Watchmeister

If I read what tourby is saying correctly I am inclined to stick with the Swiss.

Y- I am with you. I will tough it out until the bracelet version comes out. Fingers are crossed the bracelet is of similar quality. - Kruz

SK- You are a lucky man.

My guess and it is a guess is that it is not a conspiracy movement by the dealer but rather ETA being more picky about who it ships movements to in bulk and also no longer discounting to a level where the economics work for the rep manufacturers.

I would be interested in 1 or 2 myself. My 003 and 009 certainly deserve this upgrade. Let us know how this turns out.

M- It looks beautiful. The strap does make those watches. Wear it well. I do hope to show you mine when complete. You do beautiful work and all your efforts are certainly worth it. My favorite is still your 6152 though. :biggrin: You truly have a wonderful vintage collection so keep showing us your pictures. All the best, Kruz

Congrats. Wear it well. I will be curious to hear how often you wear it relative to your reps.

Wan- Are you kidding? He is long gone from reps. He has sold all but one or two he wants to keep. He may do work for you if you are close to him but he is not going to take on any more general work. As it was he went through a lot of stress to do everything in his control to make everyone whole. - Kruz

That one I will need some help on. A Laco and 6152 are clearly in the cards for 2008.

I have to agree that Replica handbags can be unbelievably good. But you pay huge bucks for the better ones. If you ever travel to Japan you will see $1 -$1.5K for knock-offs of $10-15,000 bags and I assure you that you can walk into any of the brand's boutiques with them. In fact, if you really develop a good relationship with a top of the line dealer you can have that same bag made in alligator from a hide which you personally select for another $2-3k and have a beautiful knock-off of a $25-$50k bag. And yes the majority of rep bags are crap but if you look carefully you can find some incredible reps. Sound familiar. The watch path looks fairly similar but with the added complexity of the mechanical elements.

Looks like Homer's stuff to me as well.

I am still in the camp of reps having no impact on gen pricing. The best analogy would be handbags. Even with all the Louis Vuitton and Gucci knock-offs (which have varying quality levels and in general are more readily available) the prices and volumes of those two brands continue to increase. It is easier to buy new gens at a discount today but that is part of the internet phenomenon. It has allowed the gray market to take off for new items and to make a broader array of second hand possibilities readily available. How great is it that you can go to any number of places and see the history of what a PAM 36 or Patek 3700 sold for.

The right dial's lume is just wrong. Gen has only the four markers and hands lumed. One of my colleagues has a gen.

It was a wonderful low key Christmas eve GTG. We all sat around the table eating a pizza lunch and looking at and discussing watches. On a humorous note the family was already outside the City for Christmas so my watch collection which is usually relegated to the basement was allowed to see the light of day. And for anyone who doesn't know both M and Skcheng are wonderful and generous folks. On a first meeting M came bearing a wonderful bottle of port. Next time M comes we will organize a larger GTG. And SK, I have some wonderful folks including Dluddy who live relatively close and you should meet. Both Skcheng and M had stunning PAM vintages on. M is a wealth of knowledge, true connoisseur and master craftsman when it comes to vintage watches. The 6152 on his wrist was a true work of art. And I must say that I could not be more excited about a 6152 in my future. I would be remiss if I didn't mention all of the fabulous parts he brought for me for my Watchmaster 3646 project (including a perfectly running Cortebert pocketwatch (with custom Rolex engraving of course ), original hands and one of a kind plexis. And Sk is also extremely knowledgeable. Everybody learned some obscure horological fact that day so it was fun and educational. I learned about vintages. Sk now knows that not all 3's on PAM casebacks are flat :laugh: and M even left with his first modded DRSD. What M doesn't know is that when he told me what he was interested in on the MBW's it was only through the generosity of another member (Arch) that I could get one in time for his arrival. So big thanks to him. Still trying to get Arch up here sooner rather than later though. Internet and email are fine but at the end of the day nothing is better than getting together. It is a wonderful how an out of town visitor can bring folks together. Skcheng and I had pm'ed and spoken on the phone but it took the arrival of M to have us get together. It has been a great year as I have had the opportunity to meet a few of the wonderful members of RWG and see a number of beautiful reps and gens. May the New Year bring more of the same. Happy holidays to all.

So I guess we can look forward to a 21j MBW. :laugh:

It may be el cheapo but it looks really good. That explains the lack of recessed cannon pinion. I think I would leave the CG alone. Wear it well.

I believe that is new math. :laugh: Does anyone remember what this thread is about? Oh yeah, we are not supposed to post here.

Looks great. Lume is the usual beautiful job. The Palp crown looks good on the historic crown guard. Is that his standard 2.1 or is it a 2.0 or 1.9? Also whose dial and case?

Can the date be changed via a 2 position crown or do they have a button on the side of the case at 4 o'clock?

So the next natural question is how good the dial on the 3717 variations are which had actual bezeled numbers rather than markers (St. Et.. and new Laureus versions are what I am thinking of) and do they have correct casebacks which don't read as "1 of ___" (my pet peeve). I would rather have no serial number. And a Merry Xmas to all. I must add that I had a fabulous Christmas eve where in addition to the usual family things I was fortunate enough to have lunch with a couple of old school RWG'ers - one of whom was in from the EU. Can you think of a better lunch than Pizza at home with dozens of watches - both rep and gen. And the "gifts' that were exchanged were better than one could ever imagine. :thumbsup:

My wish is for a Big Pilot with actual 8 day movement which will lead to the Portofino with same movement. So if that can happen they can then apply their new 2-3 barrel technology to a 2008 PAM or two. Now could you picture them replicating the GMT Tourbillon? Well, one can dream. :laugh:

So are the gens. :laugh:

Rolli- I must agree. Our watches are always an ongoing project. Half the fun of this hobby is that our watches can always be better. Most watches I show have been works in progress over 1-2 years. And I show them as they develop. You do as well. I really enjoyed the development of your Slob. By the way that is definitely one of the best modding projects I have ever seen. If you were to look at the last couple of watches I have shown around here you would find that I originally displayed these watches back on RWG 1 and then more than once here. And by the way, they are still not perfect. And yes they all get criticized along the way but we both know it helps us make our watches better. :smile: By the way, the funniest one for me lately was proudly posting my 2 year personal holy grail 7753 187. And I hadn't even noticed that with all the case, inner bezel and dial adjustments T Swiss T had been cut in half. :laugh: At least not until someone pointed it out to me over here. It will take me quite a while and I have already enlisted the help of a dear friend on the forum. I look forward to seeing your new projects and have a very merry XaMas (oops I mean Xmas).

The "A". :laugh: Actually I was kind of wondering what the A stands for as well. Is there an A in the periodic table or does it stand for a particular process?

JJ- No you are not missing anything. Both the rep and the gen have the applied markers. But when I walked into the AD and had him pull out the 3717 my impression (and of course it is only my opinion) is that the markers on the rep look much more pasted on and appear to be more raised and not properly rounded off. And then when you go to upgrade the lume to gen spec it only further raises the markers. As I say this I am being picky and still consider the 3717 to be one of the 2 or 3 best reps in 2007. The minute I received it and walked it over for comparison purposes I felt it was so good that it was worthwhile swapping the movement, changing the datewheels and reluming. I am planning on keeping mine for a lifetime. So enjoy it and wear it well. :smile: