RobbieG

I know you can source a gen bezel/insert for a couple hundred new from Frei/Borel. The bezel won't fit but you can mill the insert to fit the rep bezel with a bit of work.

Speaking of that, I wonder (not) if they will ever rep the real IWC Father and Son Pilot watch box set. Pretty cool marketing idea from IWC and interesting lume/strap color combos. Very earth tone-y...

Poor Larry. I feel his pain though and I'm going to put in for some money too. Every time I lose a trade it creates some kind of hardship for me. Theoretically, every tick is multiples of fine Swiss watches potentially on my wrist. It just isn't fair that I get robbed of that. I need some bailout money. On that note, I gotta go wash my cath wound...

http://ww2.ajcmobile.com/autojuice/?target...rn_bailout.html

Yeah it really is a cool looking piece and a great complication. Simple and elegant. I really enjoy it especially for travel:thumbsupsmileyanim: And just FYI, look what versatility having the bracelet/strap option gives it. I am going to get a spare bracelet for mine. It is also different in that it is all polished which believe it or not is less blingy than brushed/polished combos which use contrast to set off the bling. Anyway, nice to have something different when you already have all brushed and brushed/polished bracelets covered. Also, I have the sliver dial camp covered well in my collection, but I think the silver/blue combo is nice as well for anyone who would need something with a lighter look...

Yes TJ, I have this Big Date GMT 42 as well. Too lazy to shoot it yet as I have to clean it up a lot and will require alot of clone stamping in PS to make it look brand new like I like my shoots to look. This is my travel watch and the coolest GMT complication ever. Many people just don't realize how innovative UN is. This patented complication has two pushers on the left of the case. The window on the left is always set to home time expressed in 24hr time. Then when you travel you push the top to advance the hours and the bottom to subtract depending on which direction you are going. The hour hand jumps one hour with each click. But here is the kicker: The date will advance simultaneously when appropriate but also will advance backwards as well. You never have to adjust the date in either direction. So as an example, imagine you flew west and landed at 5AM in a time zone that was 6 hours behind. Six clicks of the minus pusher and when you go past midnight the date rolls backwards one day. It is just the coolest and easiest GMT complication ever. Not to mention the coolness of the big date as well and how that complicates the process seamlessly. No bezels to turn that get bumped and change, etc. I really love this watch and can't really imagine ever having a cooler or simpler GMT. I am going to get the bracelet for it too for added versatility. The movement is just awesome and it of course has the legendary UN fit and finsh which is tough to rival...

Well as many of you know I went on a tear not too long ago on teh gen front and spent loads of money. But now that I have peeled back the wants and refined the collection is has become much easier to control spending. I used to just buy what appealed to me on impulse, but now I actually plan my collection in advance giving great thought to ever adding anything. I went from over thirty pieces to six in this way to identify what watches really meant something to me and what I wanted to persue. I think anyone who does something similar will find it much easier to control spending. Decide what range you want your collection to cover and decided which pieces will fill those slots in advance. If I ever like another watch better for a given category I won't have two. I will get rid of one and repace with the other. The categories come down to dials, functions, bling or no-bling, dressy or sporty, bracelet or straps in pretty loose ranges. For me it is small too, but I will use different shoes for versatility but keeping the collection size down as well: Now: One dressy bracelet watch - DJ (soon to be traded in towards DD) One GMT complication - Nardin Big Date GMT (gator and future bracelet too) One Ti watch - IWC Aquatimer chrono One Sub-esq black dialed sports watch - PO (with ss and rubber) One YM-esq blingier grey/silver dialed sports watch - UN MMD Future: One strapped elegant/classic dress watch - probably VC Patrimony Traditionelle One special edition sports watch - probably IWC Jubilee Vintage Aquatimer (mostly because it is based on a watch from my birth year - 67') ?

Now that is funny. Aint it the truth...

Just for show...hahaha...you are absolutely right...too funny... And the UN? Everyone is laying dibs on that and the others. When I had the heart scare Stephane called dibs on all the gens and Mahler the reps. Although Mahler would leave empty handed at the moment. But since you are my Libran brother in blood I guess you can cherry pick the UN MMD and Stephane can claim the rest. No one mentioned the other UN which isn't famous because I have failed to shoot it yet...

No worries Pho - no I didn't read it - I'll go find it. Sigs are funny space wise no matter what you do though, assuming that is what the joke was. Mine is kind of all bunched up on one side which makes it look bigger than it is. Meanwhile, Lani has bigger pics than yours in a pattern which is neater but it still takes up a lot of vertical space. I am considering going to just thumbnails of current watches or none at all - just my RG banner. Although I don't think I will ever take down your quote...

The gen is really nice in the flesh. My best friend has one (the rose/black dialed version) and I wore it once out to dinner to check it out. Really cool. Surprsisingly so. Looks like a trillion dollars with a black Collezioni shirt with the cuffs rolled up one notch. I'm getting so I like more and more simple watches which is why I will probably get a strapped dress watch along these lines as my next purchase - leaning heavily towards a VC Patrimony Traditionelle though, but I do like these alot still...

Good for you Pho. I'm happy for you. I know you have been jonseing for one for a while and had to endure looking at mine all this time. Glad you like it. Sounds like they nailed this one - and regarding the AR it is a pretty easy fix. BTW, I hear what you are saying about the cyclops but honestly, the gen AR doesn't really show up on the mag so I wouldn't worry about it. Just have Chief coat both sides including the mag and it will be fine. And yes, the straps are nice when you have them set right. They kind of wear like a super comfortable bracelet instead of a strap. Again, congrats on the score.

Wow. Thanks Dani. I think they all look great - although I think I like the chrono best followed by the other braceleted model. What are the sizes anyone know? 44-ish probably...

Can someone find pics on there and post them here?

Thanks OS - these are all more great offshoots to the issue and I'm glad we can move past a lot of the old fingerpointing. Maybe more can weigh in on what the future may hold. ETA is maybe going to become a dead issue but if so what takes its place. The industry still needs decent quality movements and everything isn't a 7750 layout - or is it? LOL...

Oh, I almost forgot, I should also add that I tried again to pry the two details out of my dear big brother Lani the entire membership - even those who don't know him - would undoubtedly like to know. 1. Just what is his exact age? 2. Just how many reps does he really have? On the age front, he only will make it obvious that he thinks I'm a pup being in my early 40's, but we know the same people and are from the same era, so we can't be too far off. On the rep front he will only say that he could go "a while" without having to wear the same watch twice. Yeah, no kidding. Maybe later this year I'll see for myself when I go visit him and my ex-homeland. But of course then I will be sworn to secrecy by him I'm sure under penalty of his bodybuilder pythons raining down on me, so I still won't be able to share. All I know is it has got to be a pretty impressive collection. In fact I have numbers in mind for both the age and the rep count which I will keep to myself but I'm on to him. On another note, he doesn't know it yet but I'm going to make him be in my wedding as a spotter to make sure I exhibit the right level of enthusiasm. Kind of like a corner man...

Everytime we end up in that occasional really bad trade and I get to watch hundreds of thousands of highly levered assets evaporate before my very eyes, I always walk over to my watch box. At that point I either: - Gaze into the glass top wondering which gen I'm going to sell first when I go broke - all the while screaming maniacally that the software will never work like my brain. At this point my lead programmer is usually looking for the exit. - Or if it is really bad I open the bottom drawer and take out a rubber PAM strap. This is to use as a tourniquet to save my life in case I decide to slit my wrists and end it all.

No doubt. I said all that jokingly of course. I love TT and I never mind when he shuts me up. I always deserve it. Somebody has to sometimes as you know being that I can go a bit far making sport of my...ahem - fans shall we say? LOL When he ropes me in I laugh and realize that I might be pushing a bit too hard. TT is kind of like my oven. He beeps to tell me its way past pre-heated.

I had a nice talk on the phone yesterday with Lani and one of the topics though brief was movements. We were talking about how there is a lot of focus on dealers and that the factories really control the game and obviously all dealers just have to sell what is produced. I guess to me (and I'm not saying Lani agrees with this necessarily BTW) I never really allowed myself to focus on the whole, "Who is telling the truth and who is lying issues" because I know that it doesn't matter anyway. If I find out that some watch is being sold with an Asian ETA copy in its best version, what do I gain by knowing anything really about the movement and its origins? In other words, we all know that for any version of a watch we are interested in that it comes from one factory and has either one or two different movement options - the cheaper one and the better one. So whether it is ETA or not, if you want that watch you don't have a choice. You just have to buy the one with the better movement if that is important to you or the lesser one if it isn't. So to that end I can't for the life of me figure out what can be gained by having each and every movement story clocked. The factories obviously aren't ready to admit they counterfeit ETA's publicly and they probably never will - and it is getting tougher and tougher to tell what is gen and what is fake anyway. But again, even if you knew every truth about every movement in every watch, what would you do with the information? If you tried to hold the line on having only genuine ETA's in your lineup going forward you are I'm afraid in for a pretty boring rep experience as you will have to pass on pretty much every watch not knowing for sure what is in it. It is also probably another thread but along the same lines, we should always keep in mind that even the known genuine ETA's were never really preserving much of what makes Swiss movements superior anyway. They have traditionally been bulk stock and not from sealed packs, etc. obviously so how much of what makes Swiss, Swiss did they ever really have to begin with? That said, in the future there is really only going to be one way to gen ETA movements and that is to just buy them and drop them in. That way what you will have in your reps is something that truly is Swiss and actually is superior to anything that might come out of China whatever it is. Otherwise, you just have to accept that you get what they give you. Of course many watches don't even come with a choice anymore which I find peculiar as well. It used to be that more watches had the Asian / Swiss option. Now they are all Swiss for some pieces. Meanwhile, there is supposedly a shortage. Hmmmmm. Anyway, Otto has 2824's for around $160 and 2836's for $140. Maybe like AR and lume, true Swiss upgrades will become a standard mod in the near future. I know for me, I have always wanted to make sure I had a real ETA in my reps when I had them incase I wanted to keep the watch forever I would know what was in it could last a lifetime. But once I realized that there was treachery afoot I knew that if I wanted to be sure I would have to upgrade it myself. So my suggestion to those who are tortured by this issue is to forget about trying to figure it out - or who is lying or whatever. Just know that the watch you want probably comes only one way from one factory (UPO, Steelfish, best quality DJ's, etc.) and you have to take what is in it if you want that best version of the watch. And that is true no matter what dealer you get it from. From there, if you really fall in love and want to start modding it and keeping it forever, consider putting another buck and half into it to make it truly Swiss - or just mentally set the money aside (which is really low dollars) for the future that if it dies you will pop one in. I'll look forward to the responses, but PLEASE, no talk about truth telling anymore. I think that has been more than covered. The whole point of the thread is that info gets us nowhere other than standing on a horse and "being right". You still have to take what is given to you by the factory if you want the watch so what difference does it make? The market is always right. If I know something about one of my trades and still lose money did it matter that I was smart and figured something out? The only issue is how I am going to react to what is happening - not repeating the same behavior and predicting different results because after all, I knew something. Lol. So what I am getting at here is more of a discussion along the lines of surrender. In other words, now that we know something is amiss, what will we do to react to it? In other words, not all movements are going to be ETA's - if any - real soon so what will you do? -How many don't want any watch without a real ETA? -How many don't care? -How many will try to buy a cheap Asian version then buy a real one from Otto or wherever and drop it in along with other mods? -How many think all future reps will have A7750's in them and those silly Chinese will never make another movement, ever? LOL...

They are fine but I prefer Prestge Time. Run by a total watch nut named Ben. The owner is in the store and he knows watches. Call and ask for him and if you see a lower price elsewhere he will beat it. Been around for maybe 10 years. Honest as the day is long. All new stock serials in tact, boxes papers, no shop worn stuff. You request a watch and if he doesn't have it he will located it with an AD in a day and get it right in for you. Pretty much anything - even brands not on his site - just ask him.

Lani - stop - I'm rolling on the floor and my stomach hurts. This is the funniest stuff I have read in forever. All 100% true too. Lani speaks the truth about me. I'm laughing cause' I can't believe I said all that but I guess I did. Oh well, you guys all know I'm wacked out by now. Yes, to be continued R in person. I'm gonna take a really deeeeeeeep breath next time (if I have one). But for the benefit of the members check this out - I forgot to tell you something else. I got in a little disagreement with the ER doc who wanted to admit me cause my EKG, enzymes, chest X were all normal. So I'm like if they are all normal I'm not having a heart attack so why do I have to go? I got work to do you know. So she says because you have chest pains. And I'm like, well does everyone with normal ER work up get admitted and she said of course no. So I said, why me then and when she didn't answer fast enough I was getting fidgetty cause I wanted to go and she wouldn't let me. So they started treating me like a child - a "hostile" patient. She even told me I had to "behave myself" and stop asking so many questions or she was going to put my bed in the back ER pod by myself. Like I was 6 or something. It was pretty funny. And I thought of RWG - no sh*t. She almost mobed me to the Loonie Bin. So then I start cracking up. I was thinking, who does she think she is? Only Two Tone gets to tell me to shut up when I'm out of line. Only him. He is like my big brother or something. I almost said to her she better call TT he will know what to do - just to mess with her but I didn't obviously. The whole thing was funny though. Only RobbieG could try and talk himself out of having a heart attack...

Stephane is going to make out like a bandit. All I have is gens at the moment. Mahler goes home empty handed and Stephane makes a heck of a good score.

Just keep in mind that if you do the all black one the dial on that version is incorrect and you will need to swap a dial in from the blk/red version so you have the correct blue floating indices. For some reason they used black ones for the black bezel version which is only correct for the gold watch not steel.

Huh...I'll be damned. Even the red part too? Cool. My MMD is definitely some kind of non-rubber coating like a thick epoxy paint or something...

Likewise brother R. Always great to catch up. 1st regarding the ER in the strip mall: These things are great if no one has heard of them. Don't think walk in scummy clinic. If I need a doc I go there as it takes 4 weeks to get a appt with my regular doc. They are like these kind of upscale ER quick care places - fully staffed, ER docs, but you can go for a flu shot or whatever too. In and out in 15 minutes. Plus it is right by Nordstrom and Saks. I found the place on my way back from the bigger mall where those stores are once and kept it in my mind. But don't go thinking I'm one of those shopper guys - I never shop, but when I do I like those two stores. My goal is to have no wardrobe - besides pajamas of course... So I stayed there that day for a while just like a real ER then they took me by ambulance over to the hospital and admitted me to a regular room until Monday. But the ER place in the mall is a full emergency room so no worries. I wondered why you were cracking up when I told you that today. Anyway, Lani wants me to admit that I'm stressing cause' I'm getting married in September. But I think it will be more fun to let him take it from here and throw me under the bus and tell you what he was cracking up on today... PS: I forgot to tell you I'll always remember that day because I got this really cool velvet/silk Armani Collezioni shirt that day that reminded me of that movie Night at the Roxbury. It is like a really dark almost blackberry purpleish color and sort of multi colored in different light like that weird car paint I still haven't worn it as it is kind of a Vegas going out shirt. Anyway, I crack up because it makes me think of that movie... Which reminds me, I need to make my post long since I'm responding to Lani. So anyway, that shirt was marked down to literally nothing from like four hundred or something stupid like that originally. Goes to show you what a scam clothes prices are. Anyway, I figured I would wear it a couple times and then sell it on Ebay for twice what I paid to somebody that thinks they should pay that much for a shirt - sucker...Nah, it really is a unique shirt. OK I'll shut up now that my post is long enough...