panerai153

I wanted to wait until this matter was fully resolved before I weighed in with my post. also I was waiting for a final price from Ziggy for the repairs to give to Eric. I got an Enail From Ziggy last Saturday with a rundown of the costs to repair the watch. I emailed a copy of Ziggys Emails to Eric on Saturday evening. Spoke on the phone with Eric last Sunday, the 11th. We had a nice chat an he told me that he would paypal the money to my account. He told me that he had a watch that he was selling, and If I could wait a few days it would be a great help to him. I agreed to wait until this Friday. Today (Thursday)Eric forwarded the entire amount to my Paypal account. This was done in an honest and straightforward manner. I consider the case closed. I have no hard feelings toward Eric. Could this have been done differently, yes it could have. Had Eric communicated with me at the onset, this would have never gotten posted as a thread on the forum. I do understand that there are extenuating circumstances which happen. I think that the key to sales are communication with your customers. There have been multitudes of threads started here about dealers and other sellers who are really good about answering emails until the sale is closed than they get hard to find. Unfortunately, this phenomon is not exclusive to our little watch fraternity. How many tiimes have you bought any thing, from a shirt to a new car. You have a problem and suddenly you realize the sales department has 20 phone lines, customer service has one!! I hope that everyone on the forum will let this die. Eric is still active here, and I believe that he will be more receptive to keeping up a good line of communication in the future. He has a lot of knowledge and a love of watches which are both positive for this forum.

On Ebay, search Rolex boxes you will find many,many from different sellers. I have bought several from tomyana, he is based in HK. His boxes are genuine, and often he sells one complete with all the other goodies, Booklet, passport holder, etc. Prices vary according to the scarcity. i paid 220.00 for a genuine SD box from the late 1960's but it was genuine and they aren't too plentiful. Hope this helps. Arthur Here is a set that I put together to go with my MBW White dial SD

If you are looking for a really nice genuine I would consider the Tudor Submariners there are mini subs, mid size subs and full size using the Rolex Submariner case. Dial colors Black ,Blue and some aftermarket jewelers are putting diamond and precious stone markers on light colored dials. They are all pretty impressive watches,> the best part, if you tire of a genuine, you have lots more resources to sell, as oposed to a rep. Don't get me wrong, I have quite a few reps,and they are all nice watches, but I'm just suggesting an alternative. these images were lifted from auctions to use as an illustration only, as to the various Subs for women available. If this is illegal, please delete the images or the entire post Arthur Ebay search: Tudor Submariner

Among Omega collectors the Ploprof is indeed the "Grail" watch. It is an imposing creature, probably not a watch you would wear on a daily basis, unless you were a Diver. They are available from time to time, usually fetching around 3-4k depending on the condition. The Seamaster 120 is another nice watch, sort of the same type as the Doxa T-Graph and the Jenny Sub Chrono. One of the nice things about Omega vintage is the availability of genuine NOS parts, at a price that won't break the bank. also Omega in Bienne Switzerland maintains a vintage restoration department. They do a beautiful job on restorations, and here agan, they don't require a 2nd mortgage on your home to get a watch restored. I toyed with collecting vintage Omegas, even bought a couple of SM300's. They just didn't grow on me like some other vintage dive watches have. That is not to say that they aren't beautiful watches.

Well folks here is the latest. Hopefully we have resolved the problem. Only time will tell.Eric called me this afternoon, and apologized for his behavior. Basically I told him that in order for him to establish a good relationship in any buiness dealing, there had to be communication. Had he responded to my first email,PM or phone call, none of this would have ever happened. I related to him some of the stories about scammers who have come on the forums with a lot of good feedback initially, but were just setting people up for the kill. Because so many of us have been scammed, we are all cautious. Any time someone starts to duck and run, a lot of red flags get hoisted. Since no one knows him personally, when he starts acting like a scammer, then our reaction is he is a scammer until proven otherwise. He was very contrite, as he had read all the posts, and was probably impresed with the number of folks who weighed in with opinions that he did not do the right thing. He could offer no explanation as to why he didn't mail the watch in a timely manner, except to say that he was very busy with school. I can understand that because when I was in training,I didn't have time for anything else. Of course back then, we were the Hospital's slaves. No mattter, I told him that it only takes 5 minutes to sit down and send a quick PM, reassuring the buyer that everything is OK, your watch has been shipped, or I have been very busy and I'll ship it in a day or two. To be honest, I hope that he learns from this experience. He does seem like a bright, articulate yourng man. I t would be a shame for him to let the vagrancies of youth get him into trouble that will come back to haunt him later. I believe that the lesson to be learned here is "If you screw with a member of this community, treat them poorly and ignore their pleas for an explanation and resolution of the problem, the community as a whole is going to come down on you pretty hard". I think that what Eric may or may not realize, is that because of this incident, which could have been resolved very easily by a timely response to my requests, he has cast a shadow of doubt over himself which will take many,many impeccable transactions to erase. As to the watch. I'm going to send it to Ziggy as was planned from the beginning. I have a genuine crystal and Ziggy was going to replace the crown/tube with a genuine. Now he will have a little more work to do to get it running. Eric swore to me that the watch was running fine when he put it in the express mail package. That may in fact be true.There have been quite a few posts on the forums about buyers receiving Brand new watches that were DOA. Eric is going to reimburse me for the cost of repairs, so Ziggy will be dealing with me, and not him. He claims that the bezel insert is a genuine, and not the one that was on the White letter sub. That is possible, because the original deal for the white sub included a genuine Insert and a OEM crystal. I have that one as well as a genuine 127 that I got a couple of weeks back. We'll get the lug holes sorted out, I believe I can polish them with fine grit sandpaper and then use a buffing wheel or stone to get the scratches out. He told me that he didn't drill the lug holes all the way through. I bet he did what someone else suggested, he got some cheap drill bits from a hardware store and realized the cheap steel bits weren't going to cut that hard steel. I hope that this puts and end to this sorry mess. I play around with watches becauseI love them and I find them interesting and relaxing.It's also a nice way to meet interesting and knowledgable people who share my passion. Deals like this really make me wonder"Are we having fun yet" Thanks to all Arthur

All I can say is thank you to all of you who have shown your overwelming support for me with this situation. I don't have time to read every post on RWG and TRC so probably I missed out on some of the other trades. I had every reason to believe that this member was honest and above board. I think that some of you made some very good points about trading with only folks who were Senior members. And for all the newbies who can't tell who the Senior members are just look at the join date. Practically all the Senior members came over from the old RWG around the middle of March this year, From I believe, the 13th to the 19th. If you look at the Join dates, all the guys that joined during that period came over from the old RWG. Lots of the Senior members have been around for at least a couple of years. I post more on TRC but I joined both it and the old RWG in May of 2004, This is not to say that there are not a lot of new members who are dead honest and wouldn't dream of running any type of scam. However we have had, and I'm sure a lot of the older members will back me up, a fair number of "Hit and run" folks who come on as members, run their post count up with a lot of inane, nonsense posts, and as soon as they develop a degree of trust, BAM!! They put the screws to a few members, and then they are gone. Because of this,I believe we should be more careful with out trades, not just from dealers, who get a lot of scrutiny and reviews, but members as well.I know I will from here on out. I'll do my homework!! UPDATE: Got 2 PM's from the seller. He was very apologetic and admitted that he had done the LUg hole work. He wants me to call him today, which I will. From the PM's he seems ready to rectify the situation to my liking. We'll see. Thanks agan for the support Arthur

By-Tor, You know who he is, the same guy we corresponded about yesterday. If he isn't forthcoming I will certainly name him.

I can assure you that I didn't leave out any significant facts. The seller told me on two different occasions in his PM's that he had a "Brand New" Red Sub that he wanted to trade for the white sub that he sold me originally. NOw how clear can that be. When someone tells me it's brand new, that's pretty simple. It's never been used, and certainly hasn't been tampered with . If he doesn't come forward to try to make this right, When I name him, I will post all the Pm messages in chronological order so everyone can see for themselves. As to the money out of pocket, it is a considerable amount.I paid 390.00 Dollars for the White Sub, So less the 100 dollars that he paid me as part of the trade, I'm still out 290.00 dollars as well as the shipping. The point is this is NOT the way to conduct business with anyone, much less fellow board members. We all came here to be protected from watch scammers. If people like this are allowed to operate with impunity, soon the replica forums will be just like the scam sites. You will be so afraid of getting scammed that you dare not buy anything. As to naming the fellow, I am going to give him a couple of days to rectify this situation, then I'll reveal who he is. I really can't understand the refusal to communicate. He was on line on this forum a couple of hours back.I PM'ed him while he was active and asked him to respond to my questions, Nothing at all.

In the past I have tried to be very civil and only posted about watches and my feelings about various Reps, etc. I have steered clear of any name calling, or accusing anyone of behavior that is not what we should tolerate. I have a problem however and it needs to be out in the open so all the forum members can decide if this is acceptable behavior or not. Part One: A little over a month back, I purchased a MBW White Letter Sub 1680 from a member of this forum. We made the deal, I sent him the money and the deal went through with just a couple of little glitches. The watch had a broken movement clamp which he had fixed. I will say in this person’s defense, he refunded the money into my paypal account when he discovered the watch was broken. We got that resolved and he sent me the watch. Before the watch arrived, he PM’ed me to tell me that he had received a brand new MBW Red Sub and would I be interested in trading back the White Sub as he liked the white sub better. This was on October 10th . I initially told him that I had not received the white Sub from him, but no I wanted to keep the White dial Sub. He emailed me with and offer of 100 USD plus the “Brand New MBW Red Sub. We had several PM’s back and forth about the watches. I finally PM’ed him back that If he wanted the White dial that bad, I would trade back. All of this was on October 12th . Part Two: He Paypal’ed the 100 dollars on October 13th. I sent the White sub back to him on October 14th USPS Priority Mail. Now bear in mind, he lives in Gainesville Fl, I live in Natchez, MS, so we aren’t sending watches around the world, just across 2 states. In his PM’s he told me that he would overnight the Red Sub to me. Having said that, you would assume that the watch would arrive in Natchez in a couple of days. Unfortunately, that was not the case. I waited and waited, checked with the Post office almost daily, no watch. Didn’t hear from him until October 18th despite several PM’s and Emails. Finally on October 18th he PM’ed me that he would send the watch overnight the next day and I would receive it on the 20th . Again that was not the case. I sent him several Emails and Pm’s, plus left a phone message for him to call me, no response. Part Three: The watch arrives. I got a notice from the Post office today October 26th that I had an overnight package. I picked it up with great expectations of seeing a nice new MBW Red Sub. Boy was I disappointed. First thing I noticed was the bezel insert, it was the old no pearl insert from the White letter Sub. Then I realized that even with handling and movement the watch was not running. I wound it manually, shook it, tapped it in the palm of my hand, nothing. This watch was DOA. Finally, I noticed some scratches around the lug holes. I got a loupe out and examined the case. The lugholes are horrible! It loks lie someone tried to drill out the lugholes and quit before they finished. The outside on some has no chamfer, one has too much and there are scratches and gouges around the holes where it looks like the bit skipped out of the hole. The problems can be repaired , but It will cost a fair amount of money to fix the movement and correct the lugholes. IN conclusion, I would like to add this. This individual is a student, and he is probably pretty busy ,But in my defense, I have a very busy Anesthesia practice, take call every third night and weekend and I’m almost 63 years old! I do a fair amount of watch trading as well as buying and selling a few things on Ebay. One thing that I have learned is that communication and promptness are the most important aspects of a good buyer –seller relationship. Keep the customer informed of what is happening, and If you promise to do something, you darn well better do it. I try to mail out packages on the day after funds receipt. I also email the buyer to let him know that I’m shipping and then after the package is shipped. I email them again to let them know the package is on the way. I would never, unless I was too ill to get out of bed, tell a customer that I was going to send his item overnight and then wait two weeks or more to send it. I really don’t think this is the way forum members should conduct their business. I have always felt that this community is built on trust and faith in other forum members. I feel that this trust has been violated in this instance. Here are some photos of the MBW Red Sub 1680 that I received today. Would you be disappointed if you found this watch in a package addressed to you? Thanks for reading Arthur

