Stephane

Hi all, I think I am going to become boaring...My trilogy of 1665 is here so I rotate the GW, SR and DR... Today, DR pic because I have no sun to shoot the SR

Uh ? why not both

Who's TTK ? Oopps sorry. Who's BC ?

Not photo noob at all Lonnie. Great to see you like the fiddy too Congrats and thanks for your time... Cheers Stephane

My pleasure

Very very interresting post indeed. At the end of the day, there are very very few "nice sub reps".... Thank you so much for your time and efforts. Cheers Stephane

Well, what can I say... At least I have a great GMT now. Good night. Stephane.

Hi B. Thanks for your reply. As you see, I educate myself... I suppose you have that gen insert, do you? If not, give it a try. Unbelievable... Cheers and thanks for reading. I feel honoured. Stephane

Dear All, You might have seen the picture above before It's RepAustria's GMT Master II and you can check his thread here (RWG Supporters only). I'm the very proud recipient of this watch now! Yes…it's here! In my very own home. How does this happened? I discovered RWG by accident in January 2007 and since then shared some good and bad moments with members here. I may say that some of them became very close "virtual" friends. I hope to meet them in real life someday. One of them is RepAustria. For some unknown reason we gave each other our personal details pretty fast and got in touch regularly. Does "chemistry" match in english? It does in french..."Alchimie". I'm very disappointed that he works on his own watches only But I'm gratefull that I can ask any question to him and he always come back to me patiently and in a very useful way. He gives me all responses that would take me several evenings to find by myself. RepAustria: thank you so much for your time, friendship and all these great moments. I saw his threads and wondered how I could put my hands on such beauties. I guess he saw one of mine, and the watch grew on him. That is how it all started. The trade There are several watches of RepAustria I'm found of. The GMT Master II looked really amazing and I really wanted it. There is one of my watch that I try to sell since months. The Baume et Mercier 8685. RepAustria started to say he liked that Baume et Mercier. Well, the rest is easy isn't it? That's it! RepAustria's GMT Master II This watch is two years old. It's a TW best that he got from WatchMaster (coming from River) The crystal assembly is like a TW best, the caseback numbers and writing are a TW Best, so, it's a TW best. Other sign is that this watch accept a genuine dial without any other mod. The movement is an Eta 2836-2 and has the correct hand stack. Many things have been said about that, but, apparently this watch still runs perfectly after 2 years. It was serviced by a professional watchmaker some time ago. Around eight months ago in fact. The watchmaker said he wouldn’t give warranty on parts, but on labour, yes. He said that the movement should work very well, he didn’t see any problems. He also said "it is fascinating to build a nice working GMT movement from simple parts". Oh, sorry guys, no movement pictures today as this watch is truly waterproof I will not open it and ruin the service. Genuine dial? Yes, some of you will notice it: the dial is a genuine dial. Under the loupe I see it very slightly doomed on the edges. It's really astonishing. It is a genuine Luminova dial, modern version, around 2004-2005 probably. T dials are the tritium dials, you can see the writing “T <25” @6. But this one is “Swiss Made” @6 meaning it contains Luminova as it should be. That’s why the lume is perfect. The hour markers are "much" higher in depth than any rep I saw. Please take some time to check the pics, it's so obvious under a loupe. The bezel is a normal TW best bezel, but was modified. One spring was removed from the clicking mechanism and the other one differently bent. Looks great and works great, I can confirm. The CG’s on the TW Best GMT Master II were very bad. RepAustria modified them: they look very nice, pretty genuine, isn't it? The crown is NOT genuine. It's a replacement crown as the TW best one wasn't good at all. Insert colour! Oh, and did you see that crispy print on the insert? Yes, this is genuine too. I have to say here that I saw lots of different inserts. - a regular Chinese one the Josh's Retro GMT came with - Ali's aftermarket one - this genuine one. The colour is usualy known as red/black. Well, now that I wear that watch and genuine insert, I can tell you: It's not red at all. In certain angles, it looks so dark that I can't even see where the black part ends. The "Red" is a deep dark Burgundy colour like a young wine. Not a 20 years old Burgundy that should look brownish. The crystal is TW best. The laser edged crown is very subtle (sorry, no pic). Very good crystal indeed. The cyclop is 2x as the genuine, not 2.5x. Please note the date is perfectly centered in real life. It's the angle of the picture that shows it off center. Look at the lume shot to make your self an opinion. The datewheel overlay is a print copy from a gen. The modern datewheel are the same direction rotating as the ETA – so a printed copy overlay does work. On vintage this doesn’t work as they rotate in the opposite direction. Finaly, the bracelet. it's a TW bracelet, standard today, back then it was superb as it already had the correct numbering. It has been refinished by RepAustria. Serials The watch is a 2004 one and carries a F serial number. The bracelet is engraved with this reference: 78790A (Sorry no pics, it rains again) Luminova This shot has been taken in full auto mode and not Photoshoped. It's obvious the hands are not genuine (allthough very good, even the best I saw in fact). But it is even more obvious it is not Bulsh$*tNova too This one glows even in the day time when going to pick up a Bordeaux in the cellar! See, I told you, the date is perfectly centered Yesterday, I went to bed with this watch, took it off, and gently fell asleep watching it in the dark of my peacefull bedroom. I didn't check, but I would bet it still glowed in the morning Watch Conclusion This is a totaly different watch. As close to a genuine as possible. Ok, maybe a gen bracelet and crown will be offered to the baby for Xmas, but it's not necessary at all. Of course, RepAustria pushed the limit very far: Old TW best, 2004 correct engravings, great TW crystal and bracelet, very good crown, perfect crown guards, splendid moddified bezel, genuine Luminova dial, genuine Burgundy/Black insert. On top of this, serviced only 8 months ago by a "real" watchmaker, not a clown That said, let me please give you my one and only advice as a GMT Master II Noob: get yourself a genuine black/red insert, now. Sorry a Burgundy/Black insert, now This will make any modern GMT rep look totaly different and I bet it's not that expensive. Trade Conclusion Am I happy with my trade? The straight answer is: YES Can I reverse the trade? Yes. RepAustria is a gentleman, even more, a very good human. He is ready to take this watch back and send mine whenever I want. But, unless he is disapointed with the Baume et Mercier of course, I will keep this GMT for a long time I think. Thanks for looking and reading this very long and enthusisat thread. Cheers Stephane

Freddy's JLC looks amazing indeed. White is cool but black is beautifull

Pls go for the real NOOB TTK, Narika, BKLM ....only. Cheers Stephane

Come on guys: Kids must eat now, then go to bed, then I can start to review my trade with one of the nice member of RWG Sorry to keep you waiting but, hey, family first isn't it?

Hmmm, not Really Manuel...Say a special one....

....wait untill you wear a real sub

Wow, what can I say... I think I cannot judge with pictures only. Sure our experts here have eagle eyes, but me not. So, I usely follow their comment, put them all toghether and then make myself an opinion. WM9 seems a good version compared to some crappy ones we have around for sure. Personally I only have true experience with the Noob and the MBW/K. To summarize, I would not buy WM9 myself because it's not 100% better than my MBW/K according to what experts are saying here. I recently learned that unless I see a watch in person, I cannot make a "definitive" opinion about it. It's a matter of feeling in addition of "prefered flaws". In example, I prefer a perfect dial and insert to a perfect crown or better crown position. I currently wear an incredible GMTII (that I will review shortly) that has a genuine dial and insert but a rep crown. I never had such a "genuine feeling" before with any of my watches that are heavily modified though. Cheers Stephane

Laz, That is a terrible news and I feel so sorry for you and your friend's familly. Please accept my sincere condolences. Warm regards, Stephane

You'd rather check it from time to time... The problem with these small screws is that if you tight them to much the links don not move freely... If you do not tight them then you might lose a screw. So check your riveted very often

Are you sure ?

Congrats B. :clap2: :clap2: Thanks for your time spent in posting for the community. Also for sharing some very good information with me allthough I'm Noober than you Cheers Stephane

There are days where it is really difficult to choose. I'm about to get my wonderfull MM SeaDwellers back, in fact one arrived today, the double red. But today another baby arrived aswell... So which one should I wear? I can't decide in fact so I wear both at home To all Rolie fans, I'll post the follow up of the SD as soon as possible and of course I will also tell you more about that GMT ... Cheers Stephane

Welcome.

Ooops sorry guys. I didn't mesure these pics as I was assuming that the were resized. Sorry my skils with PS are close to 0. I'll remover them. Cheers Stephane

There are to many clowns out there. It always makes me crazy when I see one member come back with a completely destroyed watch. How the hell is it possible that with the recent threads about some of these clowns people still come back with the same congratulations about them... I have not that much experience with Ziggy (EU/Canada...) but for sure one never saw anything bad said about his work. And yes there are some other trustable modders here, on RWG, that have ZERO negative feedbacks. It's a community duty to push people who ask for tips to contact the RIGHT persons. Cheers Stephane

I'm sure Kelster can help you or Tribal ... Both are active here!

Well not me...but I recently saw an AD of Patek, Rolex, BlaBla and having Swatch/Flik Flak too Ok this was close to the main tourist place in my town...but so funny.