GenTLe

In Italy the "culture of exteriority" is pushed a lot: here is not unusual to see people making debts to get a BMW to appear "someone", and then have troubles to refuel it. And this is generally inversely proportional with culture and establishment of them In this context what I've seen is that: 1) very very few people know something about watches (I mean like mechanics or history of them) 2) they massively go for poor-content-trendy-brands like Breil, Morellato, Kalvin Klein, Armani, Nautica etc 3) 99.9% know that Rolex is luxury but think that Omega/Tag are just medium level watches, probably too expensive when you can get a Fossil that does the same task for much less 4) they don't know a f__k about brands like Chopard, Breguet, Graham, Vacheron & C, Tudor etc etc, and if they know something about Panerai, is just because of Laura Panerai (google it... But far from your children and wife...) The result is that here it's PLENTY of people wearing Submariner, majority bad fake ones (last time I took the flight from Naples -considered the Italian capital of counterfeired good- to Milan I've noticed that around 70% of the males on that flight were sporting a Sub or a GMT, many even the limited edition LV... Com'on... ). And this is the reason I had worries to get a SUB my self from here: I'd not have liked to be associated to those people (then I have decided that I don't give a [censored] and got a hulk one) The low to middle class here goes for quartz too, like Sector, Phillip watch etc. Very few amators here. The upper side of middle levels starts to sport good pieces: gen Sub if they aren't interested into the watches but just want to have something expensive to show around, or Breitling, Hamilton... Very very few Tags around here and even less Panerai (I've seen only one in the last 8 months). High classes: I'm not dealing with them as they are on a kind of other planet respect to me :/

How much I love that world... I put my hands in engines since I was 12yo and still loving it! PS: that radioactivity patch: have you placed tritium tubes anywhere?

Thanks for thè advise Auto!

About 3 weeks

They're like the ones used on the reps. I have the feeling that Linamarket is one of the rep factory supplier. I tried them (pam clasp and Rolex buckle) and the clasp was 100% equal to my H-factory Pam (so it was good one).

This I'd like to have... And probably will beat any luminova around (can you see the 3 tritium tubes in the hands and the 12 hour markers ones?):

Tnx Marty

In my collection the best lumed ones are: - Blancpain FF - Omega LMPO Noob version - Tudor BB - Panerai 164 (not sure if H or Noob factory, it was my 1st rep, got it from Trusty - Andrew) - Graham Cronofighter classic from Noob Factory (in special @Torobravos)

It was just common nitro-synthetic black paint, similar to this one: http://www.colsam.com/docs/tecniche/EN/42100000_EN.pdf Diluted "at look" with nitro-syntetic tinner.

It is basically the same way I also did, just different paint

Last week I gave a run to my BlackBay on the timegrapher machine and, noticing 0.4ms beat error and + 23s/d, I decided to give it a full service. While I was washing the parts I also put in the machine the Tudor crown. Well... When I took it out the black enamel of the crown engravings was half away Probably a bad quality enamel or a not well degreased surface when applied. So I proceeded to the restoration: 1) wrap the watch (that has been already fully reassembled) to avoid that any possible squirt of diluent or polish peste could find its way to the bezel or crystal 2) remove the rest of the enamel with a very tiny soft brush alternating it with a bigger (5mm) harder one, both lightly dipped into nitro diluent 3) apply a new enamel (I used nitro based one I had around), diluted enough so that it fills the tiny engravings, using the very tiny soft brush of point 2 upper 4) after 1 hour, take a lint free cloth like linen, put it well stretched on a flat surface and drip a bit of diluent on it. The cloth shuldn't be drenched, just humid. Then pass the crown over it. And this is the result (after I polished again a bit the metal) So take care of what you put in the ultrasonic machine... Cheers, Gentle

In part I agree. In pst not, because in Switzerland they already have at least a couple of companies that can substitute quite well the Eta movements. Sellita and Valgrandes are already manufacturing high quality pieces

Olona river Valley and a Breitling

Exactly, it's because they use these movements also on legit watches. Therefore it's a nonsense to have legit watches with illegal patented movements inside. Surely there are things like the 775x that could have been done with 100% same dimensions and instead they have chosen to made them just a bit differently and this quite often is a problem...

Le sue poi sono le stesse di tutti gli altri: alla fine i pezzi disponibili sono gli stessi per tutti... Di Frankenstein watch con me caschi malissimo... Li apprezzo ma col costo delle parti originali li ritengo un po' un nonsenso (alla fine per un buon franken spendi come per un originale usato... E comunque alla fine ti rimane sempre una replica, per quanto identica all'originale). Credo ti convenga postare direttamente in "general discussion" (in inglese ovviamente) e chiedere li, indicando anche su cosa ti stai orientando (come modello) per il franken. Mymanmatt fa degli eccellenti franken di DateJust o DayDate (case da 37mm), poi ci sono diversi progetti minori. Ciao, buon lavoro!

Yes, you are. Mind that the pinions may differ between gen and chinese ones... Again 2836 and 2824 have the same pinions so the hands will fit on them and the gen ETAs ones. But 7750 have different pinions (I try to remember... maybe only the central second hand and the subdials).

They are! They are like a spring loaded crown (like a Rollie or a Tudor one) but with no spring. So it's really wobbly, but not difficult to operate

Bravo, lui, Tra l'altro è uno dei più affidabili.

Ciao compatriota Goditi la Spagna che qui è un casino... PS: compra da Toro, usa la Spagna come triangolazione verso l'Italia, quindi ha già una bella esperienza con le consegne nella tua nuova patria!

Hi Both. Swiss guys are not supposed to be here. The watch police will catch you and give you 24,83 (they are very precise!) years of jails for the serious penal infringement of being part of a community devoted to contraband of fine Swiss horological pieces! PS1: sorry for the joke but after I got 15 days of jail (not done as it was my 1st penal infringement) for a damned speed limit breakage in CH, I've a sensible nerve about them... PS2: I was at 95km/h, not 250...

I'd give a look to aliexpress.com (i.e. http://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/TAG-Heuer/924881_257613069.html ) or the bay (i.e. http://stores.ebay.com/linamarket/FOR-TAG-HEUER-/_i.html?_fsub=670092519&_sid=1043351479&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322 )

This should be the right one for such dial:

Search for "ETA 2824 - Winder stuck in calendar position. How to fix. Watch Repair Tutorials" EDIT: seen that you got it right now...

Yep, plus he has some hot selling specials on his site, and I believe these are getting quite a lot of orders... I've an order for 4 watches and getting the QC pics of them 1 week distance one to the other