RobbieG

Sounds like it might be time to belly up to the bar and grab one then - a Planet Ocean that is....

Nikon. Tripod. Natural diffused light always in the AM. Dust clean up in Shop. Nothing else really besides a hair of level adjustment but nothing too drastic there as some do. Too much processing and they start to look surreal which is exactly what I don't want. I shoot in natural light always because I want to preserve that natural feel without looking too slick. Just my particular style I guess. I also prefer not to use a light box as well. It is tougher to shoot this way as the light rarely cooperates. But when it works, it works. It is all in the setup...

Cool piece man. Speaking of UN, this piece has the exact same layout as the MMD. Seconds at 6 with inset date and PR at 12. Is this a 2892 build as well?

Hey Pug, did you double AR your UPO?

Frank-en. Verb. The act of hanging out with someone named Frank, usually at Frank's house. "The four of us spent Saturday night just Franken and drinking some beers."

Yaahhh Mannn...!!!

All this PO talk makes me think we need more pictures. Always looking for a good excuse for more pictures. LOL. Ain't it a thing of beauty? Build quality? Yup...

Right then. The bottom line is the really good so called 1:1 quality reps are getting better, but you really can't judge a gen by the quality of a rep. You jusdge the quality of the rep by comparing it to the gen. Chicken or the egg? Consider the Steelfish. I have the gen and also had the rep. The rep has some accuracy flaws, but it is mostly as good in terms of fit and finish. Very high quality reps tend to be judgeed by flaws these days, not build quality as those standards have come way up and many are nearly equal to their gen counterparts in that respect. What you are really saying is that the UPO is a great rep of the gen. But that doesn't mean that the gen is garbage. It just means that rep isn't garbage...

Well I have had a gen 42MM PO for quite some time and I couldn't disagree more. I also had the famed UPO rep for some time which sparked the gen purchase. I think they are both great watches and very well made for the money. In my experience the sound of the bezel cannot be used as a quality gauge. Consider the Breitling Steelfish which I believe to be the best sports watch for the money hands down at a street price of $2300 or so (I'm not speaking about looks as that is opinion - I mean fit/finish vs. cost). The bezel "sounds" terrible but yet it is made extremely well. Go figure. For the record, I think the PO is the second best sports watch for the money considering a street price of $2500 or so. Like the Fish, the movement is also a wonderful chronometer build on a great ebauche. I can see why one may judge the watch cheap by the bezel sound I suppose, but I don't see how one could judge the fit and finish pf all the rest of the parts as anything but world class. Sure, it isn't as nice as say, my UN Diver, but then it costs half as much. The bottom line is that if one wants or needs that "ooh-la-la" feel from a watch, you usually have to spend a lot more than 3K, and the UN is an exception because you usually have to spend a lot more than that too... .02

Yes, the UN MMD is quite blingy. Actually, I think mine is the most so because of the dial choice I made. I was looking for a more interesting replacement for my Yachtmaster and it is very much like that in the bling department and in looks a little too - but more interesting IMO. MMD's with colored or black dials and/or rubber straps with Ti elements tone it down a lot, but as I said for this watch I was going for flash as more of a collection choice. In the bracelet sports watch department I kind of use these two as the opposite ends of the spectrum... This when I want shiny: And this when I want dull: And the PO sort of splits the difference when on its bracelet (although it lives on rubber now...)

This one. No question. It is relatively unique in terms of the particular dial version in general. But the main reason may be that I can't think of any other regular contributing member who has a UN. Gen-wise lots of members have Rolex's, Breitlings, Omegas, PAM's, TAG's, etc. but not any UN's I know of. I'm sure that is the main reason it gets props although it deserves them just for being pretty and certainly the best built sports watch I have ever seen, touched, or owned. But in the wild it is the same thing. People never quite know what it is without a closer look - and they either ask outright or swoop in to try to get a look. It happens at my health club a lot with this one guy. I used to think he was maybe gay or something as I would catch him looking at me in the locker room. Then one day I realized he was just a WIS and looking at my UN. Oh well, this thread is another excuse to celebrate it by posting photos. LOL...

I guess we have a lot in common Keith. I love AM's as well. If I didn't have the Porsche Turbo for my fun car, that is what I would have instead - probably a Vantage...

Thanks brother Andreww!

Thanks man. Good choice on the UPO. You will love it. You will want to immediately consider having Chief do double AR for the crystal though. That is a very important mod that IMO must be done. The gen PO is ALL about the AR. The whole look of the watch and richness of the dial depends on it and it ties the watch together. The non-double AR watch is fine, but it just isn't the same without deep double AR. I realize that many of the pics on the dealer sites make the AR look good but that is mostly because of having the watch at the perfect angle. In real life there is no comparison trust me. Consider these pics. The dial just looks so rich and deeply black because of the AR - and at any angle! The good news is for a small amount of dough and a short wait, your rep will be as good as the gen after having the AR done because the rest of the watch is mostly perfect. Get the lume done at the same time and it will light up like a torch just like the gen too. Even if you did both you would still have maybe $600 into the watch or so, which is a far cry from the cost of the gen. Best of luck with it...

I used to be a musician/recording artist/film composer at an international level. I have since retired from that life but I still have a project studio in my office complex. That is why the now dated but amazing sounding O2R console shows up from time to time in wristchecks past... I have since moved on to become a professional trader and subsequently started a private equity hedge fund and quantitative system development company. So likewise, many times one or more of the eight 22" monitors at my trade desk show up in wristchecks these days...

Cool. I always liked the "pumpkin". You going to get an orange croc for it?

The new Mini's all have turbos instead of superchargers now. They have a full factory kit now but when I did mine in November last year I had to go all custom and had the spoolers all reworked, exhaust, etc. I have a freind with a bottle in his and now I want one - as long as I'm driving straight. I can't imagine bottle boost and steering at the same time. The car is fun to drive though not as go-cart-ish as the first generation BMW Mini's with the superchargers. But they don't sound like a sewing machine anymore which may be good. I always liked the whine of chargers myself, but I know many don't.

Love them all. Very unique in their own way...

This one because it is the ultimate runabout for around town. I decked it with all the Cooper Works stuff and I can get 60 in five and a half now. The torque steer is the only thing that sucks and the twin turbos really accentuate it, but the fun factor is so high that you hardly notice. Turns more heads that any other car I have had or still have for a fraction of what I paid for all of those. Go figure... This one because I like to go really, really, really fast sometimes. Pulls like a psychotic rhino after a night of meth smoking. 2nd gear is a Mutha. This one is an 996. Can you tell I like black cars with cross spokes? LOL. I'm thinking I should get an 09' 997 as it is the last year for a while for the 997 Turbo as the redesign is next after a brief wait. But then I hear orders are not getting estimates for delivery until June. I'm happy now but thinking of doing it despite it all as I have never had a chance to get exactly what I want in a sports car as I always get them used. Maybe I'll pull the trigger - we shall see, but with the Mini love I hardly think to drive the 996, and maybe I should wait and see what the redesign is like instead. But in any case, I'll always have a soft spot for Turbo's till the day I die...

It is generally accepted as correct to wear a watch on the left wrist as it is more of a design consideration. Most watches, except specific aviator and dive watches have crowns on the right side of the case. The idea is to be able to realistically make adjustments to the crown without taking the watch off. Some specialty watches have crowns on the left side of the case. This is usually because there is another instrument which is usually worn on the left and the idea is not to compete with that. In the end, nobody cares and we all do what we like, but there is a standardization and it favors the left with most watches. I wear it on the left mostly because I always have...

I bought the strap from a member on TZ for a great price and his was new and unused..Otto sells them for around $200 all in with strap & buckle I think. Expensive, but worth it. Of course if you have a UPO, the latest rep rubber is fine I think for that one, but my gen is a 42MM and there was never a good rep rubber strap made for that one...

Wow, that Nato looks great on it too.

Thanks I didn't know that. The first UPO version that I had didn't have that great of lume. Glad they upgraded it.

I'm pretty sure the case thickness is accurate on both the 42MM and 45.5MM reps. Certainly the 45.5MM version is if not the smaller. If you like the larger size, I owuld just get it and do a re-lume and double AR the crystal. You will have only $600 or so into an ETA watch (make sure to get a real ETA if you can) which will be close enough to the gen for most people. But even if you do some additional gen parts as much as possible you will still hover around a grand which will be considerably less than the gen of course. In my case I had to have the 42MM so the gen was the only choice as I couldn't live with certain flaws on the smaller version rep. But I do that a lot as it is. I get a rep and I fall in love with it enough so that only the gen will do. Then I sell the rep and get the gen. That was how I came upon the Planet Ocean as well...

Oh make no mistake, there is no problem with the execution. It is the same as the smaller one in that respect. Valid for sure. I just think that the size craze should be treated as its own design center and not have so many large watches that are simply adapted from smaller counterparts that were the genesis of the design. Breitling is the clear winner in that department IMO. Their watches are designed as there own units to begin with and happen to be large but that isn't the point. You don't see them making a Steelfish in 40MM and then just blowing it up to 44MM as the same watch with everything bigger and selling it. So all I am asking is not opinions about wheher we like huge watches or not or any in particular, but rather what we think about how some companies design from scratch and others just vary sizes in existing designs. For the record to all the big PO owners out there I have nothing against the watch - I had one. I'm just saying that it isn't its own design as it was just expanded from the 42MM. And I don't think 42MM is small by any stretch. It is pretty much an average for sports watches, and certainly not for dress watches which still rightfully fall mostly in the 36-42MM range. Big watches just don't dress up well unless you are 22 and wearing Prada. Rolex knows that it sells more watches to affluent people over 50 who want versatilty so they can wear their sports watches with suits as well. Many guys that age may also like big watches, but they are content to go outside Rolex to satisfy that urge if it comes. They wear 36MM Day Dates or 35MM Pateks with suits and Super Avengers with shorts. They know that it isn't always appropriate to say "Hey look at me and my giant watch..." I think most Rolex owners - myself included - are actually relieved that they haven't changed the original designs or sizes. They are timeless and perfect. It is nice to have that stability still around while the rest battle it out in the size wars. I think it says a lot about any brand (clothing, jewelry, etc.) when their designs are so strong that they don't have to embrace every passing change or fad. Let's face it, most of their competitors would have failed had they not, and yet Rolex sales are still strong as ever. Yet the sales on their redesigned larger pieces are lackluster at best. The consumer is always right...