Rob1

The rep I wear most often is my Navitimer Serie Speciale with eta 7750 movement. I think it's a very good rep, it keeps great time and lives very comfortably on my wrist. My only disappointment is the lume which is very weak. Is there any way to relume this watch to make it possible to read the time at night? Does re-luming a watch run the risk of damaging the dial or the hands? Is there a watchsmith in the UK that is recommended for doing this kind of work on a rep?

Which AD?

Wow! That's not what you'd normally expect from Timex. Might think about getting one later this year when I've ticked off all the reps that I want to buy! Thanks for pointing these out Neil.

Got a new Seamaster Pro recently, one of the new batch with the missing hour marker at the 3 o'clock position. I'd like to correct the the missing marker and wondered about replacing the rep dial with a gen dial. Does anyone know how much the gen dials are, where I could buy one and whether it is an easy swap? Is it a watchsmith-only job, or can an idiot like me do it? Many thanks for any help you can offer.

I've had about 8 watch deliveries with ParcelForce over the last couple of months. All have been without any problems, and if it wasn't for the ParcelForce tracking system I'd have no idea about the location of the watch in transit because I have never had any success when tracking via the EMS website.

I recently bought a SMP from Andrew. It's a lovely watch and keeps great time. However, the small hour marker at the 3 o'clock position, next to the date window, is missing (it's there on a gen, and Andrew's photos also show it) and the crown is too long. Other than those things is a great watch.

Thanks, it makes sense now. Remove two screws to release the double pinned link. Blimey, it's a fiddly job putting it back together!

I'm the happy owner of a new Navitimer Serie Speciale and was wondering how to resize the ss bracelet. The screw seems tiny, and when it is removed the link is still held together with what looks like some kind of pin. Should this pin be pushed out to free the link? I've tried to find a little photo tutorial for this, but the Search function didn't come up with anything. Any help would be much appreciated. Regards Rob

I was in Geneva airport earlier today. No need to check other passenger's wrists as there are display case after display case of wonderful watches. Spent a very happy time trying on a Steelfish, a Monaco and a MM Grand Turismo XL to work out which one I liked best. Still can't decide; I love them all! If you're going to be stuck in an airport, Geneva is a watch-lovers dream

Any one know if there are reasonable quality reps of Tag Heuer's Monza? Eta movement if possible and working chronograph. Are there any independent reviews of a Monza rep on one of the watch forums? I've searched but can't find anything. Regards Rob

Thanks, the ebay price seems quite sensible. Is this a straightforward swap of gen for rep, or is there extra work required to make the gen dial fit?

It's a very special collection all round! Some gorgeous watches that I've never seen (or even heard of) before, and my all-time favourite, the Tag Monaco in McQueen blue. I love that watch, but alas no decent reps available.

Thanks for that info - the dial on my watch has the 3 0'clock marker missing (like on the mid-size version) but my watch is the full-size version. Weird... How easy and expensive is it to replace the dial with a gen version?

Recently bought a SeaMaster Pro from one of the dealers on RWG. It's a nice watch, keeps excellent time and paid for it to be serviced and waterproofness checked at the time of purchase as I intend it to be my day-to-day watch. I've been looking at it quite closely and comparing it to the rep photos on this site, to gen photos and to the photos of the watch on the dealers own website. I've just noticed that there seems to be a very noticeable difference between my watch and all the others photos I've seen rep or gen: the small hour marker next to the date window at the 3 o'clock position seems to be missing (see photo below). I've contacted the dealer I bought the watch from and he siad that this was normal and that the factory had recently changed the dial design. Has anyone else seen this, or is there a small error with my watch? Thanks for any advice you can offer to this newbie

I use IBAN transfers to France quite often. My bank (First Direct in the UK) charges £20 per transfer. Very quick and easy, but quite expensive if you're transferring relatively small amounts of money. I've once also used an independent money broker to make a transfer as they offered a better foreign exchange rate than my bank, and charged less for the service (£14 IIRC), but there extra hassle to this as you have to set up an account with them and have cleared funds in that account before you could make the transfer. If PP are going to be even tougher with our dealers maybe we need to get used to paying for international money transfers if that is the best way to keep the dealers from being excessively scrutinised? I know that I'd rather pay a bit extra rather than have the dealers go completely underground and make purchasing high quality reps difficult or even impossible.

Typically, for a watch like a SMP or the Navitimer, how long would you have to wear the watch in order to fully charge the power reserve (assuming the watch has stopped when you put it on your wrist, and therefore the power reserve is completely wound down)? Sorry if this is a newbie question, but I couldn't find the answer when using the search function.

How tight is the bezel? The bezel on my girlfriend's watch is loose (turns very easily, and can be rocked back and for quite easily).

Oh well, guess I'll just have to wait until a good one comes out. Any chance that the good rep manufacturers will turn their attention to a Ladies Brietling, or is the potential market for this too small to bother with?

Thanks for this review. I've just bought the same watch for my girlfriend, so I appreciate the time you put into posting this.

That's a shame as I'm a big Breitling fan I'd hoped to buy my girlfriend one as well. I ordered her the Tag Formula 1 ladies watch from Josh (currently en route from China) as it looked much nicer than the Breitling. Does anybody think it's worth risking the Ladies Cockpit just in case it turns out better than it looks in the photos?

Do you know how good the quality is on those reps? I've looked at the photographs on Joshua's site and the finish on the Ladies Cockpit doesn't seem to be particularly good. Is this because of the photography or the quality of the watch? The bezel in particular looks very poor, the way the numbers at 3, 6 and 9 are stamped/engraved, as well as what looks like paint flecks on the ss part of the bezel.

Thanks. After further examination I found they are indeed screws. Bracelet is resized and I'm already in love with my new watch

Thanks for the info. I'll call in to Selfridges in the near future. I'm really looking forward to the Navitimer - I have a cheap and nasty version (bought before I discovered RWG) which I like despite its many faults. I have high hopes for the Serie Speciale version I have on order

I'm away from home for a couple of days, so no camera. I'll try and post photos soon, although apologies in advance for poor photography skills.

My SMP has just arrived from Trusty and I'm delighted with it. I need to take a few links out of the bracelet, but as a newbie I'm a bit unsure about how to do it. I'd like to do it myself rather than take it to a dealer if I can, but I'm unsure if the bracelet is secured by pins or screws. On one side of the bracelet it looks like a screw head (or perhaps a split pin?), but on the other side the pin is perfectly round. If the bracelet is held by screws should I see a screwhead on both sides of the bracelet, or just on one side? If it is pins I have a pin removal tool which I could try.