-EZ-

Love the baton dial. It's funny, once I wore one of these the 45mm PO which I used to think was too big all of a sudden became inadequate.

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and believe that his tragedy is true. But The Zigmeister's right. He owes the people whose property and money he has the TWO MINUTES it would take to log on and say "Sorry guys, I'll need a month (or two or whatever) before I do anything related to watches." A little thing like that would go a long way.

IMHO the flaws on the UPO starting from the most obvious is: light AR, then the pearl, then the logo, and finally the lume. The difference between rep AR and gen/K2222/CT AR could be spotted from across a room. The pearl position/construction/color(I've seen varying quality even on UPOs) can be spotted by someone in the know way before those annoying little feet become discernible. That's why after AR, if I had to choose I would put in a gen insert before a gen dial. And there's no doubt: either K2222 or Chief's AR will meet or exceed any expectations as far as the crystal, and save you money over a gen to boot! But if you're going to build a franken, you might as well go all the way! Mine: Gen: Insert, dial, hands K2222 newest batch AR I have a gen crown and He Valve(part of a great deal I got on the bay), but do not see any need to do a swap.

You can't get the gen insert without the bezel because Omega only supplies them with the bezel. This is stupid because the entire reason Rolex(who is supposedly the first to use the 2-piece insert/bezel design) made it that way is because the insert was the most often scratched and replaced part of their watches. Your only hope is that an individual tinkerer or watchsmith had a project that only required a bezel, but the chances of this are slim to none because there's no reason anyone working on a gen wouldn't simply install the entire bezel with insert. I have never seen a gen insert by itself for sale anywhere. So basically the only option for anyone who wants one is to buy the entire assembly and take it apart.

The speedy dates also have the wrong "clown-shoe" style logo. I would go with the red/blue. Strikingly different.

Very well done.

LOL they didn't bother to align it for the catalog photo??

Great find! Too bad not many people are gonna have that equipment sitting in their garages.

Didn't know The Zigmeister came up with a way. In several threads about this issue in the past, no one had been able to do it without also removing the black finish underneath. It would be awesome if this could be done and the "L-swiss-L" put back in the right place.

Good point. Wish I had gotten one of those! Are you sure someone didn't get mixed up and give you one with an ETA movement? As for gen inserts, they are definitely not available separately from any watch material house. If you're very lucky, one may show up on the bay or TZ or somewhere like that. If it does, it's probably from someone that did the same thing as me: ruined a bezel and got left with the insert. elisiX: Nice franken! Is the whole bezel gen? I aways wondered if it would fit. I thought about getting the red hands too, but for now the orange will do.

The SMP Chrono is easily one of the best reps out there, but it has 2 basic flaws: Pearl (size, placement, color), and the datewheel. Mine already has an ETA datewheel, but the pearl always bothered me. Fortunately I was able to give a recent watch tragedy a happy ending. After a couple hours of American-style tackle football, I noticed that somehow the gen bezel on my Bond SMP had bent. After I took it home and gave it an examination, it was clear that the bezel had not only bent but rotated, and the retaining ring was hopelessly jammed up inside. I did what I could, but it could not be saved. However, I was left with a virtually unscathed insert. The idea came almost immediately. Since the Bond bezel was useless now, how about putting the insert to use on my beloved SMP Chrono? The SMP and SMP Chrono bezels are not interchangeable (different diameters, and the chrono is much thicker), so it wasn

Actually the logo is not the only flaw. Besides that and the date wheel, an even more obvious one is the missing dot on the tach ring between 500 and 400. Gens have it, reps don't. Overall I doubt few ppl who aren't in this community would notice it, but if you know to look for it, it's very easy to tell even from across a conference table. Don't know if this affects other models, but I noticed these things with just a cursory photo comparison.

It looks fine, except for the misaligned date. As far as accuracy to gen, size for case fitting isn't the only way the 42 dial differs from the 45. Most notably, the right edge of the date window should be right up against the 3 o'clock marker on the 42, noticeably more to the right than on the 45. Good worksmanship though.

I was there in November '07 and didn't see any rep watches despite visiting several major day and night markets in several cities (although I was there more for the awesome street food). My girl was surprised at how hard it was to even find fake bags, although with a little luck you will find a vendor or two with a secret stash under their table. For watches, China or Thailand is definitely the place to go.

This is very cool, thanks.

The shade of yellow is a small detail compared to the fact that the gen yellow version only comes in titanium...

The classic black Omega SMP has, and probably always will be, my favorite watch. In fact I love it so much that I bought, franken

It is a known issue that the asian 7750 hand sizes are different from the Swiss. From The Zigmeister: Genuine ETA 7750 all variants (all) Hour 2.00mm Minute 1.20mm Center Seconds 0.25mm Subdials 0.17mm New Asian 7750 (28,800 BPH) Normal ones - NOT the Daytona model (don't have one to measure) Hour 2.00mm Minute 1.20mm Center Seconds 0.20mm Subdial 0.20mm The subdial hands are actually different sizes as well, but since you were able to get them on you only have to worry about the fact that the hole for your center seconds hand is .05mm too small for the gen 7750 post. You can either broach it if you have the tools and ability, glue the tube to the hand as The Zigmeister does, or get a gen hand from Ofrei (sorry, I don't know the part number). I'm going to do a gen swap on my SMP chrono as well. With that and a relume, this watch will be almost perfect! The AR isn't really necessary....I've read conflicting posts about this model having either no AR or very light AR, but getting a full-on K2222 or Chief style double AR would definitely be overkill (for gen accuracy purposes).

Interesting project, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone trying to build a quartz version of the SMP. The cal 1538 movement that Omega uses is based on the ETA 255.461, which is rock-solid and easily available. If you could source a gen dial and hands, it should be a perfect fit, and it'll be more accurate(for time keeping) than most of the multi-thousand dollar gen autos out there. Good luck!

Thanks for asking. That's sad, cuz otherwise they look quite good. I wonder if it's possible to buy a silix PO dial with correct logo and do a transplant? Of course that would be too easy....it's probably the wrong size.

unfortunately the clown feet logo is incorrect for all the new speedmaster dates. Sad that they missed this one detail.

Yes, PT is a good dealer, but this is a highly unusual and risky way to pay. It's very odd if he asked you to do it.

Always better to err on the side of caution when it comes to reps and ADs....most employees won't know or care but some will be huge jerks about it.