Toadtorrent

There are a few...and quite an international mix too. And the level of knowledge on watch stuff is phenomenal...really...blows the published material and genuine watch forums out of the water.

This brings a tear to my eye...AND you get yourself a free ticket for the raffle. How good is that? You may well be getting yourself a new watch BEFORE your tax return.

Do you think a place like Brafasco might have them??

These are of course in another category. Technically I guess...the DG2813 movement is in-house to the factory...so it's really a matter of what an in-house company takes as an approach to marketing and pricing. I use Seiko as an example. They have a lot of mech movements...but many of their autos are only a few hundred dollars. They probably run as "accurately" as any other COSC certified movement...but Seiko has chosen to market their watches in cheaper autos, as well as more expensive ones in the case of some of the limited access Japanese/Asian market ones. The Omega Vision series are in-house movements...but from what I can gather, aside from the co-axial addition, MOST of the innovation was in the finishing process rather than technical innovation...beautiful mind you...but technically nothing like a crazy double/orbital tourby with liquid-goo power reserve indicator and minute repeater function that will ding the tune of the Bohemian Rhapsody with mechanical bells while animating some gold bejewelled figures dancing the chorus line from Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation Tour. As to what IWC will do...they seem to have 2 camps in their marketing department. The "innovative" camp that comes out with "new" products like VINTAGE inspired design pieces...ok...maybe not so innovative. And the other "room" which has come up with new colour schemes and stuff for what seems to be an annual release limited edition approach (e.g. the Cousteau Divers in 2006, 2007 and 2008 models as well as the Boesch edition...and now the various years of TG...kind of like AP and their ROOS...how many freakin' colour combos can you come up with?????) That being said, I still like their watches a lot.

HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH...and if you have a wife/girlfriend/partner...you have to start buying them stuff too so they don't get [censored] off at you buying lots of watches. Then you get a watch box to hold her jewellery in class...I mean the watches...and then you realize you have spare spots in the box...can't have that...back to the watch sites...

From a marketing perspective, they do charge more for exotic materials (even if they aren't really all that exotic) as is the case with ceramic. Both IWC and Omega rework base movements and modules from other companies...re-working including rhodium plating, perlage application, different module addition, etc. As Hublot's article reference indicates, TZ folks would have you believe the reworking creates a totally different movement...which is true in some respects...but when looking at gens, the quality of finish of Omegas vs. IWC will still both be very high. When it comes to "value" determination in a luxury watch...it's a very tricky calculation...as the pricing is all based on what the company thinks they can sell stuff for and not what they're worth in terms of technology, cost of materials, etc. A good example is the BS vs. Avenger as you indicated being $1K more, even though the coating probably costs <$100 for the physical application. Market that as a limited edition item and create a higher demand ratio by reducing supply, and you can rationalize a higher price.

If you're talking the glowing lume dot...it's called a "pearl" or "luminous dot". I'm not sure where you can get a replacement one for the Deep Sea.

As b16 has said, most of the chronos are based on the 7750. Even the IWC caliber 79230 is an ETA/Valjoux 7750 base, and modified to add the doppel chrono complication. Their history with pocket watches (FA Jones style) has them using their in house movements in the dress watches for the most port (not quite accurate but hey...). From Wiki: Most modern movements in watches of IWC are based on movements supplied by ETA and heavily modified by IWC. This is common practice by many high end watch marques. In particular, the Caliber 30110 is a modified ETA 2892A2, and the Caliber 79230/79320/79350 is a modified ETA/Valjoux 7750. Like all high end automatic watches, IWC watches lose or gain approximately 4 seconds a day. Movements not based on ETA movements include the Caliber 5000 and the Caliber 8000, which use the Pellaton winding system, and the pocket watch movements used in the Portuguese F.A. Jones and other IWC pocket watches. IWC also uses a JLC meca-quartz movement in their Portofino chronographs.

I probably know less than you. I'm certainly no Paneristi...in fact I only have interest in a couple of them as to me, they kind of all look the same. I do like the 310 because it's smaller...and I like the lumpiness of the 243 but it's a bit big...that's about it for me on the PAM front.