Randy, Don't get rid of your 165-024 It's sure to increase in value. By-Tor, You are right, it stays!! There is quite a lot of buzz on the VintageRolex forum right now about all the transitional models. It has all the good points of the 1675 as well as having the quickset movement. Also it seems as though the vintage Rolex owners are all scared to death that Rolex is going to completely shut off repairs and parts to anything +30 years old. That said, the transitionals still have a tiny bit of breathing room. I sort of wish that mine was oe of the earlier Matte dial with plain indices instrad of the metal surrounds, but eventually the older ones if thay need to be redialed are going to get the later version dial. Arthur

I have a watch deal going with Chronomat123, he was supposed to send out the watch overnight last Thursday, haven't heard from him or gotten any replys to several PM's and Emails.Nor has the watch arrived. If anyone has spoken to him or is doing a watch deal with him, please let me know. Chronomat if you read this thread, please respond to my inquiry. Thanks Arthur

Turkey, I just sold my Omega SM300 genuine. Probably one of the nicest vintage SM 300's around. It just came back from Bienne for a complete maintenance service. It sold for 1795.00 USD within 2 hours of it being posted on Timezone Sales Corner. My first experience with a SM300 wasn't so pleasant. I bought one of the "Frankenwatches" off of Ebay. The fellow I purchased it from was very upfront and let me know that it wasn't genuine, except for the movement. I got it cheap and wanted it for a project watch. Here is the problem. It's sort of like a non-MBW rep Rolex Submariner, it looks like it's the real deal, but it isn't. I bought a genuine NOS dial, hands, crystal and bezel from Watchadoo on Ebay. Watchco also still has some parts, but they are getting scarce and the price is going up, up ,up. My plan was to send both my genuine and the Franken to Ziggy, replace the dial, hands bezel and crystal on the genuine with the NOS parts and take the old but still good parts from the genuine and put them on the franken. Well, as usual great plans often go asunder. Ziggy found that the only thing off the genuine that would fit were the hands and dial. The bezel didn’t fit and the genuine crystal was just a few thousandths’ too big. Also the caseback on the franken is a dead givaway ,as the fonts are incorrect and certified is misspelled. I had planned to replace the caseback on the franken with a genuine caseback but fortunately for me, I tried my genuine caseback, seemed to fit, but the thread pitch is not the same. Long story short, it wouldn’t fit. What I’m trying to point out is if you want a correct SM300 you are going to have to get a genuine. If you get a franken, you will be able to at best replace the dial and hands. The very incorrect bezel is going to always be there, staring you in the face every time you look at the watch, plus you cannot use a genuine crystal with the Omega Hallmark. Another problem with the frankens is the movement. Often the makers (allegedly these are produced in Vietnam) will cobble together a movement out of parts. You may have a movement that says 565, but it has a 562 bridge and markings. It’s all genuine Omega, supposedly, but made from the parts bin. Because these movements are genuine Omega, it adds a new dimension to spotting the franken. With a Rolex Submariner Replica, you will never see photos of the caseback opened up, because of the wrong movement, but every one of these has good photos of the movement. And all of the frankens are being passed off as genuine. Because of these problems as well as the ridiculously high prices that these frankens bring on Ebay, I would opt for a genuine. You can find pretty nice non-date models for 1k or a little less, date models are a little more expensive. Often the franken prices are right up there with the genuine, bidding pushed up by unsuspecting folks who haven’t done their homework. That website “Hall of Shame” A spotters guide to fake Seamaster 300s should be required reading for every potential SM300 buyer. Here is the link http://scubawatch.org/hallofshame.html The fakes are easy too spot, you just have to know what your looking for. Hope this adds a little to the discussion. It would be nice to see someone make a nice replica of the vintage SM300 with a good reliable ETA movement. Also, Andy is a good guy. Lots of nice things said about him over on the Dive Watch Forum. But Someone mentioned that even Andy with all his experience had been taken in on a couple of watches that turned out to be fake. Arthur

Just got this Yellow Brute in monday. first batch delivered from Doxa

I'm not going to get into a "[censored] for tat' Flame war with Joe, The photos are out there for everyone to see. I seriously doubt that Rob would go to the trouble to Photoshop things into the photos that didn't exist, or make them worse. Rob doesn't have an axe to grind with Joe, Rob has more work that he can handle, and a lot of those are restorations of very nice genuine watches. He has done three genuine Doxas as well as a Omega SM300 for me and did a wonderful job on all of them. One of those was a pre Sub300 Doxa Dive watch that is to this day, the only one in the world, and very, very valuable. I trusted Rob to do a careful restoration of this watch, and he did a wonderful job. I trust him with my genuine watches, and I certainly can’t say that for most of the watchmakers around. As far as I’m concerned, Joe can say what he want’s to say. I trusted him, and he came up short, for the price he charged. He says I was satisfied with the lume job, sure I was, until I looked at it magnified. It was terrible. My question to Joe, If it was experimental, only the second one, why charge 150.00 USD while you were learning? After I got the watch back, I realized the crown was not screwing down properly and wasn’t any better than the stock crown/tube that came on the watch. As to the bezel insert, it was truly plier or wrench tight. I spent 30 minutes in my shop with Kroil and a thin piece of rubber trying to get it back to the 12 o’clock position. It wasn’t correct. And Joe as to that remark about genuine bezels, well sport, I would bet in my 62 years on this mortal coil, I have owned more genuine Rolex Subs, SD’s and GMT’s than you will ever own, not counting the very large number of genuine Dive watches all with rotating bezels. The only time I ever saw a bezel even as close to as tight as this one, was when the watch was so filthy that dirt and grime had hardened under the bezel and cemented everything stuck. I don’t care if you work on other folks watches, that’s fine with me. I wish you luck and success and hope that you are able to keep your watch modification business, if that’s what you want to do. I don’t bear you any malice or ill will, as long as you don’t make this personal. You aren’t the only watchmaker that I wouldn’t use again. I wouldn’t use RGM who is the official designated Doxa repair facility, simply because they seem to be too involved in their watch manufacturing business, and think nothing of keeping a watch for 10-12 months while they “Search for parts”. This is the last post for me on this thread. I’ve said all I’m going to say. Arthur

For me, the first thing would be to narrow it down to type Dive watch Chronograph Complication (not many genuine choices at your budget level) Dress Watches Dive watches 1. Doxa Sub 750T Dial choices are Orange,Black, Yellow and Silver All limited edition 2. Doxa Sub 750t Divingstar GMT (Brand new, just out) 3. Tudor vintage Submariner the blue dial,blue bezel 9410 (no date) 9411/0 (Date) are cooler than Rolex Subs, at a whole lot less (And they are appreciating at the same rate otr faster than vintage Rolex) Chronographs 1.Doxa Sub600T T-Graph Orange or Black dial available 2. Tudor Prince Chronograph Either Tiger(If you are a Tiger Woods Fan, or pre Tiger) Look a whole lot like a Daytona, buit advantage of a date function 3. Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch vintage Complication My very favorite, and possibly could be gotten used in SS within your budget is the Maurice Lacroix Double Retrograde, a seriously beautiful watch. I am not into dress watches,so I can't comment on that catagory These are my favorite watches. All can be had, especially the Doxas and the Tudor Prince Chronograph used, but in excellent to mint condition at some savings over new.

Slay, You’re probably dead on. I believe the crazy buying frenzy over vintage Rolex "Stuff" is probably driven by folks who are selling either a MBW w/ genuine movement or they have taken a more recent SeaDweller (you can pick them up on Ebay every day for around 3300-3500 USD) Pop in a refinished DRSD dial and with a nice box, papers and accessories, you have a 10-15k watch!! Pretty good return on your investment. With the "genuine "papers, the MBW/ upgrade seller can take it one step further, grind down the serial numbers and re-engrave the serial #'s to match the certificate!! None of the above would fool a WIS, but not many real avid Rolex collectors are on Ebay, most of those guys have private sale, sources for watches. But Ebay is just loaded with folks who are not very knowledgeable, but know just enough to get in trouble. Most of those folks are a little greedy and that makes them easy prey for the scammer. Always looking for a bargain, they jump on a DRSD starting at 5k and bid it up to 8-9 k, win the auction, and gloat to all their friends about what a great deal they got on Ebay. Great, until you take the watch to your local Rolex AD, whereupon the watchmaker takes one look at the watch and tells you ‘Sorry, this is a fake Rolex”!! You now realize you have been taken!! You have a 400 dollar watch with a 1k movement. Now wasn’t that 600-700 dollars for the genuine papers a good investment afterall?

Fellow forum members, I would like to thank all of you who agreed with Rob and me on this topic. This was not done in haste, nor was it meant to be a character assassination of Joe. We just both felt that enough was enough. I got taken, My bad!. It’s not the first time I have made a bad decision that cost me money, and it probably won’t be the last. However, I am one who believes in the old saying, “screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me”. I’m not going to get screwed again, and I hope that this post will open the eyes of other members who are yet to be taken. As By-Tor said in his post, Joe has done some very nice work in the past. In fact he did up a Watchmaster DRSD for me, just like this one about a year ago. His work was very nice, and the prices for almost the identical work were less than 300 dollars including the parts. I had some misgivings about this project, but I had serious seller’s remorse after getting rid of the DRSD, and I wanted another one. I suppose sometimes sentimentality trumps good sense!! My biggest problem is when I get started on a project, I often get too involved and end up spending way too much money before it’s finished. I have found out the hard way with Replicas, you will never recover the costs of upgrades, so you better be doing it because you love the watch and plan to keep it. If this one turns out good, and with Rob doing the work, I have no doubt it will, I’ll probably keep it for a while. As far as refunding my money, I would not expect Joe to come forward and offer to refund any of it. I’m sure he will see this topic as Ziggy’s and my attempt to destroy his business. He can keep the money, I have gotten a lot more satisfaction from the postings of the other members and the hope that this topic will help new members make good sound decisions about replica watch modifications and repairs in the future. Thanks to all Arthur

Forgot to include this in the rather long post above. We have everything to get the watchback together except a correct bezel insert. I may be speaking out of school,because i haven't talked to Rob about the insert, butI would sure like to find a better insert for this watch. So, does anyone have a better.more correct nsert/pearl that they would be willing to part with for this project? thanks a lot Arthur

Well folks,I'm really glad that Rob and I got this little project together for all to see. The DRSD is mine. I got the watch from Luckyy originally, sent it to Joe for all the mods. I got the watch back and it looked awful. The bezel was so tight that you literally needed to use a pair of pliers to turn. I sent it back and Joe” fixed it” he probably dug some of the glue off the back of the bezel! I was lucky, he didn't charge me for unf***ing up his initial F**kup!! This watch was tied up with him for months through his "Illness" Which to me is totally bogus. I make my living doing Anesthesia, and I deal with asthmatics on a daily basis. Asthma is an acute illness. Most folks have "asthma attacks". I have never seen anyone in a state of Status Asmaticus for months. But this is beside the point. Joe does sub par work, advertises himself as "The expert" and charges RCS (Rolex Service Center) prices. Just as an example I sent a genuine vintage Omega Seamaster 300 to Omega in Bienne Switzerland for an overhaul . They replaced the dial, hands, bezel, crystal, overhauled the movement, polished the case and replaced the bracelet end links , total cost 450.00 USD!! If I had had the parts, I would have sent it to Ziggy who restored another SM300 for me, and did a beautiful job. When I decided to send the DRSD to Ziggy, the original idea was to replace the dial with a White letter dial, replace the crown with a genuine crown/tube and clean up all of the other problems. We had quite a few emails back and forth and discussed this in great detail. I told Rob, that I would furnish all the information about what was done to the watch and the prices, just to let folks know that everyone was getting scammed. I certainly don’t mind paying a fair price for services rendered, I expect the same thing when I perform and anesthetic for surgery or obstetrics. However there is a big difference between fair prices and scam prices, especially considering the quality of work. Lots of the minute details on my watch were unknown to me until I read Rob’s post tonight. What I was [censored] about were the obvious things like the horrible lume job that cost 150.00 Dollars!! The replacement crown/tube that was literally worse than the one that came on the watch, the “pipe wrench” tight bezel, the lug holes that don’t appear to be drilled out to the correct size, the “genuine springbars” that obviously aren’t. After looking at his detailed photos, I see lots of other things that were damaged. I’m sure the Joe supporters on this forum are going to take offense at this thread. Well folks that’s your right and your prerogative to defend your friend. Personally, I think that he is indefensible. His work is sub par and his prices are ridiculous. It is the same as you taking your car in to be serviced, being charged 1000 dollars to replace parts and then have the car break down with the same problem on the way home. I have a very simple motto when it comes to service people, and I tell all of them who do work for me, it’s very simple. If you do a good job for a fair price, I will sing your praises and recommend you to everyone around, but if you screw me over, do shoddy work and/or overcharge, I reserve the right to tell any and all that you can not be trusted. Treat me right, I‘ll treat you right, screw me, expect to be screwed back!! I got taken to the cleaners, which in itself is not OK, but I’m a big boy. I could have looked at the prices and told Joe, sorry but I can’t afford your work. I didn’t, because I don’t have the time or patience to do mods on watches, and I wanted too make up a really nice SeaDweller. At the time he had a monopoly on Modifications here in the USA. There are some excellent folks in Europe, but I have always been leery of sending a Rolex across the pond. Just too many potential customs problems. So Joe was the only alternative, for me. My advice to other members, if you have the time and talent, get some tools ,read the posts on modding and do it yourself. If you don’t have time or talent, either plan to live with the flaws or buy a genuine. In retrospect, looking back at this deal, by the time it’s all said and done, I’ll probably have close to 1500 dollars in this watch!! Do you know what my alternative would have been had I been able to see into the future? A genuine vintage Tudor submariner in excellent condition for less than the 1500 dollars, and in that a watch with the potential for appreciation. So folks, don’t make the same mistake I did. Learn from my mistakes, don’t repeat them.

I went on a quest for a Rolex GMT Master II with the 2893-2 movement several months back. I turned up absolutely zero!! I emailed and PM'ed every dealer on our forums to no avail. Almost everyone told me the same thing, the 2893-2 movements were no longer available to the rep manufacturers. No explanations were offered, but possibly ETA sources dried up for that movement. For some reason, the 2836 has become the "Darling" of the Replica manufacturers. It is even replacing the old reliable workhorse 2824-2 movement, which is a really solid, reliable Movement. I finally bought a GMT Master II with the 2836-2 movement, but as has been discussed, from the time it first started appearing in PAM GMT models over a year ago, it certainly has some drawbacks. Mine has been working fine since I bought it, but who knows for how long. It unfortunately has become a "Winder queen" since I bought a genuine Rolex GMT Master 16750. Had I been able to find a 2893-2 movement GMT, I probably would not have gotten the genuine.

Kruzer, You are so right. There are some watches that you really should never buy or if you do own, don't wear except to family reunions or out at night where no one is going to notice your watch. No matter what, the investment counselor probably went down a few points in credibility when you saw his watch.Either it was a fake, or this guy is making so much money he can afford a 1+million dollar watch. Now the first is plausible and probably correct. I would venture to guess that investment counselors, working for a bank probably would be hard pressed to afford a solid gold "plain jane" PP. Now if this guy was a big time hedge fund manager or one of the Wall Street brokers that we read about, maybe so, but not a Bank employed investment counselor. I think that a simple rule of thumb with replicas is, don't wear a watch, especially in a business setting, that you could never afford to buy (the genuine model). There is always the chance that you are going to come across someone who is pretty knowledgable about watches and they can tell. Now maybe they couldn't tell whether the nicely modded MBW sub on your wrist is genuine or Rep, but they know that a 400k watch is beyond your budget. This person may never say a word to you, but just like Kruzer and his banker, they know. I have a MBW DRSD that i'm having redialed to the white dial version. Also I chose a White dial Sub 1680 over the Red sub. Simply because they are,especially the DRSD, pretty scarce and desirable watches. They demand a high price and most folks who own DRSD's are keeping them in a safety deposit box or safe, not wearing them out to the local bar or to work every day. More than likely where I live, no one would ever be the wiser, but you never know when you are going to run into someone who knows enough about watches to at least say to himself," that guy has on a fake watch", what else about him is fake? Did he fake his University transcript, pad his resume'. I wonder if he really went through a Residency program, or even went to Medical school!!! May seem far fetched, but you never know. I love my replicas, but I believe they need to be approppriate to you and your profession.When in doubt wear a simple genuine. No one has ever been criticized for wearing a Seiko.

search Rolex bracelet on Ebay will get you there. There are some pretty good replicas floating around. Genuine there too as well as TZ, but you are going to choke when you see the prices. The genuine will be more than your watch. Got to be very careful with used Jubilees, the inner links wear thin, if the bracelet was worn heavily and was not cleaned. Dirt and grime get in the links and act just like grinding compound. I know, I've owned a couple of genuine, and they were not worth scrapping when I got done with them. They get stretched too, so be careful when you buy a genuine used. May pay a lot for a pretty clapped out bracelet. Personally, I would go with a rep for a lot less money.

Thanks very much gentlemen for the answer to my question. Arthur

Is there any such animal as Tropic 127 for the Rolex 1680? If there is, what is the diference between the tropic 127 and standard 127? Thanks Arthur

I hope that you didn't think that I was accusing you of the deal with Finepics. All I said was I had a similar thing happen to me. I don't have the foggist idea who he was dealing with. As far as The deal on the DW Daytona, I was just [censored] because you didn't say in your PM that it was first come first served, and I needed to do something right then and there. If that had been the case, I would have Paypaled you instantly. I was tired after a long drive and just asumed that it would be OK to wait til morning. My bad for assuming. But you know It may have worked out for the best. I took the money I was going to send you and bought Chronomat's White letter MBW 1680, which actually is a better fit for me anyway. I really think to make things clear in the future, you should put that "first come first served" disclaimer in your responses. that way you can glide right by the flakes. And listen, I can appreciate where you are coming from. I'm not selling much now, but a couple of years back, I was "flipping" reps and genuines like crazy. The "tire kickers" just about drove me crazy. And it isn't just here and TRC either. try selling on TZ. You post a watch and within minutes you will have 15-20 emails all wanting more photos, will you trade for this or that, I really want your watch, but i need to sell two of mine, and can you hold yours for a week or two while I try to sell mine!! WRONG!! I'm sure all sellers have heard the stories. The worst are the "phantom buyers" They email you and tell you, "I WANT THAT WATCH" mark it sold. send me your paypal info, and I'll put the money in your account right away. Then you wait, and wait and wait some more, while legit buyers are emailing you wanting to know if the deal is still on , has the watch sold, etc. I always told buyers, you have 24 hours from the time of my response,( when I sent it, not when you got around to reading it) to have the money in my Paypal account. After that, It's to the next man on the list. I think that was fair and reasonable, especially when you are selling a 3-5k watch. Sometimes folks need to do a litle creative financing to make the deal. But I have experienced what you go through with selling watches. I cannot for the life of me figure out why in Hell someone will PM a seller, tell them that they want a watch or whatever, with absolutely no intention of going forward with the sale. Beats me.