panerai153

I never had a rep with decent lume. I always sent the ones that I planned to keep up to The Zigmeister for a movement service and a lume with the appropriate lume. AFA my genuine watches, the lume varies. I have two Seiko Tunas, they both have great lume, glow like a torch, and are readable after 7-8 hours. Genuine Rolex 16610 also has great lume about the same as the Seikos. Genuine Ocean 7 LM-7 Ploplof - Great lume, with good readibility after 6-7 hourds, on the other hand my LM-5 GMT has much better lume on the hands than the dial or bezel. Two MKII Kingstons, one with C3 the other with BWG9, very good with long staying power, 7-8 hours.So while the genuine watches have much better lume than the older reps, they do have a great deal of variability between brands and different models.

i would recommend that you read al the reviews on the Yachtmaster. Use the search function and you will find all the info you need.

I have looked at a fair number of GMT's, especially when i was on a quest to find a nice 16750. The only matte dial 16750's were the non WG surround models. All of the later 16750's with WG surrounds were gloss dials. As others have said, over time lots of strange things happen to painted surfaces. spiderweb cracking, "tropical" brown , and I'm sure overall dulling of the dial. My 16750 from 1983 is still glossy, however the tritium indices and hands have aged to a wonderful creamy vanilla color. Also the bezel insert has faded quite a bit. I wear mine outside in the sun a lot, but thus far no dial changes.

I buy very few new reps. I prefer to try to find what I'm looking for on the sales forum. By the time the owner has the watch for a while, generally the problems will have occured.Having said that EVERY watch I intend to keep long term is sent off for a service. Lots of mine are vintage, my old Rolex reps have 2846 movements (transplanted, not from the factory) I have gotten several NOS 2846 movements that have been sitting on a shelf, inside some obscure brand watch for maybe 20 + years. Every one of these movements even though they are theoretically brand new, reguire a thorough cleaning and lubrication. The Chinese manufacurers are buying the cheapest "buy in bulk" movements you can buy. These are not the beautiful ETA Swiss movements that come hermetically sealed in a package that is dust and moisture proof, these are movements that probably come 200 to a box!! They are not protected , sealed or particularly well cared for. They grab the movements out the box, case them up, put the rest of the watch together ,and out the door it goes. Some are great, some are OK, and some are not so great. Factor in a service into the price you pay, you will be happy you did.

Check the sales threads in the "tools and parts" section of the sales forum, there have been a couple of them for sale in the past few weeks.. must be gettig a few into the pipeline, possibly swapouts on genuine watches. I tried to find on a couple of years ago, and the watchmaker who has a Rolex parts account told me that they were unavailable, and Rolex told him to send watches that needed new crystals to a RSC for the swap

I'm not sure, as I'm not by any means an expert on the 7032. I am always a little suspicious about sellers who keep their feedback private. He does have some nice watches for sale, and a pretty good feedback ratio. It's up to 3550.00 USD with 5 days to go, so either a lot of folks want this watch, or there is some shill bidding going on. I have no idea what a genuine sells for , but I would imagine one in good shape would be pretty pricy.

The last one i had did not have superlume, but the new ones might. this one is supposed to be brand new, the seller resized the bracelet, teried it on, but didn't like the idea that the crystal did not have AR like the genuine, so he sold it. I hope that it is superlumed from the get go, that would save me a bit of cash. The genuine crystal was purchsed here on the forum. My previous GMTIIC was a really nice watch, but like all the others, it didn't have the AR'ed cyclops like the genuine. it got to be a big deal for me.Like a lot of others here on the forum, we seem to obscess over little things that the average person would never notice. Some things don't bother me at all, but for some reason the cyclops seemed to reflect light quite a lot, and it made it hard to read the date.

Here is what should come with a contemporary Rolex watch. The older models had punched papers, but rolex discontinued them years ago. Here is an example of the papers that came with older Rolex models

I believe that what you said here is the underlying factor behind the "luxury" brands pursuit of any and everyone who is involved with Counterfeit goods. It's what I think they call "brand dilution".Their theory is that if the great unwashed masses are all toting a Louis Vuitton bag, or wearing a Rolex watch, why would the folks who can afford the genuine even want one? There is probably some truth to that reasoning. For the life of me,Ii cannot see spending 10k for a handbag! But, then I'm not a woman, ands I make aabsolutely no claims as to how they think. Outside of the really wealthy, I would bet that 99% of women, given the choice of a 600.00 USD counterfeit or a 10K genuine, would chose the counterfeit. after all, they saved 9,400.00USD , Now they don't think like that, what they really think is WOW! I can buy 15 more nice bags for my 10k.or 5 more bags and shoes to match each one. Another factor, as the goods get better and better (Probably made in the same factory as the genuine on the second shift) More and more folks that can actuallly afford the genuine are dwawn to the reps. If a gal has a good friend or two, and they all talk about their "Stuff" One of them confides to her friends that the bag shes carrying is really a replica. After they all dissect the suspect, and find that that they can't tell the difference. Pretty soon, they are all wearing replica shoes and matching bags. That's why the "luxury ' brands are worried. Although the replica watch business is pretty big business, I would expect that the replica clothing accessories and jewelry business is much,much larger. Women buy a lot of clothing, handbags and shoes, so it's a business with lots of potential.

No work for me today!!

It's a nice looking Searambler, BUT, as I have said before, finding Doxa parts is a long running lesson in futility. I know, I've been there, done that and got the Tee Shirt!. From the original 300T through the Synchron era and finally the Aubrey ownership, Doxa produced the sub 300T. If you look at the watches, outside of some superficial changes, screwdown crown to non screwdown, Sailboat to Synchron's 3 legged Symbol to the Aubrey Freres cubes, they all look pretty much the same. Au contraire, they are all different! I had at one time 4 different spare bezels I had accumulated, of the four, only one fit any of my Doxas, and it had and almost perfect bezel to start with. Just looking at the bezels, you couldn't tell them apart, but try them on your watch, then the fun began. Possibly a metalworking maestro like jmb could make some of them work, but lacking the tools or metal working skills, you are largely out of luck. As someone above said, the reason this one is on the 'bay is totally because of owner frustration. With the bezel, it's probably a 1k watch, without it, it's a parts watch, unless you get incredibly lucky. Here's what i mean about different bezels!! Here is my herd (most are gone)

I had one, got it modded up, sold it,saw this thread a couple of days ago, just bought another one on the sales forum today!! I also got a genuine crystal with the proper AR, so here we go again!! It will get the same treatment, superlume the hands and dial, service the movement and install the genuine crystal. Who knows,I might keep this one for a while.

It's possible to close a sale early, lots of sellers have items for sale in other places. it gets pretty dicey if you wait til after your reserve has been met, if it's an auction witha reserve. Also you cannot close early within 12 hours of the auction close, according to Ebays rules. What this guy did was buy a rep, put together a box set from another source. It looks like a typical box set, they stick whatever booklets are available in the set. BIG TELL, where is the chronometer certificate? it's pretty unbelievable and highly suspect that someone would have a genuine Rolex with all the other stuff, but the most important document is missing? Every Rolex sold has a certificate with the watch serial number and date and seller. Sometimes the date/seller doesn't get filled in, but the Serial number is stamped on the paper, so it is linked to a particular watch. I'm sure the correct papers could be duplicated, but it's harder to do, and most people would be more inclined to sell a rep as "no box,no papers" rather than go to all the trouble of trying to fake a Chronometer certificate. It's been done, but not too often.

Or barring that watch nanug's watch repair video. Then bring in a large ball peen hammer, pliers, one flat blade,one phillips head screwdriver (both large) small anvil . when they are ready to shoot, your first line would be" now I'm going to show you how we remove the crystal". Watch flat on anvil. hammer up CRASH , smashed to smithereens crystal, lift watch, shake out bits of glass, Get the idea? Probably will be a short video!!

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for a refund on the watch that is out of stock. If they don't have it, and don't know when it will be available again, i would ask for a refund.I don't particularly like substitutions. Unless the substitute is almost identical to the one you ordered, you probably won't be happy with it.

Might want to go to puretimes storefront here, Angus posted a really comprehensive letter today, that explains a lot about the workings of the Chinese watch factory /dealer system. Doesn't say anything about hte current problems with crackdowns or dealer lawsuits, but it's a worthwhile read.

I have found that Canadian customs is the slowest of all. I have shipped numerous watches to The Zigmeister, and the average time for EMS from the US South to him is 10-12 days, most of that time is spent languishing in Canadian Customs. I can tell you, I'm not a fan of international Air Mil at all. I order Cigars from a source in Australia. I have had cigars take over 2 months to get to me. Believe me, a cigar that sits in a facility with uncontrolled temp and humidity for a couple of months in our summertime here in the USA, is pretty hard to resurrect!!

They can't stop the factories, because they have zero authority to do so. It would take the Chinese Government to decide that replicas, fakes counterfeits, what ever you use to describe them, are bad enough for their economy and image to shut them down. they could do this in a week if they so desired.They don't!! For several reasons, one I don't think the Chinese government gives a hoot as to what we (the West in general) feel about them. Thye know that as long as they produce good products at a reasonable price, we will buy from them. Second, the Chinesr economy is slowing somewhat, due to the global slowdown. These factories employ people, lots of people. Read the post that Angus /puretime posted today. His watch business employs 10+ people. The replica, fake , counterfeit factories employ thousands. Were it not for these jobs, a lot of these workers would be unemployed. Unemployment breeds social unrest. One thing that the Chinese government fears above everything else is massive social upheavals. So All the luxury brands in the world can file lawsuits in New York federal court, until they are blue in the face, it's all lip service. thye might harass the dealers a little, keep them disrupted by forcing server changes, wesite moves, etc. but in the long run it's business as usual. Another thing that is a tell that all this is blowing smoke, you don't see Rolex, Breguet, Omega,Hermes, Cartier and all the other myriad luxury brands, shutting down their boutique stores in China to protest the replica trade, do you? Of course not. Sales in China have be a big factor in their growth over the past few years, they aren't going to stop the gravy train.

s3th ,I have a box that canme with a GMT IIC, it's the latest Rolex box with the pale green outer sleeve, I believe I have the booklets as well. It would be the correct box for all the nre Rolex sport models. I'm at work, but when i get home, I'll look. You can have it for whatever the going price is today. I'm in the USa, so it would prpobably be at your doorstep b4 your watch gets to you. Send me a PM if you are interested. This was sold to me as a genuine box/papers, but I don't have any idea as to whether or not it is.

I really admire the engineering amd innovations. Rolex has burst out of it's ultra conservative shell in a big way. I suppose they had to keep up with the other high end watch companies who keep releasing watches that are more and more bizarre every year. Personally, I thought the previous Yachtmaster was too blingy for me. Now if I had a 44 foot Swan sitting in my slip at the local Yacht club, and iwas into offshore racing, sure I t would be a great watch, but on the other hand boats like that have all sorts of sophisticated electronics to give you your position relative to the start line, as well as a countdown timer to let you know to the second your remaining time, so in actuality, a watch like this would probably be arm candy. I don't have a offshore racing sailboat, so I would look silly wearing one of these.

Actually if you aren't ever going to travel, or you need to know the time in another time zone, the submariner bezel is a better choice. As you said, it can be used not only as a dive timer, but to time your steaks on the Bar-B-Que, parking meters, etc. The 24 hour insert on the GMT doesn't lend itself to those uses. I had a GMT11C, and it was a very nice watch. I would love to have another one with the factory AR crystal. It is to me one of the nicest reps of contemporary Rolex watches.

Sounds pretty cooked up to me! Why the rush for the papers? already got an Ebay buyer lined up. you may have the most innocent and noble intentions, but let me tell you from the onset, this forum does not condone folks trying to pass off reps as genuine watches. But to answer your papers, I have never seemn a Chronometer certificate or "punched papers" for a Rolex that matched the serial number. you can buy genuine boxes as well as rep boxes that are probably made in the same factory as the genuine boxes, you can buy the instruction manual, etc. but the actual certificate that comes witha a genuine watch, never saw one for Rolex. I did buy a PAM several yearsago, and the seller furnished a box and paper work that looked really good compared to the real stuff. Even though it looked good, I don't think it would have passed close up scrutiny, especially if someone had a genuine certificate right next to it.

What endlinks are you looking for? i would maybe try to find some genuine. possibly one of the lesser desirable numbers would work. not 585, 580 380, etc. but some of he others. Didn't some of the old Datejusts come on a Jubilee bracelet? I seem to remember having either a datejust or Airking on a Jubilee way, way back.

Thank you very much. you have gathered together in one place a lot of good information. I believe that this should be pinned

Andy, That looks great. I'm sure it will be worth it in the long run.However, I bet there were times in the building process that you didn't think it was much fun at all. Any plans for going into production on these? I don't need one, but a lot of folks building a franken 1665 would love to have one, especially if they were a little cheaper than Yuki's.