Watchmeister

Great article. Says it all. Thanks.

Edge- Fabulous post. Man, I wish this was available when I got started.

Wearing reps can certainly raise you're risk of robbery. Let's face it, if you had to choose a victim and the choice was a guy with a Timex or a gold Rolex which would you pick. In certain countries in Latin America I throw on the Timex because they will cut you're hand off for the watch or conclude you are a good kidnap candidate. Most folks who will rob you on the street have no idea whether something is a rep or a gen. They assume it is a gen. And that gen can feed someone for quite a while. If I have formal events in some of the emerging market countries I carry the gens or reps separately and put them on purely for the occasion which warrants it.

So do any of these work for the ETA based MBW's? I assume not.

Sorry to hear that. I would focus on the new job first. Someone here may even be able to be helpful. I don't know many people in London outside financial and entrepreneurial folks but shoot me a PM if you like. Hate to see a good man down.

So sorry to hear that. It is a good thing you're wife was there to give you the right perspective. It is only stuff. Similar incident happened to me more than 25 years ago in New York back back when it was dangerous there. Mugger pulled out gun. Initially I let adrenaline talk and started trying to "negotiate". The guy raised his gun to my head and adrenaline was replaced with "I could die right now." All my idiotic lip before I gained "perspective" did result in his throwing my drivers license on the ground before he took off. I had been dumb enough to ask him to leave the license as going to the DMV was worse than being robbed. What the hell was I thinking. In this country, even if you don't have insurance you can at least take a deduction for the goods and get half you're money back from the government. Maybe that is the case in France. Most importantly, glad you and you're wife survived. Nothing is worth it.

You may have to wait on that 187 then.

Hey, who needs a house anyhow?

Chronus- I said that 10 PAM's ago. 7753's, 2893 GMT's (both with the new cyclops), 2893 PR with Palp for plating, 231 and 217 with Ziggy for lume and cannon pinion, 222, 24, 1950, 183, 187, WM Vintage awaiting original movement, etc. It doesn't get better.

Must have been a lot of drinks.

I think it has to do with illiteracy among California surfers in the 30's. By the way are you referring to Rolex or PAM California dials?

They do?

Hey Marco- I discovered the same thing.

I agree. 127 is the best of the bunch. Am about to pull trigger on one of the Ti's. Couldn't help myself on Eddies 222 either (will have to cannibalize another watch for case to get rid of pusher on the side).

Look at the position of the lever (facing down when writing is in the right direction). And that is true with all gens I have ever seen except for the posting on the PAM website. You figure it out. All I can guess is they showed a prototype with typical historical movement installed rather than correct bridges when they put it on the site. Here is the picture from the PAM site. Compare the picture from the PAM website to the picture above: Also 9 times out of ten they misdrill the pin in the CG close to the edge. PAM 127 for those reasons is a better version. I learned the hard way on the 217 myself. Oh and on the 036 beyond the misaligned dial it should be T swiss T not L Swiss L. Go with the 118 if old school Ti is what you want and 177h if new school. But you will need crown and cannon pinion.

Eddy- Fabulous grouping. WM is on the way and the other two hopefully as well. Congratulations, you are officially "PAMatomically" and "repitollostically" insane. Nice words, eh?

Eddy- Great looking. I think I am in for one if any left. May have to swap out the case from an asian sub as the "dateset" button on the case irks me. By the way not the first hobnail dail on rep (8 days, PVD Power Reserve, etc.) but it looks to be the best.

My guess (and it is a guess) is that of course Rolex does provide a bible of schematics, technical and parts data for every watch. I have seen it for other brands and it is typically a loose leaf notebook or books so that the Authorized watchsmith has what he needs to make appropriate repairs and order parts and can update it as new watches come out. I don't know if it still exists but I remember stopping into the old Rolex service center in the Rolex building in New York. On one person's desk there were several green notebooks with ROLEX etched in gold on the binder. I don't know if that service center exists anymore. The liklihood that it has anything to do with spotting reps is pretty low. Although it would be useful to have when perfecting reps.

The gen dial (if it fits) is readily available from a couple of the larger dials guys on Ebay in any case. Too lazy to post link but they are around as are the GST Chrono The other thing Tourbillon kind of misses the point on is that there are Asian reps that are put together fairly well and if you buy an original movement rep with a Swiss movement and have it properly serviced it should hold up fairly well. Certainly as well as any other rep from aywhere else. But I do love the too expensive comment. Should we tell him that any number of folks here own quite a few gens as well?

Eddie- You're always a step ahead. I am about to do the same thing. Kudos to you.

I do wish I was in London that day. I was chatting with Mark - very jealous.

V- We are tough aren't we.

Mark- You never cease to amaze me. Then again I am hoping to procure the original Rolex movement.

Beautiful watch. Still needs a new datewheel and cyclops though.