freddy333

Nice axe, watch & picture (amazing color coordination). I am wearing the usual beater today I usually play a Les paul, but these are my 2 favs

I do not think I have ever seen a 'fresh, clean ETA' in a rep. From what I have seen or heard from others, they tend to be used and/or unserviced (even those from sellers who charge an additional fee to 'service' the watch for you are usually borderline). In the 20+ years I have been collecting watches -- gens & reps -- the only rep that had what appeared to be a 'fresh, clean' ETA was this 1, which I got in the mid-80s (You can read about it in this thread) I could not agree more here. The Seagull/Lemania copy is, in my opinion, THE highest quality movement ever put into a commercially made rep watch & 1 of the best-made movements in general. I have owned 2 Daytona reps with this movement (the 1st for almost 10 years) & they wind, run & keep time flawlessly Although it is obviously inaccurate by today's standards, I have kept 1 in my permanent collection solely because of the quality of the movement. I used to own an AMF Sportster, so I know about quality issues. But I am definitely scratching my head over your (negative) comments about the DJ. My 1st gen Rolex was a 16013 (I still own a 16014) & it ran, flawlessly, for many years until I lost it. And that was without any servicing, which was a mistake on my part. I also had a relative who was a professional Rolex-trained watchmaker & I remember him telling me that Rolex watches were the 'best made' watch in the world. And although I am an amateur, at best, that has been my experience as well. The 3035 is probably 1 of the weakest links in Rolex's movement chain, but I have never had any problems with either of mine. Alot of reliability issues are down to the individual tech who services (or last serviced) your watch. The watchmaker in my family used to service watches that had just been returned from Rolex NYC & I remember a couple of times hearing him cursing under his breath as he remedied something the Rolex tech had done wrong or failed to fix the 1st time. I do not think this was a frequent problem, but it happened enough times that it made an impression on me when I was a teen.

Overall, I think the ETA-powered reps are pretty reliable these days. Especially, if you get them serviced regularly, which is a prerequisite for any mechanical movement. Gone are the bad old days when even the best reps were powered by cheap, unreliable Asian 'mystery' movements (these bear no direct relation to the 'Mystery' DW movements) that were considered great if they kept reasonable time for 6 months before they ticked their last tock. Like others said, you rarely hear of problems with 7750-powered watches these days (exceptions being the secs at 6 modified versions, even though many of the 1st generation are still ticking away without missing a beat). But if you plan to keep your new Chopard, I would follow Ziggy's advice & get it properly serviced. Then you should be able to enjoy it without fear (at least until the next service interval).

Did a bit of watch cleaning this evening & still wearing this (very clean) sample But I think By-Tor has convinced me that I will have to locate/add a correct hand stack 1675 'Pepsi' rep/franken to my collection. I believe the GMT hand is located between the hour & minute hand on the 1675. Is that correct?

If you are going to replace the crown, I would recommend replacing the crown tube at the same time with gen parts (crown & tube). The reason is that the rep tubes (& crowns) are junk & the threads on them usually strip soon after you replace them, which requires re-replacement. The gen parts, which you can get on ebay (ofrei.com, cousinsuk.com, julesborel.com, etc. all sell good, Swiss-made aftermarket tubes that work well with a gen Triplock crown (3 dots under the crown is usually a Triplock)), last alot longer & make your watch 'feel' more gen-like. There are multiple tutorials on how to swap out tubes/crowns in the Watch Repair forum as well as in Ziggy's sections.

The ETA 2846 is the correct slow beat movement for a vintage Sub or Seadweller. Repaustria posted a short tutorial on how to mod the clutch lever spring to remove the extra notch for the date setting. If you are comfortable disassembling the keyless works, it is an easy mod. If not, any watchmaker willing to perform mods (Ziggy) can do it for you.

Avitt -- you could be right about the Breguet overcoil, but I remain unconvinced that a pristine gen Daytona 62xx movement just happened to get separated from its gen Daytona 62xx case & ended up going solo in an ebay auction. A more likely scenario is that the owner (or modder) was unable to locate an aftermarket dial without give-away flaws (welcome to the club), so he decided to cut his losses & part out the bare movement for a quick $25k instead of trying to hold out for an $80-$150k buyer who is looking for a complete watch. The more I ponder that premise, the less legitimate that auction appears.

I agree. For your 1st exposure to reps, especially for the price, you could hardly have done much better than this 1. With proper care, it should last a lifetime. Enjoy your new toy.

Nanuq - No surprise there. Pictures posted from http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c36/34dean/ Poster 'Brady1031' from IP address 69.0.32.38 --- performing WHOIS on "69.0.32.38"... pppox pool bras4 mrdnct.12355 SBC06900003200023060425163605 (NET-69-0-32-0-1) --- performing WHOIS on "NET-69-0-32-0-1"... CustName: pppox pool bras4 mrdnct.12355 Address: Private Address City: Plano StateProv: TX PostalCode: 75075 Country: US

If I saw this movement in a known-gen watch, I would take it as is. But a few images (followed by Phong's comments) from jewelryandwatch along with the seller's thin storyline leads me to think otherwise 'The price for exchange Main Plate only You have to send us your old main plate to exchange' --Phong (Phong also told me he can engrave anything you want on the plate.) 'Complete balance bridge with genuine Rolex jewels units and genuine stud, The price exchange with your old Valjoux 72 balance bridge only, you have to send us your old balance bridge' --Phong 'You able to send your balance wheel to us to modify and install genuine stars, this parts for 727, 722, 72B Note: Must have screw balance wheel, This price for exchange or modify only' --Phong

It sounds like the same program that aired on US PBS tv a month or 2 ago, which cited Italy as a source for a lot of higher end (non watch) replicas.

Obviously, not. And I am not going to tell him either. But I am also not going to spend $25k when I can convert a generic V72 for 1/10th of that & the result would look & function the same as the movement in the auction. But for that rare wealthy collector with an empty gen 62xx case, it might be a good deal (as long as the movement in the auction is not a conversion itself). The seller does have a (limited) history with high end Rolexes & similar watches, so it is probably legit. But, knowing what I know, I would be crazy to bid on a bare movement like this without having it appraised by a knowledgeable 3rd party. ________ On 2nd thought -- How could a gen 72B have possibly lost its case & ended up going to auction by itself????????? I agree with Iceberg, something smells VERY fishy. If the movement was shot, damaged, rusted, etc., so badly that the gen owner was forced to replace it (which would have had to been done quite some time ago, since these movements have not been made for many years), then this auction might make sense. But having a bare 72B in near pristine condition (and knowing what we know about conversions, DWs, etc.), this story just does not hold water. I think this is probably a conversion like some of us have in our DWs & this guy is using the 'I Will Buy Your Case' rouse to give his story some credibility. Poppycock.

I have 2 of them (1 from ofrei, I cannot remember where I got the other) & although they are alot of fun to play with, neither either provides a good seal or opens a caseback that was closed with the appropriate tool (like Nanuq uses).

Definitely -- luck & timing is the name of the game. I found a new gen set of steel Daytona hands for my watch several months ago, but I have not seen any more since then.

The price range I quoted was accurate at the time I wrote that post (January). But, as has been noted numerous times here, prices for anything with the name 'Rolex' on it have been (& continue to be) rising.

I guess it never hurts to take another look at an old subject, but there are a number of tutorials that describe this already.

If my watch cases were not already over-booked, I would have to add 1 of these white dial beauties to my collection. Very nice, By-Tor.

Not. They are both the same diameter (25.6mm), but differ as follows ETA 2840 Height - 5.2mm Jewels - 23 Beats per hour - 21.6k Power reserve - 48 hours ETA 2824 Height - 4.8mm Jewels - 17, 21 or 25 Beats per hour - 28.8k Power reserve - 40 hours Optional hack feature

See this thread. The current Daytonas, 1165xx models, have running seconds at the 6 o'clock subdial. All previous Daytona versions had running seconds at 9.

Unless you have a timing machine (or know how to ballpark the beat by movement of the balance), you should never/not move the larger arm. That 1 sets the beat. The smaller arm adjusts the length of the hairspring, which fine-tunes the speed of the movement (the longer the spring's effective length is, the slower the movement runs & the shorter it is, the faster the movement runs). Usually (if the movement is in proper working order), if you move the small arm closer to the larger arm, that will lengthen the spring & slow the movement. Conversely, if you move the small arm away from the larger arm, it shortens the spring & speeds up the movement. However, if the movement is out of adjustment, the small hand may have had to be set past the larger hand to offset a large deviation. In this case, the opposite may be true. And that may be the case for your watch. So make a very small change & then monitor the watch's accuracy over a period of several hours. If it is still off, make a corrective readjustment.

I was not aware such a thing exists. If so, can you cc me on that also? Thanks.

By-Tor -- Thanks to your always brilliant pictures, I think I may actually be warming to the GMT-Master, which I have never liked before. I wonder if the correct hand stack movement is available for the original GMT-Master (with non-metalized index markers & matte dial) in a case that accepts gen parts (crystal, crown/tube)? Anyone? Oh, & I am wearing this while working on this

Beautiful watch.

Yes

Bob Frei can be tempermental & just plain weird at times. But if you do your homework (always a good idea anyway) & order by part number, ofrei is a great operation to do business with & usually my 1st stop for tools, parts & supplies. Cousins is also good, as are Cas-Ker.com & Julesborel.com.