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An alternative to consider is the black faced Seamaster GMT. IT avoids the obvious 'tell's of the blue SMP Pro GMT as it does not have the He valve nor the display caseback. Even the crownguards are very accurate!! The latest generation of black dialled Asian SMP GMTs are probably the most underrated reps of the moment.

To repeat what I said for the benefit of confused69.... Victoria's information, while typically self-indulgent, is objectively misleading and unhelpful. Silix have never supplied a replica rubber strap for 42.5mm PO. Neither has any rep factory ever produced one. The strap supplied to fit 20mm lug width PO's was in fact originally designed for the Seamaster Pro, which is visually similar in design but differs in a number of crucial ways. To make the rep SMP strap fit you either have to be lucky enough to own one of the later PO reps which have two sets of lugholes at different distances from the case body (the close set being to allow the rubber strap to have a tighter fit) PLUS a locating hole in the case centred between the lugs for a locating pin embedded in the rep Seamaster strap to fit in, or you have to be prepared to have your case drilled with these extra holes. Some people have partially circumvented the problem by clipping the locating lug off the strap 'endlink', and using thicker springbars, but it is a lottery as to how well this will work depending on how close your lugholes are to the watch body (Victoria's being a particularly effective illustration of a failed attempt at this). Click here and here for more detail. The only other alternative is to source a genuine 20mm Planet Ocean rubber strap. Fortunately the price of these is not as high on the open market as the more in-demand 22mm version. I will also repeat - many people here can give useful watch advice from personal experience, and it is depressing that their groundwork is often considered less valuable than the contribution of a Johnny-come-lately who speaks frequently and is trying desperately to sound authoritative by namedropping, but is invariably offering little more than opinion, guesswork, or a conglomeration of information swiftly yet scrappily culled from other peoples' efforts (with no recognition given to the originator). When that person, either through negligence or narcissism misdirects other members, those in a position to do so should be permitted to correct the error without fear of censure. PS. Regarding Jay's ability to 'hunt down' better PO straps, I have a string of emails dating back to January 2006 mapping a discourse between myself and Jay over this matter, culminating in the involvement of docblackrock in the project and ultimately the production of the 22mm replica PO strap. Again, though, I don't anticipate that this will hold much sway against our newly self-appointed expert and 'ambassador' on the subject.......

You are indeed correct in that there are plenty good posts about it. Some of them even initiated by people who know what they are talking about as they have first hand experience of this issue and worked with a dealer to get it sorted. @confused69 - There is no such 'better version' I'm afraid that the only way you will get one of the commonly available 20mm Omega rubber rep straps to fit your 42.5mm rep is to have additional lugholes and a locating hole drilled in your case as the rep strap is in fact designed to fit the standard Seamaster Pro and not the Planet Ocean. You may be lucky enough to have the holes already - later reps came pre-modified. If not your best bet is to source a gen 20mm strap. The prices have come down a little as most of the demand is for the wider 22mm variety.

The white dial is a bit fussy, but I've seen far worse.....

If I have to get something to Italy I usually take it there personally. Wife once decided she wanted to have the latest Harry Potter book shipped over from UK by Amazon while we were on extended holiday in Italy. By the time it arrived she'd have been quicker getting someone to read it to her over the phone.

What's the score on multi-region playback on the PS3?

Scratch the surface a little, mate. All she did was find you before you found where she blagged the info from. The Zigmeister, Neil and all have individually forgotten more about watches in one day than Vicky knows in total. Google, and the search facility, is indeed her friend, except when copying stuff verbatim and forgetting to edit out the mistakes (I never did find out from her if it was Tara Palmer-Tompkinson or Emma Parker-Bowles she was talking about.....)

If it weren't for those people there wouldn't have been much of a forum here for you to join a month and a bit ago.

The thing is though freddy is that the OP was not aimed at an individual, so who should have been PM'd?! The fact that someone came forward and accepted the status of perpetrator was their choice. Clearly the cap fits!

Good point well made. This thread will have been worth it if all it has done is bring this sort of feedback out. Ouch

Don't worry, corgi. We'll let Neil take care of you!!

You do a pretty good job of that yourself. Something I've not really understood until now Miss V is that you seem to get away with insulting other members of this forum without sanction. Maybe it is because the insults go unnoticed in the flood of puff, but I'll defend andreww to the hilt as an upstanding senior member of this forum. You, I don't know who you are, but an apology is appropriate here.

Gio - I still have last year's edition of your compilation I still think Dean Martin's version of 'Let it Snow' is better than Frank's though... Thanks again for putting this out. We should franchise it - 'RWG Christmas'. I am now waiting for Lady V to say she has the version from 2 years ago.... (well done Lemon )

CG'less vintage Sub on Timefactors NATO. First RWG outing for this... The one I asked Jay to put back into production. He did. I don't care if you can spot the flaws from 10 miles. It was cheap, it looks great, and it is watertight. It hasn't scuba'd down to the Disco Volante, but it has been immersed in the Med.

316L stainless will corrode quite easily. Just not in the typical day-to-day environment your wrist will experience. The exhaust on my wife's car I had custom made out of 316L tubing, and the corrosive [censored] that builds up in and outside it will cause it to stain and mark. Just as long as it doesn't perforate though I am happy!

Why did you have to drag this up?! I thought I'd got my want for one of these out my system........

The photos are cruddy, the arm is hairy, but the watch and setting are exquisite.... The pictures were taken from the top of the Watchtower in the alcazaba at Alhambra, with the city of Granada in the background, when I was on my short break in Spain last month. The watch is one of Silix's Asian cheapos. I originally was going to go for a gold 'Black Seal' knowing it was a fantasy watch when I discovered this beside it. Utterly perfect finish to the case, sapphire front and back and (single-sided) AR. This is the only watch I have ever owned that a complete stranger has commented on! PS. I also got to test the watertightness of Jay's latest vintage CG'less sub as the water temperature on the Costa Almeria was (just) bearable. It passed!

Can we have a 'don't give a crap' option added to the poll please?! If not, count mine as a spoiled paper......

Surely you mean Tara Palmer-Tomkinson?! Or were you thinking of Emma Parker-Bowles?

I am disappointed....

Apart from the possible issue of inadvertent misadvertising, is this such a bad thing? 2824 beats too fast, 2842 beats too slow, both are ETA. This ain't the first time this sort of thing has happened either.

Not the first and it won't be the last time this sort of thing happens. Don't read too much into the photos being like the ones used by dealers. Any twit can steal a picture from a website and pass it off as their own, plus a lot of 'dealer' pics are actually produced by the rep-factories themselves or their selling agents. PS. Welcome JM.

Huh?! Now it is the time for Mark to finally clear up all the long outstanding issues he has with forum members. The issues he ignored while he was still trading on ebay and posting in 'risti, still doing his day job and affording gen watches. The issues he left behind that he hoped would simply go away or weren't important enough to him to deal with in a timely manner. Thankfully this latest shaming seems to have kicked Mark (albeit ungraciously) into action. Talk is cheap, VW.

I also didn't mention the hand being put back incorrectly, or the scratched up case and caseback you returned to me the first time that necessitated the replacement case set The fact is you knowingly sent me back a bodged-up watch rather than owning up to your mistakes. Did you think I wouldn't notice the different, ill fitting crown guard or the case damage (I still have the photos if anyone wants to see them)? Do you treat everyone with the same contempt? OK, so you put it right within half a year and the re-lume job was great, but you proved to me that you couldn't be trusted to do a job right the first time and that you lacked integrity in that you were prepared to cover your mistakes in the vain hope they wouldn't be noticed. That is what is called shitting on your doorstep. Good work brings good reviews in our community, but I couldn't possibly recommend your work to fellow forum members based on my experiences. I concede you aren't a scammer. You were, however, an objectively bad trader. You crapped on some of us and now the smell is coming back to haunt you. Long diatribes aren't going to clear the smell.

The one and only time I've had a stranger comment on my watch was when I was sat right under the stage at Jongleurs Comedy Club in Glasgow while wearing my PAM 231. We just knew that we were going to be in the firing line of the acts' wit, but the compere came bounding on, scanned his victims for material, then spotted the watch and instinctively said 'oooh, look at that chap's big watch'..... then died a little as he was clearly trying to resist an urge to genuinely compliment it and couldn't think of anything derogatory to say. Now, if it had been Neil on the stage.......