Watchmeister

Depends whether you think they have limited stock.

Yup, you see an item at 1/10th the cost of what it should be and what are you buying - why a rep of course.

Thanks. I think I am going to love it the way it is too. I have seen the various parts separately but as a whole watch I have only seen the pics to date so I will know once I get it. I know I will change it up from time to time in any case to either black or grey for work purposes as I don't own any brown suits but for weekend wear I still think it will be awesome. Can anyone tell me, can I swim with that strap? I know it is shark but I have no idea what they do to change the color. My black strap is actually rubberized croc so it holds up beautifully.

Black shark sounds really cool. Can't wait to see it. This may be a silly question (as I do own a couple of shark straps) but since it is shark can you swim in them or does it hurt the strap? A jerk I know once challenged me to take a gen PAM Pre-V shark strap for a swim so I assume it is bad for it.

I am not familiar with that particular one but the B&R models are often some of the most accurate reps out there. It looks great. I see they are advertising a 2894 clone so hopefully someone will weigh in on whether it is a stable movement or one with a bad history.

Speaking of smash and grabs here is a similar anecdote I discovered a couple of days ago. I visit many of the dedicated brand boutiques in my city and one of them is AP. Many of them have buzzers to let customers in but it has always infuriated me that the AP boutique is the only one with a two door system where you have to wait for one door to close to be able to even open the next one. I complained to my salesman the other day and he told me that in 2004 eight guys in ski masks completely cleaned out the entire boutique. They were all caught though. Not that this has anything to do with the thread but I thought folks might find it interesting.

Interesting that he doesn't mention the specific movements he is using in these watches. Also he claims to use 306L aluminum for the CG. I agree it is an Egi derivative and I would guess that is because the patent protection has run out on that one.

Well this was an entertaining thread. Did the head of e-commerce at Sears tell you guys they were recently hacked and that the poor language was actually written by a guy named Viktor in Russia and you most likely have $30k of charges on your credit card? Even if it was a legit mistake did you really expect them to honor it? Dream on.

I will have to check it out when I get it back. I do plan on swapping straps occasionally with this one. Black is better for more formal settings but I do love the brown.

Theo- I was waiting for you to weigh in. On the strap, I wanted to go with something different so I went with shark. On the wrist the strap is brown with flecks of black so it all kind of melds together like a goof pair of black and brown pradas. Besides beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and I am the beholder.

Absent making a custom deployant adding a "diver's extension", no suggestion.

You will in about 3 weeks.

The minute the Chronopassion came out I knew what I had to do. In case you are wondering what is inside: Back to the exterior aesthetics And there you have it - my truly limited edition Chronomeister!

Good point. These kids didn't have cars....just drivers. And I am not referring to their parents.

I always find it interesting to see what the manufacturers decide to rep. I actually like the watch but see that in real life they can't give the gens away.

Actually if the kid is in one of the bigger cities or wealthier suburbs in the U.S. the Offshore is the "it" watch for wealthy teenagers these days. Seriously. My son certainly isn't in that category but I had a group of his friends over before they headed out for the evening about a week ago and there were two offshores - both rubber clad (one was actually gold rubber clad). And I know the difference between a rep and a gen.

What is RWI? The forum which doesn't have the two largest dealers on the forums. Seriously $175-250 is the range I have seen from a number of competent smiths.

Susan- It is helpful to know what your budget and which model (or even size) you are looking to get for him. He is a lucky boy. If you are thinking about the Offhsore's which are large watches than any of the trusted dealers listed here will have what you are looking for but they will run you close to $500 for the better ones. They can be bought for significantly less as well. So give us a little more detail on what you are looking for and folks will chime in.

AS you probably found there are dozens of threads on the topic. Absent buying an older EL for a lot of money there should be a new version coming out shortly so I would wait for that one before doing anything.

Exactly. If I get the rep and believe it is a long term keeper once I have worn it a few times I either wear it until it dies and then replace with an ETA movement or swap it immediately. Everyone seems to agree that a properly serviced Asian can last just as long but no one knows if it has been serviced. And no, giving your movement a "bath" does not constitute a service.

If I was going to guess on any short term new editions it would be the individual boutique editions. But it is a guess (and a hope).

We always want folks to feel free to spend time on all of our forums and to buy and sell as they see fit. I know I do. But what we don't want is to hear about an issue after you have filed a paypal dispute/claim and then expecting short term or any results on our end. Everyone should know that once you have gone the claim route you haven't fired the first shot. You've fired the last one. There are plenty of circumstances where it does make sense to begin a paypal process. But we view it as a last resort - not a first. Geeks may have a different approach. Needless to say the seller hasn't logged in since nor has he responded but of course we will continue the outreach. And to be clear, if the seller does not respond and the buyer is out his money the seller will be banned and his relevant info circulated to all the fora admin teams to stop him from scamming anyone or anywhere else (whether the buyer is a paying member or not ). Most importantly, everyone enjoy the remainder of the weekend.

Apologies for not immediately coming back. Yes we do have day jobs. I reached out to the seller yesterday. If we do not get any response within a few days we go from there. Your particular seller as of yesterday had not been on the forum since the 30th. What we don't do is hand out IP addresses and personal info. (to the extent we have it) until it is absolutely necessary. If the person is truly scamming you he will be banned as we would do in any situation. And I have no problem with you revealing the member name the minute you are legitimately concerned (and you clearly have a right to be.) If he is innocent he will respond and clear his name. Since you have filed your paypal claim well ahead of the end of the dispute period and more importantly prior to informing us you have declared war on him anyhow. And on being a mod that is what I am most surprised about. Does the admin team at Geeks advise people to file a legal claim first (that is what the second level of a paypal dispute is) and then inform the mod team? I suspect you will get a response via your paypal dispute first since his account is now frozen. In any case when and if we get a response we will let you know. And if it is in fact a rip-off we will of course take appropriate action.

Absolutely gorgeous watch. I suspect it is only a matter of time before you buy a gen. Once these vintage no date babies start growing on you ...

Generally speaking I have had this problem with a number of rep IWC crowns and crown tubes. On the reps I find the inner threads on the crown are what go first. Most of the IWC crowns (rep or gen)have threads hidden in the crown itself. If you can clearly see the threads on the crown tube are intact I would guess the crown is your problem. I don't know your exact set-up but generally I insist on a gen case tube for a gen crown to ensure proper fitment. The only exception is Rolex where aftermarket parts makers actually make a replacement case tube designed to work with the gen crown. Even when you can force a gen crown on a rep crown tube one or the other will often fail as the threading will not match up. It may match up close enough for you to jam it on but ....