Watchmeister

Arch- You almost gave me a heart attack. :laugh: And thus the search for the next holy grail goes on. :thumbsup:

Arch- Good to see you. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that only with his help could this project have been put to bed.

Hey R- Keep your fingers crossed for that revised Mille Chrono XL.

Thanks for the kind words. The PVD was certainly the best when it was done more than a year ago. I had forgotten Finepics had the parts. It was a very pleasant surprise when I found out I had enclosed the Jimmy and the Palp crown when I sent it to him. In truth I think Rolli's person has improved on the PVD. I have actually had three different folks contact me about interest in selling it. Thanks for the interest but I am going to keep it for a while.

OOPS! Time to change the title. And now it gets even funnier. The caseback has the same numbering as a pre-A caseback on risti: Okay, so who has the best pre-A dial for an 009 or 004. Is it the upcoming dial from Davidsen which he is doing for the 5218?

Well it is 2893. There is no ETA or Asian alternative for 2893-2 GMT configuration. What you do want to know is whether the movement and spacer are decorated appropriately. If the movement has the infamous mis-spelling and the spacer has both the perlage and the holes you are assured of getting a watch with the first batch of Honpo dials. I believe it was a run of either 75 or 100 but not all sold by Honpo. That dial has spot on true to gen hobnail finish. A number of us believe that that particular version came from the same or an equally quality dial manufacturer. Later versions have an inferior dial. As I am participating in a 28 project with a couple of other forum members we have had the benefit of being able to compare the dials from various versions. The same was true on the 2892 GMT's.

Another project started quite a while ago. So long ago that I can't remember where I got the case, dial or movement from. PVD was done by Finepic's resource when he still did watches. Of course I nicked it the first day I wore it. Other attributes include Jimmy CG and one of the very rare first generation Palp 2.0's. And as for the strap, if you have to ask... If anyone has any ideas for a dial upgrade let me know. I truly can't remember where this one came from. And next year's long term project - the 28A.

jj69- I thought it was fairly well documented that the 3700 (SS Jumbo) that the reps were modeled after did not come with a second hand. I have only seen a couple of gens in the flesh (ss and gold) and they did not. If you can find a pic of a 3700 with a second hand I would love to see it. I was about to dump the second hand and replace the cannon pinion. It would be a lot easier to just leave it alone. Otherwise that watch is fabulous. And you are absolutely right the better first generation MBW 3700 was in fact from last year. But it is new to me this year. For those who are interested here is an interesting article on the Nautilus and its subsequent developments a couple of years ago: http://www.uhren-schmuck.de/aktuelles/mark...collection.html On the 3717 just take a good look at the "9" and "12" markers. They are way too "fat" (i.e. sit too far off the dial) and because of the additional height the side profile of themarkers is somewhat off and much more noticeable - at 10x of course. :laugh: I have never found a picture to make the comparison. But once I own a watch I can never resist walking the 2 blocks to the AD. Actually, I try and do that before I ever buy it in the first place.

WIS/RIS rule number one - never live with a misaligned bezel. :laugh: And you are absolutely right that people don't give gens the same level of scrutiny. And for that reason you will find a number of folks on this forum own both and the general watch content better here than on about any purist forum.

Rolli- Dude, I am teasing you. Everyone here, myself included, has the utmost respect for all the brilliant projects you do. Very rarely do we have the opportunity to tease you because they are always perfect. And we would never comment if we thought you didn't already know. Just wanted to torture you a little. :laugh: In any case have a great holiday and I will catch up with you on the other stuff after New Years. But you still have to swap that crown when the watch smith gets back. Until you do it is not a Rolli perfect project. :smile:

I am with tourby on this one. Very cool watch. And for those who haven't seen the movie (which I watched with my teenagers and we all concluded it was pretty bad) you would want to know exactly when Sunset and sunrise was if you were in his shoes too. :laugh:

The same to you and yours. As I write this I am looking at two very nice results of your handiwork done over the last couple of years.

It is a very fair point that to give a good relative appraisal you should actually own or have at least spent some time in the watch's presence. But my first cut-off is functional accuracy. Ergo, any watch which has a non-functioing hev valve or is doing the wrong thing in the wrong place cannot be the best - otherwise I would likely go with the first gen MBW Nautilus. Nautilus gets my vote for best case and bracelet finishing (pins of course). So here is my list of candidates I am familiar with in the flesh and what is wrong with them: - Correct version of PO (oops, he valve - :laugh: ) - Correct version of BCE (what happened to those concentric circles?) - 3717 (those over-pronounced '6' and '9' markers just drive me crazy) - CD 2006 (crap, the bezel won't line up and you have to love that sticker) - MBW Nautilus (oops, where did that second hand come from) - MBW AP ROO (oops, sub dials are completely wrong (placement and functionally) and those damn pushers line up in a row) - HBB Mellow Yellow (now why would they write titanium on the back if there is no titanium) Moral of the story - None are perfect. Enjoy what you have. By the way, if you recognize all the criticisms above you are a first level RIS -Rep Idiot Savant. There will be a test next week. :laugh: Here are some questions on the level 2 tests: - PAM 1950 - Identify all four versions of the original 1950's with various improvements along the way. Start with EL version 1. - MBW Rolex (Separate four hour test but we will start with an easy one - critical case differences between pre- and post Kenzo cases). This is thread crapping in its purest form but it is Sunday morning and no one else is up yet. GOD I LOVE THIS HOBBY!

TTK- Agreed that lack of use will save on wear and tear on parts but I still service higher end watches irrespective of use as the various oils and seals dry out whether in daily use or not.

Someone tell me that the hev valve on the rep works. If it doesn't... . I would expect any rep of the year to at least have the same functionality. :smile:

$2,000 is a lot of money and I am sympathetic but only to those who didn't buy 3 other higher end reps this year. If you did you were 75% of the way to the gen and if you like it that much.... It is an excellent rep though. But as has been said, when your talking simple dial and movement and a case that has been done again and again it doesn't hit my best of anything other than best rep out of the box for less than $250.

B- That is one hot watch. Wear it well.

Rolli- I am one of your biggest fans and it is a beautiful watch. Dial, hands and case look excellent but you have got to reset that crown. It is just too far off the case. You need to replace the case tube, shorten the stem or whatever the issue is. It is beautiful but not up to your usual high standard. Sorry, but I will always be honest.

Some of the newer Asian movements do have reasonable quality parts but the issue is often how they are assembled. Pug is right that many are just plain old substandard. Any decent movement which is properly serviced should last for years. Real ETA's can last for decades. But they should be serviced every 4-5 years whether or not they are used.

It is a great rep. But it is a rep of a watch you can buy for under $2,000. IMHO, you might as well save up the money and get a warranty, proper lume, etc.

Don't hold your breath for that phone number. :laugh:

I don't think it has much to do with thwarting reps. It has more to do with wanting to sell more $10-20k watches which you can't do without unique movements or precious metals. And even with precious metals it is tough to demand big prices with stock movements. To this day you can't give away a PAM 140 for more than $10,000. :laugh: Heck, it might even inspire us to buy a PAM gen some day.

Here are mine. Both have swiss movements and various date wheel and/or dial swaps:

B- thanks for the info. It certainly makes sense.

It looks very good. Wear it well. The pearl issue is annoying. Keep your eyes out for a gen bezel as they do come up for sale from time to time on the bay or elsewhere. On the date, try flipping through all the dates for a couple of months worth of changing. Sometimes the date will "settle in". :biggrin: