panerai153

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.

WOW!!

Nice 1675! Was that a photoshop project or did someone actually put a COMEX logo on a GMT dial. Maybe the GMT's sold to them were for pilots working for Comex?I bet thoser Comex GMT's with the engraved backs are really collectors items now. WOW, I learn something new here every day.

Andy, Also looking forward to the photos. From what I've read, Baselworld is gotten so large and so many people, if you're not a VIP, you sort of get swept along and it becomes almost like window shopping on a busy street. Was that your impression, or did you feel you were able to get up close and personal with anything you were interersted in?

Here are my Fab 5 these are mostly genuine(G) and Reps are ® 1) Chrono - Rolex Paul Newman Daytona Panda Dial ® or Breitling Chronomat ss/gold (G) 2) Dressy Hand Wind - Vintage IWC 14k Calatrava (G) 3) Sporty automatic - Rolex 1680 ® or WM9 Sea Dweller ® 4) Quartz for outdoor activity - Seiko "Tuna Can" 600m Dive watch (G) 5) MISC FAVE - ANY CATEGORY - Breguet La Revil du Tsar (G) Only possible if I win the powerball grand Prize!! This is a pretty diverse group, but they are some of my all time favorites

dbn2, Why don't you shoot Steve Mulholland an Email. He posts quite a bit over on the Vintage Rolex Forum. He always has stuff for sale on the Vintage Rolex market. I'm sure he can fix you up with a genuinie bracelet for your 1675. Vintage Rolex Market

WOW thats reallly GREEN!! Those are great watches and a real bargain for a rugged tool watch.

Any time a driver leaves something in your mailbox or at your door, in your mailbox or on your porch, if it is a "signature required" package, you should call UPS or FedEx and report the incident. That should be done at a high enough level that there will be some reprecussions to the driver. by company policy he is supposed to leave a door tag that states he made a delivery attempt and no one was home. It tells you that you can either pick up the package at the UPS facility, or sign the waiver that allows the driver to leave the package with your signature on the door tag as the required signature. If it's a valuable package, probably the safest thing is to pick up the package at the UPS facility, rather than letting it sit on your doorstep all day.

That is a neat little watch.To be honest, I didn't know the Tudor Prince Dates and Oyster dates had ever been repped. I was actually looking at some Tudor dates on the web today, a Watch U Seek newbie was asking some questions. I was really amazed that the prices of the Prince Dates and even the Prince Oyster Dates were pretty reasonable, compared to their Rolex counterparts. I was finding quite a few genuine in really nice shape in the 400-700 USD range. Considering that the Tudor subs have doubled in price over the past couple of years, I found that to be pretty reasonable. I suppose there just isn't the market for dress Tudors, compared to the Tudor subs, but if one were looking for a really nice watch at a reasonable price, I think the Prince Date would fill the bill. Even saw a couple of Day Dates that look identical to the Rolex "president" except for the Tudor marking on the dial.

That is a beautiful testament to the generosity and camaraderie that exists on this forum. Ubi,jmb what a great expression of your skills. This thread actually leaves me with tears in my eyes. I am constantly amazed by the unselfish , giving attitudes exibited by our fellow forum members. justasgood wear this one in good health my friend, I'm sure this watch will have a permanent spot in your collection forever.

I certainly don't profess to be an expert on Rolex watches, especially Daytonas, but I can certainly tell you, before I bid 9500.00 UDS on a Daytona, or any other watch, I'm going to do a whole lot of reading and researching to establish the authenticity of the watch.Too easy to post a photo or two or provide a link so that the guys who really know what they are looking at can pass judgement. Second isn't the cardinal rule "buy the seller then the watch"? Look at what this guy sells. He is the prototypical flea market Ebay seller. Silicone phone cases, slap chops, furminator dog brushes, and loads other cheap junk. And right in the middle of all this is a Rolex "Paul Newman" Daytona. Come on, if that doesn't send the red flags up the mast, nothing will.You would be hard pressed to even call this thing a franken. It would be interesting to see the other side of the case where the day date pushers reside. Ebay won't fool with him, beccause he is a volume seller and those guys appear to be sacred. Don't kill the goose that layed the golden egg, even if the egg is cheap gold plate.

My UPS driver who has delivered to my house for probably 10 years told me that the rules are the package MUST be delivered to the address on the package and signed for by an adult at that address. IF no one is available they are supposed to leave a door tag which gives you the option of going to the UPS facility to pick the package up, or you can sign a waiver on the door tag which gives the driver permission to leave the package the next day with no signature except for your signature on the door tag. IF it is a package that doesn't require a signature, they often will leave it with a neighbor. We live out in the country and UPS leaves packages for my Son and daughter in law who live close by, at our house all the time, but they have never left a package of their's here that require a signature. Nice thing about living in a rural area, almost no turnover of drivers, and they know everyone on their routes. Looks like your driver took a shortcut, scribbled something on the scan machine, and dropped it off somewhere else. Maybe at his house.I would stay on UPS and make them find it or replace the contents of the package.

Unfortunately, unless something has changed, the ETZ datewheels aren't available any more. You must have gotten one of the last ones. I Emailed them and they said the manufacturer wasn't making any, and they would have to have a big order to make more. I was pretty bummed as I wanted one for my MBW 1680.

Mine is running fine. I have the incorrect hand stack with an ETA 2836-2 movement. At the moment, I have an ETA 2893-2 movement and am trying to source a genuine crystal, then it's off to get a movement swap, re-lume and new crystal.

Who in the world are designing for Rolex now, and what are they smoking!! That has to be one of the ugliest group of watches i have ever seen. That all Green Sub would be wonderful for today, St.Patrick's Day and to wear to the Masters (Maybe Rolex plans to throw in a Green Sub to go with the Green Jacket), otherwise, It leaves me cold. Also the huge pearl is an accident looking for a place to happen. The Datejusts are equally as bad, that all diamond thing with the upside down Roman numerals on the bottom half of the dial, whose idea was that. Looks like a designer suffereing from Dyslexia, and even worse the one with flowers or whatever all over the dial, unbelivable. Just my 2 cents, but this makes the older models look better and better. Rolex which in the past has been the most ultra conservative watch manufacturers in the world has succumbed to bigger and blingier. Too bad.

Only problem here is the cost. by the time you add a serviced 1570, genuine dial,hands, etc. i would bet you are looking at close to 6k in a franken. For that price you can pick up a genuine 1680, certainly not a Red dial, but a pretty good white.I just looked on the vintage Rolex market saw a 2 million serial in servicable cond for 4900 USD and a really nice recently serviced one with all the papers, punched chrono cert. and boxes for 6800USD. When you jump to the Red Subs, the price at least doubles, so if one were to put together a Red dialed watch from this one, they could double their money. I'm not sure you would call this a Franken, as every part on the watch is genuine Rolex. Wouldn't be much different than sending your old beat up 1680 to a RSC and get it back with a new dial, hands, bezel/insert crown and tube. Or the Omega SM300's Watchco in Australia builds, using genuine NOS parts. Once this was done, if all the parts were Rolex, I suppose you could send it to a RSC and have it serviced, if you could find one that still services older watches.

I'm sort of underwelmed. I like the Tudor Chronos, except for that ugly crown.looks like they lifted the crowns from Marathon SAR/TSAR's! Why would they put a "Tool" dive watch crown on a chrono.

That is a really nice watch. It's the ultimate "tool" watch, without looking like you have an big hunk of stainless strapped to your wrist. I second what By-Tor said, the reps are a gateway to genuine. If you are obsessed with perfection, and have the means to buy a genuine, you will never be satisfied with a rep. Congratulations on a great watch

How about these to add a little color

Never, Ever use a Bank Debit card for these types of transactions. If someone has access to your number and pin Code, they can wipe out your bank account before you ever suspect something is amiss. I use Paypal every chance possible. Even if you pay with a credit card that is registered to your account, all the merchant sees is the Paypal transaction number, none of your personal credit card information. Another feasible alternative would be to open up a credit card account with a small amount of available credit (say 1000.00 USD) only use this account for watch transactions. That way you aren't getting your watch transactions intermingled with all your other credit card stuff. Nice thing about this as well ,if someone does get your credit card info, they can't put a lot of charges on your card. The credit card companies are very good about taking these charges off, but you still have to go through the hasssle. This happened to me a few years back, I bought a pair of reconditioned Bose Earphones on Ebay. This was before Ebay bought Paypal, so you had to pay with a Credit card. I gave them an AmEx card number and security code. hour later got and email back from them saying "Sorry, we are all out of the earphones, we will credit the amount you paid back to your credit card". I didn't think anything abouth it until about a week later I got a call from the AmEx fraud dept. Seems like the people who were running the auction for the cheap Bose headphones were a "Phishing" scam. They were harvesting credit card information, not selling earphones. They or someone they sold my credit card info to charged an Apple Laptop, printer, some Bose stuff, an airline ticket on Alaska Airlines, and tried to buy a Business class ticket on British airways to London! When British Airways tried to run the charge, AmEx told them that I would have to call and confirm the charge, when that came up on the screen, the "buyer" immediately logged off the BA website. What tipped off AmEx was the amount of charges over a short period, plus all the merchandise was being delivered to an address in Arlington,TX., not my billing address.AMEx was great, took off all the bogus charges, but it was a very revealing lesson for me, as to how easy it is for someone to get your info.After this,I got all my credit card companies to put a restriction on my cards that they would not honor any purchase with a shipping address different from my billing/shipping address. Sometimes around Christmas, this is a little bit of a hassle, but it gives me a lot of "Peace of Mind" when I use credit cards.

Great photo essay. You had some lovely watches, and of course as we all encounter, some real clunkers as well.I'm with you on the lost photos. It's so nice since digital came along, and we can save all our photos to our hard drives. I probably collected for 25-30 years with no photos, just too much hassle to shoot have developed and then find a place to save them, Well, water under the bridge. Your help, advice and reviews have been instrumental in helping lots and lots of us with watch buying decisions over the years. A big hats off to you my friend.

glad to see you back. We're still waiting for the next version of the "perfect, Ultimate, finally got it right, V5.1.11.1.0 DSSD! So from that standpoint you didn't miss a thing.

Go to the USPS website and see what customs form you need. Sometimes if the value is low, the small Green form sometimes the bigger white form. It varies according to value as well as country shipped to. Never use the word replica anywhere, anytime. Keep the value below 100 USD. As someone said above, on the customs form under content write "broken watch, returned for repair". You can also write a short note inside with the same info.Insurance isn't worth the money you pay for it.Registered is much better if there is some value. Registered means the chain of posession is verified at every waypoint. The USPS pays way better attention to registered than regular airmail, First class or even priority. Keep all the paperwork, receipt, your copy of the customs declaration, Etc. If the item goes missing, you can prove that you shipped with the stamped customs form. I don't throw this stuff away until the package is safely in the buyers hands and they have signed for or acknowledged receipt of the package. Shipping, especially outside your home country, is fraught with many pitfalls and dangers, but if you do your part correctly, it lessens tha dangers tremendously.

I really don't think you did anything wrong, outside of packing inside a strong cardboard box rather than the envelope, nothing you may have done has anything to do with the outcome of the package. Very good that both of you took a philosophical viewpoint about this and worked it out like two gentlemen. I would suspect that a baggage handler or postal employee is wearing your watch right now! Either at the origin or in San Francisco. I wouldn't think it was tampered with in Customs, although you can't leave out that possibility. If it were seized, it would be confiscated and you would be notified. I cring at the thought of shipping in manila envelopes. I know that in the rep trade, almost everything moves like that, but it is so easy for someone to slide an envelope under their jacket, get out of sight of the surveillence cameras, one slice with a razor knife and they are in. Slide out the package, stick it in their pocket and send the empty envelope on through the line. For that reason, I always ship in a sturdy cardboard box. It may cost a couple of dollars more, but much harder to conceal and open. Possibly the guy operating the X-ray scamnner is tipping off someone a little further down the line, "Small envelope with a watch inside, snag it and see what's inside" Sorry about you losing your watch,it's a bitter pill to swallow, knowing that some low-life is sitting in a bar somewhere bragging about his new watch.