rionrlty

5 hours ago, freddy333 said:

I am not intimately familiar with the current ceramic bezeled Daytonas, so I cannot answer your question with any authority. But the 4130-powered steel-bezeled Daytonas had a noticeably lower profile than any of the rep bezels I have seen. Also, some of the rep bezels had a small channel around the underside of the bezel's inner circumference which allowed them to fit over a complementary bump-out that surrounded the dial opening on the case. Otherwise, the gen & rep bezels had similar outside/inside diameters.

 

Gen 116520 bezel left/rep right

Yes, I have seen this on the reps too. Some others have a much larger section from the inside bottom of the ceramic bezel. Not sure why. I've also noted the difference in profile you mention. This applies to the back cover too on some of the reps. Mainly it's how they try to compensate visually for the additional thickness both on the Rolex clone movement and on the A7750. This one has the A7750 and its impressive that they've managed to get the thickness down to 13.5mm. When I got in to the shop today, to my amazement a Gen Daytona had come in for service. It is an older one probably just after 2000 and is two tone yellow gold and SS. I didn't take a picture, but a precision caliper measured the gold bezel at 39.8mm, and it had been polished pretty heavily over the years. I've examined my latest watch again. It is still only 38mm at the bezel. It appears that the discrepancy is mostly, if not all, in the bezel. I would love your opinion on the subject. To me it appears to narrow in appearance. I'm including some photos I just took. The watch looks great otherwise. I'm wondering if I could find a replacement bezel replacement that would be larger.

6 hours ago, freddy333 said:

I am not intimately familiar with the current ceramic bezeled Daytonas, so I cannot answer your question with any authority. But the 4130-powered steel-bezeled Daytonas had a noticeably lower profile than any of the rep bezels I have seen. Also, some of the rep bezels had a small channel around the underside of the bezel's inner circumference which allowed them to fit over a complementary bump-out that surrounded the dial opening on the case. Otherwise, the gen & rep bezels had similar outside/inside diameters.

 

Gen 116520 bezel left/rep right

Yes, I have seen this on the reps too. Some others have a much larger section from the inside bottom of the ceramic bezel. Not sure why. I've also noted the difference in profile you mention. This applies to the back cover too on some of the reps. Mainly it's how they try to compensate visually for the additional thickness both on the Rolex clone movement and on the A7750. This one has the A7750 and its impressive that they've managed to get the thickness down to 13.5mm. When I got in to the shop today, to my amazement a Gen Daytona had come in for service. It is an older one probably just after 2000 and is two tone yellow gold and SS. I didn't take a picture, but a precision caliper measured the gold bezel at 39.8mm, and it had been polished pretty heavily over the years. I've examined my latest watch again. It is still only 38mm at the bezel. It appears that the discrepancy is mostly, if not all, in the bezel. I would love your opinion on the subject. To me it appears to narrow in appearance. I'm including some photos I just took. The watch looks great otherwise. I'm wondering if I could find a replacement bezel replacement that would be larger. I had a picture of the bezel profile, but it won't upload to the forum for some reason

Hey Guys,

Long time member here and trusted vendor (Rionrlty's Rarities in the services forum.) Our shop has worked on many of your watches and though I know plenty about a lot of watches, both reps and gens, by no stretch do I consider myself a Rolex expert. Although we work on Gens in our shop and have worked on many Rolex, I can only remember one Pre 2000 Daytona coming in, the one with the Zenith El Primero movement. I seem to recall that it measured a full 40mm diameter at the bezel. So, here is what I'm hoping one of you can help me with.

10 or 15 years ago I had one of the first Rolex Daytona reps with the A7750 movement. I had it for quite a long while and it gave me no trouble that I can recall, although it was a tad thick on the wrist. I measure all of my replicas and as I recall it was about 15.5mm thick and the bezel measured almost a perfect 40mm, just like Rolex states on there website. I eventually sold it on. Here is my Quandary.

I've recently purchased a couple of the newer Daytona reps with the ceramic bezel. The first was an ARF factory issue and to my consternation the bezel diameter only measured out at a little less than 39mm. Eventually it bothered me so much that I sold it on. Recently I purchased a replacement from an independent dealer that I've grown to trust. The watch is beautiful with white dial and ceramic bezel. It is the A7750 version but still measures only 13.5mm thick, which I can live with. What I'm afraid that I won't be able to live with is the bezel diameter. It only measures to 38mm. I noticed that it seemed small when I unwrapped it. I've since measured it several times, with two different calipers just because I can't believe it's that small, but it is.

