rc42

I've had a close look at many an AD window display and most Rolex watches are finished to very high standards, the exception to this seems to be lume application though. I've seen several with uneven lume fills or small holes left by bubbles during application, for the price of the watch this is completely unacceptable (to me anyway). Despite the rolex media machine image of old Swiss watch experts with a loupe in one eye carefully checking and assembling watches and taking as long as is needed, the truth is an automated machine that churns out a watch every 30 seconds or so. Its almost certain that a lot of these don't get detailed visual checks. Mind you, the rep communities have been spoiled over the last few years, we now find and complain about flaws on reps that would pass QC on a gen and nobody would think more of it.

You'd have more chance of fooling a service technician with a Breitling rep as the gens use modified ETA movements anyway so the rep ones aren't that different, especially if you can get a decorated rotor for it. For the chrono models you'd need to scrap the A7750 and put a Swiss 7750 inside, again with a decorated rotor. There are so few people that can tell a rep from a gen and usually they will be rep owners rather than gen owners anyway, so why bother going to all the trouble? Modding reps is about the way you feel about it not about fooling some passer by whose opinion doesnt mean [censored].

I'm guessing that most of that time was taken up with viewing, otherwise you'd have rubbed yourself red raw Might be worth contacting the Guiness Book of Records anyway

PayPal disputes don't freeze the accounts, it just generates emails initially to try to get the two parties to sort things out. If this doesn't resolve things then PayPal can get involved and it can escallate to account freezing. However, if you sent the money more than 45 days ago then you can't raise a PayPal dispute (well you can but it gets closed immediately).

No contact with me either but I have already paid for the 'completed' work so I'm just waiting for Jakub to send my crystals back. I would advise anyone to get Jakub to ship their completed watch to a trusted 3rd party before sending any payment. If you feel bad about having your watch stolen you'll feel much worse if you end up paying the thief afterwards and still have no watch.

Sql_pl, thanks for you efforts to help us all, they are appreciated. I did have faith that Jakub would come back and sort things out but now I'm not sure he will without some pushing, or at least a reminder that all this doesn't just go away if you turn your mobile off. Hopefully we can get most or all of peoples property returned to them, with or without AR coatings.

Payments with Jakub are always done after the work is complete, my first batch of 3 crystals were 'ready' on 23rd June so I paid $100 for those and the second batch of 3 were 'ready' on 30th July and also paid for (another $100). Nothing has arrived so far, still waiting...........

I'm not sure that speculation will help much but I don't think that Jakub has actually chosen to scam people, if he had he could have gathered a lot more watches and crystals before disappearing. Also, the watch heads and particularly the crystals don't really have that much value by themselves. I suspect that he has most likely run into some financial trouble and is unable to pay his AR lab or watchsmith to get the crystals back again, there may even be a number still uncoated at his house which he cannot return to owners as they have been told that the AR is done and paid in full and he cannot pay the refunds. I'm not sure why but I just have the feeling that he does intend to get himself sorted out and then get all of the crystals and watches returned. However, if he doesn't do this in the next few months I suspect that it will become a lower and lower priority until he just doesn't bother. Jakub, if you're reading this can you please send my crystals back, coated or not, I don't want a refund, you can just keep the money I've sent and that will be the end of the matter.

I've just had a go at luming on some old dials that I got from ebay and the results aren't even on the same scale as those. I think it wil be a very long time and take many many attempts to start to get anywhere near the quality of finish. Your skills are extrodinary, hopefully I will be able to own one of these pieces one day

I had to get a complete case set with bracelet to get a VCO crystal, it actually comes with everything except the movement, it cost $130 but I need that watch. If I ever get my crystal back from Jakub I'll build it and sell it and get my monet back though, The Royal Oak came as a case (without caseback) and crystal for $80 I also got a UPO case (with caseback) and crystal for $80 Tried an SSD crystal (sent at no charge) in my older Sea Dweller but its slightly smaller so I still need to find one of those but I'm trying an ebay aftermarket one for a gen Submariner next. So far I'm out of pocket by $200 to Jakub plus another $310 on replacement parts and still have two Rolex and one 42mm PO crystal to find.

I have the following with Jakub that I'd still like returned (with or without AR) 1x 45mm Omega PO crystal 1x 42mm Omega PO crystal 1x Vacheron Constantin Overseas crystal 1x Audemars Piguet Royal Oak crystal 1x Rolex Submariner crystal 1x Rolex Sea-Dweller (pre SSD) crystal I'm so glad I invested in a crystal press or I'd have sent the entire watch cases.

