panerai153

looks like they need to pop that bezel off and move it about I click counterclockwise. Otherwise it look pretty nice.

Heck, By-Tor, I was really wanting that one to give to my wife for an anniversary present! Nanug, what you related was spot on. If you don't know about something and you don't have access to someone who does, it's best to stay away until you either 1)get knowledgeable, or 2) find someone you can trust who is. If you buy from a rock solid seller with a good return policy, then you can maybe go out on a limb a little bit, but buying a watch that looks dodgy to start with from a seller in Viet Nam, that's asking to be scammed. I had a friend years ago, who made a ton of money when they made several Tuscaloosa oil wells on his family property. this guys royalty interests were around 200K per month. Well he decided that he was going to invest his money. He had business cards printed up with his name and below "Investor", What a fool, within 3 years, he was broke, and a bunch of "Fellow investors" had cleaned him out. So the moral of the story is, if you don't know what you're doing, it's best to not do it.

If the liquid nails hold, looks like you have a fix. Worst case, the stuff wears through and the end links get loose again.

I could be so lucky to have beaters like that one Mr. U !!! Lounging around today probably going to put something on the smoker after a while. Here's my after work, everyday do everything beater.

Here we go!! Gen 9411/0 7024 7016

Probably need to ask for a photo of the movement, those stains on the dial could very easily been from moisture getting inside. Nice watch, but a little high for the condition and lack of a gen bracelet.

1100 USD and still time to go!! It is just amazing to me how people will bid on something without doing a seconds worth of research. I really have stopped feeling sorry for bidders who run crap like this up. It's their own fault if they get suckered.

Either way you are OK, the early 16613's had lugholes for quite a few years and they also had the flat 4 inserts like yours, tritium dials as well. I couldn't find anything about the size of the numbers on the DW which are definitely different on some models. It looks like the primary difference between the early 16613's and the 16803's is the movement 3035 vs 3135, the early 16803's had and all SS clasp, the gold middle section came later. Both had Tritium dials. So pretty much the same watch from the outside. One problem that seems to come up on the gen forums, as the 16803's and early 16613's are 25+ years old, a lot of them have cycled through RSC's over the years. Resulting in 16803's with service lumi dials and hands, different bracelets, newer crowns/tubes, etc. So basically from the parts you have, you could call yours a 16803, or a 16613. Only thing is the 16613 never had a 3135 movement, so that would be a "Gotcha", but only if you someone wanted to look at your watch, and happened to have a Rolex case opener in his pocket!!! Good luck with your build, either way it's going to be awesome.

Pretty easy to tell if the diamonds are real or cubic zirconia. any jewelry kiosk in a big mall will have a diamond tester, pawn shops as well. Never heard of the brand. I would imagine that this is going to be a hard sell as it is and unknown brand, and obviously is pretty poor quality.

16613 Just back from mymanmatt

Several of the watch supply houses sell them. Ofrei. probably cousins UK. Go to their websites and search.

Mike, I agree, this thread has run it's course. I believe that everyone who had something to say has said it. We need to move on, all that is going to happen from this point on is to create more animosity, name calling and nothing good comes from that. Every side of the story has been told, everyone had their opportunity to vent their frustrations, give advice, air their personal stories and now in my opinion it's time to move on. If folks want their watches back, no problem, send them back. They and their watches will no longer be your problem. More time to devote to your own situation and the watches of those folks who are willing to wait things out. Work on your business plan, take care of business, family and otherwise and everything will work out in the long run. That's all from me folks, I've said my say, and I'm done. Good night Gracie!!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

What movement is that? It looks nice. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

Nanug, very well said sir. Mike will get it sorted out, may take him a few days, but if he only has 17 watches in house, he should get everyone cleaned up in a short time. He still needs to get back to those of us who have PM'ed him over the past few days. On a more serious but very important note, we as members should be putting our heads together and trying to find a solution to getting funds transferred to RWG. The board cannot survive long term without funds, and right now the options are pretty slim. I got a notice from Paypal today that my monthly Diamond membership automatic withdrawal was cancelled, which concerns me no end.

Come on guys, this is counterproductive. this thread is really about the problems folks who have watches with Mike are experiencing. It's not meant to be anything else. I'm posting here, only because I'm in the same dilemma as a few others. Mike has not answered my PM's in the past few days either. This is not and indictment of Mike, as I have said in previous posts, I truly believe that Mike is a good guy, and I certainly believe that he means well, but was totally unprepared for the series of events that have taken place in the past few weeks. It's unfortunate that those events happened, but you know what, bad things happen to good people all the time. It's just up to the individual how he/she handles the adversity. What Mike needs to do now is sit down and answer every PM and Email that he's gotten in the past few days, reassuring the watch owners that their watch is OK, and what stage it's in. That would go a long way toward tamping down some of the problems that have occurred. I have a really nice DW Daytona with him, sent it up to be assembled, I'm not worried that the watch is not being taken care of, but it would be nice to get a brief message telling me where he was with sorting out a couple of problems he ran into. After this crisis is past, then he needs to sit down and reevaluate his business and decide on some rules and regulations governing his watch repair business. Having a good plan is vital to any business, and to be successful over the long run, he needs to devise a plan and stick to it. If that means that he tells me when I Pm or email him about a project, that he can't handle it right then, but he will have a slot open in two weeks, or two months, that 's fine with me. That happened al the time when Ziggy was working on reps, you might have to wait a month or more before you could send your watch in. Hopefully, he will get this all sorted out and everything can return to normal here, and we can all eagerly await the next noob posting "who has the best Sub"

