panerai153

Vac is in Florida, although since this is a gen dial watch, you could probably find a watchmaker close to were you live who could replace the crystal and dial for you. Pretty easy to find out the specs when it's disassembled. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Unfortunately, the TD's don't have much if any control over the products they get from the factories. Pretty much can guarantee that they aren't going to open the back and check the movement( if they even knew what they were looking at!) About the best you can hope for are timegrapher results and good clear photos. What everyone has to remember and accept is this is not like the genuine watch trade. The only warranties are by the grace of the dealers. We are dealing with counterfeit, illegal goods, and sometimes what we get is not necessarily what we thought we were going to get. Not singling you out at all, but as a generalization, if you can't accept the conditions that go with this hobby, then it is going to be a short lived bitter experience. Best to collect genuine watches and have a more stress free life. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Couldn't agree with you more, especially the part about the difficulty selling a franken. In my 12-13 years on this and other rep forums, I have seen beautiful watches that were a work of love sit on the sales forums for months, lots of posts, lots of "tire kickers" and lowballers, but no one buying. In fact I got completely out of reps back a little over 10 years ago, got very disillusioned and somewhat bitter because folks couldn't understand why I was asking 900.00 USD for a 500 USD MBW 1680 with another 500 -600 USD in genuine parts!! Sold em' all and quit for a couple of years. I will say that is a beautiful example of a 11613. Matt built one for me a couple of years ago, ST case, gen dial, insert, Crown, ST 18k bezel and the bracelet from the TW best that I started with (Only part I used from the original watch)!! Mine says hello

That's great. I think that you will be very satisfied with his work, I know I have.

At the very least, the clasp is incorrect. Clasps get changed, but in honesty, I would stay away from this one. Correct 78350's shouldn't be too difficult to find.

Tudor Big Block

Hopefully this debacle has been worked out to the satisfaction of most everybody involved. Kudos to Mickey for his help and his time in trying to sort out a fellow members watch. Also Toro who stepped up and offered a full refund. He missed the culprit screw in his inspection, which is certainly possible. Hopefully young Hetlikjk2 learned something from this experience, first, inspect your new watch closely and make sure there is nothing visibly wrong. second, if you expect to get a full refund on a defective watch, don't let anyone that is not and experienced ,trained watchmaker fiddle with it. Sort of like most everything else you buy, their is a warning that "tampering with or opening the device voids the warranty". Secondly, and probably as important a lesson here is the "Swiss ETA movement" option still being offered by dealers. These movements have been discussed here and on other forums extensively in the past couple of years. Here is the bottom line folks, this is for you noobs that have recently joined, or don't read anything. THERE ARE NO NEW SWISS ETA MOVEMENTS AVAILABLE!! Swatch has choked off the supply of these movements and even established legitimate watchmakers that have depended on ETA movements for years are scrambling to find movements. Look at the prices of the ones that are still being sold. Swiss ETA 2824-2's,2836 are selling from around 170.00 USD to well over 200 USD per movement. I realize that wholesale prices are probably 30-40% less than retail, but , I can guarantee the Chinese manufacturers are not going to put a 150.00 USD movement in a watch that they are wholesaling for 200 bucks!! So what you are getting is and amalgam of old Swiss parts and Chinese clone parts, in and attempt to assemble a movement, either that or and all Swiss movement that is old dirty, dry and probably close to end of life. The movement in the watch in question on this thread is a perfect example. Even if that screw had not fallen out and jammed the rotor, this movement in the condition that it was in would have failed in a very short time. Dirty, rusty, probably dry as a bone and with evidence of water incursion. This is a recipe for disaster, and unfortunately one that the buyer paid a premium for. So the lesson to be taken from this is simple. DO NOT BUY REP WATCHES WITH THE SO CALLED SWISS ETA MOVEMENTS. Order them with the cheapest movement available, wear the watch and if it becomes a keeper, should the cheap movement fail, send it to a watchsmith and have him transplant in a new ETA , Seagull ,Sellita or Myiota movement, and you will likely have a good accurate dependable watch for years to come. Second choice is replace the broken movement with an identical movement. These are readily available at all of the watch supply houses and they are very inexpensive.

By all me means if you want someone in USA, I would contact misiekped. His work is fantastic, and he is a Rolex guy, so I would expect that this would be right up his alley. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Been wearing this one for a couple of days.

And another MKII, the Stingray. Bill Yao actually owns the rights, copyrights and intellectual property rights to the Tornac-Rayville brand. He has plans to build a limited edition series of Tornac-Rayvilles similar to the BP FF homage here., Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Another MKII Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I believe that sometimes when you ship priority mail , and you don't insure the watch, it sets off alarm bells with customs. They know that no one ships expensive genuine watches with no insurance. I think that you should insure for 200-300 USD and write on the customs declaration " broken timepiece for repair and return to sender". A broken watch is not nearly as valuable as a running watch, so it should get less scrutiny. Good that everything turned out well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Could you post a shot of the tracking information. Surprised that it was stopped outbound. How much did you insure it for, and last, what did you put on the customs declaration Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Mike, I was watching the the opening of ordering for the GMT like a Hawk watching a rabbit!! When ordering opened, I ordered mine within a couple of minutes, so I am probably in the first five "plank" buyers. It's been a long wait, nothing comes fast with MKII, but I guarantee they are worth the wait. Here are a couple of other "micro brand" watches, these from Ocean7. These were homages to the Omega proplof. One in S/S and the later release in Titanium. Incredibly light for a big watch. These are much more available than the MKII's And the Ocean7 LM5 GMT, With hands changed to Mercedes hands. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Hard to beat MKII, only problem they are limited editions that take a long time from concept to shipping. Even their open editions are scarce and often sold out. Great watches and Bill Yao, the owner is a perfectionist, and he personally inspects and regulates every watch. Here are a couple of mine. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Back home, different watches. AP ROO today. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You need to quit fiddling with it and send it to Mickey. That screw missing is very obvious, and for sure it's inside somewhere. Continuing to try to get it to run with the screw lodged somewhere inside is futile. Plus, you run the risk of damaging something. Just send it to Mickey, he will sort it out for free, all you need to pay is shipping, can't beat that deal. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

AP TODAY, last day cruisin' Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I believe that is a good plan, Clarks and the stem fixed. Wear it for a while and make sure a Daytona fits your style. Remember, no date, manual wind. Those features along with it's relatively small size( by today's standards) make it very much a niche watch. If you decide that it's a good fit for you, then you should proceed with gathering parts. Keep and eye out on all the forums in their parts section. Make sure that what you are looking to buy fits. With rep builds, "just because it looks like it fits, doesn't mean that it will"!! This is not a cheap build, and it's certainly not for the faint of heart!! Over the years I have seen a lot of partially completed Daytonas for sale, usually because the builder ran out of funds, patience,interest or a combination of the three. Words to remember, "Plan your build, build your plan" Set a budget and try to stick with it as much as possible. If you don't, you may end up with a watch that ends up costing a whole lot more than you expected. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

He certainly fits the definition of Eurotrash!!!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Seems to be the norm in several of the Caribbean islands, especially the ones that get a lot of cruise ships in. I believe that some of the owners must have a lot of clout to get several top brands in the same store, but like Kirk's Freeport in Georgetown, Grand Cayman they have been in business for a long time, have very nice stores, and obviously have the resources to finance a huge watch inventory. What was surprising to me was to see this small shop that sells AP, IWC and several other slightly lesser brands. Surprising, because they are inside the gated area of the port, and only cruise ship passengers are allowed inside. Also this port was financed by Royal Caribbean and it is only used by other cruise lines when there are no RCI Ships in port. My wife asked me, who in the world off a cruise ship is going to walk in a store on a cruise nod and buy a 17000.00 USD watch? I told her that the diver I tried on was probably the cheapest AP In the store!! Obviously, they are selling some, or they couldn't stay in business. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

508, Yours looks pretty good sir. Is that a V5 or V7. The Crystal on mine is a single AR, one of guru's over on RWI. AFA these divers, you probably aren't going to fool a very knowledgable person selling genuine AP's especially if he can get them side by side. Outside of that, at arms length, they will pass muster. Again like was discussed in another topic started yesterday, a whole lot depends on the person wearing the watch. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Misielkped has worked on and built several watches for me. Cannot say enough about his skills and professionalism. He is tops in my book. If it were me and the watch is a keeper, I would replace the movement with an ETA, a Sellita or a Seagull. All are good movements. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cruisin' Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk