r11co

You and about a million others

Been there, seen it, done it. The reps that come with that strap have the extra hole drilled in the case, plus a second set of lugholes drilled closer to the watch body. The rep strap was never intended for the PO - it was made for the Seamaster which has shorter lugs. That rep is a bodge!

My TAG broke within three weeks of receiving it. Watchmaker hand-crafted a replacement spring for the chrono mechanism. Total cost including dismantling, re-assembly and regulation..... $25.

The buckle might be useful. The genuine Seamaster strap as an aftermarket part comes without it. Oh, and there are some 20mm gen PO straps on the bay at the moment.

Just a wee point to note. The genuine Planet Ocean straps do not have that 'tap' shown in the rep Seamaster strap. Here's docblackrock's to prove it... What they have instead is a solid SS end link cast into the rubber where the springbar passes through. The tap and hole was a cheap alternative to prevent the band flapping as By_tor describes. See my thread here on the subject. The genuine PO and standard Seamaster 20mm straps fit the 4th gen 42mm PO rep with no gaps or mods required. Doc has reported the 22mm strap as fitting the PO Chrono rep well with no mods.

Ground similar to this has been covered many times before, and a little bit of research into costs involved might answer your questions for you, but here goes... Firstly, I wouldn't worry too much about spending on a service prior to use. Run it for a while and see if any problems develop. Incidentally, servicing and repair need not cost $$$, but only if you are as lucky as I am to have a quality watchmaker nearby who doesn't charge the earth to solve even tricky problems with movements. As for replacing the movement with an ETA, I would say again probably not worth the expense, but I'd be tempted by this.... Remember also that you will have to source genuine hands as they are not interchangeable between the Asian 7750B and the ETA 7750.

The datewheels interchange fine - trust me. The problems arise interchanging HANDS!

You think correctly.

Tell me about it!! One thing is for sure - I bet the horseman wouldn't dream of dirtying his wrists with a Grand Seiko.

I can't answer the first question in the affirmative as my has slightly askew date numerals in the two-digit range. The problem though is not the date window but the print on the datewheel itself - confirmed by a respected watchmaker. It is easy and relatively inexpensive to fix by replacing it with a genuine ETA 7750 datewheel.

You won't get any arguments from me, but just make sure the retail on that is high enough to keep the horseman from looking down his nose at you for suggesting it...... WRT the watch - anything with an El Primero inside gets my respect , and the sooner it gets repped the sooner a whole raft of beautiful watches opens up to us...

Today, in fact. Holding rep and gen side-by-side and I spotted ONE TINY FLAW in addition to the one already known about (ie. the tails on the logo, which in truth is almost impossible to spot unless under a loupe). I am going to keep quiet about it though. That's the Casino Royale special edition. Different second hand and caseback, but otherwie the same watch for £100 more.

Mine is running +5 sec's after 24 hours from being set. I expect it to settle closer to perfect as the movement frees up!

Mine arrived yesterday, and I just canned my full review as By-Tor's nails it. The lack of AR coating on the outer surface of the crystal is one that can be easily argued around as I've heard off-board that the usual watchmaker solution for repairing damage to outer AR coating is to polish it off as it is a pain in the [censored] anyway!!! A useful bit of reference material for these reviews would be to indicate how the bracelet is linked together for sizing purposes. The 'ultimate' is praisworthy in this respect as it returns to the use of pins-and-sleeves as per the genuine (previous generations used screws for some bizarre reason), making one of these essential... Edit: Also worth mentioning that this is the first Omega rep ever to have an internally threaded crown tube as per the genuine. Some people have mistaken this as a stripped outer thread....

He sure did, and then wasn't very happy with the answer... BTW hats off to Rob1 and Tinticker, who prove that 'noobie' is just a number. It's the brains behind the nickname that make the difference - some arrive with plenty, others arrive expecting to be given them....

I agree with your sentiment Azkael, but one thing that still rancours me is that RT persists in attacking the arguer rather than the argument (ad hominem). Maybe I should accept that as an admission that the argument itself is over?!

Can't be me then - I've been in an 'ultimate PO' all day.... But then I don't expect you to be able to see that from the high horse you've been riding for a while now.

It will have been good while it lasted.... All good things, and all that.

I've asked that question twice myself...

Takes one to know one

You haven't. You just elaborated on your theory which, as I have pointed out and is borne out by what is available in the market, not actually based in reality. A major chance for who? A divine calling, was it?! Who is deciding what constitutes 'right and wrong' handling of this process?! And what part of the sky will fall if it doesn't work out, exactly?! We will lose nothing but learn from experience if it doesn't work out - reps will still be made and we will not be blacklisted from buying them. If you mean an opportunity will be squandered, then perhaps, but, as I said, I think the whole getting ideas above our station will be more damaging in the long run, especially, if after all the hoo-haa, the demand for an RWG poll commission doesn't arise, which common sense tells me is the likely outcome sooner if not later, and when it does THEN we'll all suffer. If you see this as the beginning of a process of eventually getting down the list to the watch that you want then please say so, because we can fall at plenty hurdles before then...

After the fact! And you still haven't explained why you are stoking the fire in here. What exactly is it you were trying to prove hijacking this thread?! Care to answer that and address the issue that 'perfect' reps of $1.5k watches do actually exist despite some people deciding in advance of the rep factories that there isn't a market for them. Even though it is not really what this thread is all about - care to explain why your theory about 'low end gen's' isn't actually borne out in practice and ergo why your floor value idea for the poll was merely subjective crap on your part? Or is that too hard and distracting from your crusade to big yourself up?!

Yup, that was me. I'll admit I entered into the spirit of the game, but it was pretty apparent what was going on, and I'd heard the idea floated before with zero success. Mobilising the troops was good fun, but was it really going to make a difference, or even perhaps get in the way of the glory seeking..... I don't recall any crying by me. It came, it progressed, it got deleted. Hardly a murmur. However...... Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed - there's a spoof poll still in there. I wonder if you can spot it.....

Poor reply. Again ironic in the light of the fact that it was your jumping to the defensive that brought you into this thread in the first place. Care to address that point, or is it still difficult to accept that you might have been wrong about something? Not feeling the love here, then?! Any evidence of that?!