Logan

I've watched him compete in the New Zealand rally many times. He will be sadly missed.

Yes it would all fit as its basically a 2892 with a different balance setup. But the early 2500's had loads of problems. They current watches all use the 2500c revision. If you want the ultimate Planet Ocean drop in a 2892. Its a solid case back anyway.

That seem like a massive penalty given what's been said so far about the "offending". I will await the full story with interest.

The car will get you laid.. not sure about the watch though..

It looks great.. but 48mm?? Surely there will come a point where the watches get bigger than most owners can actually wear?

If it doesn't have AR coating then a clean dry cotton polishing cloth will work. Try to remove the individual blemish first and leave rest of the surface untouched. If that fails polish carefully with the cloth then blow out any lint. If you have AR coating then you need to remove the blemishes as best you can, without touching the inner surface of the crystal at all. The replica AR coating can be fragile. The lint can be easily blown out (use a proper blower, you don't need spit all over it). The oil might be removable with a tiny bit of rodico or the corner of some paper.

Make sure you don't have any excess glue on the strap, mine needed some cleanup before it would sit. The end of the strap is actually made from aluminum inside (well mine is) so you can trim that slightly. The trick is basically to get the two to fit before you try to push the pin through. Also check inside the holes in the strap, you might have glue in there too. Make sure the pin slides thru both the strap and the case separately with no sticking before you put the two together. If you get those right its a very easy job to slide the pin thru.

Imagine fixing a broken tourbillon from any major swiss maker, firstly you'd be looking at anything from $5,000 upwards, probably well over $10,000, perhaps much much more, and you'd be waiting at least 6 months, sometimes much longer while it got done. There are plenty of horror stories out there regarding the more exotic swiss models. I think we deserve some picture of the broken bits too!!!

There seem to be quite a few different versions out there and the prices are all over the place. But real ceramic and not coated is a must have. If its for a female then a quartz movement is a must, girls just don't get the appeal of automatic movements that stop if they aren't worn. Trust me... Incidentally hollywood hottie Jessica Biel was photographed wearing one of these over the last few days. She was FHM's sexiest woman in the world a year or two back.

I'm not 100% sure I followed all that..but yes I enjoy my collection, and I enjoy buying and modifying reps. I know the odd one isn't quite accurate or as reliable as the real thing but for the cost of one single mid range genuine from a quality brand I have a collection that now spans several watch boxes, I can wear a different piece every day for damm near a month if I feel like it. To me the unreliability factor is what makes this a hobby as opposed to simply collecting like the genuine guys do.

The guy sells Valjoux based watches that cost him a few hundred to make for damm near 10 grand in some cases, and then says someone else is the crook? Whilst I like IWC designs they sell over priced fashion items just like every other swiss maker, and I have limited sympathy when the rep makers produce near the same watch for $249. Kurt is about as animated as Lenin's corpse too, the assistant had to start and stop the roller.

@vbarret Singapore is probably the exception when it comes to reps.. there just aren't any for sale anywhere. I'm sure they are available if you know the right people but nothing else in any of the markets or the usual places you expect. Also as Singapore has a very high income level and no-one owns cars they all buy watches as status symbols instead. Its also a very safe place so you see top dollar watches being worn everywhere. Its the only place where I've seen numerous high end genuines being worn openly on the subway. Another interesting thing in Singapore is Rolex, Its about as prestigious as Toyota.. everyone who doesn't have something better seems to buy Rolex. I have never seen so many. And the dealers are eveywhere, and they stock about a thousand watches minimum. The steel and gold datejust is by far the top seller based on the stock levels. Subs and GMT are "really only for teenagers" I was told.

The 3717 in your picture is an excellent rep, so is the Ingeniuer and the Cousteau. All have a few tiny flaws but nothing that you'll be able to see unless you're comparing macro photo's side by side on screen. Buy which ever one you like the look of and you should be pretty happy

Singapore will blow your mind too.. I went into a store with literally $50 million + in stock, probably much much more. Tourbillons by the dozen. Every top hand made brand, Patek, Lange, Vacheron, Mille, Breguet, Audemars, and the list goes on. I don't think they even stocked Rolex as it too common!! I tried on a high end Lange & Sohne and asked about different dial colours, the sales guy opened up a drawer with perhaps 30 Lange's of just that one model in every possible combination of dial and straps. And that was in addition to the dozens in the displays. There were a whole lot of those drawers too for every different brand.

@Pugwash Yes thats what my posts said, the Chopard has the non-chrono version of the movement. The valgranges range includes chrono and non-chrono version of the movements FXRAndy is correct, the movement is nothing more than a 7750 with a larger base plate, and extenders to the chrono actuator to reach the outside. Download the hi-res pictures and study them if you don't believe me. Even the ETA literature states that.

I suppose the one "benefit" though is its easier to swap the movement over to a swiss one as the hand sizes will all be correct.

I was there last year.. spent an hour or so trying on damm near everything they had. The rule in Vegas seems to be never underestimate the buying power of the guy who wanders in, he might have just won enough to buy half the shop.

@Gunnar The point was that its not difficult for the chinese who make most of our movements to make copies of the valgranges using mostly the same parts as the current 7750 asian. The movement in the Chopard seems to be exactly that based on the teardown that The Zigmeister (I think it was him?) did a few weeks back showing the larger front plate and date wheel. Making the same movement with all the chrono parts in place won't be much tougher.

If you take a good look at the Valgranges movements and read the literature they are just 7750's. The basic timekeeping and chronograph mechanism's are to all intents identical, and the same size. The only parts scaled up are the counter weight and the front plate which in turn allows a larger date wheel to fit todays monster watches. Even the models parallel the current 775x range. There is a base, gmt, chrono, and chrono-gmt just like the present 7750-7754. The movement currently used in the Chopard is basically a valgranges copy complete with larger front plate and large date wheel. We don't need to wait for valgranges copy's, they are already here and will be prolific very quickly.

Omega has been a long term sponsor of Team New Zealand for many years now. There have been a bunch of America's Cup Omega watches.

I'd love to see a Big Bang picture done as close to these as possible so I can compare. I'm still having a tough time visualizing the size of it on my smaller wrists.

At least you have a friendly cat!!!

@Kruzer)) I wouldn't bet against anything when it comes to reps.. but I agree it might be a while

Some of us outside the US or Europe have to wait until 08 so get the damm thing... As a pretty serious Mac user thats a long time..

Have you ever watched Japanese television? Its just as weird.