Fireman_Fred

One of the first things I do when I buy a new rep (and especially a second hand rep), is degunk the bracelet. Although new bracelets look nice and shiny and clean, often the link pins are not and sometimes make the bracelet "squeak". Firstly, I remove the bracelet (to keep water away from the case and crystal) and then I soak it for a couple of minutes in mild degreaser, (I use a spray called "Elbow Grease" which can be used to remove oily stains from clothes etc). Next, I run the bracelet under a warm tap and I'm always amazed at the colour of the water !! If the water coming off the bracelet is VERY dirty, I sometimes give it another treatment of "Elbow Grease" and then rince it again. While I'm rinsing, I hold the bracelet and shake it to get all the residual gunk and cleaner from between the links. Next - dry the bracelet, using a soft towel (it looks better already !!) and leave it somewhere warm to dry thoroughly - especially in the hidden areas where the pins are. When completely dry, I spray the whole bracelet with a universal silicone oil which is clear. It works like a penetrating oil, to get into all the nooks and crannys. I leave the bracelet to lie on a paper towel/tissue to allow the silicone oil to soak in for a bit. After that, I wipe off any excess oil, using tissue paper so that each side of the links are dry but the link pins should now have a light coat of oil. I have never used a penetrating oil (such as WD40) and I think the silicone oil is probably better because it's cleaner and slightly thicker, it's also water resistant. When you put the bracelet back on your watch you will be amazed at how smooth and "squeak free" it will be - often as smooth as the gen !! The other advantage is - if you've bought the watch from someone else, you will have removed their accumulation of dried sweat/dirt etc !!

I feel sorry for the guy's health but despite his poor health, he was (as we say in England) a "Gobshite" and generally not a pleasant person to do business with. Having said that, he as achieved one thing - infamy !! Here we are still talking about him, long after he was banned from this (and other) forums !!

I've reported it as well - the more the merrier !!

Sounds very interesting... .... Obviously price will be a major factor. The only thing I'd query is the validity/necessity of 2000m W/R (in ANY watch), there aren't that many deep sea divers that would need a watch that could go to those sort of depths, (the deepest I've been is 40m !!). To me, it's as much of a "gimmick" as a 12MP digital camera - any difference in picture quality above about 3MP is virtually undetectable by the human eye (unless you want to project your photos onto the side of a building !!). Don't get me wrong, I am definately a fan of chunky divers' watches (love the DSSD and the Oris Carlos Coste). Pics would swing it.

Just noticed - the 6, 9 and 12 markers are COMPLETELY wrong - they are far too long.

Hi TT, thanks for your input, I beg to differ on case back and bracelet links. Here is a photo of the back of my Gen SMP Chrono - there appears to be a marked difference in the caseback and the end links (where they join the next link, they have more than just the one, single piece):

I might be wrong but this looks very much like a rep to me. First we get the old "I lost the box and papers in a house move" routine and then I noticed the missing pearl and the underside of the bracelet end links. I might be wrong but it looks fishy to me ! Have a look and see what you think: Gen or Rep?

Unbelievable !!

Welcome to RWG !! You can't go wrong with the SuperOcean Heritage - it's a beautiful watch and VERY close to the gen !

Boooooootifull !!

That's a nice looking watch - and surprisingly good shots from a mobile phone (the Sony Cybershot phones make excellent cameras !)

My fave has to be the SMP Chrono

Fantastic! Very well presented - awesome review! It's amazing that there can be so many differences between two versions of the same watch.

Very nice !! Congratulatons on a great franken - something a bit "out of the ordinary"! I have a gen of the blue/black version with the silver bezel, here's a pic for comparison:

Sorry to pop up on this so late but I just thought I'd say that I'd agree that even a "simple" job of replacing the battery should be carried out by Breitling. I say this because I got a local watchmaker to replace the battery in my 2004 Aerospace. He managed to crack the crystal and damage the movement (when he screwed the back on). Breitling charged

My watch "obsession" has evolved over the years. When I started collecting reps I could never see the point in spending 1000s of £s, $s or shekels on a gen watch, I mean, why would you want to when you could own 10 or 20 reps for the price of 1 gen !! When I got to the point where I owned 30 reps, I started getting some mods done to my favourites until I suddenly realised that I might actually "appreciate" owning 1 gen more than 30 flawed reps. I now own 6 gens - 4 Omegas and 2 Breitlings and I still have 6 reps. If I was brave and skilled enough to do my own modding I would probably have stuck with reps and gone down the "Franken" route; instead I now have gens of my favourite reps !! I love the SMP so I bought this Chrono (a bit different from the usual blue dial/blue bezel version):

Hi DrXenon Welcome to the forum ! By the way and for your interest the technical term for "[censored]" is "crown". You'll notice that "crown" doesn't get censored but "K.N.O.B." does !!

You're a brave man TeeJay !! I'd have just thrown it all in a bag and sent it back to the dealer !! Actually, I remember doing just that once before - I bought a Pam homage from TWP and all the hands fell off ! He got it right back.

Hers's mine - Mal took his eyes off the road and crashed his bike !!

Only 17 Jewels - Pah !

Excuse my ignorance but why does ANYONE need to carry a knife ????? I USED to carry one as I was an operational firefighter and it was a "tool of the trade" (very useful for cutting setbelts to release people trapped in cars etc), but as I don't ride the trucks anymore I no longer need to carry one.

Just ordered the blue dial version from www.argos.co.uk - reduced to

Pet frog, ball of string, chewing gum, catapult and a couple of conkers...

Good luck !!