SWATCHman
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Posts
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Posts posted by SWATCHman
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After having a real close look at the gen, I took the time to update and more
importantly rectify some earlier statements. Hope this helps members who
are considering this their next purchase...
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Don't get me wrong, I really love Sinn but this sucker is
18mm (!!) high. It looks ridiculous! No wonder it works
up to a depth of 1,000 meters. It will drag you under
water like a lead belt.
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Introduction
UPDATED PASSAGES IN THIS UGLY COLOR
I odered this watch from Silix a couple of days ago. I guess it's not different from the ones the other dealers sell. I made a few pictures to show you the good
and the bad of this rep.
Firstly the overall impression of the Sport Chrono is quite nice. Subtle AR coating on the crystal, nice dial with a distinguished style. Nice tight bezel with crisp
print. The chrono works flawlessly but the pusher at 2 o'clock is pretty tight, so have to push it like hell to start the chrono function.
The reset pusher is similarly stiff. So once you succeed to push it, it kind of slams the hands back to their starting position. Im curious how long the center
seconds hand will take this kind of abuse. Quality of movement assembly seems ok to me. The winding mechanism detaches nicely when the crown
is screwed down. Setting the time feels a little bit stiff, but a lot better than the wobbly feel of my Tag Aquaracer. Winding is ok as well.
Now for the Pictures
As you can see the dial layout is scaringly accurate. The Seconds hand is as long as the gen, nearly touching the rehaut. Minutes and hour hands are perfect
in length as well. The Hour hand on the gen may be a tad fatter, but not by much. The surface has a strange sheen though. Looks a little bit like cheap plastic.
AS A MATTER OF FACT THE GEN HAS AN IDENTICAL DIAL FINISH. THEY HAVE IT ON DISPLAY AT OUR AIRPORT WITH A LOUPE INSTALLED TO SLIDE OVER
THE DIFFERENT MODELS. SO I HAD A CHANCE TO TAKE A REALLY CLOSE LOOK THE OTHER DAY. IT LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME 10 OUT OF 10.
I could not find any large pictures of the gen for comparision, but I will take a trip to the mall on the weekend to compare it with the real thing. The print on
the dial is really good. Everything is where ist should be. The markers are positioned perfectly as well. All subdials are correct too. The bezel print is a real
kicker. It is flawless compared to the gen. THE LUMINOUS DOT AT 12 IS TOO BIG THOUGH PLUS IT IS NOT LUMINOUS. Two things are clearly off:
Firstly the the date font is incorrect. But you would need to compare it side by side
to notice. Secondly the the circular indent in the center of the dial is extremely shallow. WRONG AGAIN, IT IS EXACTLY THE SAME 10 OUT OF 10 ONCE
MORE. SAME SHALLOWNESS AS THE GEN.
I would give the dial 5 out of 5 points.
The lume is clearly above average on this rep. Initially it glows like hell. But compared to Superluminova it fades pretty fast and does not last all night.
THE LUME IS ALSO GREENISH ON THE REP. ON THE GEN IT IS PURE WHITE.
Markers and hands have the same color and intensity, another plus. The lume is applied somewhat unevenly compared to the gen. I guess it is tricky
with this watch, since the lume is extremely pointed towards the center of the dial. There is noteable quality
difference when compared to the gen.
Lume and lume application gets 3 out of 5 points.
The date magnification seems to be off as well. The mag lens is on the inside of the crystal, unlike with Rolexes. The placement is fine, but the magnification
seems to be higher on the gen. Not terribly but noticeably.
The date gets 3 out of 5 points.
The engravings are very good on this rep. Both on the case and on the caseback. But the edges are not polished so they are pretty sharp. You can't see it
but you can feel it. But compared to the razor sharpness of i.e. the IWC Ingeneur engravings, the Montblanc is considerably better.
Engravings get 4 out of 5 Points in my book
The overall finish of the case looks very good. No sharp edges, chrono pushers look perfect. The growngurads are great too. The crown feels feels smooth,
it has obviously been polished. The lugs are a perfect fit with the bracelet. No visible gaps, great. The Montblanc logo on the crown is a little bit off center
and there is a small irregular gap beween logo and the rim of the crown. But this is hardly noticeable.
The Case gets full 5 out of 5 points.
The only real turnoff is the bracelet. There are numerous flaws, the biggest of them being a general razor edginess. It has the silky smotheness of tank tracks,
both on the inside and the outside. All sharp edges are acceissable, so the problem can be resolved with filing and sanding, but it's a lot of filing and sanding
since the sharp edges are countless. What looks like small screws are in fact pins. My watch smith claims the gen has screws, but I'll have to check that at the
mall as well. The Montblanc trademark at the first link of the bracelet is not ingraved but inserted into into the link, probably glued. On my bracelet it does not
sit level but crocked adding yet another sharp edge to the lot. The double folding clasp works nicely, but the the filing marks on the sides are too visible for
my taste. Again bad finish. MEANWHILE I SANDED THE BRACELET. IT STILL HASN'T THE GEN FEEL TO IT, BUT IT'S COMFORTABLE NOW AND THOUGH
IT STILL DOES NOT FEEL QUITE RIGHT, IT LOOKS VERY ACCURATE ON THE WRIST.
The bracelet gets a 2 out of 5 due to a severe lack of finish.
Apart from the bracelet the Montblanc Sport Chrono is a pretty great rep. It is prove that there are great reps outside the Panerai, Rolex, IWC and Breitling
Omega circle. If this watch was an Omega, it would be labelled "ultimate". But most importantly it looks great on the wrist. THIS WATCH HAS ACTUALLY
BECOME ONE OF MY FAVORITES. THE FLAWS ARE QUITE MINIMAL AND EVEN WATCH EXPERTS WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO SPOT THIS WATCH AS A REP,
UNLESS YOU LET THEM TOUCH THE BRACELET THAT IS. THE DESIGN IS CLASSY, YET SUBSTANTIAL. IT IS DECORATIVE BUT NOT BLINGY. LIKE THE
MONTBLANC PENS IT HAS CHARACTER AND STYLE. NOT A "MUST HAVE" BUT CERTAINLY A "NICE TO HAVE".
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A pic of theh gen should illustrate the definition of "butt ugly" in Wikipedia.
And a pic of the rep should be used to demonstrate what a blind man create
from a piece of stainless steel with his hands tied behind his back.
This piece of crap gives replicas a bad name...
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I think the Montblanc Sports Chrono is a seriously cool watch.
But so far I have not seen any reviews on it. So whoever got
it, please share your experience.
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I was looking for Joshuas website today, no luck. Did he change domains?
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The Meistersinger should be easy to replicate
- no lume
- Unitas movement
- only one hand
The Sinn U1 is a seriously cool watch, too cheap they say.
- case made from U-Boat steel
- filled with silicone oil to waterproof it
practically without limit
- glib German design
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I am looking at some of your pictures and it looks like the crown guard is not fitting tight to the watch on each end. A gap exists at the end that looks big enough to slide a paper under it or at least see daylight if yoiu were to hold it up to a light. Maybe it is just the image or a shadow.
Usil
If you look at the last two pics, the gap is pretty much removed. Had to do some
additional sanding to achieve this...still not perfect, but hey I'm still young, lots
of time to take care of this.
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Time to buy a hot glue gun I think... This should also work on CG's that are so floppy they don't actually stay closed too, right?
Yes it does. My lever was totally too loose. It was just flopping around. Now it stays in any position I leave it.
Did the same md to my 111H. Had to hold it by the lever when sanding and filing crown guard an pin into the right shape.
Still nice and tight, so far no wear at all. And even if it wears out after some time, reheat it and it will be
like new...
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What did you use? I wetsanded with 400 grit to start, then finished off wetsanding with 1000 grit sandpaper.
I just experimented with filing it down a little bit, then I use 600 grid paper and
drysanded it a bit. But is was already 2 in the morning and I just wanted to be
done with it. I had just spent the previous hour finding one of the screws that
fell into my rather deep carpet. I did my wifes 217 yesterday, the results can
be seen in the modding section. That went better. But still room for improvement.
I guess you sanded crown and pin together, right?
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This mod is extremely simple, effective and very durable:
I read about different methods of modding the PAM lever
in order to make it nice and tight. There are two techniques
around. One requires cable insulation to fill the gap between
pin and lever, another one employs silicone for the same
purpose. The more sophisticated solution is the cable
insulation, the quick fix is the Silicone variant.
I did not have cable in the right diameter and I was not to
crazy about the silicone option either. So while agreeing
on the general principle of filling the space around the pin
to tightn it, I did not like the means. So based on the
general idea of the existing techniques I thought about
alternatives that
- do not require materials with a certain diameter
- require as little fumbling around witht the lever pin
as possible in order to keep it from disappearing - don't require any wait (like the Silicone overnight option),
cutting down on time in which screw an pin can get lost - is very easy to apply and does not require special skills
- can easily renewed after wear and tear has loosened the lever again
hot glue adhesive, which is readily available in most households.
Tools required:- a pistol for hot glue adhesive
- a screw driver to loosen the crown screws
- a pin removal tool or small drill
- a small hammer
Step one:
Fire up the glue pistol.
Step two:
Detach crownguard from your pam and safely store the screws away.
Step three:
Put the crownguard bottom up on a piece of soft wood. Use the pin removal tool or small drill
to dislodge the pin from the crownguard. Be careful not to loose it once you pushed it out.
The result should look like this.
Step four:
Place the lever on a table. The hole for the pin needs to be vertical. Then place the tip of the glue pistol
on top of the lever without squeezing out any glue. Now the lever is slowly heated up by the glue pistol.
Step five:
Once the lever is really hot apply glue to the pin hole in the lever until it comes
out on the opposite side of the lever. Then let the lever cool for 5 minutes.
Step six:
Remove excess glue, your fingernails should do the trick.
Step seven
Place the lever back in the crown guard and reinsert the pin just a tiny bit (1mm).
Step eight:
Put the glue pistol on top of the pin and wait until it picks up the heat. After a while, it will
just sink into the crownguard until it is all the way through the lever.
Stop pushing when the pin is still sticking out 2mm.
Step nine (optional):
If you want the pin to sit flush with the surface of the crownguard, now is a
good moment to file or sand the top of the pin to a smooth flat finish.
Flat surface after filing and sanding.
Step ten:
Place the tip of the glue pistol over the pin and heat up both pin and crownguard.
This takes a couple of minutes.
Step eleven:
Gently push the pin down. If you want it to sit flush with the surface a hard piece of wood will do.
If the pin is supposed to be sunken, the pin removal tool or small drill will do.
Step twelve:
Remove excess glue with your fingernails or with some solvent.
Step thirteen:
Re-attach the crownguard to the watch and enjoy the great new experience of opening and closing a tight lever.
And now the best thing for last.
Should the lever ever become loose again (the glue will definitely outlast any silicone though),
just use the glue gun again to reheat the lever. You don't even need to disassemble the crownguard
this time around. Just press the pistol on the crownguard for 2 minutes. The glue will melt again
and settle tightly around the pin. Once it has cooled off, you're good to go for another couple of months.
You can repeat this indefinitely, one application should last the lifetime of the watch.
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- a pistol for hot glue adhesive
- do not require materials with a certain diameter
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I just went through a DIY CG mod with my new Angus 111h too!
Doing a much better job than I did. The lever pin looks absolutely
perfect. I will probably have another go at mine, but the hole
is not drilled as well as on yours. So there is a sunken part just
below the pin on the crown guard. Thanks for sharing!!
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Nice Watch....
Great Pics..
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Got this Ultimate 111H from Angusyesterday. I put it on a Black sport calf leather strap (big copper stitch)
by Manifatture Firenze. Then I did some minor DIY mods. I filed down the crown guard to make the fit with
the case more flush. I overdid it a little bit (it's a [censored] to hit the right angle), so I had to file down the lever
a little bit as well. I removed the lever pin and filed it plain to make it flush with the crownguard surface.
