archibald

IMO, dive I've always thought divers' lok better in color than black and white. If I could pull off owning 30k "worth" of divers watches in addition to my other watches without everyone who knows me saying "shyeah, right" I'd have an orange PO, a green sub, a yellow Le Plongeur, a blue pannie. All those purdy colors are the only reason a non scuba dude ought to wear a dive watch, IMO.

With regards to the EP 400- There are two different variations that I've seen- 17j and 31j. Both are auto, and both would do the job for my 16520. The 17j seems to be the older iteration with the 31j having superceded that design. I believe both also beat at the rate of 36,000bph, which is one of my reasons for wanting the higher jewel count. I'm not well versed in the details of an El Primero, so if someone can correct or expand on the differences or information between the two different versions, I'd appreciate it

Slay- The Zenith in the auction is very nice, but a bit more than what I wanted to spend on a donor watch. I've seen watches with these movements sell for half or more than the one listed...

I may not be following this properly...does this mean we have to spring $1500+ on a Zenith to power a Daytona franken and, further, that I've been wasting time bidding in all those Datron auctions? I thought the datron (which usually go for 875-1000) are the weapon of choice for frankentonas. No?

Damn, talk about a career change

It's good to see he's found something worthwhile to do w/ his hands. Anthrax. Please.

Jesus....after all the press Krazy Tom did nobody's going to see it. My wife went to see it w/ a friend and came home and said--"Tom Cruise is going to have to either leave katie for a 14 year old boy or do a press event at every house in america to get anyone to see the next one"

Has anyone ever measured a jimmy guard? Some poeople say it's a 1:1 copy of OEM, some people say a 1:1 copy of the rep guards, some people say somewhere in between. I guess whoever measures one can lay it all to rest.

a really expensive way to fix the Maltese cross problem

Can a version sporting Jos's case and silix's dial be far behind? I bet someone is trying to get a few made like that as we speak...

Quite strange that some people like you so aficionados to wine do not know anything about Spanish wines (or at least no one did mention). Seems to be there is only French or Califirnian good wines. I travel all over the world and I'm also very aficionado, and I can tell you that if you want to have an exceptional wine for an exceptional price, tar spanish wine, Rioja, Penedes, Ribera, Toro... These are a shor list of the regions of Spain were wine is more than business, is like a religion. Try to find in your liquor store some spanish wine (ask for a Rioja from 2002, or a Ribera from 2002 or 2003). And let me know.

I love Spanish wine...then again I love all wine, but I respect spanish wine in the morning.

Arch's Current Great Spanish Wine at Cheapskate Prices pick is Artardi's Vinas de Gain 2003. It tastes a lot like the wines the iltaians make when they try to make wines that taste like they were made in california, which are usually pretty good and have cool postmodern labels but cost 50 bucks minimum.

They need at least 20 generation to make this right.

LOL! They're going to need 20 generations of repmakers to get that right!

We forgot the Audemars Piguet owners

g.

BTW, I used to work on the staff of a committee Ted Kennedy served on--he usually wears one of JFK's Omegas or a beat up Patek which may have been Old Man Joe's.

Oh, I didn't realise that. Like I said, I'm a watch newbie. I just figured that the ETA/Swiss movement is more reliable.

TTK's Monacos look nice. Sent him an email. Does anybody have one of TTK's Monacos? If so, how do you like it?

Sadly, we'll never see an accurate monaco until the chinese rep the 2824-2 or 2894-2 movements. The good news is that a used gen is within reach of anyone willing to forgo two or three high end reps over the next few months--I paid $1500 USD for mine, which I justified by passing on the PAM 027 and Swiss 196 and selling a few lower end no-wrist-time reps. I have the brown-dial version which looks great either on the honey python or the chocolate croc that comes with it. I wear it at least three times every two weeks, and get a positive comment on it every time.

A good vintage Port- Taylor Fladgate, Dow's. or Noval would all be good choices.

-O

Some of the greatest cheapskate wines, of which I am a true aficionado and uber-cheapskate, are Australian Tawny ports (think somewhere between a sweet sherry and a "regular" port) which get perennial raves from the wine press gurus and can be had for as little as 8 bucks a bottle for the Clocktower 8yr old tawny. even better, since tawny port is a sippin' wine, one of those 8 buck bottles will last you a good while.

Great Review The Zigmeister!!

Davidsen, any chance of having some Swnas necks made up and installed on that movement?

The second one actually looks like a generic picture pulled from a Panerai catalogue too.

That's a good point. I bet that is a picture of the 44mm auto which has the thick crown and black wheel. IMO, there's no way that's a 40 mm panerai w/ that thick crown.

http://cgi.ebay.com/PANERAI-PAM119-SS-LUMI...bayphotohosting

http://cgi.ebay.com/New-PANERAI-Watch-LUMI...bayphotohosting

The crown, guard, and datewheel on the second 119 look way wrong to me--judging from the fact that these sellers mostly sell low end watches, I bet they got duped on a rep 119. Or, you know, maybe you can't dupe the willing....

Arch's current Pinot raves:

Jaques Prieur: Meursault Clos de Mazeray. Yup, a red Meursault. Amazing wine. Classic Burgundy flavors. It'll cost you 40 bucks, but this blows away 80% of the $200 bottles of premier crus people buy. Try the 1999 if you can get it. One of my all time favs w/ food.

