archibald

I've been bitching about the lack of a rep of this since the day the gen came out... My guess is that the holdup is the 10k the gen costs, the saphhire bezel, the 12 layers of superlume in the insert, the odd xtal shape, and the fact that, the issue of tase aside, they can buy a $2000 brietling, rep it, and sell 3000 of them to people who's only exposure to nice watches are ads is Sports Illustrated. Sorry to sound like a snob, but that's just the way it is.

Guys, I promise: I did searches on two forums and stared at sub bracelets on the dealers' sites all morning, but I can't find a definitive answer to this question: Is it possible to order an in-stock sub (any model, any dealer) that will come w/ the famous noob bracelet? I con't care about the rest of the watch--it''ll be sold--but I do want to make sure that if I buy a beginmariner, hamonryemariner, or whatever each dealer calls his/her cheap sub that I would in fact be getting the noob bracelt. As always, thanks for your time.

Great review! As the owner of a gen LV dial and bezel assembly, the sub scene is looking up!! I was waiting for someone very smart to make lots of money by selling a version w/ nood dial and bracelet, WM9 case AND an asian 2892 to get the right rehaut/crown ratio (I bet even guys w/ heavily modded subs would buy new ones if someone makes that watch)...but I just might just give up and pull the trigger on this instead.

It's going to be more than $113 cheaper from everyone in three months. I like it, but thanks to the unfixable crown position it's about number 4 on my list--so by the time I get around to it at the end of august it will have settled into it's final price of arounf $428.

50 pieces...for the 50 idiots who will give them double what the rest of us will pay in a month. I'm definitely in for one of these when the rushe is over, even though I'm thinking the zsymetruc pushers won't be fixed. I've always wondered while staring @ pusher stems how much bend or angle you can get out of them and still have them push the little chrono tabs on the side of the movements. If the even got the pushers a mm or so higher than the crown the illusion will be good enough--nobody has the pusher/crown position distance memorized;at best people who will look at your wrist MIGHT know the pushers are supposed to be higher, but not by how much.

Which makes the $60 or so that gen deployants usually rub a very sound investment. Great review lani, but can anyone clarify for a non-breitling expert...did they fix the dial problems everyone was griping about on the 1st version? Has anyone compared the bezel insert side by side w/ a gen inhand? I've always found--on subs, the PO, etc--the bezel insert intangible "look" is often an instant tell on reps. They look great in pics, but somehow just don't cut it in person...

I was thinking the same thing...There must be some sort of alien space ray that zaps you as soon as you mod a few watches for money, turning you instantly into a jack a$$. The Zigmeister, of course, never takes off his alien-jack-a$$-ray preventing tin foil hat, but so many have fallen.

A no brainer: Take the parts and, like so many of us have, write DSN off as the ninny he his and move on.

Hmmmm...I've got absolutely no dog in this hunt, but I may be able to help clarify the exchange between V and tootall. I've a V CG's in front of me and another 2 on the way to have my smith put on watches I'm trading to another member. I know the 2 on the way are from 2 different members who originally ordered them, so that's a pretty random sample. I'll do some side-by-side shots and post them along w/ a scan of the 3 quotes I recieved last summer for a run of 50 CNC'd A-F and H series guards. On edit: i guess the finish on the edges of the "crown hole" and the pin/hole fit and finish tolerances are the key areas?

I recall the 106 rep's case being brushed stainless...that would certainly be an improvement over the polished 24 case, but like folks are saying Ti would be best.

Just ran accross this thread over @ Watchuseek. Someone claims Claro movements are tian-jin and seagull movements decorated in switzerland, therby earning a swiss made designation. We all know the swiss made gimmick is a gnat's a$$ away from meaningless, but I'd be very surprised if anyone could take a chinese movement (not an ETA made in an asian factory) throw some screws and pearlage on it and call it swiss. If that IS true, there are a lot of folks crapping on "cheap chinese fakes" whilst strapped at the wrist to a "swiss" watch powered by the same movement as a $108 rep and it sure looks like the Swiss will do anything to keep their monoply on fine watches including allowing the mislabeling of chinese products..LOL! http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.ph...highlight=cl888

