RobbieG

Yeah, in fairness though PVD does that around lugs. Traditional PVD really sucks. Thankfully there are new alternatives to getting a black watch liek the Blacksteel process, rubber coatings, ceramics, etc. that are more durable. So you have a UN then I assume? We need pics man, post em' up!

The next time you order from a dealer here, ask him to send you a movement for it. Sometimes dealers are cool like that and have one laying around. You can get a lot of stuff like that just by asking - assuming you have a good relationship with whatever dealer you use.

Sorry, I got carried away with women and got OT. Back to AR. In my experience there has been no genuine AR which is comparable to Chief's except UN's colorless variety. They have two coatings that they have used in the last few years, both are extremely powerful - most powerful in my box by far. I think they like to use the tinted version on black dials as it helps bring out the richness. The other they use on light dials which has no color. You guys have seen the images many times, but again totally colorless AND powerful. Until I got that MMD I had never seen anything so good as Chiefs. It seems like there are others which are as strong or near as strong, but they all have color to them. But not these... I do like the gen PO's AR though. Very powerful and I actually like the little bit of color on a black dialed watch. I like the way it brings out the purple spectrum in blacks, but Jakob's for example I didn't like so much. I got it on an homage watch I did and it wasn't anywhere near strong enough for my taste and it had a very solid and relatively light blue color to it at angles, but defintely more blue than purple. If AR is tinted I prefer it to be pretty dark myself and again, on a black dialed watch only.

Yeah, man that bar was great! Wow! We would go there after rehearsals a lot on Friday nights. It was so happening and the hottest women were hanging from the rafters. If you left there with less than two you were having a really bad night. I'm certain that place was the catalyst for more menage a' trois than anywhere in the country. That well had to be the toughest to work in town. I swear I can EXACTLY picture the lead well there like it was yesterday. We would always hang right at that little nook just down from it closest to the door. Hey didn't Selleck and Menetti buy that place at the tail end of filming PI? I think we are going back to what 87 or 88 now?

This is why I love you man. So passionate. And you rib me for being so passionate about my experiences... But I must confess, I don't know who is "targeting" Chief and Rob? I must have missed something. I'll have to call you later and get the scoop. PS: I'm still waiting for the answer on the group shot and my proposition, but I found out Nicholas Nickolas closed a few years ago. How about the place that replcaced it, any good? Or how about Restaurant Row? Still there? Used to be two other favs of mine there called Black Orchid and Baci? I suppose those are gone now too?

Oh no doubt BT. I am with you and would be pretty confident buying anything on my own. I know if I'm not sure about something, someone here will help me. I just wanted to point out how brutal the Rolex service network can be over the nittiest little details. To someone unsuspecting and new at this they can end up getting a real smackdown. They really are a bunch of secret handshake a*sholes over there in their ivory - er, I mean...green tower.

Yeah, I forget just what I paid for mine, but I bought it after retail had gone up to $7500. I think I paid just over 5K on bracelet. On rubber they will be five to seven hundred less or so. They have done a good job at limiting an already small production for these which is why there isn't a flood of used ones around. They always come up but the values hold well and they don't stick around long. Don't forget, annual production is at about 15K total last year for them, down from 22K or so at the peak. And there have been barely 7000 MMD's made in total of them in 6 years. Less than 1000 pieces a year. Like a limited edition that isn't limited...

If you don't want or care to ever have access to Rolex for all future service then BT is right and it wouldn't matter. But what I wrote was assuming you will get your services done in house and save all the receipts, etc. for resale or whatever. A lot of people are anal about that stuff. And some people like myself really like to buy things new. I'm like that about watches, cars, electronics, furniture, pretty much everything. I realize many aren't. But whatever type you are just know that if you do intend to have Rolex service your watch in the future vet it out good or then can and do dog people out for stupid sh*t. On the other hand, if you don't intend to use Rolex for service or parts or whatever and just do your own thing, BT is 110% right. No point in doing any of it or ever buying a new watch. Find one and just make sure it is gen obviously on your own with a little dilligence. And in that case just try to get the best price you can knowing that you won't be using Rolex for anything anyway. Especially if you intend to keep the watch forever or a really long time.

Funny position on the date. Maybe it isn't expensive after all or you have to figure they would have shifted that module to be at exactly 4 where it should be no? Or the indices are put in the wrong place and they should have adapted the spacing to fit the movement? That would drive me nuts I think.

If you are going to daytrade (flat at the end of each day) as a beginner, I recommend trading index futures. As a small trader the Mini Dow has the best tick spreads and is a little less whippy than the Spoos or the Q's or the Rut. If you are going to swing trade (a few days per trade), I recommend trading Forex or indexes via ETF's. If you are going to position trade (a week or longer per trade), consider trading options via strangles/butterflys/condors i.e selling premium, or if you want to trade futures, energy and metals are volatile but can be rewarding. As always index trading via ETF is fine too. Perfectly liquid, long/short ETF's now on many instruments, & standard 4:1 leverage with many brokers if you want it. BTW since everyone is obsessed with Forex. Don't try to day trade FX or news trade FX intraday. The desks are the only winners and unless you are a champion thye spreads will eat you alive. It is also a given to use a fixed spread broker that shops the best spreads at all the banks on the fly and not a dealing desk house like the big houses that are the first hits you get in the search engine. EFX group / MB Trading is one with good spreads if I recall correctly. I don't trade FX via the spot market at the moment so I am out of that loop. All this said, figure out what you want to trade and then buy two books. Just pick any really - one as a basic market type guide - maybe Tony Turner's beginner day trader book or something? The other should be something very specific to futures or ETF's or FX and also be a beginner book. Once you have read those, get a software front end and a free real time data feed. Then devote some time to feeling things out, etc. I'm not an educator so I'll stop there but that should help narrow the field a bit. But the bottom line is like FT said, you are going to want to read voraciously as this is just one of those things where everything you need to know isn't in one book. I still read everything I can get my hands on to this day. I probably have a hundred or more books in my trading library.

Not yet. We are told it is in the pipeline, although we don't know which dial color/configurtion - special edition blue wave dial or standard - bracelet or rubber with Ti elements like the MMDC which has been done so far.

You could always brush the links. It is really easy to do. You just have to take your time to make sure the strokes are straight...

+1 on all this. I suspect FT and I have very similar views and approach to strategy. He is right in that this is a full contact sport. I really think it is very tough for someone to do this a second career. You must read everything in sight but the problem is as a noobie you have no idea what you are reading and if it really makes sense in real world application. Keep in mind that 95% of education and systems out there suck. If they worked, why would a guy waste his time selling 30K copies of a book that has they keys to the trading universe if it really won 85% of the time with a 2:1 profit factor? He would be trading billions and not writing books. Just know this, don't buy into the hype that any one thing you learn is teh key. successful trading is about replication of extremely small edges, disclipline, capital and risk management. Real returns are much smaller than the books promise trust me. Everyone wants to quit their job, trade 5 contracts on a 50K account and make a living. "Hey, its only one point a day, I can do that no problem, right?" Um, yeah right... This business is brutal in every sense. You are up against the smartest people in the world in a less than zero sum game. Somebody wins, somebody loses, AND your broker and the exchange get a cut whichever way it goes. And yes, learn a market inside and out. I know guys that wouldn't trade the S&P if you put a gun to their head. But for me it is like a concerto. Like notes flowing across a page. I got to know the Beast as we call it very well over staring at it, trading it, and relentless backtesting of countless hypotheses over more than 10 years. As much as anything a big part of the battle isn't which strategies you trade (and yes, I believe in rule based trading without emotion or speculative opinions) but rather knowing what everyone else is doing and why. How the market reacts to news events historically, etc. I am always amazed when I go on the forums and poke around to see if anyone is saying anything smart I can learn from. What I see is an amazing number of traders who have the lingo down and all these systems and canned indicators and they don't really know what a market is. The core is where you want to be. If you are long, someone is on the other side of that trade. Why? What are they thinking that is different that you. I probably sound like a broker record with the gambling refernces but all great traders know that those concepts are exactly the same. Traidng is like no limit holdem. The best players play the man, not the cards. in other words, the system doesn't matter as much as how you understand the dynamics of what and why other people are doing what they are doing in order to put together a plan of how you are going to react to each new piece of information that comes in. Our systems are more like adaptive "thinking" algos than anything else. Play the man, not the cards. After all, he is the one on the other side of your trade that has his hand outstretched and trying to pick your pocket...

5% per trade is much too high to stay in the game through thick and thin. I wasn't aware you are trading options. In that case, no offence to your trading style but I hope if you are trading options you are selling them and not buying them - in other words, in the business of collecting premium. If you are not alreayd doing it, adopt a strangle or better yet butterfly/condor strategy. Sell premium for small credits and debits, pocket the spreads, hedge everything overnight, and just wait for the sweet spots to make a score. The other arm of my group runs the options side and we rarely have a losing month and drawdowns rarely break 3%. Buying options on speculation is suicide trading. More daytraders go broker doing that than anything else - Arbs eat the homerun potential up and the suckers get buried alive. Also, trade index options and never individual stocks. No reason to assume the short term volatility risk unless you are trading a substantial mixed basket of movers you like. I recommend trading the Q's and the RUT. Those strategies work very well for us.

Wearing my "travel" watch the last two days. I always reserve this watch for travel so I really appreciate how nice it is more, but I have been extremely slammed with work and haven't been able to get away. The "itch" overtook me and I needed a fix. A fact: I have never worn this house outside of the house even once where I didn't get a compliment on it each and every day. The only other one that comes close to that is my Datejust believe it or not. No doubt the Nardin Dual Time is a beauty that is for sure. Best and strongest AR in my box too. Used to the the PO had that title but no more...

The extension is a very positive and secure snap in version that uses the actually clasp snap ro secure it when the watch is closed. When open you can just pull the fold out, much like you would pull a deployant buckle apart. It is not an adjustable extention, but it is quite substantial. The old Rolex extentions are an old design and rarely make the bracelet wide enough to accomodate all but the thinnest warm water suits. It is a far more rugged design all around. The quailty of the hand finish work makes it feel very luxurious, but when you really understand the design you realize how "bulletproof" tough it really is.

Yes. Sure does. The finest bracelet and clasp I have ever seen on any watch at any price I should also mention...

We were letting RWG1 use The Bin it as a sort of home forum while they were down. Trailboss, JohnG and others call RWG1 home, hence why Boss posted his thread here. That has since past and they are up and running now I think - at least they were last I knew...

Yeah, very, very, very important to really vet out the AD trail with Rolex stuff as they are just so brutal regarding service stuff. The controls they have in place are just mind boggling. I know a guy that bought a like new Sub with boxes and papers, etc. and figured all was well. Five years later he sends it in for service to a factory store and somehow they figured out that the bezel assembly or something wasn't a genuine Rolex part and of course Rolex didn't do the replacement. They refused to work on the watch and blacklisted the serial number as a known franken. My AD told me they literally have a franken (not what they call it, but to use our terminology) hotsheet and once a watch is blacklisted you can never get it serviced by Rolex or get parts for it again through the proper channels. Because of this stuff I actually have a rule that I won't purchase a used Rolex at all if it is modern and available new. If it is older or otherwise vintage I would obviously. Not that I expect anyone to think anything less than that is going overboard. Yeah, it is and so be it. Again, for me it is a time management thing. I'm just not willing to go through what it takes to properly vet out a pre-owned Rolex and as such my rule is to buy new from now on. For me all that is a pain in the a*s so I would rather just buy a new watch. Plus I kind of like watches to be new when I get them anyway. Anyway, I don't expect others would have so stringent a rule as me, but jsut know that this is not the only horror story out there. I agree with whoever posted earlier that you must choose an AD and get it appraised and signed off on by Rolex that everything is original and the serial isn't blacklisted. .02

LOL. Just saw that. Wow. Don't I feel like a tool...

Yes it is. I don't know why, but I have a feeling they may do a 6498 clone of this for some reason. If it was an Asian one and they did it from scratch they could even cut the bridges to the same shape. That may be wishful thinking though I'm sure. Oh, and I forgot to post the pic on my last post in this thread with the original from 1921. It is up now. The new homage is pretty much the same other than the layout differences...

The WM9 YM is probably the most accurate - nearly gen like really. But the SFSO is right there - especially the white dial which is the most accurate of the three colors actually. I have had both as gens and reps and recently. I would say the YM is the more versatile watch for sport and dress. Yes, the YM is a little blingy but it works as well with shorts and jeans as a suit. The SFSO is just not as good as a dress watch so a little less versatile in terms of fitting under a correctly sized shirt sleeve. That said, if you don't want to spring for the high cost of the WM9 and it is between the SFSO and the Noob factory yachty, get the SFSO.

Me either. Just wondering what the numbers are out of curiosity. For all I know RWI is twice the size of RWG and RG is half the size of us. Not my bag to know but since I saw the thread it made me curious...

Yeah, fixing flaws is pretty standard of course. I was refering to the personalized service being above and beyond as well as them looking for and finding something even more minor that I didn't bring their attention to. Those two items are what I thought made the story special - alonng with the four day turnaround time...

Yeah it comes down to a matter or pride for them. The reason it works is because they are kind of taking the cutomer out of the equation in a sense. It doesn't really matter who has the watch, how old it is, or what the circumstance is. Just knowing that a certain part wasn't finished right bothers them. They just don't want the embarrasment of ever having something shoddy (in their eyes - it really was minor - and as for the movement issue that was even more minor) out in the world. Horology at the highest level is really all about the details of course. I'm sure Patek or Vacheron or Lange would have done the same thing for any watch, but I dont know about calling me in person. That was a nice touch. It is also nice to know a watch that isn't from their high complications line gets the same attention to the finest details.