freddy333

Spent Saturday day driving around with this On my way out to spend Saturday evening dining with this Have a good Saturday evening.

I have 2 questions -- 1. Did you remove the crystal from the case before heating it? 2. I believe the cyclops on the gen is Plexiglas (plastic), which I would expect to melt if alot of heat or flame was applied to it. So is the cyclops on the GMTIIC not plastic?

If you are going for a 'proper' wedding watch, then small, simple & elegant are the guidelines. If the selection is limited to the 2 you listed, only the Patek even comes close. But I think a Patek Calatrava, VC Patrimony, Rolex Datejust or plain 3-hand Jaeger would be much better choices. The center of attention at your wedding should be you & your bride, not the watches on your wrists. Trust me on this. Oh & congrads.

Wishing someone good health is pretty much a universal theme often tied to good fortune or anything that denotes wealth like the purchase of a new house or the birth of a child. How it got tied to watches I do not know. And English IS my 1st language & there is often no logical explanation for many of the phrases people concoct with it.

Yeah, what he said.

I thought a residence in Vegas Baby (in a tiger-friendly community) was a prerequisite for ownership? Tempting, but I think I will have to pass (no tigers around here).

Kind of old news (I posted blow-by-blow updates of some of the highlights in real time during the auction), but probably worth reposting for those who are new to the wonderful world of Rolex collecting.

Any watch movement can be repaired. But it is always easier (and cheaper) to clean & lubricate than to replace broken/worn parts. That said, most 'dead' movements just need to be cleaned & relubed. They tend to die because the oils either dried out or gummed up. Whether you should automatically service every new rep is a judgment call in my opinion. If the watch contains a POS Asian movement, I would let it run until it dies since the cost of servicing will easily exceed the value of the rep. But I think watches powered by ETAs fall into a gray area where they are definitely worth servicing, but the service costs tend to equal the value of a replacement (surplus) ETA. I think Ziggy's recommendations are probably best -- If it is an important watch that you intend to wear & rely on to keep good time, you should have a general service (clean/lube) when the watch is new so you will not end up with a dead watch or have to spend more to replace worn/damaged parts.

Anything is possible, but I think it is alot more likely that moisture entered your case through the crown/tube or thereabouts. The crystals on these watches may not be installed perfectly, but unless your crystal is significantly higher on 1 side than the other (the height difference when I view my crystal from the side is barely perceptible), I seriously doubt that is the source of the leakage. But it is always best to keep any watch that has not been recently pressure tested away from all moisture.

As long as there actually is an ETA (or a properly tuned Asian movement running at 28.8k bps) beating inside the case, it looks like you got a good deal. Wear & enjoy it.

The perfect name for a real beauty - The 'Black Widow' Sub

Broke out the Daytona beater today

Only a girly-man would let others keep him from wearing whatever he wants to wear. Get the Explorer -- it looks great on your (or any) wrist. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. Period.

Those were exactly my feelings as well & I remain mostly unmoved by the overall design. But this rep's build & finish quality is so good (especially the execution of the 'ceramic' bezel) that I felt it was better to ride the crest of the buying wave now than to let it pass me by & end up reading about another legendary rep that I 'could have had if I had only.........' I think the GMTIIC has a bit too much polish (like most modern Rolexes) to be useful as a daily wearer or beater replacement. But, curiously, I find it a very easy watch to wear since it looks alot like my beater.

Still Thursday night here & I wore this to dinner

It really is not a big issue since so few people will know anything about hand stacks or whether yours is right or wrong, & even fewer will ever get close enough to your watch to check it either way. But it is 1 of those little details that ices the cake & you know how neurotic watch collectors are.

Just noticed it. The factory obviously used the same (uneven) press to fit all the crystals. But this is something you also see on gen watches, so I would not let it bother you.

Definitely something not right there. I am on my way out the door, so I have to keep this short, but on chs models the hour hand should 'jump' in steps between each of the hour index markers. Neither the minute hand nor the GMT hand should move during this setting. When setting the time at the 2nd stop of the stem, all 3 of the hands should move -- GMT, hour & minute.

Most parts houses sell gasket sets for Rolex. Try ofrei.com, julesborel.com or cousinsuk.com. The Triplock comes with 4 gaskets - 1 goes inside the crown, 1 goes around the outside of the tube & the remaining 2 go inside the end of the tube that comes into contact with the inside of the crown (they sit next to each other just inside the outer lip of the tube).

If all else fails, spray a liberal coat of WD40 (penetrating oil) & let it sit for 5 minutes. The caseback should then come off with a caseback opener.

All of the posted problems relate to the syncing of the GMT hand & it appears to be occurring with similar regularity on both the chs & ihs models. For the record, I purchased the Swiss ETA chs version. As I mentioned elsewhere, the movement looks & tests like a standard Swiss-issue ETA.

Nice. En route to dinner with friends Chatting after dinner over coffee (mind the crumbs)

From what I see so far, the 'sync' problems seem to be both temporary (fixable by the owner) & afflicting all versions of the GMT regardless of whether they are chs or ihs. But after Ziggy has overhauled 1 of the chs versions I think we will be better able to pinpoint those problems that are specific to the chs movements from those that relate to either the general GMT functions of either movement or those typical problems that plague most surplus (unserviced) ETA and/or Asian movements.

I keep reading posts suggesting alot of problems with the correct hand stack movement in the new GMTIIC, but I have yet to read an account of a single owner who had to return his/her watch for repair/replacement. Although I do not fiddle with the GMT functions, my watch has been running fine & keeping good time since I received it. If you have had to return your chs GMTIIC for repairs, would you describe the nature of the problem & what the seller agreed to do about it. CERAMIC MODEL ONLY PLEASE