Well, if you are coming from an Omega and it is not the 45mm PO that means you tend toward smaller watches so I would vote for waiting for the 42mm Slevin. The Cousteau is great but it is a big 44mm. The Slevin is supposedly going to be better made and a little bit cheaper.
Kenzo was Maria's partner (of MBW fame). I believe he subsequently went under the trade name Watchmaster. Thanks for all the nice wishes guys. It was pretty damn exciting.
I was over at Christie's yesterday previewing their upcoming auction next week and having them look at a piece for possible sale and did I get a pleasant surprise. One of the pieces up for auction was the infamous Kampfschwimmer with a $70-100k estimate. You can see it on Christie's auction site. I was wearing a PAM at the time and chatting with the head of the watch department and she (see there is hope Victoria) insisted on showing it to me. So I can say with a straight face that I have studied and WORN a Kampfschwimmer. Life is grand. And the department head was even nice enough to send me home with the catalog.
By the way if there is any doubt as to who has the far and away best version of the 364 it is not Davidsen nor the larger manufacturers' versions. It is Kenzo's extinct 3646 version. Case and bezel proportion are fabulously close. They do require polishing and a little narrowing in the corners though. Dial and hands are 99% there as well. Crystal profile is excellent as well. Kenzo even got the buckle finish and size correct. Of course there are vast differences in the various 3646's made but the one in my hands matched beautifully. There is a Cortebert in my 3646's future. When I do get the movement I will post pictures.
The article is very revealing and I was amazed at the number of watches that the Company's were buying in. That particular watch auction house appears particularly corrupt But here is the other side of this. In order for Omega to pay $351,000 for one of their own watches they had to be bidding against someone else (unless they had their own shills and were bidding against themselves). The other side of this is that you can find knowledgeable and honest folks at the auction houses. And you can occasionally find excellent deals on used watches for the less sought after pieces.
IWC with Ziggy relume and lacquer, swiss movement and new day and date wheels :
I do not have a night shot but I have compared it to the lume on a gen Slevin and it is every bit as bright. Ziggy does it but he is not taking new bookings as far as I know before December 1st for January work.
IMHO, the 7750 Power Reserve reps are ones to stay away from if you are concerned with accuracy. The movement does not have the full functionality of the gen movement. It does have power reserve but in order to allow for date change they had to add a button to the side of the case which does not appear on the gen so it is an instant giveaway. If you are determined to go with Power Reserve go with 2892-a2 based 27 or 28. But they are far more expensive. Manual watches are going to be more accurate.
I have been to see the watch at East Coast Jewelers who this watch was made for. They had exclusives from UN, Hublot, AP, Chopard, etc. made for their anniversary. They all have yellow in them. As people have mentioned the ceramic bezel is polished and it comes with both black and yellow strap.
I don't give it a second thought. I know plenty of men who don't wear watches and women who prefer bracelets. They typically are under 35, single and perpetual users of cell phones or blackberrys so they use that for telling time.
At $600 + per case Jack will do any case. You just have to uncase it yourself and send him the parts. He says no reps because of the disaster when he shipped rep parts to gen owners when he got 30 watches and had to uncase them. But if you send the parts and don't mention rep it will all be fine. Just don't be dumb enough to organize group buys.
If it really is PVD than the finish should last for a long time. I may have to give a gold rep a try. I hadn't bought one in quite a while as I found that the buckle had rubbed off. Does anyone know how durable the plating on the PAM 231 (gold radiomir) is?