The Mentalist

Thanks for that. I kind of suspected that the ceramic was prone to shattering. I did use a pin pusher tool but it snapped the pin on the tool so I'm going to take it to a watch shop and hope they don't hammer it. I'll pass on your tips.

Does anyone here know the best way to size a Chanel J12 ladies ceramic bracelet? The watch shop I normally use won't touch it for fear he might shatter the links and he may have a point. I recently had to send a watch back as the lug had snapped off. Just how durable (or not) are these ceramic bracelets/cases? I hear the gens are very tough and shock resistant but I seriously doubt the rep is the same type of ceramic with the same shock resistance. Is the J12 bracelet held together with the same pin/sleeve system as other watches? The links look like they have some kind of rivet in the end and the sleeve/pin goes inside this rivet.

That's not strictly true. Moissanites are crystalline silicon carbide, not pure carbon. And they are slightly less hard at about 9.25 on the Mohs scale. The name 'moissanite' is named after the chap who discovered their existence in nature not the guy who makes them. Moissanites are made by several companies worldwide. I'm not trying to be pedantic but it seems like you are calling out a guy on his knowledge and seem less informed than he is.

Cheers for the info. Do you have a link to the 21j version?

None of the cartel dealers list this on their sites. Does anyone know if this has been repped or is it custom job?

Yes, thanks. Shame it's from Angus. After my latest debacle with him I'm not really prepared to spend any more of my money with him. Any other [reliable] dealers of this watch? The cartel seem to be out of them.

Freemasons wear fakes. I should know, I sold one to a Freemason.

Speaking of Antarctic, Ken, do you have a brother called Ice? (He sank the Titanic, you know, and not someone I would want to f uck with)

Does anyone know where I can get a UPO Lite? The dealers don't seem to have them listed anymore and I want to get one for a buddy. Failing that, a UPO with an Asian ETA clone would do the trick.

Sounds like Timpson did you over. It would be interesting to see what their Terms of Business are for this service and whether you were made aware of them prior to the pressure testing. Any exclusion clause could be rendered void under the Unfair Contract Terms Act.

You can buy one here for $345: http://www.barackswatch.com/ (Just checked, they altered the SS Logo slightly so it's not EXACT but a very close copy)

It is impossible to clean out someone's Paypal account without tracing to whom and where it went to. I agree with TT. It smells like BS.

I'd have Bond in a SS Breitling Chronomat. Good call on Indy. I can just see him in a vintage Pam. Mind you, in his Professor guise I can see him with a Patek moonphase on a brown strap. Neo I can see wearing a RADO diastar.

The UPO dial is virtually perfect apart from the logo. Can't your dealer just produce the correct logos instead? Apparently they are easy to swap out since they attach using two small pins.

Hey Lani, did you you get this from Josh and what version did you ask for? With so many versions kicking around, the only turkey I want to be lumbered with this Xmas is the one on the dining table.

That I'd love to see

Thanks Lanikai, that has sealed the deal for me, I'm getting one!

I wanted to try one of these today with a view to buying the Gen but here in the UK I was quoted a 5 year waiting list at the very least. Watches of Switzerland told me the entire UK allocation for the next 5 years has effectively been spoken for. To be honest, waiting until 2013 to see my watch kind of ruins it.

Aside from the recessed date, which to me is not a massive issue, the biggest 'tell' I can see is the crown not having the correct embossing. I may be wrong but it doesn't have IWC on it but only that logo that looks like a fish? Can someone confirm this?

Well spotted Teejay. The watch is Chris's own as was never part of his official costume. An email to his agent has not got any answer but given the huge amount of watch knowledge on these boards I'm surprised someone didn't immediately say "it's xxxx watch". On closer inspection, it's not the Raymond Weil as the lugs are bevelled on the outer edge not straight as in the Raymond Weil. It's close though.

Sorry, that's the best pic I could find. I suspect it's one of these in steel: But the crown is too small. Everything else looks fine though. It's not a Tank Americaine because it's too wide and the crown is distinctly knurled.

Can someone please help identify this for me? I think it might be a Raymond Weil but it looks a little too chunky. If anyone would know, you lovely people would!

The only thing bothering me about the Continental GT is that underneath the bodywork, it's a VW Phaeton (not that there's anything wrong with the Phaeton, it's a blinder of a car). A VW, for crissake. I wonder how many Phaeton owners thought about making a Frankenental?

Handwinding the A7750 is something I would never attempt again. Everytime I've done it, I've had trouble getting the winding rotor to 'bite' and the crown always seems to experience gear slippage where the crown engages momentarily then rotates without winding anything. I would also suggest only adjusting the hands forwards, never backwards. One strange thing I've noticed when adjusting the time on A7750 movements is that the minute hand is very difficult to keep at the adjusted time. Everytime you set it to the correct minute, you pop the crown back in and the hand jumps forwards half a minute or more. Very, very annoying. One last thing to mention is that once you've wond the hands forward and set the time, you always seem to lose a minute. Basically, the first minute after you pop the crown back in is actually 2 minutes, not 1 so the watch ends up 1 minute slow. The way you solve this, and don't ask me why this works, is that you set the time a couple of minutes ahead of the correct time then adjust the hands backward to the correct time.

I am really concerned about the durability of the movement. I am nursing a friggin hard on for this watch but would be really [censored] off to have the thing die on me after dropping near $600 on it. I'm going to wait and see what happens with the price before I shell out the corn.