Watchmeister

vmena- I have no idea what the group buy is but more importantly I hope you have a speedy recovery.

Marco- I am good for five. I have no idea whether they will work but at that price - who cares. Is someone going to buy these and then distribute?

243...243...243...243....243....243...243....243....243.....

Wow. Ridiculous, but wow.

I prefer "Faux tourbillons".

He got lost in his watch collection. But it is one heck of a collection.

With 20 modded PAM's in hand, I like the 243 so much that I haven't gotten off my wrist to get it to Ziggy for relume yet. Finepics- If you figure how to get those rings off, let me know.

Has anyone actually compared the color? I have always wanted the orange one but I do run into occasional orange PO's and I would feel pretty silly with the wrong color. Mark- You're PO sounds great. now you have the ultimate "ultimate" PO.

I vote for 243 (second version) - solid 60 click bezel, better finish on the side of the bezel, reasonable lume, etc. IMHO, the closest aesthetically But it is not the slytech - it is the new 1000. 239 looks great. Don't own that one though so I don't know. 194 and 202 (slytech sub) are titanium in real life - rep is not. 87 - decent 60 click bezel but dial color sucks and hour marker bezels are not well finished. 64 - Bezel hash marks are too low relative to the gen 24 - If talking about Asian 7750 version it has no bezel markers other than the 4 "numbers". Should have hash marks (24B or later)or be polished with no metal rings around the hour markers (24A) Of course as I give all these harsh grades I own 4 of the 7.

Did they actually get the orange the exact correct color on the last version?

He did. And I did. But it wasn't quite that cheap.

I would suggest trying to buy them all. I have been buying out his inventory on a number of other parts Jimmy is in the process of liquidating. You get a much better price when you offer to clean him out. You might try offering $200 or something like that for the balance of the crystals. I was able to buy the remainder of some of his items from him at less than his price on Ebay. And no pm's about crownguards and rubber sleeves please. THey are long since spoken for.

Looks great. Enjoy it. I am curious as to how you are going to redo the bezel.

I am sympathetic to dealers costs. I don't have a problem with price increase if the product improves. I am very aware and appreciative of how much better the reps are aesthetically. My concern is really about product increasing in price while the quality of reliability falls. At the the end of the day, whether regular, grey or black market, market forces win out. With higher prices and potentially dicier movements I am inclined to be more thoughtful when purchasing certain reps. At least here most dealers are fair and very responsive when there is a problem.

On the GST rep I have not heard of anyone who didn't have the ss final link in lieu of a titanium one.

I have seen two offered for sale here and at the TRC forum. I tried to buy one a few months ago from mabmojo on TRC. He had pics and listed it for sale. I requested paypal info and after initially hearing back from him affirmatively I never heard back. In fact you inspired me to email him just now to see if he still has it so I can complete the transaction. It is possible they had modded them though since there were only two.

On the rough finish of the IWC, other folks are right that IWC gens are rough as well - at least on a gen GST Chrono I saw a couple of months ago. I didn't have the rep right next to it so I couldn't directly compare but the gen is definitely "rough".

I agree that there has been a general rise in prices. I think that rep prices have as much to do with what the market will bear and the fact that the manufacturers are becoming emboldened as, in fairness, they try to get closer to 1:1 and actually invest in dedicated movement modifications. What is infuriating is that prices are going up on the Asian movement watches while original movement reps are becoming rarer and very expensive. As we see the new reps stretch the bounds of movements (Inge Chrono with 60 seconds at 12, upcoming AP with sub-dials in the right place - same issue) I am worried that we will own expensive reps with crappy movements. IMHO, we now have to think clearer as the reps are more expensive and there are likely to be additional problems. And now the rep makers have made it so we have to buy Swiss ETA chronos today if we have any concerns over the reliability of the Asian movements (due to the hands not fitting). This is the first year where I will think long and hard before buying the next rep.

That is exactly my concern. Will the strap be available with ti buckle?

There are actually 4 or 5 solid 18k gold watches and 4 or 5 tourbillons. On the gold there is one or two for each brand (Breguet, Patek, Fm, etc.). The two issues for me have been cost and the fact that most of these gold watches are 40mm or less and now I am used to bigger watches. I also feel that at $1500 I would want an original movement and the only one (I am aware of) that has that is the FM with 2892. At some points in time these watches have sold for close to or less than the cost of the underlying gold.

Thomas- Strap is a great idea. Does it come with ti buckle though?

Looks like a lot of fun. I am jealous. But where is the watch?

I had forgotten about the tapered bracelet. They were made at some point albeit with single deployant.

Flav- You're collection just gets better and better. So do your mods.

I can't wait for it. I do hope it comes before Chinese New Years.