fraggle42

Angus has said there are a few spaces still not bought in the original run of 400 (2 x 200), otherwise it'll be a bit of a wait. But by then the pearl will be changed to a better one (I can't see any problem with this one), and I think they may have repped the strap and clasp by then too.

Eeep! I hope my BlackBay makes it to the plane before Monday then, he has said it would. I don't know, who has a whole 2 weeks off? We get quite a few bank holiday days off here and there, but a whole two weeks? Unheard of!

Thanks Andy, I think this is the first time I'm hoping they find something wrong with my knee, they then have something to fix which may get rid of all the problems!

Just received my QC pics this morning. Loving them, verrrry nice Everything looks spot on to me bar the rep crystal which does not have that distortion that the gen has. I believe this is caused by the bottom of the gen crystal being curved as well as the top. The edge of the rep crystal does have the nice smoothly curved edge you see on the gen, but because of the lack of distortion it's a lot less obvious. So that is the only thing really and a small matter. As my order is in the first 200 the movement and rotor should be nicely decorated too. Have approved the pics and now i can forget about it until it arrives, and then lots of pics and lots of drooling over it! I don't know if anyone local-ish to me has a gen one but it'd be fun to compare them side by side.

Mmm, creamy old lume and sparkly Pams, I'm loving them all Today I have an appointment with an MRI machine, and as one of those is just a whopping huge powerful magnet, I think wearing no watch at all when near it is a wise choice!

Yes, the threads in the crown are below the inside surface level, they're hidden. What's poking out is the bit the stem screws into and that fits inside the tube.

I counted all my autos. I've got 19. 7 spaces free. I need help! I know quite a few here will make my collection look like a Sunday afternoons shopping trip to the mall, and I've tried to limit myself to 8 autos and have completely failed at that! Addiction and watches. Should be a law against it

To follow up my own question the chap who could get these made is Big Gazza. I've PMd him to see if he can still get hold of them.

That's the one that's stuck? Lol, customs definitely getting over zealous Good luck to nikki for winning the raffle, I decided not to enter this one, you're costing me too much money!

Show off! If you bought enough of these to keep your watches in and mounted them on the wall, would there be enough wall space in your house? I know when I'm beaten!

Indeed, I've always loved a nice port. A lot of my friends think it's an OAP drink, I just enjoy it and let them think what they want to

I like that, a lot less in-your-face than the majority of the Hublots. Nice!

(apologies to Reel 2 Reel ) Place your bets now! How long will this one last me before it's full? I think I've got about 15 autos, so 9 free spaces. I have no idea where I'm going to put it yet but it's a nice problem to have! Does anyone else remember the chap who made individual wall mounted or shelf standing watch display units on here? Two pieces of varnished wood with some chrome parts IIRC? I would like maybe 4 or 6 of them, so I can appreciate the watches I have but don't wear them much. It seems a pity if they're hidden in a cupboard.

Super reps? I'm certain there are other longer standing members who can explain it better than I can, but basically they are reps that have been made to be highly close to the original gen. Some of these reps can accept genuine parts, things like crowns, crystals, bracelets, etc. For example if you go to Putetimes site there is a link on the top left called "Bull's Eye Zone" which lists these high end reps. Similarily if you go to Silix Prime ( http://silix-prime.so/ ) on the top left there is a "High Quality Watches" section. Of course you will pay more for higher quality. For each watch you may be thinking of it is well worth your while perusing these and the other rep forums and reading a couple of reviews of the particular watch you are thinking of buying. Not all "super reps" should be classed as such unfortunately. If you are not bothered about the name on the watch have you looked at the gen micro brands? They do make some gorgeous watches and range in price from a cheap rep to a super rep (and upwards of course). In December last year I got a Aviator Professional Chrono, Laco Used watch (they make a watch that looks "used" - it's not actually a second hand watch), Orient blue, Deep Blue Sun Diver. I've also got 5 various Seiko watches, Rodina (the spitting image of a Nomos), a couple of Alphas - Alpha make approximate reps of loads of other brands, sterile Pam homages that look excellent. I think my inexpensive gens now outnumber my reps about 2 to 1 and I'm still finding lots more that I love the looks of.

Yup, same advice as the others basically. List the projects you can remember, then order them by how much you will love the finished article / do love the parts. Then list the excess parts. Price the excess parts, and then start at the bottom of the project list, pricing the parts in each project. Then price the parts required to finish the upper 1/2 of the projects list. So you then know roughly how much it will take to finish the projects in the top half of the list, and you know how much cash you can raise by selling the excess parts and by selling the parts in the project watches in the lower half of the list. Starting from the top of the project list, take the amount to finish and tick off excess parts and parts from lower half of projects until that one is finished. Pick the next one down in the top half of the list and repeat. You'll meet yourself somewhere in the project list, and that'll be roughly what you can afford to finish with the cost of the spare parts you have. I think you'll be surprised at how many projects you can finish if you go through all the stuff in an emotionally detached way like this And if you want to flog off some of those gen Omegas shoot me a PM, I may be interested and live in the UK. (Milton Keynes)

Any movement is going to wear when it's running. I'm happy keeping 7750s on my winder, but I just use common sense. If it's a watch I wear regularily I'll put it on the winder. If it's a watch I use once every few months, maybe it's a dress watch or a special watch, I won't put it on the winder. An easy solution to the problem is buy more watches than you have spaces on the winder, you'll end up keeping the regulars on the winder!

Get one of the super reps and they are very accurate appearance wise whilst on your wrist. The big "tell" of reps is the movement. Some watches have display casebacks where you can see the movement, most have a solid caseback and so you can't see the movement. So that is one of the things you have to decide on, solid case back - much harder to tell a rep from a gen, display caseback - easy to tell if you hand the watch to someone to look at, but it displays the lovely manual or auto movement. Personally I don't care about the accuraccy to gen, I just love the looks of the watches and I like the looks of the movement so prefer display casebacks. Remember that nearly all people won't have the slightest idea what an Omega PO really looks like, so they couldn't tell gen from rep at all. So another question is, who are you trying to convince it's not a rep? You will never fool a professional than knows his/her watches unless you get a rep watch and then replace virtually everything with gen parts. You can get very, very, very close, that close that a pro would have to use a loupe and have the rep next to a gen to tell (just looking at the front of the watch here) but going that route will cost a whole heap of money! Mechanical movements can be calibrated to +/- a few seconds a day. The crucial thing if you want good accuracy is to get the movement properly serviced - that is something the rep movement factories don't pay close attention too - assembling them, they forget to oil bits, oil bits they shouldn't, they're assembled in unclean environments. All can be sorted with a service, costs maybe $125 or so. Just about any of them here:- http://www.rwgforum.net/forum/230-watches-clothing-accessories/ Use the more popular ones, Toro, Joshua, PureTime, Trusty Time. Have a look at their websites, depending where you live you may want to use triangular shipping to minimise customs issues.

Hahahaha, yes, this forum has that kind of effect on people Before coming here I was happy with no watch at all. Now I've got too many watches, too few money and can't stop visiting this place and lots of others.

Hard at work.

Same for the 42mm PO. Part numbers are even the same IIRC.

Blimey. I think if that was me my next package would have been identically declared and sent but containing a U2 shaped piece of C4. Or a U2 with a GPS tracking device in it.

Ok, watch boxes, £0.99p each, free P&P, a dozen for £12. Cardboard boxes, 4" x 4" x 4", 50, £14.26 + free P&P. £26 total for peace of mind

Brilliant news that the OPs watch cleared customs at last! I was thinking that you could say that the watch was shipped back to the manufacturer for repair, you got the quote, decided it was too high, and so decided to not go ahead with the repair and instead have it shipped back to you for spares, hence the low value declared, as it's just for the bracelet / strap, case, dial, hands, crown, crystal, etc. I do think getting a dozen of those cheap boxes is a great idea, and although I'm a supporter of recycling, a beaten up, reused box with half a dozen bits of old labels all over it also screams "send from a private individual, and not from the watch company the label states" so getting a couple dozen new cardboard boxes too. Add printed shipping labels, and I would think that that lot would decrease the chances of anyone being suspicious of the package to next to nothing. There's plenty of gen watches that sell for $150 or less that come in a half decent box, sent from the seller shop in a new box with next day delivery. I'll find some of those boxes on EBay UK, and for flat pack cardboard boxes. If they're cheap from China anyone else in the UK want to order in bulk (100 say) and split it? 12 each is what I'm aiming for.

Very nice, lovely. It must be a rare watch, did a search for it and nothing. Well, there's loads of very crappy looking POS from the Ukrane on EBay, but nothing genuine. I did a bit of Googling for the history of pilot watches and found these 5 page history, but no mention of Omega, interesting reading though:- 1904 http://www.monochrome-watches.com/worlds-first-pilots-watch-cartier-santos-1904/ 1909 ~ 1912 http://www.monochrome-watches.com/the-pilot-watch-finds-its-wings-with-zenith-montre-daeronef-type-20/ 1914 ~ 1918 http://www.monochrome-watches.com/the-history-of-the-pilot-watch-part-iii-mark-iv-a-and-mark-v/ 1920 http://www.monochrome-watches.com/the-history-of-the-pilot-watch-part-four-longines-and-lindbergh/ 1935 ~ 1945 http://www.monochrome-watches.com/the-history-of-the-pilot-watch-part-five-b-uhr/

I do apologies, I seem to be on a streak of buying a few micro brand gens - letting down the rep side!! A nice non-blue Deep Blue came in today, suitably bright to brighten up a damp day.