Am I missing something? Did Rolex reduce the size? Do they perhaps make a smaller 38mm version of the watch? Can anyone tell me what's going on here? 

Hi folks, many of you know me well as I've been around for a long time and have also worked on many of your watches. I doubt that I can be of use to someone so far away, but just a few comments to add to those already offered. Andrew and Trusty Time are indeed easy people to deal with and as far as my own experience are straight shooters, at least by Chinese standards. We are located in Southern California and have been both collecting and working on replicas for nearly 20 years now. From my own experience I estimate that as much as 25% of replicas arrive either DOA or with serious problems. There may be many factors that cause this, dirt from unclean assembly, improper assembly, over or under oiling plus defective parts. As far as incorrect time-keeping results shown on the timegrapher in QC pictures there is a good explanation. The picture only shows the watch in one position, usually face up. Most timegraphers have an articulated mount that enables up to 6 positions for the watch. A watchmaker knows, that to properly regulate a watch, readings must be taken in at least 5 of these positions and adjustments made to average out the final result. Just because the timegrapher reads +-10 secs/day face up doesn't mean that it will perform to the same specs when worn by the owner. At best this is simply window dressing to convince novice buyers of something that is probably not accurate. 

For those of you a bit closer to the US we welcome all work on replica watches. You may contact me by PM here on the forum, or you can talk to or text me on my cellphone at 951-313-5119.

Best Regards, Mike Rion 

Please call my cellphone at (edited by Nanuq) so we can coordinate. Our mall location has been closed to the public so we’ll have to meet elsewhere during the shut down.

PLEASE GENTS USE THE PM SYSTEM.  Google et al spider this site constantly.

Thanks for the good word, JN.

Long time member and trusted Vendor here. For quite a while now we have been offering Quality repair of replica watches and many RWG members are happy customers. We are located in Southern California and since all non-essential business here has been ordered to shut down due to the COVID-19 epidemic, our mall location has been closed to the public. This has deprived us of our retail and walk-in business, but our repair facility has been allowed to stay active otherwise. As about half of our total business is internet based, including replica repairs, our capacity has effectively doubled. This will have the effect of shortening lead times on repairs. In addition we are also offering significant discounts on most things. I can of course be contacted through our messaging system and usually reply withing 24 hours. Let us know if we can help.  Regards, Mike Rion  

8 hours ago, PAM-snob said:

Just discovered this thread and am excited for a stateside rep repair option! However I clicked the webpage link in the post and it's no longer available according to GoDaddy
Any idea if they are still doing business?

 

Hi Pam Snob,

 

We are still very much in business. The company however is considering dropping the website do to lack of response. We (Major Watch) are on "Yelp" however and have a very positive response there.

 

Regardless, you should contact me direct by PM for any questions or concerns. I will generally get back to you within 24 hours or less and within the PM format will provide you with my own private contact info including Email and cell phone no. I'll even provide you with the direct line to the store, although the owner/watchmaker has requested that I personally coordinate with customers originated from the various forums.    

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Hi Eric, 

we can handle those. We’be already done a few of them.

regards, Mike

Still here and still doing business guys.

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10 hours ago, panerai153 said:

Keep on plugging away. My wife of 38 years passed away about 16 years ago, and I can tell you from experience, it ain’t easy. But over time, the pain eases and you can sort of pick up the pieces and move forward. That’s what my wife wanted, and I feel sure yours did as well.
AFA the book, I’m really looking forward to the second installment.


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Thanks for your kind counsel P. and the encouragement regarding he writing. 

10 hours ago, panerai153 said:

Welcome brother, glad to see to you are offering repair services. Sorry to hear about your wife, that's a huge void that never completely goes away.

How about you're writing? I was eagerly looking forward to another book from you> 

Had the second installment (book) just about ready for publication when Patsy Passed away. I've been trying to get back to it, but just haven't been able to get in the right frame of mind. She was my most ardent fan and it's hard to get motivated without the encouragement she supplied. It's been eating at me though so I'll get back to it soon I hope. 

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Hi fella's, I've been hanging around here for a few years now. I've been collecting both gens and reps now for about 30 years or more. I started getting into reps in the late 1990's and my collection right now is about 75% replica. Over the years I've taught myself to do a lot of the work required on my watches, but it has never been easy to find competent watchmakers to take care of the more involved repairs.

About 8 months ago my wife passed away and I found it desirable to find something to occupy my time, and get my mind off of that. As a result I took a job with a watchmaker with whom I had a 20 year relationship. He works on both my gens and my reps, so he has about 20 years or so of hands on experience working on the replicas we all love. From personal experience I know that it is sometimes difficult to find someone reliable to work on them. I've had many watchmakers refuse outright and others to do it only reluctantly. And that's if you have a watchmaker in your area at all.

At any rate we've decide to offer our services to members of the various forums. We are located in Southern California, USA, but will accept work from all over the world. Our prices are competitive, but best of all we speak replica fluently. To be clear we do not consider ourselves "modders" but prefer to do basic servicing and repair. If you are interested please contact me via personal message, at which point I will answer any questions or concerns you might have and supply personal contact info.

Here is a link to our website http://hemet-majorjewelers.com/

Best Regards, Mike

Guys, I am really confused. It's plain to see the forum has changed again, more like the old one now. Thing is when I visit the trading section all of the posts are from way back, the newest being from early February. To make things even stranger I keep getting email notifications for new sales threads. When I follow the links in them it takes me to a recent listing, but when I search the trade section it is not there. Can anyone help me sort this out?

rionrlty

Hi Sixx,

Good to hear from you.  I'm currently working on getting it out in soft cover as well as Audio.  I'll be sure and let you know once it is released.  I'm really gratified by the response I've gotten from forum members and a few of them have already purchased the digital version.

Regards, Mike 

Will do.

Thanks so much.  Working on the Paperback as we speak, but it seems to be a big deal with re-formatting for size, from the digital version.  I'll keep you in mind.

Thanks man, appreciate it.

Gotcha, that's why the softcover is not here yet.  Everything has to be re-formatted to fit the physical dimensions as opposed to digital and its way beyond my capabilities.  I credit digital with giving me the opportunity to realize a life long desire in writing.  I do all my writing, research and publishing right here on my computer.  I never anticipated that I would become grateful for that typing course they made me take in the 10th grade.  It took most of my life to get to the point of acceptance though.  Back in the mid-1960's I was an illustrator and had the opportunity to get into computer technology on the ground floor, at the defense contractor I worked for then.  I cross trained for several months and got so frustrated that I quit the job.  My good buddy at the time stuck with it and is one of the foremost IT experts in Las Vegas currently.  Who knew?  

What do you do?

Yeah, for now.  It will be in Paperback, but it takes a little longer to get it formatted.  Less expensive to buy digital too.  Price now is $4.00, but will be about $12.00 when available in paperback.  Kindle is Amazons reading app and can be downloaded to any device for free from Amazon.  I read on my android tablet as well as my IPhone from time to time.  Try it out.

Mike 

Thanks Bangster, I hope you enjoy it.

Mike

Hi Guys,

Many of you know me well as I have been active on the forum for nearly 4 years now.  I've actually been collecting watches, both gen and rep, for nearly 25 years now and have upwards of 35 watches at this point, mostly reps with few gens thrown in for good measure.  I spend considerable time on that, but it is not my only interest.  

I am also a writer and have been working on several books for nearly 5 years now.  I recently self-published my first release on Amazon a couple of days ago.  Over my time collecting I've found that many of the same people who enjoy watches also possess and interest in automobile related things.  Many are actually Auto enthusiasts and I am too, having restored nearly 60 classic cars during my 70 years on this earth.

The book is in the Science Fiction genre and is primarily about Time Travel.  However the impromptu time machine happens to be a nicely restored Jaguar XK 120 roadster.  The book also includes many examples of cars from the 1930's to through the future year of 2037, in their natural habitat.  Coincidentally a couple of vintage mechanical watches from the 1950's also play an important role.  The name of the book is "JOY RIDE" and it is the first in a series known as "SHINY SIDE UP".  The next one is in the editing phase and should be available before the end of summer.  It's working title is "RIDING SHOTGUN".  For those of you may be interested here is a link to the book on Amazon.

Regards, Mike

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XJCFN1L/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1489364565&sr=1-1&keywords=Mike+Rion