archibald

Also, IMO everyone--and especially first-few timers--should use watchmakers' paper to cover the dial when removing and installing the hands and uncasing movement. Even though my watchmaker has probably 50 years of experience I've never seen him uncase a movement, remove or replace hands, or even leave a dial exposed on his bench w/o covering it w/ paper. Maybe he's being unduly anal, maybe it's saved him a ticked off customer more than once, but it's, what, three bucks for a couple of hundred sheets?

It's a fantasy model, of course, but I'm not sure that's a deal breaker. What percentage of people you run accross know what a breguet is? What percentage of those have memorized every model they've made in the last 25 years? It's certainly plausible that Breguet would make a watch that looks like that, even though they didn't. Just stay out of AD's and you'll be OK. The movement is a modified version of the chinese copy of a Venus 175 manually wound chronograph movement. The base movement is well-made, reliable and has been used in many, many reps. A moon phase/caladar module does add more things to go wrong and I'd guess makes sourcing parts for repair completely impossible. So I'd choose a dealer who stands behind theor products. Another consideration would be the case metal. Anyone who knows what a brequet is probably also knows that high end gen makers would almost never make a complicated chronograph in steel--This watch is one of the rare occasions that it's probably best to buy a gold plated version. I doubt it's going to be your daily beater, so you probably don't have to worry as much about the durability of the plating.

And the wrist should be 29.7 mm bigger, too. I can live every flaw except for the subdial rings being PVD'd and the LUC engraving..the date font can be fixed, nobody has the ref # memorized, and the marker depth is a 10X flaw only. I bet they'll never fixed the inner bezel ring, but if that's a deal breaker you'll need to buy gen to be happy anyway. ON Edit: if there is a black dial version of the gen, maybe that will solve both the subdial ring and inner bezel colors anyway since on a black dial the subdial rings will probably be silver and the inner bezel will be black....I hope.

I'm sure all of us have wished rob the best here or in private. I think now it's left to us to make something positive come out of a huge setback to RWG, and that's to end what's essentially been a free-for-all modding free-for-all that's been in place on the forum. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that the admins are in a crappy position--it's not their job to vet every guy who wakes up some morning suddenly transformed into a watchsmith, and there's never been a rule in history that can protect people that refuse to do their due dilligence. What we and the admins and the membership can do if we work together is make sure it's difficult for hacks to set up shop in first place, and if one of them actually does manage to sert up shop, that he gets exposed as quickly as possible.

Do they have a website? I'd be really surprised, although I'd love to know what it is if they do!!

Nice job!! A tip on the overlay....After you scan the overlay, you'll probably want to clean up the vecors to avoid doubling the printer-caused "wobbles" when you reprint. Not doing that won't make too much of a diff on adress labels, but it will if you use high-resolution inkjet vinyl, which will produce much crisper prints IMO. Try Planet-label.com. You can get a lifetime supply for around 10 bucks. (and you can find 1000 uses around the house for the extra labels...or at least Ms. Archibald did). For those who want to change w/ the font thickness...the easiest way for a non illustrator pro like me was to rasterize the file in photoshop @ like 4800 dpi, select the numbers, expand the selection to the desired thickness and then run a black paintbrush over them. Since the overlay is rasterized during printing anyway, it doesn't matter that you're not working in vectors anymore, and you have complete control down to the pixel of how much you fatten the numbers. Plus you could easily make a roulette overlay if you want, too.Nice job!! A tip on the overlay....After you scan the overlay, you'll probably want to clean up the vecors to avoid doubling the printer-caused "wobbles" when you reprint. Not doing that won't make too much of a diff on adress labels, but it will if you use high-resolution inkjet vinyl, which will produce much crisper prints IMO. Try Planet-label.com. You can get a lifetime supply for around 10 bucks. (and you can find 1000 uses around the house for the extra labels...or at least Ms. Archibald did). For those who want to change w/ the font thickness...the easiest way for a non illustrator pro like me was to rasterize the file in photoshop @ like 4800 dpi, select the numbers, expand the selection to the desired thickness and then run a black paintbrush over them. Since the overlay is rasterized during printing anyway, it doesn't matter that you're not working in vectors anymore, and you have complete control down to the pixel of how much you fatten the numbers. Plus you could easily make a roulette overlay if you want, too.

Of course they used ken's pics. Ken sells the gold standard of replica clothing. The fact that Andy and styleforum used his pics to is actually pretty good advertising if you ask me. Most of the readers of those site probably think rep clothing is all like the crap congesting ebay. More probably bought from Ken than expressed their outrage on styleforum, I bet. BTW, between a few excellent websites, ebay, outlets, and brick and mortar liquidators, I guarantee it's just as cheap to dress well as it is to buy the the majority of people buy, even on sale. Yesterday I spent half an hour driving to my favorite discount store and bought a Borrelli shirt, a Kiton tie, and a pair of Barker Black shoes (each hand made by people that actually give a crap about their work, and it shows) for far less than a cheap suit that costs $500 because it has ralph lauren's name on it.

I hate admitting I haven't read the rules, but it's good to see that rep wearing to AD's violates RWG rules as well as common sense!

You mean something like this? The problem, IMO, is that stainless doesn't look right, even brushed, and aluminum is fairly soft and hard to glue w/o damaging. That, and printing after brushing is a different ballgame. I've made a couple of these for my own use but can't see a profit selling them, considering how hard they are to make. I'd love to buy one of yours, though, since making them is enough to drive me even crazier- than I already am!! OEM on left, overlay on right. On edit: I own a cutting machine that can cut to within .03mm tolerances (the overlay pictured below was done by hand) and would be happty to cut some overlays if anyone can get the brushing right.

That's a great case. I don't even like yachties, but If there is a rep sold that actually uses that case, I'll buy it and worry about the rolex print later (would certainly be worth searching and paying for an OEM dial for that case, maybe an insert, too). If they build the zenith daytona case to the same quality, I'll have a heart attack and then buy it too. I used to know why the 2892 works better in rollies than the 2824, but now it slips my mind. Cannon pin height, maybe? Thickness. At any rate, this watch is certainly worth a 2892.(I don't get it, really--people don't blink at putting OEM 7750's into $3000 Breitlings but balk at putting a $180 2892 inside a $5K Rolex). For those who want a cheaper movement, keep in mind that The Zigmeister (and also my local smith) say that the asian 2892 copy is a very decent movement, especially after servicing. My fear is that like the sd King posted pics of on her site, that this case will either never see the light of day w/o a gen movement or even far, far worse, modified to fit the 2836, which will sadly mean jus a marginally improved rep that won't be worth the premium we'll obviously have to pay.

Well, that version is certainly better, but a little too rich for my blood... I was just looking at my 50 before reading this thread. Makes me wondfer why they did an excellent 40mm auto years ago (decent dial, random #'d caseback, good date font, accurate spring loaded crown, excellent fit and finish on the case & guard) and not a 44mm to this day. Maybe they didn't know at the time that 44mm PAMs, rep and gen, outsell 40mm by probably 6 to1?

I guess fit and finish is subjective when comparing rep to rep, but the inability of DSN's watches to fit other rep, aftermarket, or OEM parts is a fact, sadly, and is the dealbreaker for most serious collectors, since most serious collectors mod.

If that's true (I've heard twice from different gen oowners that a CG replacement from OP is $180) it may make sense for gen owners, but rep collectors ought to just chuckle and about our merry ways, IMO. You can get a used 111H, if you look around for a while, for around 3 grand. So, which one of those parts part are you going to buy to make your "ultimate" 111H as good as a gen for significantly less dough? The CG? OK, you've now spent over a grand and and your watch is still instantly ID'd as a rep by the dial and crown and movement. Guess you have to do Dial and CG + palp crown + lumed hands + strap, minimum, right? Now you're all in for 5 or 6 bills less than a slightly dinged gen including parts and labor...and you're only on-the-wrist 1:1. Or close to it, since if you run into a collector he's going to be so stoked about meeting a fellow Paneristi that there's a 50/50 chance he's to ask to check your watch out and offer his for you to try on. The minute he turns it over, you're busted. IMO, you're going to fool 99.99% of the people who see your watch w/ a stock 11h. and maybe another .000001% after you spend $2300. I wish flav well in his experiment, and I hereby make a standing offer of $250 for the CG, only becuase they've never decently repped a "historic" guard, and never will.

And here's the standard version:

The GMT versions are much more accurate except that at least some of the gens have solid backs and the hour and min hands should be blue on white dial versions. Re: the date mag--If the cyclopses are 6mm and you have an old "watchmen" cyclops laying around you're in business.

That's a huge step forward--and apparently the price w/ a 2892 lite would only a little higher than the 21j. Now if they would just make minor adjustments to the cases to make use of the 2892 lite's ability to let them mimic the crown/rehaut ratio of the gen, the noob YM's, subs, etc would be the best ever, better than MBW, better than super anything. Thanks for the link!

I'm not trying to pick a fight. Far from it: I'm genuinely dissapointed. In fact, if you'll do a search, you'll find that I was one of Davidsen's earliest backers--For years I'd been practically begging someone in china to do what davidsen initially set out to do, which was to produce parts to fix the flaws left by the main factories. After all, that was and is the last frontier in our hobby. Sadly, Davidsen was apparently the wrong guy to undertake that task. Why? Who knows? He has access not only to the technology required but also to several hundered discerning eyes and an entire membership who at least initially was willing to do whatever they could to help him. Others--Jimmyfzu, for example-pulled it off w/ zero problems. To use just a few of your particulars: He fixed the A's on one dial, but blew the font and the printing, and also made many oif them so that they were useless w/ all cases except for his--which were and remain far from accurate. He made the first attempt at a historic crown guard, then stopped @ 75% of the way there. He produced several accurately-designed casebacks...which were plagued by engraving so poor that those casebacks more obvious "tells" than the flaws they corrected. I know you're involved in his latest project, and I am certainly keeping an open mind. I'm pullring for you guys. Ultimately, the proof will be in the final product.

Depends on the model of the rep I'd guess. At a very minimum the dial feet will have to be cut off, since the OEM uses a modified 2892 and the rep uses the standard miyota copy. To fit the model 2852 size case (marked 5850 on the back of the CH rep) I believe the dial should measure 33.5 X 26 or there abouts. The Long"Island CH will not fit a gen dial--the rep case is 1mm too big.

As i understand it, this was on some short list somewhere in China, but the cost of the gen made them pass on it. I'd be happy to settle for the Casablanca Anniversary Chrono--same reppability, just as big, and the gen is 1/2 the price of a steel conquistador. Here it is in PVD:

Those are two of the most accurate cheap-ass reps ever made--I still wear my CH at leat once a month. The CH is great front and back except the gen was never made in steel, but a white gold or platinum plate could fix that. The vegas was made in steel, but only in the version w/ the brown roulette hand. It would almost be worth it to spend another 40 bucks on a brown second hand version (look for a back that says "Master of Conquistadors" which in it's own way is way cooler than "Master of Complications") swap the hands and give the reject version to the kids. Anyway, the accuracy/cost ratio on those two babies cant be beat. Wear them well!

Not sure you want one. The repmakers came up w/ the Cyclops Sandwiches to improve the mag and cyclops alignment. Both the thicker cyclops (no hands-clearance issues as with a standard interior mounted cyclops) and the increased distance between cyclops and dial dramatically increase the mag. And of course, dropping a cyclops in a slot solves any alihnment issues inherent in gluing to the underside of the crystal. To duplicate the mag w/ the standard configuration, you'd almost certainly have to source a high quality sapphire cyclops (sapphire has better mag per any given thickness & curvature than glass) which even then might not magnify enough unless the rehuat on the rep is as thick as gen. Why not AR both crystals and then reassemble? I just had a glass crystal ARed by chieftang along with a bunch of sapphire crystals and the coating on glass looks identical to my sapphire Overseas crystal. The only extra work, which would take about 2 minutes w/ a felt dremel tim and red polish, would be removing the AR from the top of the glass and bottom of the saphhire. Certainly the extra 40 bucks is worth it to have AR and good mag. A cyclops would cost you about that anyway.

That's a tough call. Since mullers seem to have cooled off, rep wise, I doubt we'll ever seen anything like it again. On the other hand, if it's not getting any wrist time (to be honest it is a pure dress watch) it could certainly fund just about any rep out there. I'll tell you what, though, since gold has gone up 60% since we bought these and the run-size of 25 makes them about as rare as a rep can get, I certainly wouldn't be offering any fire sale bargains if I did sell. Re: the movement. Eddie did guarantee swiss. In fact, if you read back on the thread, he told me the delay for the decorated movements was because it took a while to source and decorate Swiss movements. Mine is Swiss 2824 and I know of two buyers who verified their movements were swiss, but I suppose the only way to discern if everyone got swiss is to crack the backs. Come to think of it, I've never seen a rose gold version either. Can someone please post a pic or two of theirs?

Amazing!! Is your engraver a secret? I've been holding off for the seconds @ 12 too, but I worry that if they don't deal w/ the subdial spacing at the same time, all will be for naught. Yours looks great no matter where the subdials are, though!

Amazing!! Is your engraver a secret? I've been holding off for the seconds @ 12 too, but I worry that if they don't deal w/ the subdial spacing at the same time, all will be for naught. Yours looks great no matter where the subdials are, though!

Ditto and ditto! I sold my TW a couple of years ago, and have been holding out for a 2892 version since, apparently in vain. The noobs look great but until they take the step to change the movement, all future improvements are going to be so minor that they won't make buying a new version worth it, IMO. How sweet would it be for a "noob" powered by the 2892 lite, solving the rehaut/crown position once and for all. What would that add to the cost? 20, 30 bucks? Once the basic package of rehaut/crown/bezel is in place, you could happily wear as is or mod to your hearts content. I've never figured out why they don't do this...but, hey, it's free to wait.