HauteHippie

I'll preface this by saying I really don't think I've ever seen a rep "SWISS T < 25" 16610 dial and 16800 reps never existed. So without looking at anything else, that would immediately make me think gen. But some other details leave questions in my mind. Most notably that O in ROLEX is far from typical. The mercedes hand looks a little questionable. The marker borders look a little thick at 12 and 6. And it's difficult to tell in this cropped pic, but the cyclops looks misaligned... All this on a watch that is probably genuine!? Just goes to show that there are no hard and fast rules for these things. But it'd still be good to see a shot of the entire watch, in my opinion.

Good deal, W. Hopefully my email went through.

I would guess this 229 has a sandwich dial with a hole for the cyclops, in which case mine would most likely not work. To me, though, the mag looks good on this. The date font is just a little off.

Another great looking PO... Enjoy it!

It would be a good idea to set up robots.txt to keep forum posts from being search engine accessible during the next server upgrade. What do you think, Admin?

You'd have to contact The Zigmeisterzumba for specific prices on these services. All I can tell you for certain is that the AR is $45 USD. I think day and date discs are under $20 USD for the pair.

It looks like The Zigmeister's "How-To Series" is gone. Maybe it was moved? Still looking... EDIT: I can't find those articles. The How-To section of The Zigmeister's rwiki is empty. There were many articles there 2 days ago when I posted the link.

Looks really good! That dial is better than I expected it to be. Very sharp! A few nitpicks would be the date font - it's kind of a "nice try", the CG but those are getting nearly impossible to remedy, and the crown. Great pic with the gen crown right next to it though, lanikai. Overall this one is impressive IMO. Enjoy!

Asad, here's a possibility for you... Buy the rep from a dealer. Then send the rep to The Zigmeister who can do all of the following for you: relume the dial and hands with genuine superluminova, replace the rep day and date discs with ETA discs (or the entire movement if you so desire), pop your crystal and send it off for AR coating. He'll put all back together for you and when all is said and done you'll have a rep that is as good as they get.

With the very well done 3717 under their belt, you'd think this would be a walk in the park.

Here's a question: why spend time and money to make (relatively) minor improvements on reps like PAMs which already sell like hotcakes? The current strategy makes perfect sense to me, and I don't buy the conspiracies.

Wow, top models... I never would have guessed.... Thanks for the info, Zig!

LR, yes. Many people might not understand that the AR used on gen watches gives off a very slight tint only. My new AR is going to be exactly the same - nominally colorless with slight tint in some light. I would be very interested to see your evaluation of my new AR next to your gen PO crystal. Performance wise - i.e. in terms of inhibiting reflections - this coating is going to hold its own against any gen watch and probably be even slightly better (if actual measurements were taken). As far as the rep AR goes - the only worthy adversary I've seen in pics has been the SOSF. Having never seen one in person, though, I can't give a firsthand answer. My guess is that it's pretty good, but not as good as what you'd find in the Breitling AD. And on the color topic, here's a gen 3717 below. Those light reflections in the crystal are pretty much white despite the high grade AR coating. Crystals that scream blue or purple don't look authentic.

Grrr.

Yea but most people probably don't cliff dive, bungee jump or mountain bike with their rep mechanical watches and, when it comes to reps, probably don't have watch winders for them all.... So, they tend to stay accurate for years after regulation. And since we're constantly wearing a different watch on a different day, the others tend to wind down and have to be reset every week or so anyhow. I know that in my case, at worst they're about +/-10s a day and most are far better than that. But with the frequency I wear any given watch they could definitely stand to be a lot worse. It is interesting, though. The different grades definitely have different specs with regards to daily variation. But it sure doesn't seem to mean that they WILL be at the outer limits of their spec'ed range. For example a standard grade 2824 is spec'ed at a max daily variation of +/- 30s. But, after regulation, not one of mine is anywhere near that inaccurate that I've noticed (and I do assume reps are standard grade stuff). Prior to servicing though, I've probably had several 2824s that were far worse than that. Oh, and the info I've seen has indicated that the 2824 is available in four executions or grades: Standard, Elaborated (improved), Top and Chronometer levels of component quality. And that the 2892 is available in only three executions or grades: Elaborated, Top and Chronometer. What is this "Economique" grade?

I think it matters whether or not you use EMS. Incoming EMS packages have never been molested or delayed for me. Time through customs is shorter for EMS in general I have noticed. And the 6 week delay through SFO was on a non-EMS package.

Your mileage may vary. For me, reps pass through SFO in hours. But LAX one time detained a rep delivery to me for 4-6 weeks. I thought for sure it was a goner, but it did eventually show up.

Let's not think of it as stealing thunder but instead as giving to the forum.... Post the pics. You won't mind, right bazonkers?

The sanctuary city that is San Francisco seemingly couldn't care less what (or who) comes and goes through their port. You'll be fine.

LOL! I think I might know you outside of RWG - or can there be more than one person out there who uses that phrase???

I upgrade all my movements...............by having The Zigmeister service them.

That would be hilarious.... The story we've been given, of course, is that they used a gen watch (in the flesh) to design the rep though.

I was wondering about that too. I haven't studied 7750 day fonts but the WED does look a little questionable to me for some reason.

It's a myth in what way? The comparison between the upper pic and lower pic in my post shows a difference, no? Are you saying there are dial variants with both types of numbers or are the stock pics used by the online retailers inaccurate?

Being sold as genuine on timezone: The numbers look too fat, like on my rep, for one thing. The "5" being most obvious when comparing to this gen: I do detect a very light blue in the light reflections off the crystal, though... But I can't know what kind of color manipulation was done to the image. The white balance is definitely off - the whole image has a slight orange cast. What say the IWC gurus? If this one is a gen, then I am much more pleased with my rep 3717 dial!