Watchmeister

7750 24 on the way back from Ziggy. The bezel was polishd and the dial and hands relumed with the traditional tritium color. He was nice enough to send me a couple of pics and I couldn't resist posting.

Got mine today. Off for Tritium relume. The crystal is great and appears to have AR coat. The AR combined with the blue dial causes the dial to look purple in flourescent light. As everyone else has said the case and bezel are rock solid. The cyclops is ground into the crystal just like the Asian 7750 24.

I feel the love on their watches (DeWitt too). To date all the reps have been pretty bad though.

This is the year of IWC. Wear them well. I got mine from River today as well.

Slay has it right. Honpo was originally set up to serve the Japanese market which has a long history of paying up for high quality branded reps. All that changed when they were forced to move offshore (China). I had a number of dealings with Kenji who was the first seller of Watchonpo product internationally. As Slay said he started out great but ultimately appeared to get in over his head. Since Ken has become the designated person for Honpo it has become very reliable. I am also noticing as time moves on his pricing is getting more competitive on the non-proprietary product. I will be curious to see how long it takes for other dealers to get their hands on the new 076. On the 2893's there was 6 month lead time before other dealers had the product. On the 7750 187 it was 3-4 months. As previously mentioned the next one was inferior aesthetically but came with the better 7750 movement. I have always been grateful to the Honpo orgaization for pushing the boundaries of high end reps. I hope the trend continues. Our traditional dealers have moved toward trying to customize some product but as far as I know no one else is actually buying the gen and CNCing as many parts as they can. I assume this is the case on the 076. That case cover is pretty damn good.

Just make sure you only want the cross as the old dial is for a 40mm versus the current 42mm but that is still a great offer from Silix.

That is a fabulous piece. Wear it well.

Ubi- This one is truly top of the line. The dial and the finish is truly beautiful. Although it will never measure up to the gen (because they never do), I would prefer the 2006 rep to earlier Overseas gens. It is a much more unique watch. By the way, if you decide it is a must have and are selling something... let me know. I am loving my DW.

There is definitely no hard and fast rule. The old school 7753 196 and 188 were better than the new 7753's. But it first took an initial 7750 only version. Josh's 036 Pam is still the best of the titanium pieces, IMHO. A number of the less popular names come out with only version and ,poof, they are gone. On the other hand many more reps do improve with time. But the trickiest part is that they often peak before the last version - 4rth gen 1950, etc. So buying these reps is always a risk no matter what the generation. What you can't gauge is how well a rep of a particular model will sell. If they sell well factories will continue to produce them. Or another factory will pick up production when the initial one stops. I am referring only to non-canal street quality reps. I find the best approach is to look at the rep being offered objectively and decide for yourself whether that version is close enough to the gen that you will be happy (assuming you are concerned with aesthetic accuracy). On bettter reps with a good movement it can be worthwhile to mod them if so inclined. I love modding them because it feels like you have gotten a new and inproved rep. What is pretty clear is that 9 times out of 10 the price will fall if you show a little patience.

My bad. I didn't mean crown. The crown is close enough. I meant the cross on the dial.

Arch- You must be doing these mods at 4 in the morning.

Good to know.

That is cruel. What do you think?

Nice catch. I missed it. Unfortunately it is way off. Gen is ratrappante with reset button (??) on the left side of the case in addition to the typical pushers and crown on the right hand side. Also the subdials are completely different.

Replace the smaller crown on this 42mm version with the larger cross on the last 40mm version. I have not done it myself but another forum member has said he did it. On the white/silver version the rep dial is excellent and very close to the gen. I went to an AD and compared. It does provide the similar "shimmer" effect and is a very unique dial. It is the same silver dial as the last 40mm version. The black dial is excellent as well. The one I have (from another forum member) came with both black and silver dial. Beyond the small cross and datewindow (which is off more in terms of shape than placement) it is an excellent rep. The case and bracelet is damn close to 1:1. I am reasonably picky and it is one that I would feel comfortable wearing anywhere other than a VC AD.

Unless you have had a specific bad experience with Ken and Honpo your opinion is simply conjecture. (I am sure people have). I have never had him ship into the UK or EU but have shipped thousands of dollars of goods both personally and thru group buys (of watches that didn't exist anywhere else at that time) into the U.S. with no problems. IMHO, Honpo/Ken is a trusted dealer. 90% of what he sells others have. But 10% are available only through him or only several months later after Honpo has sold its original order. Honpo are quite often the ones who commision the better PAM reps and as a result are often the only ones who have them. I owned my 2893's for close to 6 months before anyone other than a few brave souls who took the same risks did. I paid a modest premium at the time. On the 187 I owned for 2-3 months before anyone else was offering them. It turns out I paid way too much but that was my choice and live and learn. If you look now they are selling the same 187 as everyone else at roughtly the same price while preparing to offer the 7753 version at what I am sure will be a very large premium. I have begged other dealers to do the 7753 even offering to fund a significant portion. No go. In short, Ken/Honpo is a welcome dealer here and often the only reason that we see some of the better reps that we do. It is your choice whether to buy from him but if you haven't you don't have the right to an opinion. I am very pleased to see that he is offering specials on non proprietary product.

Honpo has plenty of experience shipping multiple watches. In the past (before Ken took them international) I participated in 4-5 watch orders to the U.S. and never had a problem.

Well I hope one of the postmasters in Italy had fun wearing it for three months.

Well that was fast. It certainly is a beautiful. But it must be soft to be that fat and not leave a trench around your wrist when you take it off.

Beautiful combo.

Who can forget another Harry Mudd episode - "Trouble with Tribbles".

It is nice to see that a number of the watches listed in this loop are already out or coming shortly. Things are definitely moving in the right direction.

Ubi- If you didn't like it until you received it why did you buy it in the first place? Looking forward to seeing the mods though.

You should have told me that before I went swimming. Just kidding.

I think Group Buys are fine. What I have yet to figure out is whether anyone saves money or aggravation. I just paid the identical price or better as the group buy for that IWC and am getting exactly the model I want from one of my valued dealers. I have actually never figured out whether our dealers offer better prices and/or better services because they know you. I assume some do and some don't. I have bought several watches from at least a half a dozen dealers. The folks who are somewhat more expensive remain that and the less expensive ones remain that. But most importantly I have never had a problem with any of my regular dealers even when the watch had a problem and something needed to be rectified. What I do hope is that Group Buys help generate unique products whether in the form of a new model of rep or corrections on existing ones.