simonsev

thanks, I

Not to sound like a d***, but if I had $500- to $1000 to spend on a gen, I wouldn't. At that level reps are nearly always a far superior value. Aside from the warranty you get with it, a $500 watch is unlikely to be significantly better than a good rep, probably won't have better fit and finish, will likely have a similar ETA movement, and will have zero brand cachet if you care about that. It just does not compute to cheapskate like me why anyone would spend $1000 on a 44mm 6497 Powered third tier branded watch when they can spend $800 on a modded watch that is effectively identical to a $4000 Panerai, or buy a collectable Seiko dive watch when the same money gets you a highly collectable modded MBK "$5000" LV that would fool almost anyone on the wrist

Now this raises some interesting questions for me, I do not have the huge experience with reps that many of our members have but can we really say that reps are better quality than the vast range of gens available in the $500-$1,000 category? Seiko divers, citizen ecodrives, Precista, MkII, Ocean 7, etc, etc. My UPO and UPO lite are not bad for the money but are nowhere near as good as equivalent spec gens I could buy for the same money.

hey, thanks all for your ideas.

Vbarret: I

Easy, just done it, all good and the best homage to the SM300 there is, even better than the omega IMHO

no time to post today, sorry

The Zigmeister, rumour is you have experience here, a few tips would be most appreciated, am going to have to bite the bullet and change mine out soon as thread is most definately going. Have all your other work tips/tuorials safely saved away which are often consulted, this item remains, as you may have seen there is significant interest in this issue, thanks in advance.............

You can't buy reps locally in the UAE?

The Zigmeister, please some comments on fitting the gen tube and crown, big question in my life at the moment, right up there with mortage repayments and barking of the neighbours dog

So can The Zigmeister perhaps give us a tutorial on installing the gen crown and tube, have yet to change mine, needs to happen soon and advice from the expert would be much appreciated

my head hurts, think i will go but the Seiko Sumo that is calling to me....................

Hello everyone.

I Have a Ultimate PO and the tube stripped, so I went ahead and purchased a Gen Crown and tube to my surprise the tube will no fit.

Can someone advice me what to do, is there a way to make that tube fit. I really love this watch it will a shame if can not be fix.

Thanks

give us good details on why it will not fit, anything is possible with the right approach, include some pics as well so we can see what is going on.

Hi guys,

Have been busy with work, will try the cousins guy but will probably have more luck with my friendly watch guy, what i was going to do was find a bolt or 2 of the same dimensions and use these as a dodgy tap (look in cheap alarm clocks, carby parts suppliers or even old electrical gear has similar sized bolts) Heat treat them, file the tip of the bolt to a reasonably long taper and they work quite well, at least on other stuff i have tried them on. I should have thought of this and ordered a handful of tubes, they are about $4 from cousins as opposed to $30 for the crown. Will hopefully get a look into the project this weekend, work permitting, have emailed cousins so will keep details posted.

Also if someone in the US can contact Watch Material, they seem to have a good stock of parts...................

That is about right, Bazz. I don't have a cailper to get exact but I would imagine that the hole in the case is closer to 2mm.

Simonsev, do you think that your contact at Cousins could get the information about the proper size tap need to thread the case hole?

Hi guys,

Have been busy with work, will try the cousins guy but will probably have more luck with my friendly watch guy, what i was going to do was find a bolt or 2 of the same dimensions and use these as a dodgy tap (look in cheap alarm clocks, carby parts suppliers or even old electrical gear has similar sized bolts) Heat treat them, file the tip of the bolt to a reasonably long taper and they work quite well, at least on other stuff i have tried them on. I should have thought of this and ordered a handful of tubes, they are about $4 from cousins as opposed to $30 for the crown. Will hopefully get a look into the project this weekend, work permitting, have emailed cousins so will keep details posted.

The gen PO tube is press fitted as is the gen SMP tube. The main problem will be that the hole in the case being the wrong diameter, I was fortunate when doing my SMP tube/crown swap as it was quite a tight fit but I added some adhesive to be sure. Looking forward to hearing how close the PO is before I rip out the rep tube

the gen tube i have is threaded, whatever though, should be easy enough to fill in the hole of the case with a good epoxy filler then neatly drill it it out enough so that the gen tube will thread in nicely, works on my russian bike carby's so why not my genuine chinese omega?

I would be interested to hear how you go, I bought them from cousins when the rep first came out and have not bothered to fit them yet. My part numbers are 069ST42184 (crown) and 090ST1232 (tube) but the tube container has x12870 hand written on the top.

I probably should do it as it made a huge difference to the feel of my SMP.

same here, had a detailed discussion with the friendly guy at cousins and i guess the 1st set of numbers are the omega code and the 2nd set the cousins code? anyway if you quote either and ask them to check they tell you the set i quoted, they look right by eye so will lob my friendly watchmaker and see how we go changing them out.

crown 42184ST, tube X12870,

have just had a delivery of gen crown and tube from cousins uk, looks like it should be relatively easy to fit so will try and keep people informed, will be interested to see if the rep tube screws into the case and if so will the gen tube just screw straight in, anybody with any experience here?

i want to buy a heap of parts, problem is where, also i live in Armenia so have to get everything shipped to the UK and have friends bring packages in. Luckily my local armenian watchmaker is also a pretty good fix-it artist, he sees a lot of the chinese movt's and is also pretty good on the ETA 2824 which ends up in a lot of the copy watches we see here from Russia. The UPO lite is my play watch and have the ETA which has a much better crown, care required in using it though.

i did the same with my UPO lite, cut the stem a little short, just file a little off the tube as well. same deal. file a bit then check then file a bit more, got it all to seat perfect and now no problem. Also in future if the crown is hard to screw off the stem heat it for 5 secs with a lighter TAKE THE GASKET OUT OF THE CROWN FIRST! comes off no problem then. Also remember to glue it back onto the stem or you will lose it!

i have both the 21J and ETA versions, identical in looks quality etc except the 21J crown stripped after 4 weeks, never felt right from day one and was used once a week as i cross a 1 hour border time change each week.

the ETA is great after 2 months, much smoother movement, less noisy and crown feels solid and smooth.

My local watchmaker, Yerevan, Armenia sees a lot of the chinese mov't in all sorts of local, Russian and copy watches and says it is good for 5 years or so of moderate use. He serviced and fixed my ETA, after i dropped it from about 1 meter onto the floor (don't fiddle with your watch at 5am just after you wake up!) and was most impressed with the quality of the movement.

My vote goes with the ETA, order a gen crown and tube (mine will be coming from cousins.uk) and get it changed with the 1st service and you will have a great watch for approx $300.

add the photos to a "torrent" download site