Watchmeister

Looks great. I am eagerly awaiting a Davidsen deco bezel which I shipped off to Ziggy with the following instructions: Please attach to the back of your car and go for a ride. I want this one beaten up. Kind of a homage piece to Nanuq and his bulldozer.

You would certainly be silly to take it diving or swimming for that matter before having a watchsmith make sure all the seals are properly greased and sealed. I do take virtually all of my watches swimming but not before having Ziggy properly go over them. He, of course, tells me not to do it but I haven't had an issue yet.

I may have to buy a 68 year old Rolex just to see Ziggy sweat.

As long as we are onto silly questions I am having a hell of a time getting the pins out of the bracelet to remove a couple of links. Is there a right direction when trying to push out the pins? Or I am just equally inept trying to get the pins out? Don't bother as I found the answer elsewhere. I am going with Plan A - bZiggy. Hey, it needed a relume and a crown anyhow.

You may be right. My bet is (obviously) that they are. I was convinced that they date back to the 1997-1999 period when the new acquirer was standardizing the various pieces of watches. The infamous Pre-A and A's and at least a portion of the B's did not have consistent crowns. By the way, what's wrong with Turkey?

And I am still avoiding TIVO. My buddies who have it have not left their homes in several months now.

Now all he has to do is attach a watch to the back on a long rope.

Well, at least know can claim it is the wrong shade of blue.

Chieftang- Great work. They came out great.

Sorry about that. But not that sorry.

Thanks. Looking forward to it. I actually picked up the black one as well. Now all I have to do is match the PVD on my rep to the crown. 004, 009 or 028? I guess 004.

Well I guess we will find out soon enough.

I caught up with him and he has been down and out for the count with the flu for the last few days. I know they are packed and ready to go so hopefully he will get them out in the mail in the next few days.

My parents went to Florida and all I got was this tee shirt. I may give in and buy it anyhow.

They look great. The interesting thing is that I find you can buy OEM croc better than the OEM MX leathers. In terms of getting older ones, V is right. Lurk around Paneristi although I have had good luck on Ebay as well.

My rule of thumb is to get the watch first. If it is one which I think I will have interest in wearing over the long term I do tend to get it serviced. At a minimum every piece floats by Ziggy anyhow and he tells me what it needs. The other huge benefit to a service is that you ensure that it is properly lubed and sealed at all the various water entry points.

Enjoy it.

I think we have a plan. I knew that laser cutting machine thingy wouldn't go to waste.

IMHO, the funny thing about forums is that despite the theoretical democratic enabling of the internet the truth is that Forums run best under a benevolent monarchy - not democracy. The democratic part is that if you don't like what is going on in a place just go to another. At the end of the day the responsibility for a forum has to lie with one or two people who in turn put together their support team. Already we have seen a few mods come and go and the forum is still every bit as good.

Unfortunately, I would guess this problem gets worse not better. With watches now being run 1,000 at a time the QC is only going to get worse. I made the conscious decision to only buy chronos where I am willing to live with additional cost of servicing or to swap out the movement for Swiss when it dies. And by the way just because it is Swiss doesn't mean it is bulletproof either. Plenty of Swiss movements are simply parts (albeit better ones) assembled in the same factories. The swiss movement can still have problems. For that reason I have always bought the movement separately from legit sources. It means a few less reps but the ones I have will hopefully be more reliable.

When I buy one I factor in a movement swap. It just slows down the number of reps I buy - at elast that is the theory. On the boycott thing, good luck. These factories are doing watches in runs of a thousand. We may be a significant portion of some of the dealers' business around here but in the big picture of things we are a pimple on the ass... Remember dealers are happy to sell youa Swiss 7750 for a minimum of $650.

Chad- Very pleased to see you have come around. Reps are anything but perfect. Gens aren't perfect. But reps cost 5-10% of the cost of the gen. On that basis if the watch is in one piece you are ahead of the game. But if you invest in having a watchsmith (or yourself, if so inclined) go over your watch you can improve your rep life dramatically. IMHO, expensive (or any for that matter) mechanical watches never make economic sense. Mechanical watches, rep or gen, are for those who aprreciate them. I long ago accepted the fact that even within the most expensive watch categories each specific watch has its own eccentricities. That is one of the nice things about them. When we pay what we pay for reps which is exponentially more than what the factory receives there is no way that QC pays for the factory unless people refuse to buy them. In the new anonymous illegal goods through the mail world it would be very difficult to organize an effective boycott. The manufacturer has no idea who you are and you have no idea who they are. Even in our safe little world for all the screaming about dealer inaccuracies nothing has really changed except for a couple of descriptions and dealers ceasing to post anything here. We used to be able to come to the forum to see new things for sale first. Now you either search the dealer sites or see someone else posting the link. Back to the IWC, I can't wait for mine.

I will take care of via PM, please.

-1. The guy's posts are depressing to read. Never has anything positive to say. My sense is that he truly doesn't understand the whole concept of reps or watches for that matter. Gens would not live up to his expectations. You know that crooked day on the Pilot, here is a gen IWC chrono you can purchase right now for $10-12k. Anyone who buys reps or gens knows that if you want perfection buy a Seiko. I am sympathetic as he has had every rep go bad. But any dealer who takes an order from him is out of his mind. In short, either reps are not built for him or he is not built for reps.