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There's a secret german board where all the members are MBW dealers??... hmmm... I can't see the point in trying to buy MBW's in person.. Its so much easier and safer to just e-mail Neil and the watch arrives on your doorstep a few weeks later. I think some people here are expecting the MBW stall to be a stocked like the powertool section at the local Wal Mart with prices to match

You can get plating pens from ofrei's and other on-line dealers. They are basically a mini electro plating setup. They had quite a list of different metals last time I looked. I'm fairly sure White gold was one of them.

The in house movement was inevitable.. It was getting pretty tough to justify the prices for what were really base eta movements with some simple decoration. The internet watch community were starting to ask tough questions about the value especially with the super high quality rep's appearing. The new designs don't do much for me though, the complicated dials are looking more and more like a hundred other brands every day and are loosing what made Panerai unique. As for the sliding power reserve...Yuck... I pick we're seeing the end of Panerai as the "in" brand and they'll end up just another model in the show rooms within the next few years.

Wow.. this looks great. Does anyone have any pictures of hte Bag Bang alongside a few other familiar watches, eg any Pam, AP Offshore, Bentley etc. Its tough to tell from the current pictures exactly how big it really is.

I got them all off Bit Torrent. All the season 6 episodes are available in regular or high resolution. Its a fair few gb's to download though. Where are you located? I can post you a DVD but unless you're in Asia-Pacific area its going to take a week or so to get there.

The original "super rep" must surely be the closed factory Omega 007 rep with the 2892 copy movement. The case and bracelet manufacturing on these was sensational even by todays standards and it was one of the first reps to do a decent job of detailing the movement to match the one in the real thing.

I've only just watched the final... Bit Torrent is really becoming a saviour for those of us who normally wait months or years for this stuff.. Loved the way they ended it. Either of the two obvious ways to end such a series would be predictable and I think they did a great job. I'm still undecided as to exactly what happened.. but clearly thats the intention.

Awesome, thanks for the link.. There are several of those that will look great on my offshore..

Having had a good look over the pictures I'm fairly sure the new black case parts are actually made from steel with a glossy PVD type treatment, and not real ceramic like the bezel is. Check out the clasp, it would clearly be made from steel and not ceramic but has the same type of finish. Am I imagining this? What does everyone else think?

I think that loud noise you just heard was Mr Biver self destructing when he saw these... and probably the entire population of a certain timezone forum too..

Its a great movement but pretty near impossible to service outside the ETA factory, and even then its more often replaced rather than serviced or repaired. Apparantly is only possible to assemble it using the factory jigs.

Sadly the quality of SMP bands has really gone down hill in the least year or so, the old ones were much better. That band is pretty typical of what most of the dealers are shipping on the ETA replicas today. In fact many are worse, with one piece end links etc.

Mine arrived this morning. I took the option for the black and red dial instead of the yellow ones. Whilst its a shame about the delays Sash is to be commended for his communication and efforts in making things right for all buyers. I can certainly reccomend him to others.

Maybe its a junior version of what the big companies do.. pump the auction value of a few pieces to bring prestige to the brand. From the sound of it he's got a few more of the watches to sell. It worked for several of the big brand names we love around here...

Interesting that they can make it..and cool in a techy sort of way.. but who in their right mind dives without a computer these days.. and for that matter who dives with 10 grand worth of watch just waiting to be bashed on a rock. I'd put money on it that none of these get any wetter than the hot tub at the country club. A rep would be cool.. but if you thought the 187/194 was big, this is double that. Especially the thickness.

The Bentley GT is a pretty good rep even closeup. But you can usually tell the difference in the case build quality, especially on a big watch with a bracelet if you get a reasonable look. My guess though is that he spotted the watch and then started asking around to determine if you could really afford it.. and then guessed. correctly.. that it was probably a replica. He's right about the bezel too.. on the real one the outer bezel rotates the inner bezel via a gear system (under the plate on the left of the watch case) and the crystal stays fixed and does not rotate with it.

How about using acid to remove some material from around the letters followed by a polish. I've never used acid on stainless steel but I presume its possible with the correct variety. Obviously you'd have to keep the acid away from the threads on the other side. Another possibility would be a sand blast with very fine sand, then a polish afterwards. A third is I've seen tummblers that jewellery makers use to remove burrs and casting roughness from sand cast items. Once again you would need to protect the threads but it could be an option.

There is another problem with fitting a 7753, that is the movement thickness. The Asian model had an extra front plate with the transfer gears on, the 7753 has these gears within the regular plate. Therefore the Asian is thicker. THis means the crown would not line up unless you fitted a spacer in fron of your 7753 which rather defeats the purpose.

I'm keen on at least one or perhaps two of there are enough to go around. In stainless steel.

I've worn plenty of reps into AD's but the trick is never to hand it over, I just pop my own watch into a pocket while trying on all theirs. The sales people woiuld never know the difference anyway, but be careful of the shop owner or the in-house watchmaker, those guys tend to know their stuff much better.

Personally I'd love to see a Richard Mille RM11. I realise the movement would be tough to get right but I think that by black coating the plates on a 7750 or similar they could do a fairly reasonable job. It would open up a whole new world of movement modding for us too, skeletonising plates, pvd coating etc. The RM5 or RM10 could be done fairly well with a 2824 with PVD coated plates and the re-designed winding weight. Second to that would be a decent AP Montoya or Barrichello II. The Barrichello especially should be fairly simple with the closed back. The only tough part os the ceramic parts and the Big Bang show those are possible. The sub dial positions would be wrong of course anyone who would notice that will pick a rep in 5 second anyway so its no issue for me. Third would be a JLC extreme world chronograph although this would be a little tough due to the complicated sub dials. Forth would be an Omega De Ville rattrapante or chronoscope which should both be pretty easy to rep using a 7750

Whilst I don't doubt there is something of a "cartel" operating within the boards here I feel the real reason we havn't seen a decent Sea Dweller has more to do with economics and "getting around to it" than any conspiracy to keep us from owning a decent rep of this model. The rep makers use a modified Submariner case because it is easier There are more than enough damm near perfect reps of other Rolex models, especially the Day Date and Datejust, I can't see why a "cartel" would want to keep a decent Sea Dweller off the market Keep in mind also that the Submariner, Seadweller and GMT master are not big sellers in Asia compared to the Day Date and Datejust. In fact I was told by several Singapore (genuine) dealers that those models were teenagers watches!!

Fit a swiss 6497 movement, then keep it.

I think The Zigmeister is treating our replica movements like someone servicing the real thing would.. where as The Technician is treating them like the bottom of the line chinese mechanisms they realy are. The perfectionist in me favours The Zigmeister's methodology, but in a commercial setting no-one would pay the price required for a "proper" service on a $30 movement.

To get the larger spring bars thru you just need a little lube.. KY, Vaseline, Oil.. what ever your preference.. those spring bars will slide in like... well you get the idea