freddy333

Apparently, well worth the wait, too. By-Tor, that is a FINE lookin' watch, my friend. Nothing new at this end

My guess is the movement needs general cleaning. The balance, escape wheel and/or pallet fork pivots are probably gummed-up. Ziggy may be able to offer a more targeted diagnosis, but that is my best shot.

Ziggy.

Not to take anything away from the weight of your comments, which I agree with, but I have been hearing about the fabled 'box of reps' that scares Rolex for several years. In fact, the last time I heard this from a reliable source was about 2 years ago & Rolex, to my ongoing surprise, has yet to launch any type of concerted campaign against the rep community. The really sad thing about all this is that we (RWG & similar sites) are literally nailing our own coffins shut by allowing the content of our site to be routinely indexed by google, which makes most of the contents of the site (including this very thread) available to be used against every rep factory & seller on earth. It is great that we are hosted offshore, making it difficult to locate or affect RWG directly, but by having this virtual encyclopedia of the rep world as accessible as google to every busy-body lawyer & ambulance chaser is just plain insane.

Sunday night & I am still wearing this Because it is Sunday night & I am still dealing with this (Ok, the screenshot IS a bit of an exaggeration, but just a bit)

Nice (useful) tutorial, Lewis.

Alot of people (myself included) simply got used to receiving feedback via the (now defunct) real-time rating system that made it easy to comment on others' posts & wristies. I understand the Admin's reasoning for removing the ratings system, but I remain unconvinced that the overhead it added (not to mention the tedious scrolling/paging required to make our way through what, previously, were more easily navigable & informative threads) could possibly equate to having scores of additional posts of comments being added just to respond with a quick 'Good', 'Bad', etc., comment. As far as the wristies go, I think it helps to keep the interest level up if you post new pics often & try to make the pics you post as compelling & provocative as possible. I am not necessarily directing this at you, Pug (or anyone else in particular), but if I post the same generic wrist shots over & over again, especially of the same watches, I should not expect alot of enthusiastic responses.

Well said.

I have never bought anything from them, so I cannot tell you if they are reliable. But they have much more realistic pricing for the same dials (unfortunately, none of which are very good) that I have seen on NDTrading & similar sites at much higher prices.

Before you try a dremel or some other mechanical method, you might try ammonia (some formulations of Windex or glass cleaner contain ammonia). Ammonia removes some AR coatings as I discovered the hard way.

If you have the tools to open the caseback, yes. If the rotor looks like it is off-center or not sitting flat on top of the movement, that means the gear on its underside is not properly mating with the auto-wind gears below it. If you tighten the rotor with the gears misaligned, you will permanently damage the auto-wind module. So it might be best to remove the rotor (1 screw) & then gently reset it onto the movement, checking to be sure you see the gearing below the rotor turning as you rotate the rotor. If not, lift the rotor off & realign it until you see the gears turning in response to the rotor's movement. Once everything looks good, then tighten the screw only snugly - do not overtighten it. And be sure to use a proper screwdriver that fits the screw channel. If in doubt, let a watchmaker handle this.

If you lack the tools or skill to disassemble/reassemble your movement, you had best let a watchmaker (Ziggy) handle the repair for you. But if you have what is required, the fix is very simple - disassemble, clean & lubricate (with the proper oils) the auto-wind module & the problem will be solved. The auto-wind gears get gummed up (they often leave the rep factory that way), which causes the rotor to spin in tandem with the manual winding gears. A byproduct of a proper cleaning/lubricating is that the rotor then makes much less noise when winding.

Avitt -- I could not agree more with your approach here. After suffering a couple of unavoidable mishaps with customers' 7750s, I have seriously limited my intake of additional work. These movements are so finicky, especially the hour totalizer components, that I always have to weigh the possibility of doing more damage by taking them apart against whatever the problem is & select between the lesser of 2 evils. From what I read, the DLC treatment sounds like it could probably be used on its own. Since all of the 7750s I have treated with graphite continue to run without suffering any further secs-at-6 gearing-related issues, I think it is safe to say that powdered graphite provides a permanent fix as well. So we now have 2 tools in our arsenal available to treat this issue.

Not the worst aftermarket Comex I have seen, but definitely not gen.

Well, 1 of them. I think that some of the Mystery Movement DWs may deserve the title of 'most beautiful POS ever'.

Looks like a winner to me, CBR. A little 1665 love

I think most newbs to reps or mechanical watches -- certainly speaking for myself when I began -- are concerned more with how well the movement performs than how it is constructed. In my experience, most of the mechanics & specifications tend to go over the heads of most watch buyers. But point taken.

I wonder why?

Here is the Reader's Digest bottom line -- the GMTIIC is 1 of the most accurate-looking rep watches ever made A beauty to behold & a marvel to wear. It even provides 90% of the tactile feel (fit & finish) of the real thing, a rare feat for an out-of-the-box rep watch. But it also contains 1 of the most unreliable rep movements ever made. The GMTIIC is legendary for its beauty, accuracy & mechanical failures. Now, go search & read.

Nice pics, but I think you would get a better response if you posted this to the Photography forum.

Yes, elsewhere I once compared the coming apocalypse to the RIAA's attack on mp3 downloading. mp3 downloading was once so prevalent that it virtually put Tower Records (and other major retailers) out of the retail CD business. Within a few months, the RIAA's lawyers had virtually turned the tables on the mp3 downloading sites & downloaders, which effectively put a stop to the majority of (illegal) mp3 downloads. So a highly effective precedent (and legal blueprint for action) has been set & the clock is ticking.

It might also be worth noting that the infamous George used to ship his 'MBWs' (at least that is what I received in my 1665) with 'slow beat' 2846 ETAs. It might also be worth noting that the 'slow beat' 2846 ETA installed in the MBW I got from George died within a few days of its arrival (after I overhauled it, it has been keeping COSC time ever since).

Nice post, but I think you left out the most salient aspect of Rolex movements - the amplitude of a Rolex movement tends to remain relatively stable for many years, which cannot be said of ETA & many other brands' movements. Rolex puts alot of effort into designing their gear trains with great precision, which is why their watches often continue to run very well for a long time, even if unserviced. More than anything else, I think this is what separates a Rolex movement from ETA & most others.

Although there are currently more than 15,000 of us, the vast, vast majority of rep buyers/owners (even the high end stuff) know nothing about RWG & similar sites. When you have reps being hawked via spam on a daily basis, it would be even more newsworthy if alot of buyers did not walk into their local AD with their latest purchase. And as has been discussed numerous times previously, Rolex & the other gen makers are well aware of the state of the art in reps/frankens & will eventually get around to taking action against buyers/owners & sites like RWG. It all depends on their bottom line - when it starts to drop, they look for leaks in the profit dam & a quick google search takes their lawyers right here.

The registry in my personal computer (this computer contains hundreds of gigs of gen watch pictures that I have collected for several years) took a nose dive Friday night &, of course, my backup & Windows Restore both failed (surprise, surprise ). So I have been mired up to my lower lip in Windows for the past 2 days. But, on the positive side, I am wearing the future case for my 6542 project with an aftermarket jubilee Actually, if this watch had a more credible dial, you threw on a gen crystal/crown & beat the case up a bit, it would look quite respectable. It is certainly a comfortable watch to wear while beating your head against 1 of Bill Gate's profit generators.