Alden shoes are great, and so are Carmina, from spain, sold locally here for $300 on sale and the equal of any of my Crockett's or Lobb's, and fairly closse to my cherished pair of Cleverlies. Barker Black's are my absolute favs because they combine hand craftsmanship and traditional styling with a little bit of subversive streak but you have to buy them on ebay because they are obscenely priced at Sak's, which is the only place you can buy them aside from the boutique. I'm not going to embarrass myself by confessing how many pairs of shoes I have, but it's way too many for any straight guy on the planet. Let's put it this way--I have four pairs of brown wingtips...in burnished alone. On edit: Sometimes Ralph Lauren Purple label shoes are available @ outlet malls for cheap. They're made, I believe, by both Alden and Crockett & Jones. Below is my pair of Barker Black Suede/Calf spectators along w/ my franken 03...is the skull & crossbones pattern (BB's trademark) cheesy? Sure, but nobody's noticed it yet and the quality of the shoes is at least as good as any non-bespoke shoe I've ever owned.

Sure is, that's why I propose all US members w/ sweet, high-demand reps for sale assign equal prices for dollars and euros..for example, if I ever sell my gen CG/gen dial/gen hands/gen crown/jimmy case/custom caseback 03 T, It'll be offered for $1600 shipped anywhere conus and 1600 euros shipped to europe--the mirror image of what our european friends do every day. For great reps, the domestic demand should be more than sufficient in case EU members have to pass on a few nice reps. .

Can't fill up people's tanks w/ blame (although high gas prices and a weak dollar represent actual real world policies of the current administration) and we can't drill our way out of more than 3% of the gap even by putting six oil wells in every texan's and alaskan's back yard. We sure do need more nuke plants and most moderate environmentalists are with us on that--In fact, the energy output/environmental risk ratio is so much better with nuclear power than drilling that they shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence unless it's just for the purpose of politics. To answer the OP's question: we'll get a break when the interests of the hundred million or so consumers of fuel are placed before the few thousand people who rely on oil for the majority of their incomes and when we don't have to fire treasury secretaries for slipping up and telling the truth, as Paul O'Neill did when he said a weak dollar amounted to a tax cut for large corporations. Sadly, I don't see thing changing much no matter who wins in novemer--the interests that like high oil prices and a weak dollar have far more juice with both parties than the rest of us do collectively.

Right on. As long as we're speaking of common courtesy, the same thing holds true for the Tritium hands listed. To my knowledge only one RWGer (not me) has a T GMT dial, and IMO he's the only person around here who can use those hands. I'm sure he'll pay almost anything to get them, as we all would if we had the dial, but it would be a damn shame if he has to... In fact, the T hands would have no value for a L dial owner--anyone who's tried to match T and L knows you'd have to do the near impossible task of repainting and reluming your L dial to match the T hands, and you'd have a 1% chance of having them look better than just reluming the rep hands and dial to match. In the process you'd throw away whatever the T hands cost--the rep hands are so close to gen that the T lume on the gen hands is their sole value. Of course, if I'm wrong and someone else has a 23 or 29 T dial and needs those hands, I'm not suggesting he or she shouldn't bid. My point is that bidding on those hands just to have them laying around until a T GMT dial gets teleported into your parts box would definitely not be in the spirit of this board as I've experienced it over tha past 4 years.

We need a new smith five times over. I'm assuming the guy you're going to ask is a watchsmith you've used who owns or works for a bricvk and mortar shop. He should be aware that a lot of things he's not accustomed to are going to happen: 1) He's going to get a lot of demands, half of them impossible, from a lot of anal retentive, OCD freaks like me. This is not changing a few batteries and cleaning nicely QC'd gen movements for non-WIS's. The easiest going RWGer might just be worse than the most demanding customer he's had so far. Is the extra income worth the headaches? 2)he's going to be baptized by fire by his new customer base: his work is going to be put up to public scrutiny. Few of his triumphs will be posted. All of his mistakes will. Some of the criticism will be out of context, exaggerated, or unfair. If he's going to become a member here is he tempermentally prepared for that? 3)He's taking a professional risk. Sooner a later a [censored] off customer is going to contact whatever companies/organizations a brick and mortar watchsmith might deal with/be a member of--maybe because he scratched a $30 rep dial. Is that risk worth the money? How do I knoiw this? Well, all I'll say publicly is I carefully and quietly reccommended and privately offered the services of my smith to less than 10 RWGers & I wound up having to promise never to give out his name again in order for him to keep working on my reps. .