Very nice...very nice indeed.

Nice! I think you should start a servicing option...and charge by the kg!!

You're feeling the love...how can you not get excited about watches?

Beautiful Lani! That piece is Class!

The rotor is generally noisy on the A7750 movements...that is common. A full servicing or even just lubing the rotor has been known to quiet it down. Read the noisy rotor posts in the Noob Guide linked in my signature. If you only wore the watch for a couple hours...it's possible it might only run for 5 hours...depending on how much arm movement you had. With a full charge (e.g. a full day of active wear), the watch should run for 20hrs on the low end, to 40 hours on the high end. OH...and if you swirl the watch in the right fashion off the wrist with enough spin, it's not uncommon to watch the whole watch vibrate like a washing machine during spin cycle.

Hey Sixx, Cutting the hole shouldn't be a problem. Remember...a PROPERLY (yes I'm shouting at you here...hah hah) serviced watch should be cleaned of all the loose metal, dirt and pubic hair (yes you read that correctly) left over from the factories in China, and assembled in a clean environment, so there really should be nothing loos knocking about. Any of the moving parts should not be rubbing against anything...aside from the jewelled parts of the gears which should have minimal friction. There is so little oil/grease used that it is held in by capillary action rather than reservoirs so there should be nothing to drip on anything, so having the gears exposed should be fine. Think of the skeletonized type of watches that have everything exposed, and it should be the same principle.

The rotors are noisy on every A7750 I've had...that doesn't stop them from running perfectly fine mind you. If you have access to somebody who can service it...you will notice a world's difference in how it runs...suddenly things are smooth and silent.

That is the problem!!! If you're in Europe, there seem to be a couple more options there than in North America. I'm lucky The Zigmeister's 1 day's post away for me!!

Noisy rotors are standard on auto reps in general. It will sound like dry bearings spinning on dry bearing races...because that's what's happening. Proper servicing fixes this. You can read more about this in my Noob Guide linked in my signature. As to the clicking on the caseback...that's unusual. I would suggest getting a ball of dut tape, rubber gloves or whatever cheap caseback opening tool you can improvise and see if you can pop the back off and see if you can do anymore troubleshooting under the hood. It's a good rep...worth trying to get running properly.

A couple posts above is the pic from Transporter 3 of Statham's wristie with a 310 gen shot. This is a gen 196: You'll notice at least in Transporter 3, that the numbers on the watch are arabic only at 12 and 3 and there doesn't appear to be a subdial at 6 like on the 196. I think you're right though that in the pic below (I'm not sure which Transporter this is from)...it might be a 196:

Yup...the moo crocs generally don't look the greatest on the dress watches. The moo crocs on the Breitlings are better...probably the best of the rep straps. They're pretty thin and you'll see the pattern doesn't look the greatest. The pic I posted of the VC Malte Chrono is using an upgraded gen croc strap. That's a nice strap...in the >$100 range...so expensive...but not crazy like a gen Breguet which will likely cost you $300 for the buckle alone...and another $300- $700 for the strap!! As to tax rebate in a month...are you in Canada?

And that's what we're all about. If you can, post some pics of it when arrives and your experience with the dealer...so at least others can benefit from your experience (either good or bad). The watch will be a nice watch. The dial will be nice. AND...the Seagull movement with the display back is nice. I'm constantly amazed at how nice some of these reps are...you just can't have ONE. As an additional note...the strap will suck. The rep leather straps...although real leather (not croc)...will suck. If you want that watch to sing...get a gen glazed croc strap of some quality, swap the buckle (the Breguet printing will obviously not be on the new strap)...and that watch will be brought to a new level.

Did you clean it up from the mess in Aisle 4??

HAH HAH...that's hilarious. Good luck Dani...when you mentioned lasers...I thought you were talking your bikini line...>shudder<

Transporter 3 is definitely not a 196...I think it's a 310. Do you have a good wrist pic from Transporter 1 or 2?? I don't recall one earlier on in the thread.

My theory is...$120 for somebody in China to service my watch...to which I would still want to have it pressure tested in Canada...or $200 to have The Zigmeister service mine? Hmmmm...tough call.