require a retool at the factory, or a more involved mod: 1. The connection between the endlink and the rest of the bracelet is a bit abrupt, it seems to have just a bit too much of a gap, and there is an awkward kink where they meet, perhaps because of my smaller 6.75" wrist. 2. The lume on the dial and the hands should have the same color. While I would certainly prefer the whitish lume color, even the greenish lume would be okay, as long as both the hands and the dial indices had the same colored lume. 3. The dial could be more shiny, maybe a clear coat of lacquer would help? 4. Switch to either hardened steel bracelet screws, or a design where the screw head is opposite to the threads.

Yes, the Nautilus is very nice. I believe that the one from Hont is exactly the same as the one from Joshua and Andrew.

I've looked at the photos of your white VCO fraken, the OEM dial does wonders. Did you have to do something with the datewheel? Also, which replica did you base this franken off? Was it a cartel rep, or the Silix rep? The finishing on your bracelet looks much better than mine, in particular the polished parts of the links... did you do any custom work on the bracelet, or did it come looking like that? It's a bit frustrating that there seems to be pretty accurate VCO replica parts floating around, but they are spread out over a bunch of versions. It doesn't make too much sense to me to buy three $250+ replicas to put together a fairly accurate version.

The main issue seems to be with the crown itself, which is much too tall on the replica. I don't think the crown guard is the source of the problem... thankfully, since it would be much more involved to fit that instead. Also, the crown itself is a bit rounded at the top and bottom edges, unlike the replica's which is very angular.

Thanks, as requested these are some more photos of the 5711.

These are photos of my new Patek Nautilus and Vacheron Overseas replicas from Hont. In addition, there is a shot of some other Patek replicas I have, including a 3520D, 5119, 5127.

Thanks. Yes, it would be nice to have more ready access to the gen dial, the guilloche is much more pronounced on the gen, and the larger arabic numerals in white gold have wonderful visibility. I do wish they upgraded the screws by going to a more traditional design of screw heads and threads at opposite ends, since that would make the bracelet more robust.

I purchased the gen recently as my first high-end watch, it was $9K from an AD, which was just before the price increase to $12.3K MSRP. The gen is on the right. The overall fit and finish is much better on the gen, but the differences are subtle, things are just crisper in general on the gen. This is quite obvious on the bracelet links in a side by side comparison, but on its own, the rep is exceptional.

By the way, the replica is from Hont, and appears to be the cartel version. Like many others have noted, the screws on this are a bit weak, and I sheared off one of the screw heads while resizing the bracelet. The problem seems to be that the threads are at the top of the shaft, where the screw head is, so it is weaker than most bars, where the screw head and threads are at opposite ends of the bar. The screw head and threads being on the same side is similar to the design of the genuine watch, but this is an instance where it would have been better to deviate from the genuine construction.