Very sound business model. I'm sure it was developed sort of "trial and error" after a few problems arose. Easy to modify a business model as things evolve, but you need to have one to start with.

i had a very similar experience with a master gunsmith. I contacted him about restoring and old LC Smith shotgun that belonged to my grandfather. I visited with him at his shop, and he had some amazing and very valuable shotguns in his safe and on his bench. His rules were similar to the amp guy. he told ne that the repairs would take from 12-15 months, as some of the work like the case hardening and and lock blueing was sent out as there were guys that could replicate any of the old brands case colors. He told me approximately what it would cost, and if he ran into anything unusual, he would call me before proceeding. He told me in no uncertain terms to not call him, he would get in touch when it was done, i asked him sort of jokingly what happened when folks called. His answer was " i put their shotgun back together if i have started work on it, and send it back, no second chances! I was impressed. Never called and about 15 months later he wrote me that it was ready, i could come by and pick it up. Suffice to say, it looked better than the day my grandfather brought it home. If you set the rules and stick to them, people will respect you more, and the ones that won't comply are probably people you don't want to deal with anyway.

I'm glad you did as many of us had pretty bad results. having said that I don't think that Joe is a bad person, and I certainly don't look at him as a scammer, he just got in way over his head. Took in too many watches, took on projects that he knew he wasn't capable of completing satisfactorily, and then when the house of cards stared collapsing, he resorted to a litany of excuses. Unfortunately, excuses wear thin after a while.

That's very intriguing, and I would definitely be interested. I have at least one sterile case on my 16613 TT that would be much more believable with the correct engraving.

Andy, that is very good advice and something that Mike should take to heart. I had a couple of PM's with Mike a few weeks ago, about this same general subject. i compared two watch repair folks who have a history on these forums, one infamous, one famous, Redbigjoe and Ziggy. I related to him how RBJ took in tons of work, let a bunch of stuff pile up and then did a very shoddy job on projects trying to hurry them out the door. Ziggy on the other hand was very upfront with his rules, severely limited the number of jobs, scheduled every watch in and required that any new customer be recommended by someone that knew them who was already a customer. Ziggy got burned a few times at first, but he learned fast, culled the customer list, and eliminated the problems. If Mike is to continue as a watchsmith on this forum or anywhere for that matter, he is going to have to become more Ziggy like in his business dealings with customers. there is no harm in telling someone no, I cannot take your watch right now. Better to tell someone, I don't feel comfotrtable working on that particular model, or doing that particular mod, better to tell someone, I won't work on your watches due to you requiring daily updates, or you gave me problems in the past, etc. Until you actually take in the watch, the owner is not a customer, and you have no obligation to them, one they send it to you, the entire relationship changes, now you're hooked. You now have a fiduciary and moral obligation to the customer until such time as you deliver the watch back to the customer and he is satisfied. Mike, I believe we all want you to succeed, we want you to be successfull in your watch business and have a long and fruitful career working on watches, be they reps or genuine watches.however the ball is now in your court. You can be another Ziggy or another RBJ, that path is up to you. i sincerely hope that you take the Ziggy path.

Strange, Why did it go from Louisville, KY to Philly, then back to Louisville? Louisville is UPS's main USA hub, and I believe that a lot of their customs clearing is at that hub, so I can see going into Louisville from Europe. Not sure it will make it today, it doesn't have a departure time from Louisville, and it doesn't show and arrival scan in your area, so hard to tell if it has time to get to you today. UPS doesn't miss much, especially on overnight and 2nd day deliveries. For sure you will get it tomorrow at the latest.

I agree with you about family, I totally disagree with you about how long it takes you to PM folks. Updates don't have to be verbose, a simple "your watch is on the bench should finish in 1,2,3,5 days" whatever. Or "movement is apart, cleaned, waiting on a part, should be here Monday, watch should be in the mail by Wednesday". Simple one to two sentence updates are sufficient to satisfy most folks. What is causing the trouble is no updates. A couple of other posters have also hit another nail on the head as well. When you take the first watch, car, vacuum cleaner, whatever you are repairing, for money, your enterprise ceases to be a hobby. now you have a fiduciary responsibility to the customer who is paying for the work. I believe that also includes timely updates should the customer request them. In that vein, The customer has a responsibility as well, I don't think that sending someone a PM every day or two or calling them every day is acceptable either. I believe that if this is worked out with and amicable solution for most folks, which I really hope happens, Mike can take some valuable lessons away from this experience which will make him a better, more organized watchmaker and businessman.

In a word, NO!! That's why I try to steer away from reps that are not moddable (is that a word)?

JB weld will work, just need to make sure the surface is free of any grease, oil, dirt, etc. in your photo, the spring bar is that rod shaped part that holds the end link to the bracelet and the bracelet to the watch. From the looks, I doubt that any that would be big enough to take up the slack in the end link would not fit through the holes in the end link and last bracelet link. you are going to have to find something to use to shim up the space between the watch case and the endlink.

This watch exact same configuration in about a 40-41mm model would be a dream watch for dress.