For me it was a budget Panerai that I bought from Narikaa, nothig wrong with the watch as such but it just felt uncomfortable, I even replaced the cheap strap with a bracelet from Silix but it didn't really help. My first and last venture into the world of Panerai but you have to try these things.

As a 'customer' its very difficult to criticise a modder that still has your watches (however justified) as you run the real risk of offending them and getting lower quality work back or just being told that your watches have been sent back to you but must have got lost in the post. Obviously some have a level of professionalism that this doesn't apply to but they are also the ones that don't get criticism. Jakub told me that 3 crystals had been posted to me on 23rd June but when I queried a few weeks later as nothing had arrived I was told that they had gone back to the lab for re-coating due to QA problems with the AR. I was later told that all 6 crystals were posted to me at the end of July but still nothing arrived, I even sent extra payment to get insured shipping for these and Jakub said he would send by EMS but I haven't had an email response since I asked for the tracking number. Unfortunately, I can't wait for months hoping for my crystals back as some aren't even mine so I've had to go to Josh and buy complete case sets just for the crystals. I now have the parts to put my watches back together but I still want AR so I'm waiting for Chief's next sign-up. I'd still like Jakub to send my AR'd crystals back and I feel for everyone that has sent entire watches but like many things in life I think that you have to draw a line after which you cut your losses and move on. Best wishes to you all.

My guess would be that Jakub has not been responding to contact attempts from the site admins, the suspension of his section is a reasonable action at this point so that no new watches are sent to him for AR until the current issues are resolved. I really hope that Jakub does resume service as the quality of the AR is just stunning and I would also like my 6 crystals back at some point. I'm not feeling too hopeful at this point though

Still nothing here either, its now over 3 weeks since I last received an email response.

I know that this is a question that not supposed to be asked out loud and I have great sympathy for Jakub's loss but what sort of time period should we now be waiting for crystals to appear through the post or even email replies before we should write of our crystals and watches as lost and not coming back, a week, a month, 6 months. I understand that Jakub needs extra time but when all that is needed is to post crystals that were finished and paid for 6 weeks ago I can't escape the feeling that I'm never going to see them again. Sorry for the negative attitude but some of the crystals I sent were for watches that weren't mine and now I'm having to buy complete replacement case sets just to get those crystals. I've already paid $200 for AR coatings and its just cost me another $300 to replace some of those crystals and then I'll still have to pay another $200 or so for Chieftang AR. :( I'm not in the best of moods today :(

Hopefully as part of granting a section on RWG to Jakub the mods have some additional contact methods that they can use to confirm that he is OK and then let us all know.

The payment is not really in advance, Jakub asks for it when the AR coatings are finished and the watches are ready to be shipped back. I made a payment for one batch of 3 crystals around 2 months ago and for a second batch of 3 around 1 month ago, I'm still waiting for any of them to come back and can't get an email response from Jakub any more I suppose its good that I removed my own crystals so I've still got the watches. I think its time to get replacement crystals and send them to Chieftang but its all extra money and time

Jakub was answering my emails up till around 10 days ago but not any more I really hope my crystals get sent back to me though, even if they are returned uncoated :(

It will soon be 3 weeks since my 6 crystals were posted to me (UK) and still nothing has arrived Jakub is checking with the post office in Poland to see if he can find out anything but if they are lost in the post then I am going to have some big problems :( I'll do my weekly check in with Jakub at the weekend if nothing arrived tomorrow but hopefully they will finally get here.

Their ISPs are probably 'forced' to shut them down from time to time by the likes of the Rolex lawyers, they generally have a backup site ready to switch over at short notice though and change their domain name at the same time. Does anyone know Josh's new site yet?

I have 6 crystals with Jakub so his workload must be huge, its amazing that he gets the right crystals back to the right people. Mine were posted to me 2 weeks ago so my nails have all been bitten off now and I'm mailing Jakub once a week just so that he will send me some reasuring words (I hope I'm not bugging him too much ) I guess we've overloaded both Jakub and the Polish postal system EDIT - Found these comments about the postal system in Poland, funny stuff: http://thepolanddiaries.blogspot.com/2006/...wanderings.html

There's a detailed review and comparison of the two VCO models over on RepGeek http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=10234 In short, the best 'out of the box' is from Silix but if you want to spend money on modding then your best starting point is the 'cartel' version. Hope it helps.

Ordered a new Breitling Super Avenger from Josh on 5th August and got the EMS tracking number same day, the tracking shows it being posted on 7th August and is here in the UK already, should be delivered tomorrow (12th) Olympics seem to be having no effect on EMS shipping, if anything its faster now than it ever has been.