St Innocent Seven Springs 2003, from Oregon: Interesting name, interesting wine. I had this at a buddy's restaurant a couple weeks ago and it was the star of the whole meal. Not to sound like a wine geek, but this wine had about a dozen different things going on--violets, nutmeg, cherry, raspberries, chocolate, roses...not particularly food friendly 'cause it's so complex but it's a great deal--25 bucks for a wine that can hold it's own against 99% of the Pinot Noirs made on earth.

Kenwood 2001, California: It's 11 bucks. And it's good. And it's 11 bucks.

I may be a bit off on some of the prices since I'm making an educated guess on the retail prices--one of the perks of being in the restaurant biz is that I get to buy the wines I take home @ wholsale, but probably you can get these within 10% of the above prices.

Gran, you forgot Franck Muller:

If the rep is 19mm at the lugs, is the orginal not the same or is there some other hole placement issues that would cause them not to fit??? I would hate to spend $100 to find out the strap does not fit.

I originally misunderstood the problem when robideaux asked me about it a while ago--I think the issue is not the width of the lugs but that the holes are too close to the case. the fix depends on if there is room to drill new holes so that you don't end up just creating one too-big hole and the old holes are covered by the end of the strap.

So is Puretime's VC Overseas a 1:1 copy? I really want one but I can't choose between the two......

1:1 (which the VC is not) is marketing shorthand for an accurate rep (Which the VC is) and should be taken w/ a grain of salt. The closest rep to 1:1 I've ever owned was a Conquistador w/ an OEM dial, strap, and crown and any FM dealer could have picked out at least 3 flaws in less than 30 seconds. Even so, 99.999% pf the population of the planet couldn't spot 1:2 or 1:3 reps!

i bought two OEM FM conquistador straps en ebay used. one was crocodile but with no buckle for 52 dollars, the other was rubber with buckle for roughly 150 i think.

to my misfortune they didn't fit. the lug holes on this rep are about 1.5 mm to close to the case. i am thinking about having my case modded to fit them....

robideaux, your watch could just be drilled improperly, or the latest version has the lugholes drilled so an OEM strap won't fit--I've had the previous 2 versions of the Conqistador and OEM dials and straps fit perfectly.

Has anyone else put an OEM strap on their Conq?

LOL...most watches dont look like they are worth more than our reps

More than a few of them aren't.

qualitime...nice catch. Thanks for the link!

Look, we may all have our own preferences and agendas vis a vis payment services, but at the end of the day the dealers are going to do what's best for their business, which is why Andrew started the thread. As consumers we have the power to vote w/ our feet. Don't like E-Gold? Buy the watch from someone who uses Moneybookers. Don't like Moneybookers? TTK's sticking w/ pp, and I send eddie MO's w/o a second thought.

If a dealer switches to E-Gold and his sales drop, the he's going to get nostalgic about the asshats over @ pp pretty quick. If E-Gold ends up working for the dealers we all better open up E-Gold accounts or stop collecting reps.

Time will decide...

One thing scammers always count on is greed. Ebay, feedback, and suspicious emails aside, if I saw someone selling anything for 65% of what it's worth I take another sip of the Sam Adams, chuckle, and go about my merry way.

Kegra, you're not passing up a great deal so quit beating yourself up over it and let these guys steal from someone else.

I agree the cross looks better and the trapezoid date wheel cut out is correct. But I am curious about the reasons for the six extra screws on the caseback? Ther are two near each lug instead of one and two by the crown. That seems odd?

Dude...what, do you want the back to fall of your watch or something? The rep is 6 times less likely to fall off.

As long as our sphincters are clenching, the date window may be the right shape on PT's, but it has a border around it that's as unfortunate as the shape on Jos's. Also the 12,3,6,and 9s are all slightly misshapen, and the bracelet is still not quite there. Still, I'm probably going to buy one of Jos's and transplant the dial from the old version, which is much better...and I shall not worry because I will not wear it into an AD or the next chapter luncheon of the Vacheron Overseas Owners' Organization (VOOO).

Does VC offer a version on leather--I have a totally ideosyncratic and unexplainable aversion to bracelets.

On the subject of gold, should 18k used instead of 14k on watches.

There's a trade off: 18k would look more authentic but 14k tends to be more durable. The best option is very thick eletroplating or PVD 18k, but since,in the world of reps, those are about as common as [censored] on a bull, whether to go w/ 18k or 14k is a tough call.

I've been looking for a replacement CG for my doorframe dinged 51 for a while. Anyone who's tried to find a rep part knows how hard they are to come by, so when I saw an OEM guard offered on the bay, I decided to take the chance, since it was cheaper than replacing the watch, which was what I'd have to do otherwise.

This was a pretty interesting experiment which revealed a few surprises:

--There are only minor differences between the rep and OEM guards: The brushing on the lever is much more aggressive and the fit and finish (lever fit, perfectly drilled holes, cleanly fit pin, etc) is better but not significantly better.

--Since the OEM guard dropped right in (There is a tiny, tiny gap on the 6:00 end, which I will probably mill away even though it's mostly visible in the magnified pic) and since it is very close in appearance to the rep guard, I'm led to believe the 40mm auto reps are CNCed all the way. I bet the case, bezel, and back are also damn close to dead on.

--the crown on the 40mm reps are not too thin--it looks like the gap between the top of the crown and the bottom of the rep guard is a fraction wider than on the gen, which makes the rep crown look a tad too thin.

--The biggest improvement is functional. The OEM lever functions both more smoothly and with more firmness than the floppy rep lever.

So, are OEM guards worth the money? It depends--if you can get one and your other option is wearing a severely damaged rep, I guess they are. As a cosmetic improvement they definitely are not. Putting that OEM guard on was most useful as proof of how good the 50 and 51 reps are.