panerai153

Considering that it took the DRSD 1665 and Red Sub 1680 until the late 1980's to start really appreciating and not until the 1990's when the Dot com craze created a lot of "instant" wealth, did they really take off. Of course by then, there were very few really nice ones around, especially complete sets with boxes, papers, etc. Will be same but slower for the newer subs

It's going to be a case of supply and demand. Thousands more of the 116610's are around, so they aren't going to appreciate like their older brothers. You may see some price increases, but that will be due to the entire market trending up, like the price increase from 2009 to 2010 with the new model.

If your buying as and investment, it's probably not one that your broker would recommend, and if you buy it and stick it in a safe, your not going to get any enjoyment out of it at all. If you buy it to wear, and you take care of it, it will probably be worth almost what you paid for it in 5 years

thanks,

that was the question I had, how much of a problem was it going to be with matching up the movement. Good to know that the spacer that comes with the watch will work.

Next question is where can the proper hands be sourced, or will the ones on the 2836 movement work?

I to have been waiting for quite a while for the 2893-2 to be used in the GMT IIC's. I really don't think it is going to happen. The last watches I remember that came from the rep factories with 2893-2's were some PAM reps back several years ago. I had two of them, and they were great reps, unfortunately, they were only available for a short time and they were replaced by the modified 2836's. The story then was ETA was limiting the sale of 2893-2's and the rep manufacturers weren't able to get a supply at a reasonable price. I think that that coupled with the price was the reason the 2836 was used as a replacement. Even today, the price of the 2893-2 is probably over twice the price of 2836. Also ETA is certainly limiting the supply, because quite frequently supply houses like Ofrei or Jules Borel don't have the 2893-2 in stock. Obviously it is a reliable movement as most watch manufacturers who don't use in house movements (Rolex,IWC,UN) use the 2893-2 as their movement of choice for their GMT models.

I was under the impression that the GMT hand ran off some sort of clutch wheel in the 2836's, which accounted for the slippage that was found in the early models. That was the big knock against this movement when it first started appearing in the PAM GMT's, after a while the GMT hand would start to slip and lose time. Possibly the rep manufacturers have solved that problem, I don't know. My question is, if the modified 2836 is a good reliable movement, why don't genuine watch manufacturers use it? Certainly it is cheaper than the 2893-2.

Looks like a crappy paint job on the "Faux" titanium caseback. Wonder if it would be possible to get those powder coated or PVD'ed with a grey finish?

Man,

Don't give up on all that stuff. As Gran says, it's Easter time, spring is here and all that.

I saw yesterday on Ebay Clark will resume shipping on the 28th, actually the 29th because 28 is Sunday. So your Crystal should be shipping soon.

As to ETZ, who knows. I have had two PM's yesterday from Helina and Neo, anxious to replace the defective DSSD that I shipped back in December. Supposedly they are creating a new order today. Another alternative that I thought about, and this is absolutely a last resort, but if you paid with a credit card, I would seriously consider calling your card company and disputing the charge. Simply tell them you received a defective product. You returned it for exchange and you have never received a replacement. Most credit card companies take these things seriously, especially if you can prove that you have made a diligent effort to correspond with the seller. i don't know how this will play out, but it's worth a call.

@member X

I'm not!! I hope by mid summer maybe July or August. I have no idea how many Pre-orders he has for this watch. I think BK said his was around 250, so even if WM9 has another 250, that's 500 watches to be assembled and prepped/packed and shipped,a daunting task, and one that isn't going to happen overnight.

Nanug,

If the watch could be gotten cheap enough, a replacement movement is possible. I had The Zigmeister replace a movement several years ago in a Doxa Sub300t, the original movement was just worn out, and despite The Zigmeister's best efforts he never could get it to work properly. I found a NOS movement in a donor watch I bought on Ebay and he replaced the movement with the Doxa Rotor from the old movement and watch has worked perfectly since. Ii believe I paid about 125.00 USD plus shipping to get the donor watch from the UK to the USA.

I like that dial, and it has enough white in the subdials and minute track that it doesn't look like the typical black dial watch, plus the red is a nice accent.

Well Fellow SD buyers in waiting, I just got an email from George. looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it isn't a locomotive!!

Here is the response to an email that I sent him a few days ago.

Dear Sir:

Thank you for your email.

We are maintaining the project completion date of end of March.

Once the project is completed we will be assembling and testing the first batch or orders.

This watch due to it's more complex nature, would require longer assembling hours.

Shipment will slowly be made out in the order it was received.

Right now we are estimating a late April to early May shipment date on your batch.

Please let me know if there is any question and I'd be glad to assist you.

My order was placed directly with WM9 on November 11,2009, so I would hope that folks who ordered in late 2008 to very early 2009 would be getting there watches in late March or early April. Lets hope that they are back on schedule and all the gliches have been worked out.

Lani,

Great review. That has been one of my favorite non-Rolex watches ever since the genuine came out.The genuine was always a little too expensive to justify for a watch that probably wasn't going to be in the daily wearer rotation much. The older reps never appealed to me as none of them seemed accurate. Either a non working power reserve, or other mistakes that were too apparent to me. This one really looks great and If the rep makers have fixed the low date wheel problem, I might just spring for this baby.I had over the years several genuine IWC's. Still have a vintage 14k Calatrava which is my real "Dress" watch. Had a fleiger Chronograph and sold it a few years back, another of my wish i had it back watches!!

Great photos and really nice review

Maybe it's and age thing, The older I get, the less I like the so called "Designer" watches. They are Fad watches that will be thrown in the sock drawer as they will be "out of style' when next years must have models appear on the scene. Better to spend your money on enduring designs that will stand the test of time.

Like this

Or this

Wearing the Snowflake today

The case movement clamp screw is wedged between the reverser wheels in the autowind mechanism.......oh, and it's dirty:-)

Sure looks like you're right, amazing how it could get wedged in there between the two gears.

From the looks of those gears (Rust?)possibly water intrusion at some time in the past?

I've been wearing this one every day now for a couple of weeks.Kind of grew on me.

I think it hasn't taken Paypal long to realize most off the "Gifts" transactions were really paying for merchandise. It's pretty easy really if you think about it, most people who send money to family, etc. send even denominations, 100,200, 500 USD for example, very seldom do folks send 76.45 or 99.98, get my drift.I'm sure Paypal figured, just add on the regular fee, and we catch everyone regardless. They would probably defend their position by saying, "We still charge a lot less than WU, Moneygram, etc".

Thanks mate. Getting SIM cards is not an issue....it's just that they don't come with data/gprs access...which is quite weird.

According to what I just read, AT&T does offer data and internet, it says you must call AT&T to activate that feature.

Here is a link to USASIMS, a company that sells AT&T as well as T-mobile prepaid cards

USA SIMS

You might want to give them a call and see what they offer. As I said in my previous post, because the USA handles cell service quite differently than a lot of other countries, there isn't a big demand here for prepaid SIM cards.

Great comparison photos and writeup.

I agree, the fat font genuine and the MBW are pretty darn close. the differences really don't stand out until you get the magnification way up there. Who in the world is going to go around with a 10X loupe and put a genuine Sub next to an MBW to compare inserts? The main difference, here agin only with extreme mag, the numbers on the genuine are crisper, the serifs more distinct, and the distance between the numbers such as 1 and 0 in 10 seem to be seperated a tad more and are thus more distinct, also the 4 in 40 merges into the 0 on the MBW and not on the genuine, but really this is picking nits, because with the naked eye, most of this would not be noticible.

Never been a big Explorer fan, but that white dial model just looks great. congrats on a really well done project.

I' m sure this one has all the folks over on the Doxa Forum abuzz!! Looking at it , it seems to be a rare bird indeed. Very rare to find one with the original box and papers. The old Doxa owners were mostly Divers who were buying them for a "tool" watch. Probably threw the Box and papers away as soon as they got home from the Dive shop wher thye purchased the watch.

Doxa as some know went through some severe financial problems in the late 60's and early 70's, Thye along with most of the Swiss watch industry were blindsided by the introduction of cheap quartz watches from Japan. Syncron was a consortium of several companies,Doxa,Cyma,Tavannes and Borel that formed Synchron SA. Synchron made some changes to the Doxa and Borel watches, resulting in total incompatibility of parts between the early Sub300T's and the Synchron Sub300T's. During that time quite a few strange variants came out, some of which are just now turning up. Quite a few of these are pictured in Dr. Peter Millar's excellent book "Doxa Sub" "Forty Years 1967-2007. One thing that is apparent to Doxa collectors, if dials were mislabled, like this one, generally they were put on a watch and sent out, I suppose things were so tight, they didn't want to waste anything, or Quality control was so lax that sometimes a variant got by without anyone picking it up. I do know that here have been quite a few strange watches that don't fit into the regular model runs.

This one is up to 1300 USD with 5+ days to go, so I believe It's going to be pretty pricy. Considering it's condition as well as the dial variant and box/papers, it really is a collectors item.

Am flying to NYC in about 24 hours and arrive there on the 23rd March afternoon......flying back on the 28th March eve.

Need some help with iPhone + SIM card. What I need is a local SIM card which allows me to surf Internet /check mails (preferably on 3G).

Saw a deal on Mr.Simcard.com - http://mrsimcard.ecrater.com/product.php?pid=7160252

This deal gives - USA (15 day) iPhone sim - Unlimited Data- 500 mins- FREE nights/wknds + $25 for DID (discounted International Dial)

Is this site legit? Any other options in terms of getting a SIM card?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

I just did a quick Google search, and it looks like both AT&T and T-mobile sell prepaid SIM cards. Usually they try to sell you a phone as a package deal especially if it is a Company owned store. It would be worth a try to check with a cellular store that sells several brands. NYC is loaded with stores selling phones, so it shouldn't be too hard to find one that sells AT&T and T-Mobile.I'm sure they will sell you a prepaid card that can be reloaded when you need more minutes.

Unlike most countries, the USA has a little different way of handling cellular. In most countries, you buy and unlocked phone, and you pick and chose the carrier you want to use. You buy a preloaded SIM and reload it with minutes when you need more. Here in the USA the carriers sell a locked phone with their SIM card and you enter into a contract (Usually one or two years),with a plan that allows a certain amount of minutes, data, etc per month.Unfortunately, unless you get your phone "unlocked" either by the carrier, or an independent shop that can supply the unlock codes for a price, you are stuck with the carrier you bought your phone from. As long as you are in the USA, that isn't too bad, however if you travel outside the USA, it creates a problem because you cannot buy a country specific SIM and just pop it into your phone, like folks from other parts of the world are free to do with their unlocked phones.

I believe watcher is correct. Almost every one I have ever traded, they gave me about 50% of the retail value. I have traded a few Rolex genuine quite a few years ago, and they were more like 65-70% of retail, trading up to another Rolex.

I believe that you would be better off trying to sell your watch on one of the genuine watch sales forums like TZ, WatchU Seek, etc. You can go to those forums and do a search of your particular brand, model, etc. and see what the prices look like. I have sold quite a few watches on both WUS and TZ. I found that when you price is reasonable watches generally sell pretty fast, if you're overpriced to begin with, it will sit around and get few bites. Just like our sales forum here, good sharp photos and a clear concise description and condition make for a quicker sale.

Good luck

The one on the website that looks like a Hublot Chrono has this movement. Is this a Quartz? never heard of it before. Startech 5040.D from Ronda is one of the finest Swiss Chronograph movements in the industry. Made with all metal parts and six jewels, it is completely repairable.

Unfortunately Gran, I believe we are. I would bet that sales to all the Rep forum members combined are a tiny fraction of the total number of Replica watches sold. Another thing, we are probably the biggest pain in the butts to those guys, because we are never satisfied. For the most part we are all anal perfectionists where watches are concerned. When those guys sell a wholesale lot to a dealer on Canal Street, some other replica haven, they don't have to worry about disappointed customers, returns, critical write-ups on internet sites, they sell the watches and that's the end of the story. IN our case we put every model under a magnifying glass and pick it apart piece by piece

I know that there are a few dealers who specialize in really nice watches and small quanities, but I would bet that for the most part, a lot of the dealers secretly wish that we would go away.

Here's the real deal Guys

ROLEX GMT FROM THE COMEX EVEREST OPERATION: 1 OF 8, THE FIRST TO BE SOLD PUBLICLY

We have featured a few Comex Rolexes here on Hodinkee (like this Comex Sea Dweller, and this unused Comex Submariner) but this is perhaps the most rare we've ever come across.

The first thing you'll notice about this watch that makes it different from all other Comex Rolexes is that it's a GMT, not a Submariner or Sea-Dweller, meaning it is NOT a diving watch. Comex is, after all, the deep sea diving group that works with all off-shore oil companies, so it makes sense their watches would be divers. The other attribute you'll notice is missing on this Comex GMT is the name "COMEX" on the face. Having that name on the face of your Rolex is half the fun of owning a piece from this diving company; it acts as a secret seal that identifies you to other real watch fans as someone who "gets it".

However, having a Comex Rolex without the name on the front might be even more fun when talking to real watch guys, although it won't get you noticed quite as quickly when you're out and about.

Anyways, we digress. So why is this watch an aviator's watch and why does it not look like any other Comex Rolex? The short answer is, it was never meant to go under water. This watch was used in Comex's Everest III operation, where eight volunteers went into a hypobaric chamber meant to simulate an ascent on Mt. Everest. Several tests were run on the participants, including those on the cardiac and nervous systems to see how they would fare at 8,848 meters.

The results were eventually published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the report titled "Operation Everest III (Comex '97): Modifications of Cardiac Function Secondary to Altitude-induced Hypoxia, An Echocardiographic and Doppler Study", can be found here.

These Rolexes were given to the eight participants, although it seems that it was not just GMT's given out but Explorers as well (which makes sense due to the model's history with Mt. Everest).

Either way, this watch is very rare and has an incredible history behind it. It comes with the original boxes, guarantees, papers from Comex, and newspaper clippings about the experiment. It is one of those rare occasions when Antiquorum does not publish an estimate, so it is listed as "Estimate: On Request". Although, considering the amounts traditional Comex Rolexes are selling for these days (such as lot 364 in the same auction), we would guess this will go for well over $50,000.

It probably won't make much difference now, but if the movement is dry, which it certainly seems like with an 8 hour power reserve, why take the chance. stop it or let it run down and take it to your watchmaker and get it serviced. No need to make things worse. Those are probably some of the most rugged, bomb proof movements around, but they are like any other machine with moving parts, they need lubrication.