freddy333

Let me add my voice to By-Tor's in welcoming Ubi back into the wrist checks. I would like to wear this tomorrow (Monday) But it will probably be this - the usual beater

I had the tv on while I was reading RWG & overheard Andy Rooney on 60 Minutes say the word 'watches', so I walked into the room where the tv is & happened to catch him talking about his watch collection. Unfortunately, I only caught the tail end of his segment, but I thought it was interesting that he used it to talk about watches. If you are on the west coast of the US, check it out at the end of tonight's 60 Minutes.

My thoughts exactly. It can only bring you bad karma.

Ditto that.

Another park, another Sunday And 1 for the road Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Excellent article with a number of good points. I will add that those of us who work on our own watches should be able to tell the difference between a genuine ETA & its Asian-made analog based on the parts & assembly quality (there is a difference). But the average rep buyer is definitely going to get suckered here since most people are either unable to open their watch case or do not have any way to authenticate what they see if they can. In the case of the Asian 7750, I have seen at least 3 different versions of this Chinese-made ETA clone in Daytona reps over the past 3 or 4 years. 1 is built like a battleship (similar in quality to the ETA), 1 is reasonable quality & 1 is constructed out of relatively light gauge parts & poorly machined. I think Ziggy noted similar differences in 1 of his 7750 reviews. The other problem many rep buyers will experience is the usual misleading information coming from many rep sellers. With a history of inaccurate statements like '1:1', 'perfect', 'this is a picture of the exact watch you will receive', 'freshly serviced by our own watchmaker', 'waterproofed', etc., you have to assume that future options like 'genuine ETA' may also be suspect. On the other hand, considering the high quality/accuracy of some of the newest designs coming out of Asia (select Vietnamese-made cases & the GMTIIC being prime examples), maybe we are seeing a sea-change in the quality of Asian-made reps. Could it be that some of these factories are following the Japanese formula from the 70s that produced some of the world's best watches, cars, motorcycles & electronics? Of course, only time will tell. But things may not be as dark as they may seem.

I tend to do things in a somewhat reverse order compared to some of you. Instead of researching because or while I am working on a project, most of my project watches tend to come about out of the great respect that develops after I have researched a particular model for a number of years. That is, the research tends to come before, often years before, I ever embark on a project to construct the watch. Vintage Daytonas & Double Reds are 2 good examples. But I cannot wait to see how these turn out.

I would not travel with that many watches, especially, if you are (or look like) a student. You are just begging for trouble. I would wear 1 (preferably, the gen) & ship the rest to yourself. Insure the package for a small amount, no more than $25 or $50 (total), since you are unlikely to get anything more than that if the package is lost & higher amounts tend to trigger postal inspectors' inspection reflex.

Please do not take this the wrong way, but are you sure you are turning the crown in the correct direction for the date change? Turn it the wrong way, & it will act 'broken'. Alot of people make that mistake & I have done it myself. If that is not the case, it could be that the date wheel has dislodged itself from the track so the changer is missing the notch on the wheel. That would be the easy fix once you remove the hands & dial. If that is not the problem, it may take a bit more detective work to locate the problem.

Are you talking about the new Rolex Deepsea? Last I heard, it was not hitting the ADs until fall or towards the end of the year. How did your friend score 1 so soon? And I hope you will be posting some new pics of the watch here.

The number in the window is the hours & the black arrow is the minutes (no running seconds). The watch is manually wound.

Rolex does not use the holograph stickers any more. The watches now come with a sticker that contains only the model number.

Probably the Vacheron Constantin 'Jumping Hours' (at right) But I would be seriously remiss if I did not include the Newman that came about completely by accident simply because I had some parts left over from the previous 1

Yes, those are all gen Rolex calibers (movements). NDTrading dials are designed to fit gen Rolex movements. If you want to use their dials on an ETA, you need to clip off the dial feet & either epoxy them back onto the dial in the correct positions for an ETA or use dial dots or some other method of affixing the dial to the top of the movement.

I am impressed.......& that says something coming from a Yamaha rider Who wears a SD (at left)

I read Ziggy's piece previously, but, as usual, your observations & recommendations make alot of sense & have been duly noted. Thank you.

I have absolutely no idea what a 'balancing' noise is, but if the watch is making a scraping sound when you move your arm, then the rotor is either coming into contact with the caseback or some part of the movement. Neither is good & should be looked into.

I received something with a correct hand stack (order: hour hand, GMT, minute, seconds) in the mail today. Here are 2 quick & dirties I feel compelled to add that this watch is quite literally a marvel to behold in person. This is the 1st rep in my experience that achieves a sense (not quite the full monty) of the gen's fit & finish. And I base this on having now made 3 trips to an AD to view & test drive the gen GMTIIC. Of course, those of you with gens on hand will be able to provide a more detailed comparison, but I would challenge anyone to ID this watch as a rep from a normal viewing distance (a few feet). The crown is good, but the engraving is a give away when inspected closely (the crown engraving is off), so that will definitely need to be replaced. It would also be nice if the cyclops were properly AR'd, but I only really notice the difference in the AD's showroom or in bright sunlight. In normal indoors light, it is not something that I would generally be able to detect. Amazingly, I think the strongest 2 features of this rep are its case & dial. Yes, I said dial. Now, as I always say, I am better with vintage pieces than modern, but the printing quality is far, far better than any other Rolex rep I have ever encountered. The dial text is not just laser-sharp & well-defined, but also properly 3-dimensional as modern gen dials are. All of the GMT functions not only work, but, so far (knocking on the nearest piece of mahogany), without incident. The bottom line is that this is a 1st in my 25 years of collecting watches - a Rolex rep -- a current model at that -- that looks & feels (mostly) like the real thing right out of the box, so to speak. Never before have I handled a Rolex rep that contains no obvious (or even not-so-obvious) glaring mistakes or rep-like inaccuracies that belie its Asian lineage. Hopefully, this is a hint of greater things to come & not just a 1-time blip in rep history. My recommendation - Unless you absolutely abhor Rolex watches........Do not pass go.......Do not collect $200......Run, do not walk......Get This Watch!

Have you missed all of the threads regarding Vietnamese cases & NDTrading?

I think I would replace the pearl in the insert (I do not think that model has a metalized pearl), but a beaut otherwise.

No comment.

Stephane -- What is the story on the case back? Where is it from (NDTrading?????)? What case did you fit it to (MBW???????)? Do you have more pics?

Frankly, I would give her 5 STARS for buying you any watch (most women, unless they are into watches, think all watches have batteries anyway). Just be honest. Tell her how much you appreciate the wonderful gift & the fact that she was thinking about you while in NYC. But explain that, while you plan to keep & cherish her gift forever (which you had better do), it is just too inaccurate to wear. Tell her it is like wearing a fake Chanel handbag with the name misspelled (in large letters) on the side of the bag -- CHANNEL (spelled wrong). I think she will get the point.

Not strange at all. Many collectors are 'drop-shippers', which means the collector is located in 1 place (in GhangZhou, in this case), but the products are shipped to you from another place (in this case, ShenZhen). Before returning a watch, you should always ask the collector to give you the shipping address he wants you to send the watch to. I would let him know the exact address you shipped the watch to (do not assume anything......be exact) & then he can contact someone at that address to have them contact the local post office to trace the package. Most of the time, the only person who can request a package trace is the person at the TO: address on the package. Hopefully, now they will be able to locate your missing watch & get things put right. I hope you kept all of your shipping documents........

I completely missed that. Thanks. And, yes, the big question is if/when he has them available -- now or in the near future. Worst case, since the case is the same, you could purchase the $198 version & swap out the guts if/when you locate the chs movement in the future.