I have the same problems on my short crown version. I'll buy a chinese version when one comes up although not a hell of a lot better. At least the connected hashmarks will be gone and the crown, although inaccurate to the vintage version, splits the difference between the 2, IMO. Like a few other RWGers, I passed on the $310 BIN OEM crown and $600 BIN black dial, both from late 70's pieces, which sold one the bay about six months ago. Everyone was saying how perfect the MBK nautilus's were, and I was dreading the argument I'd have to have w/ my watchsmith to get it put on. I should have looked at some pics and made up my own mind: In hindsight--$1300 for a dead accurate Patek would have been a no brainer, considering what people are paying for gen parts these days.

Nice. The CCD is the most accurate "crazy" rep because it's the only version available from FM in steel. As a general rule, rep muller bracelets are crapola and should immediatly removed. That being said, if anyone absolutely has to have one I have 4 which I would be happy to inflict upon anone who wants one.

Guys, sadly this is something that all of us are going to have to deal with forever--that is those of us who continue to buy from dealers. The dealers have done their forum related jobs too well, w/ complete mastery of group psychology. It seems that after a new member's first purchase, they're so delighted and relieved they didn't get their money and identity stolen by some guy 1/2 way around the world that they immediately post a "(your dealer name here) is da man" post.. I know I did...and it becomes a convention. The dealers play on this constant flow of positive reviews like any smart PR operatives would: they make friends w/ repeat buyers, feeding them little tidbits of info (much of which out to be complete BS), they may or may not flat out pay off other members, and, in my personal opinion, have an entire forum that functions largely to further their business interests, eliminate competition, and intimidate anyone who dares to waver from the straight and narrow. The result: For every guy like the OP who finds them out, let alone publicly calls them on their shennanigans, there are 100 who don't. Many of the scammed don't bother to post out of laziness, but even more don't past because they are afraid of getting black balled or have 10 Powermaxers post "Dealer X will make it right!! Why didn't you do this privately before naming the dealer?!?" My personal solution is easy: although I spend an embarrasing amount of money on reps, I haven't bought from a dealer in over a year and 1/2. Sure, I pay a little more for reps since many have been modded, and a very small number have been at inflated prices the few times sellers have insisted on selling used watches at a profit But guess what? My collection has gotten better than if I had bought only from dealers, I've never recieved anything not as advertised, and even better, I've made a lot of real friends with whom I exchange real and valuable info about reps, with whom I've bought and sold unbelievably amazing reps w/o anyone else ever having the opportunity to even see. IMO, aside from new models there are plenty of watches available on the secondary market to keep any collector broke for the foreseeable future. Sorry if this poist pi$$es anyone off, but since I've got no dog in the dealers/forums hunt, I feel like I can just tell the truth as I see it.

I was thinking maybe put the mbk caseback and crown onto the current rep if the mbk is big enough... Same font family, different font. I've ID'd all the patek/VC/AP fonts, which are very similar, and am working on a DW overlay that functions and installs similarly to the one I made for sssurfer's 222, except w/ the patek/AP/VC fonts and sized for the 2824/36. I'm too lazy to make enough to sell but I'll gve a few away to the first few guys who ask. I'll post pics of my gen dial/corect font/chieftang AR/rebrushed and polished Overseas as soon as it arrives back from my smith and you can see how the font looks.

If you can post a pic of accurate-looking sample engraving, maybe on a piece of 316L, I'll donate 2 blank casebacks for your project.

I'm sure cows and crocodiles are relieved....They were outraged to hear that elephants' lives were somehow more valuable.

This is a great idea, and one that many of us have had. Some answers and a couple comments: 1)blank casebacks are VERY hard to find I just bought the only good one I've seen offered on the forum in years. There are a few not-so-good ones availale, but they would certainly not be worth engraving. You'll have to have blank casebacks made by a machine shop. 2)With reps w/ clear backs and rep movments, even the best ones, it seems a waste of money to change the serial number. You're already fooling 99.9% of the people who see your watch because they don't know what gen movements look like. The .1% of the world who know what a gen movement looks like will decide yo're wearing a rep long before they see the serial #. 3)You must have a heck of a laser engraving machine to engrave 316L stainless steel to the correct depth. These machines exist to be sure, but I am under the impression they are only found in very advanced shops. 4)If you do get this done can I have one?

Is there an older 5165 w/ a solid caseback? Anal retentive (and spendthrift) MBK Aquanaut owners could maybe swap casebacks and crowns as long as the dial/hands would work.

I don't think sellers can delete entire threads. I've never had to dispute a buy on RWG (RWI and Geek are different matters, sadly) but I bet there has to be an archive somewhere. If you're worried about the people you're dealing with, why not take a screen cap or make a PDF of the sales threads?