Watchmeister

Tuesday, Wed. - Falco materpiece (gen dial, loads of parts, slow beat movement): Thursday - the Swiss HBB: Friday - Original Ziggified Swiss Cousteau: Well, you have to give me an A for organization.

You can still find them but you need to be sure they are coming with a proper 2892. On all Mullers you have to correct the hands as the blue is not rich enough. The other flaws on the Muller include a mediocre crown, date font and poor case back engraving. It is a great rep though. Also Muller gen bracelets are in a whole other world and so I would go with leather strap. If you look you can find the occasional Muller buckle. One forum member was good enough to send me a spare. The other Muller rep I get a kick out of is the Vegas. It's roulette function is better than the gen. I had the opportunity to compare my $150 rep with a $15,000 gen. It is not a truly great rep but one of two or three that must be worn when in Vegas. When you are down to that last dollar let the watch tell you whether to bet it.

Please show pics as it comes together. I actually am in favor of the 46mm size with the same size lugs as the big pilot. You are then offering an alternative to the Big Pilot which sells for $10,000. The 42 and 44mm IWC's pilots sell for $3-5k and I suspect your watch will be high quality but you will be looking for $1,500 or more for a Unitas based watch. At 1/3rd to 1/2 the price of a known branded gen that is a tough sale. At 20% or less I would guess you will be more successful. My 2 cents.

Great story. That is hysterical that the head salesperson basically let the idiot know you were playing with him. I have found it is far more difficult to bait a salesman in NY or LA. For many people clothes come in two forms - suits and sweats (or ratty jeans) and that is true for a lot of the folks I know. Heck, people pay $1,000 for ratty jeans. Salesmen know to look at your wrist before making any judgement and I have found that if you are not wearing any watch they still give you the benefit of the doubt until you open your mouth. A sale is a sale. No sale means no commission. A person has to eat. Ever watched the vultures at Tourneau or Wempe? I was in the AP store with a very knowledgeable fellow member and the salesman was telling us some humorous stories about some of the idiotic questions he is asked. He had all day to yap politely and this salesman knew his product.

Not for sale but I can't resist. FM Conquistador with 2892 movement, properly blued hands and gen dial relumed by the master:

Very tricky!

We can complain all we want to about people not donating, etc. but at the end of the day the sustainability of this forum will be based on coming up with an alternative payment system to replace what we had and/or siginificantly reducing the cost of the forum if possible. And yes I will donate again but I do hope more computer literate folks than I are trying to help Admin figure out a sustainable support system. Living from month to month cannot be fun for Thomas. In the long run either people voluntarily step up or I would see no other choice than to severely restrict usage by non-paying members. If this was a web-site for legal goods our costs would be a lot lower but it is not and they are not.

Looks good. Wear it well. The outcome of the hands glowing but not the dial is very common on older tritium gens so good work on that. You do have to do something with that pearl though. It needs to be aged. I went the other way and polished everything to complete the deco look. My pet peeve are the metal bezels on the hour markers. I am likely to take a shot at removing them.

And we did.

I haven't put them in watches yet but the 7753's are beautifully printed. For that matter so are the Breitlings, 2892-A2s and Inge. In the next few weeks I will mount them up and shoot some pictures. You might even see one mounted in the one of one Honpo cased 7753 187.

He is headed home now. And I am now the proud owner of a couple. I have not put them into the Avenger or EVO but they look great.

I actually find modding goes hand in hand with buying gens. If you are willing to spend the money on a gen you are certainly willing to spend the time investing in mods on reps. In fact, for me most of the the fun in reps is either modding or turning them into frankenwatchs. And on straps and PAM's the best part of high quality straps is that they are interchangeable on gens and reps. They dress up both.

My answer is yes. For many years I bought only gens. Then I bought only reps. Now I am buying fewer reps and the occasional gen. But I will say this much. I only buy gens that are not easily copied now.

[censored] all you want to. Honpo are the originators of "super reps". And unlike our current ones they are super. Unfortunately they are priced accordingly. I would kill for their PAM 194 with actual titanium case. Their 2892/3's with movement mis-spelling and beautiful rotor engraving are still the standard for PAM automatics and subsequent modding. Their 187 with the lousy movement and its other faults is still the only 187 with true gen-quality bezel, screwed in bezel markers and proper proportions. On the Daytona, I have no idea whether their offering is any good but I would love to have access to their product. Unless something has changed you have to speak Japanese and reside there.

Not even close to good rep. Crown and CG combo scream fake. Serial # on the back looks wrong. Can't tell if it is an Asian 7750 (worth $300 or so) or Swiss 7753 (worth $600-700). But not $1900.

Yes, manufacturers don't care about our taste. They care what sells well and so we will likely continue to see the new "it" watch - B&R, HBB, etc. Look at the trouble they go to to make an HBB and yet too often they won't make simple mods to existing models to make them better. I do hope someone does a proper 162 Dial. The Rad GMT's would be nice also.

V- Nice to see you back. Congrats on your upcoming child. I hope we see more of you as your house project slows down. All the best, Kruz

Well, I am hoping it does come out in the bracelet. I like the CD on rubber but at 42mm the bracelet will give it a similar massive feel. I saw a couple on vacation and the white lume on black and stainless looks beautiful. I think I will prefer that to the CD.

Thanks to all for the pics. It is always fun to see what people are wearing.

Oh c'mon, what GF does that?

When you google your screen name it kind of makes you wish you had picked John Smith.

Looks great. The RG is growing on me as well. Check out all the plastic/rubber. On mine it was the rubber on the chrono pusher that fell off.

Palp is not a fly by night scammer but that does not mean he is reliable to deal with either. Many people have dealt with him for a long time. I believe he was the first modder to take the MBW's to the next level. He has also has offered services at little or no profit at different points in time. BUT: - He has always had a taxing real job - His personal life has been very difficult over a several year period ranging from deaths in the family. loss of job, etc. - He has disappeared for months at a time on several occasions - And when he does disappear he truly disappears; although he has reappeared in the past there will be a point in time where he will never reappear I do hope everyone gets what they are owed. At a minimum no one should be sending him money until he either returns wholeheartedly or not at all.

Well I read through this loop and my conclusion is that it is irrelevant whether it is a man or a woman. In general it is very cool for women to wear men's watches. IMHO, it all relates to the size of your wrist (first and foremost) and then the length of your arm. If it looks like a dinner plate on anyone's wrist I am not a fan. I have tried these on my wife who is slight and we concluded that 40mm or possibly 42mm Radiomir worked on her wrist. But I also believe that any watch that looks like a dinner plate on the wrist looks silly. In your case V I like the 44mm watch better. But it does on many smaller men as well. Then again I am good sized and sometimes I feel silly wearing a 47mm watch. I have a perfected fiddy and it never gets wrist time.

It might help if we knew exactly which watches you are talking about.