That worked ok for the first attempt. Then I used heated glue to fill the hole in the lever. After the glue
cooled off, I heated the pin an reseated it. Makes the lever nice and tight and removes wobblyness.
Even if this is amateur stuff, I'm pretty pleased with the result. Plus I'm very pleased with the watch
Angus delivered to me initially. Enjoy the pictures...
I gave the lever Pin another go today and filed the crown some
more. Obviously I have no life!!!
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It doesn't look worn-in after a few years......it looks ugly and cheap!!! Just my opinion!!! I spent $250/year just to have it buffed by a Rolex dealer!
That's nonsense. You can use Polywatch to buff out scratches with simple cloth. Costs $ 5 and 5 minutes of your time. You pay $250 at a
Rolex AD, well that is like flushing it down the toilet. Plexi looks cool and feels cool. I hate the saphire on my Orange Hand.
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They got a hold of a couple of containers in Hamburg harbour. Most of them were Adidas and Nike shoes but one was full of watches, mostly breitling. I guess that's the stuff being shreddered. So if none of the German members ordered a really big load recently, I would expact that stuff to be street merchandise. Bubble wrapped or not.
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Isolated - Certainly there are no clubs for owners of fakes. No comraderie among fellow owners. No sharing of tips, tricks and performance issues. No assistance with operation, warranty or repair issues. Fake buyers are on their own with nobody to care, nobody to help and nobody to compliment or encourage them--except for the occasional person you might encounter that doesn't know enough about watches to realize you are trying to 'impress' them with a cheap counterfeit.
Man if this guy knew how wrong he is about this. I don't think theres a great many Rolex owners more anal about their watches than most rep collectors. Plus most of them know more about the genunies than the gen owners. The fraction of peple not knowing enough about watches to identify a "cheap" couterfeit is likely to be close to 95% of the population and probably 75% of all gen owners.
His other points are certainly debatable, but the last one is simple stupid.
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I had a VC Overseas seized by German customs in Colgne. Shipped by
Trusty in a plain package. They did not have a phone number, so it
just sat there until I called. Then I was informed that they seized the
item because it appeared to be worth more than stated on the label
(approx. $ 6). So I cautiously asked what they thouhgt it was worth.
They said more like $ 60. I could not believe it. I told them I would
cover the additional taxes.
Had it been a Rolex, they would have surely identified it as fake, but
I guess they simply weren't that familiar with Vacheron Constantin.
Finally they delivered without claiming the additional tax. So apart from
the delay it was a perfect transaction.
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Just received an Inginineur and a J12 from Joshua. Both in one package, man was I scared
the package was worth over $ 600. But with Joshuas magic wrap it did not draw attention.
But seeing a vintage pam being seized shows that German customs is still alive. I'll go back
to separate orders again to reduce the risk of total loss.
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After some delays a shipment from Joshua finally came through.
Some anxious wating if the fedex shipment would make it
through customs, but 5 min. ago I got the statement from tracking
that it's on the way. I'm extremely excited, especially regarding
the quality of the J12 (the expensive version).
Will show pictures soon.
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Happy new year to all dealers and collectors.
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how am i going to explain to my good lady, why i have bought ANOTHER watch again?
i cant hide it..cos if she found it...that would be more difficult to explain..
what do you you guys tell the wife?
how can they possibly understand this addiction???
Get her hooked too. It is a lot harder to complain
when she is wearing a beatiful rep like the ceramic
J12 or a nice Datejust. You'll be screwed out of
some more money, but it will increase your
manoueverability.
Cheers mate...
Pam 111h Problem... :-(
in The Panerai Area
Posted
Hi, the dial of the PAMs tend to move a little bit, when you bang your watch accidentally against another object. In this case, the dial presses against the pinion of the seconds. This stops the movement alltogether. I had several goes with my local watch smith fixing this glitch. Ultimately he glued the dial to the movement in oder to secure it in place. I'd suggest you have a watch smith look at it. Cheaper and less nerve wrecking than sending it back...