Toadtorrent

I have no idea who Flyingzg is...but their prices are higher with unknown reputations from what you can get here.

Angus has it listed in his new items for Dec...no price yet. I think King has it. You can email Andrew/Josh and they'll be able to get it I'm sure.

Can you post a pic of the problem? If you're talking about the rider tabs, they do sit above the crystal on the gen:

Most of the dealers sell that one. His url is screwed up...it's actually timeshops.net.

You're right of course. There's no documentation or training on the Asians which is a definite strike against working on them. I was just thinking in terms of cheapness to get used to using the tools and working using a loupe which is an art in itself. I realized quickly why the good tools are anti-magnetic...not like the cheap ones I initially purchased.

It's true...you've got some spectacular photos in that collection of yours!

There's some ok info there...but don't trust everything you read there. Overall it's very readable with a good summary of the info...however, many details are missing. "2892 series is noticeably smoother sweeping than the others..." uuuuh...it's the same rate as the 2836 and 2824...which means the same sweep... Most of the article sounds like it was taken from HERE. Read The Zigmeister's movement posts or those linked in my Noob Guide as they will have more info. e.g. 7750a/b is a confusing name...and The Zigmeister has observed many different variants of the 7750 movement beyond just "a" and "b".

The Fake Trade documentary had a video of them making the eggs...CRAZY stuff.

When Offshore offered his, it was bundled with a whole pile of documentation...A LOT of stuff including the courses, and stuff that The Zigmeister and others had contributed to the kitty as it was done as a bit of a fundraiser for the forum. I have it...haven't worked my way through that much of it. With the screwdrivers...mine aren't that expensive. You'll find you'll have to sharpen and straighten the cheaper ones more regular because of the cheaper material used...not a big deal if you aren't using them all the time...but if not careful, you could damage the heads very easily. The small work surfaces make the effect of errors more pronounced. There are computer programs like you said that can act as a vibrograph...the issue was getting a mic and environment that can pick up the sound of the movement properly. They're an expensive tool to start with...but REQUIRED IF you do a complete strip down. I want to get into it one of these days. If you look at my Guide to the Crazy Hours movement in my signature, it has a picture of a sort of basic starting toolkit (not complete) used to remove hands, reset, decase, etc.

Try HERE. Seriously though...read the Noob Guide in my signature, and you'll find out why you will get no serious answers to this query. Welcome aboard and good luck.

You and me both Chief. I had a Day-Date rep that was quartz that I loved back in about '87...and now, it was so oxidized and made of aluminum, with faded worn gold. It really would have made the Hall of Shame proud...but foolishly...I threw it out. I should have kept it for one of those "You've Come a Long Way Baby" threads.

That's true...you're probably right. DOOH!! I think I missed that one...either way...it refers to the watch being an unworn hunk of metal. Misunderstanding with forum posts and emails? NAAAAAAAHHH!!

Great write-up and analysis. A great contribution to the forum. I do love this watch...but like many, am afraid of the movement. The graphite treatment seems to work...so maybe that is one solution to it. Inaccuracies aside...the watch if stunning...one of the most elegant in the IWC line...and the inaccuracies are so minor that this is a really nice rep to get. Thanks for the great read.

I did...but all that got returned was a message that "This is the Shoutbox Moron"... I think you're talking about the 3 part documentary on the counterfeit thing. It was a Rapidshare download if I remember right. The Fake Trade

Welcome aboard. I think you'll find the scope, volume and quality of info on this forum STAGGERING!!! Read the brand guides in each area and if you're into Frankens...we have some of the best Franken models around pictured in our fun little forum. Read the Noob Guide in my signature and I think you'll find a lot more info to get you up and running quickly. For some inspiring Franken work...check out: Ubiquitous' Frankentonas Lanikai's 1655 The Zigmeister-Franken

What timing!! I had ordered my 16660 insert from Watchbandman50 as per your recommendation as well as a Watchmaterial SS pearl. After following your guide...I'm now installed and ready to go. The WM pearl is quite improved over the others. Although the colour does not quite match the lume on the hour markers or the hand in in daylight, it does not look like cheap lume applied in a tiny silver cup like pretty much every other lume dot I've seen. The "0's" are a bit thin on the WBM50 insert, but the 4 is pretty accurate for a Z series from what I can tell. I needed to sand the thickness and the outside diameter a bit for it to fit. I'll try and post comparitive pics of the pearls later. Thanks for the info!!

Very funny. Were there pics? I couldn't pull any images up.

Beatiful gallery of pics in this post!!

The cost is justified if the buyer is willing to pay. In some cases, factor in $5,000 for the purchase of the gen...and all the custom parts for an individual model and the price goes up a lot. Buying stock generic cases and movements is very low cost. BUT, if you look at having high quality machining, polishing, painting, etc of a pile of individual components, the production samples, custom mold making, etc, the cost goes up exponentially. No gen is worth the price people pay for them. That's understood. As to the cost of purchase wholesale for a high quality rep??? Watchmark's factory price sale is an indicator of the cost of lower volume wholesale from the factories and shows how much profit is made on the watches. I'm guessing that at an average profit from wholesale cost of between $100-$175/watch...just to recoup the genuine sample purchase generally needs between 20-30 reps of the watch being sold...but factor in the development cost of the rep production costs, and you're likely needing to sell 50 reps before you start to turn a profit. That's actually not many pieces...which allows them to produce huge volumes and variety.

Great spec links. Thanks!! What do you use to store 50+ pairs of glasses?? I've been looking around for a decent watch winder display box with a drawer that could be used to hold glasses for awhile...but haven't seen anything I really liked.

The noise is a classic complaint of an out-of-the-box A7750...and 21j as well for that matter. I'll tell you now, when properly serviced, the rotor is silent. Some have recommended putting grease in the bearing to silence it...but if you look up the noisy rotor post in my Noob Guide linked in my signature, you'll read why from a watchmaker's perspective this is a bad idea for the movement (good idea for the noise though). The noise I find very tolerable. The noise on the 21j Asian non-chronos is worse than the A7750's...but not so bad that I care enough to spend $200 USD more for the ETA-non-ETA "Sino-Swiss" variant. The $12 DG2813 or $25 DG4813 is the ultimate disposable movement. Reliable...AND easy to obtain and replace if you have to. Look up Chopard posts by Lanikai. I remember him doing a some pictorials on some he bought.

Admin...I think this should be moved to either General Discussion or somewhere more appropriate...this isn't a sales post.

I'm assuming you've mis-posted...or is that an offer for services rendedered in your avatar?

Great. Good luck with it. They often have slipping datewheels that can easily be fixed. The rotors are often loud...but that's alright...and the best part is, the movements are so cheap, when it dies, pop in a new one instead of fixing it. You'll just have to save the datewheel or datewheel overlay.

For gluing parts and hands, The Zigmeister has generally used structural epoxy...as referenced HERE, HERE and also HERE FOR FIXING HANDS. From another post on how permanent the epoxy is (from The Zigmeister): "For the subdial hands, I use a minute drop of epoxy in the hand tube, and install the hands and let the glue harden. I tested and re-tested to see if it would be an issue for follow on servicing etc, and it isn't. The glue fills the 0.03mm gap and allows the hand to fit nice and snug and you can remove and re-install it no problem."