Watchmeister

Are you back in civilization?

You may be right as I did.

I could tell you but I would have to kill you. But I will provide a few hints. It's U.S. based, its sports teams and college newspaper are both named for a color and I believe it was founded in the 1600's or so.

I would be in favor of the 42mm as well. The 46mm just looks ridiculous on most wrists.

Indenial- 15% for original movement rep based on the notion that the movement is the engine and you can work with a good engine. Additional money spent on proper servicing and sealing and aesthetic upgrades will not go out the window because the watch dies. Besides 6 reasonably solid reps (all are sent to Ziggy for proper servicing) seems like a reasonable trade-off. When I spend upwards of $300-400 for Asian movement it just so happens that it is usually less than 10% of the value of a gen. If I really like the watch, the aesthetics are good and the gen is ETA based I will consider upgrading the movement to ETA and then it tends to fall well within my 15% limit for upper end reps. I have given up on cheaper reps. They just never get any wrist time. The fallacy with my logic is that I end up with 20 reps and could have bought 2-3 gens. But where is the fun in that? The other interesting question is how much do you really spend on this habit. I suspect you would find a fair number of people are spending anywhere from $5,000 - $10,000 per year or more.

Too weird.

No limit. But I have what I call the rep to gen ratio. Original movement 95% accurate rep can be as much as 15% of gen price - so paying $600 for a 2892 Power Reserve or $700 for a 7753 Daylight does not bother me if they are well made. Otherwise $300-400 for better aesthetic reps and $100 for everything else.

I would view it as highly unlikely that rep manufacturing is leaving China anytime soon or disappearing for that matter. China pays lip service but largely does what it wants. Now if China could develop its own high priced watch industry it might be a different story. And even if they crack down in the cities where they are currently making them factories will spring up elsewhere. As it is we are seeing more brands and better, aesthetically speaking, reps. Unfortunately there seems to be a decline in original movement ETA reps but the Chinese movements are getting better. The most recent Big Bang is a good test as to whether folks will pay $400 for a non-Swiss movement watch. Let's face it, the manufacturer is most likely selling these items for as much or more as it could get for their own branded products. Do you think it is going to slow down?

Are we back to peace on earth yet? Happy Holidays to all!

Aren't we all.

It is just another watch but how is it priced? Speaking of limited editions guys - is there a 7753 in my future anytime soon?

7753 196 on Pre-V Dirks. No pictures yet but today I am going to learn how to use my new camera and lightbox. Thank you Santa.

And to think ETA is discontinuing this movement. Guess we won't have to worry about repping this movement shortly.

Unfortunately the CG's on the newer 196 and 188 look worse on some I have seen. On the new 44mm Daylight chronos (250 and 251) the bar on the gens has been lifted higher as the lever now sits centered in the CG (vertically) similar to (but not exactly like) the Historic crownguards. The crowns themselves appear to be thicker but rougher with fewer ridges and so not as elegant looking.

Depends on the model. The 63 is one of the few automatics with original movement and fairly good aesthetics. Some of our reps are good but I don't kid myself. It is not nearly as well finished as the last PAM gen I owned - 25 (ti with killer dial).

We do Christmas eve dinner and exchange family and adult gifts. The next morning the Children get to open the gifts from Santa. Santa has already been very good to me. I am the happy recipient of a D-80 (my first digital SLR) and a complete lightbox kit. Now I just have to figure out how to use it.

Inevitably it will come down in price as there is no way that the manufacturer went to this amount of accuracy to sell 50 watches. But I don't ever see this being a $250 rep. And lest we forget, on the 187 although the first generation was not worth $850 and came with the inferior first generation 7750 movement the second generation did not come with AR, had an inaccurate He valve, had glued versus bolted on markers and poor date font. By the time this rep falls $100 the AR may well be gone and who knows what else.

You forgot the Sheik.

Looks great. Clearly an old school (read as better quality case and bezel). Enjoy it. Even with all the new PAM models coming out my favorites are still the original movement automatics. The 188, 1986 and 2892 GMT's get the most wrist time. And these watches are only going to get rarer as the movements begin to disappear.

I still swear by them. I am down to my last couple and they will be going on along with a couple of Palp crowns when the new run comes out in the New Year.

Looking really good.

Hifly makes a good point. Before taking off the back give the watch a full wind first (30 turns or so as you can't overwind) and try the chrono then. I will let a more knowledgeable person weigh in but once you get the caseback off you need to be able to see where the pusher stem threads into the movement. I have never taken a 7750 out of the case. I suspect you wil have to remove the movement spacer to see anything but don't do anything until someone who has played around with their 196 weighs in. Seriously, as I am way out of my depth. But for your own interest here is a post from Ziggy on uncasing a basic movement: http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=1416 There are a number of other posts on the 7750 in Ziggy's expert corner.

Chronus- At the rate this project appears to be going you have plenty of time.

A ball of sticky tape - no kidding, do a search here:lol: Or you can buy a caseback remover for $10 or $15 on Ebay.

When Jimmy made his CG he had his chinese fabricator model it 1:1 to a gen CG but it would have been based on a D series or earlier. And of course not all CG's are exactly the same from model to model even in a given year. Rep CG's have gotten better but the fit and finish (and most importantly) the size of the hole on the Jimmy CG is a little more accurate. Worth $50-$60 - I don't know about that. But when he made them they were a significant improvement. I tried to get him to have his fabricator make the H series but the fabricator was out of business. I still use them on my pre-h reps though.