andreww

People that have three or four hundred dollars a month to throw at watches are in a bracket that they can also afford to buy a decent watch. I see a number of exotic car experiences in my area that seem to be doing well, however watches are a little different story. The whole replica game gives those that are interested in high end watches but too poor to afford one, a viable option. 

That said, I think the business model could work if you concentrated on daily rentals instead of long term leases. Hook up with wedding planner and run the business similar to a tuxedo rental business. There are enough high end weddings out there to make it work. Think about an average of 5 watch rentals per wedding (groom, best man & ushers) at say $100 per watch per day. Maybe you have three or four weddings a weekend, that could work out to about $5 or $6K per weekend assuming 2 day rentals.

And is that the original pearl? Looks nothing like the genuine but miles better than the ones that originally came on this model.

Weight s pretty non existent. Its titanium and weight wise it feels like its made of plastic.

Nice. Did it come new like that or was it modded by somebody?

Been a while

To tell you the truth, I'm not sure that the two tone Navis are still available. Those first came out many years ago and I don't ever remember seeing them updated.

Very nice job nonetheless! 

So obviously the sundials are for show right? 

Drop in for the first time in a long while and find that things really don't change. At least Kilnk ain't working over there again!

They stopped making the TT reps quite a few years ago if I'm not mistaken.

I highly doubt that a gen breitling 7753 will fit in the new rep.

Rolex and Brietling GENS....All others..... reps. I am looking for a gen Brietling. Bought the gen Rollie a few weeks ago after rocking a rep for a few weeks. .

 

Personal rule. NEVER buy a Rep Chrono. 

WTF dude? Never buy a rep chrono? Why not? I've got many of them, all over 5 years old, and have never had a problem with any of them.

Thanks Andrew. It looks like you picked one up?

Nope. The second pic is the genuine for comparison sake. Sorry for the confusion.

To my eye the numbers on the slide rule insert are a little too far from the edge and the datewheel is slightly sunken. Looks like they did piepan subdials where the gen's seem more flat. Overall an improvement over the last version. I'd wait for a review on the whiteface though as it usually the color that is the farthest off the mark. The gen is more silver I believe. Black is the safest choice,but if you aren't a stickler, go for it.

Oh, and when a dealer tells you he water tests ever watch, he's lying.

You do know that even the gen navis aren't fit for swimming right? The rotating slide rule bezel just doesn't seal properly. The Navitimer family are strictly pilot watches, the Aeromarine series are meant for swimming.

My advice for swimming with a rep is to get a simple, non chrono watch. I personally use the Steelfish SuperOcean. Remove the back, check that the seal is there, lube it and seal to the proper tightness. These things are built for water but in my experience the back is usually nowhere near being tight enough. My Steelfish has been in five different seas, numerous lakes, pools and water parks over the past five years with no problems, Before that I was using Planet Oceans but found that the bezel inserts were just held in with two sided tape and tended to come loose with prolonged water exposure, so the solid Breitling bezels work quite nicely as well.

First thing to look at is why it stopped. Carefully remove the back (over a dark cloth in case any parts fall out) and ensure that the rotor is still attached. The number one reason these 7750s stop is that the rotor screw comes loose and the rotor wont spin. Another frequent problem is that the screws for on of the clamps that holds the mechanism in the case has come loose and is jamming up the movement.

 

I’m not an expert but I know an old time watchmaker who is and has been around from the old really low beat pocket watch days thru the present.  He says that he doesn’t believe the human eye can distinguish visually the difference in second hand movement from 21,600BPH to 28,800BPH???

 

The reason that movies and video runs at 30 frames per second is that the human eye only sees fluid motion after 30 frames. So your eye most certainly can see the difference between 6 and 8 ticks per second. A 28k watch is 25 percent smoother. Thats a huge difference. That said, i use the chrono's very rarely, and I don't think anybody would be able to tell from the subdial hand, so it really doesn't bother me in the least.

Very cheap replica with faux chrono.

The serie special was all wrong. It should have had a brushed case, domed crystal, beefier bezel. Not to mention the numerous spelling mistakes on the back. But that watch was a great platform for building an Old Navitimer. All it took was a gen dial and a breitling datwheel. The did build Old Navitimers for a bit but they only came in two tone gold/ss and had the wrong caseback, wrong date font, no AR, and misaligned slide rule.

This is a gen Serie Speciale

This is an Old Navitimer

As you can see, the case and hands are identical to what we have already. Do a decent dial, and use a datewheel from a Skyland and you are golden. That's why I think this might be J&A's surprise. When they do projects like this the generally use parts that already exist to build something new. 

I have the feeling they may be working on a 6-9-12 model. All the parts are already there, so it wouldn't be overly difficult. But for those of you that haven't been around in a while, 1 or 2 months usually translated to 1 or 2 years

I believe the gen slide rule insert is too big for the case. As for the two cases being the same, I don't believe they are. I think the positioning of the stem hole is slightly higher or lower on the new ones. 

And i find it interesting that Zig had to shave the dial. On the earliest 6-9-12 Navi reps, the genuine dial dropped right in. On the 3-6-9 Navis the dial needed to be shaved down.

I have just collected a genuine dial, genuine slide rule insert, gen handset, gen date wheel (all 6-9-12 Old Navitimer II) and a Swiss ETA 7750, with the intention of transplanting them into a "Fighters" case. This case looks like a better option but I'm just wondering if the gen stuff will fit.

Depends on which version of the fighters you've got. I believe the older ones will work but the new versions won't.

I'd reject that watch. Doesn't have the proper date font that was shown in Angus' pictures.

A minor inconvenience in setting the watch is worth it to avoid the sunken datewheel look.

Have you ever tried to advance the date 28 days by advancing the time? A little more than a minor inconvenience I'd say.