894tom

Whew....like pulling teeth :yucky: . You're all right though....you gotta make your money I understand. Good luck with the build .

I would Love to hear from The Zigmeister or any other watchsmith on this claim. I bet you can't use anything but ETA parts on ETA watches and I bet you can't put ETA parts in these other movements that claim to be Swiss (or as I call them Swasian). What Tourby is saying is that all the Asian do to make a Swiss movment is buy the ETA movments and put on panerai bridges, blue screws, a swan neck, and some engravings. I think not from everything I have read on this matter (trust me...its alot . I am not a watchsmith though and cannot speak from that aspect of this craft.

I know ETA is a swiss movement......and all others are Asian. You just verified what I said from the start of this post. In your next post you admit that the Swiss Panerai rep movement is a 60/40 combo. Your reply was not an answer to my question to you. Put it like this..... Will your Pilot watch have a genuine (100%) ETA 6497-1 movement? Yes or No?

Davidsen sells the well decorated Swasian (or as Tourby feels better calling it the Swiss 60 Asian 40) but Davidsen also sells genuine ETA. You have to ask for ETA specifically... if you say Swiss movement, you will get the movement that Tourby is refering to in his post (the post after your post). Like I said in my first post on this topic, you will get a good (overpriced) movement with the Swasian movement that looks really good with the exhibition back....but if you think you are buying a 100%ETA you are not unless you ask specifically for 100%ETA. The ETA will look different from the Panerai Swiss so it is best to have the solid case back with the ETA. My original post was basically to say that I think that you can save $ by sicking with the 100% Asian movment and service it well.....it is the same movement as the Swasian but without all the fancy stuff added. If you are gonna spend the $400, go with the solid back and put the real deal Hollifield in her...unless you like the Panerai bridges, Swan neck and so on. You will still get a good movement with the Swasian it will just be more money for basically the same movement....Remember I have the Swasian one and it looks works beautifully.

Tourby, I want to make absolute sure I understand what movement you use before I purchase your watch. ETA movement or Swiss movement?

I take it you put the Swasian movement in your timepieces. Thanks for the information. Sorry if I offended as I agree with you Tourby, the well service SwAsian movement is a very good movement.....but you just proved my point though on who gets all excited about this issue. I wonder how I guessed your responce before you gave it?

Happy New Year The Zigmeister. Welcome home for the holidays. Like Tourby says....only you can really set minds to rest.

Remember Tourby does not sell replica watches only German watches. A German watch will have German movements or sometimes they just use the real ETA movement or ETA debauche (this may not be fact or course). Perhaps this is a good time to ask Tourby exactly what kind of movement he will be using in his new Pilot watch. Asian, Swiss, German, or ETA? Just food for thought because Tourby has a Pilot watch coming out soon that I am considering buying. Believe me, I am not knocking the Swasian movement or the Asian movementl for that matter because these are excellent movements that (straight out of the box) have performed as good my ETA movement in the short term. I have not had to take these to the shop yet to have them bought back into time. Seems like they settled very little or perhaps they just haven't gotten enough wrist time. I do believe I will be happier long term with my ETA movement and as stated initally, as I feel it is a better quality movement. What I was saying and what FxrAndy elaborated on.....was that a basic serviced Asian model (not the Swasian model) is just as good as the Swasian (performance wise) but without the extra bucks you payed for a movement you believe is a real Swiss movement. This is basically the point of my entire initial post on this subject. Don't get suckered into paying for the Swiss in a rep model. Those who will agree with my opinion are probably going to be us/the consumers and watchsmiths. Those who disagree with my opinion will be the person who sells the Swasian model. Just a wierd suspicious on that matter

Ok...I am generally a newbie to this hobby (since May of last year when I bought my first rep) With that said, I have become addicted to this hobby as I always do whenever I take up a new hobby. I have researched, researched, then peed off my girl as I researched this hobby more on the internet I have four reps now , three of which are the 6497 movment the last being the Seagull movement. Heres what I came up with regarding the 6497 currently on the market. My opionion is only focusing on the current 6497 movment. The Asian movment, right out of the box, kept the best time. It is a Panarai rep. I use it as my tool watch and have already accidentally dropped it twice. I found this case seems to scratch up quite nicely. The saphire chipped (very small) when it was introduced to the concrete. No problems with this watch after the two drops. The movment has been run alot and still keeps excellent time. I even took it in the shower with me many times....with no sign of leakage. It has the square cut crown wheel and rachet wheel. It does not have the swan neck movement. This movement winds very nicely. There are several models of this movement G, H, and so on. It has about a 53 hour power reserve. This was my first rep and (in hind sight) was me getting my feet wet in this hobby. To the untrained eye, the dial side is a pretty good rep. Of course the cannon pin problem is there and the "Swiss Made" is too close to the #6. Lume is not so good and the watch disappears completely into the dark after about 2 hours. Next is my "Swiss" movment Panerai rep, right out of the box, kept good time. I baby this watch as it cost much more ($250 more) and was represented as genuine Swiss. I wore it many times and had to put the watch in the shop once. (A blow from my nephews BamBam plastic bag caused that ) It turned out the hairspring was the cause of the super fast watch. I noted the SS band supplied with the watch shows every scratch. I think a cotton ball scratches this metal. I am being sarcastic, but it does scratch very easily. As mentioned before, I spent alot of time researching this movement and found it is not Swiss at all. Just an Asian copy with a fancy crown wheel and rachet wheel, and a swans neck (non functional), and better Panerai markings on the movement because they are not crooked and are not painted on. The dial suffers from the same flaws as my cheap Panerai. I have not tested the water resistance of this watch (babied it) The lume is better on the hands. The hands are still visible in the morning but the dial almost disappearss completely by morning. This watch winds up with a [censored] off attitude and is very hard to wind. Kinda hurts to wind it. It has an approximate 58 hour power researve......yup 58 hours. Next is my Davidsan. This is a Panerai homage with a genuine ETA 6497 movement. It has the best sounding movement and kept good time when new. I had to take it to the shop to have it tuned up after it "settled" down. So far so good...its only off about 2 seonds a day as best I can tell. Davidsans dials have excellent lume...real superluminova. The dials lume last clearly until morning as due the hands. The watch winds perfectly and does not bind up like my "Swiss" movement. You can really "feel" the quality of the movement. It has a 48 hour power researve and is very consistent with this wind down time(48hrs). The only markings on this movement are a stamped ETA 6497-1, Swiss, and 17 seventeen jewels. These are the real truth tellers. I found some of the older rep models used a real ETA movement but put bridge stickers over this movement to make it look like a Panerai movement so you may actually have a real ETA in the older models. This was discovered by peeling up the bridge sticker and reading swiss and 17 seventeen jewels. Some other rep makers try to slip you the ole rubber noodle by laser engraving ETA under the balance wheel and usually get away with this technique unless you have a loupe. Ok.....so where is the fight you ask? Here goes. I will not pay for a "Swiss" movement again. This is just a hyped up way of getting extra money out of the customer. (See the fight now) I came to an apiffany a couple weeks ago. I am buying a replica watch. Obviously, I cannot expect a real ETA Swiss movement (I am guilty of being sucked into the marketing scheme remember so I am not trying to come across as better than thou). Heres what you do if you have $350 - $550 bucks burning a whole in your pocket. Stop and consider this. Buy the cheap model...same case, same dial......Then purchase a real ETA movment and plot it in the case and you have a quality looking watch with a quality movement. Unless you have the exhibition back and still want the "Panerai" word on the back of the movement. This changes the game up. Remember your at the same price point with my suggestion, but won't have a real ETA movement. If you must have the Panerai marking on the movement in a futile attempt to convince the untrained eye the watch is a gen , go for it but keep in mind and make no mistake, you are not buying a "Swiss" gen ETA movement.....but a Swasian (no matter what the salesman tells you). Remember the quality is the same in reps, Asian or Swasian. Also keep in mind, the quality control will be the same on either the Asian or Swasian. You will have just as much success with the cheaper Asian movement and you can still pass it off to the untrained eye as gen if thats your game. Face it.....the watch is a rep....don't try to pass it off as a gen, just enjoy it for what it is...an inexpensive, but nice mechanical watch that looks and works really good that should hold up for an extended period of time. When you are called on the carpet for whatever reason and finally tell the untrained eye or even the Gen owner how much you paid for the Asain, its not that crazy of an idea to them. They look at the quality of your rep and the untrained eye usually asks why anyone would pay $6000 bucks for the same watch they are now looking at. The Gen owners even discuss buying one to save their $6000 watch from damage by using their gen only on special occasions. Now you come across as being very clever and thrifty. When you tell them you paid $350 - $550 bucks for a fake....people kinda think your a stupid liar. Happy New Year!!!! Hope I saved someone a couple bucks or at least talked someone into a wiser purchase.

Update: The watch repairman said dried the movement and said it was siliconed with a little bit of light silicone. He said he put on the heaviest silicone he had and that should solve the problem. I am gonna stay away from showers with this watch....its ashame, but I think that a handwinder is gonna develop leaks each time you wind the movement because it spreads out the silicone a little bit each time. An automatic (worn all the time) probably would not suffer from this fogging problem after a good siliconing because it does not need to be manually wound every day and the silicone would not spread/thin out.

Update: I return home with the Lamania Speedy. The watch repairman said he tried several times to replicate my problem, but could not. He claimed he wound my watch up three times. He only had the watch for 4 days....so maybe he ment he wound it two times. He said he put oil on the clicker and closed her back up. I would say that did not fix my problem or give me any kind of answers to what is wrong with the watch. I will let the watch wind all the way down again and let it sit for several days and see if I can replicate the winding problem again. Anyone know a good watch repairman? My local guy is good for doing minor repair work, but I am losing faith in any kind of big jobs for him. Still looking for an answer as to what is wrong with this movement..........

Can a dial be made up with no seconds hand? No name on dial? Superluminova on hands and dial? Genuine ETA 6497 movement? Things are starting to sound good now I wish....I wish......I wish

The pic of the crown did not post on RWC. Please send again. Is the dial going to be sterile (no name on it)....I am looking forward to this watch perhaps I will wait until Feb.

I'm searchin for a good pilot watch with center seconds. Found the perfect watch. http://www.heinrichgeisen1896.com/ Don't know if he's still in business. I don't speak or read German or else I would find more out about him on his website. Does RWG have any bilingual members that speak German and English that can act as a translator? It looks like the watch is handwound, center seconds, 42 mm, 10mm thick. Beautiful. Tourby was gonna do something like this I think. Anyone know how he's making out with his project?

I know we all like close ups.....but this is a wrist shot where one can get a good idea of the size of a watch. Wish everyone would throw in this type of shot with the wrist checks......(along with the closeups )

1st language......mixed with alcohol. What I was saying was that when I took the watch to get repaired the problem did not manifest itself for the watch repair man. In other words Marrickvilleboy, when the repair man wound the watch, it did not release its wind. I told him the problem is one that does not magically fix itself and asked him to look into the problem. Chime away fellow watch enthusiast.

To make this more complicated......when I took the watch to the shop today, the watch guy wound the watch and it did not spin backwards. Boy did I look stupid, but I know it cant fix itself. He's gonna look at it. I am leaning towards the fact the click spring thingy may be bearly touching the crown wheel engaging only when the wind is blowing the right direction .

Should I tell the members if it is found the seals were not greased? Hate to say something bad about someone if it was an honest mistake. I can't figure out what the purpose of the CG is. I would assume it would apply pressure to the crown gasket thus preventing leaks. The CG he built is nice and tight on my watch. I will check with the watch repair man and see if he found previous silicone. I had to drop off my speedy because of the spinning crown issue I wrote about in another forum so I dropped off the DSN with the speedy to have the DSN dried and siliconed. The watch repair guy did not suggest a cleaning. What do you guys think..not nessasary the way it sounds from previous posts on this topic?

Ok...open the case....let dry....what about silicone on the crown and case back?

My DSN watch was waterproofed. I asked he pressure test it to make sure I can swim in a pool and take showers with it. Due to DSN's strong reputation, I have no problem believing he did what he said he did. The watch is now about 1 month old and ,while I have taken a shower with the watch on everyday, I have not gone swimming yet. Three days ago, the watch started fogging up on the inside of the front dial only when I walk from the warm weather to the cold. It stays fogged as long as I am in the cold. I can clear the fogged dial up when I place my palm over the crystal and warm it up in about 10 seconds. I am not sure if this is just prior humidity inside the watch from when the watch was assembled or if it now has taken on water from showering. Any suggestions on what I need to do with my fogging problem?

agreed..I need a watchsmith. Thank you for the pic it shows me exactly where to look. This site is the best. Just sad I have to be separated from my watch so soon.

I just tried winding it again (guess I thought this was all a bad dream?lol) Anyway, I wound it all the way up not letting go of the crown the whole time. I just screwed the crown down and it held the wind/power at that point. It works fine, but that is not normal, I should be able to take my fingers off the crown and it should hold without spinning out. Something is still very wrong. I can see the crown wheel under everthing turning, but I cant see the click spring.

Unfortunately, I have no cofindence in the dealer I bought the Speedy from so I won't be sending or buying anything more from him. Anyone know where the rachet wheel click spring is on one of these movements so I can check that out. I have an exhibition back so I may even be able to see the problem easily. New Question>>>>>> To all owners of the speedy, when you wind your watch, do you feel any type of clicking like you do on a 6497 movement? My Speedy always wound very smoothly with no sign of any clicking. I never thought it had the click spring due to the smooth feel. Just wondering if that was the problem with mine the whole time....it was barely touching the stop mechanism. Any help?

Oh no...I went to wind up my Speedy as I am doing a power reserve test on all my handwind movements and this morning the Speedy would not hold the spring from releasing. In other words, with every turn when I take my finger off the crown, it will spin out until its energy is gone. AHHHH...its practically brand new!! Don't tell me this is a welcome to the world of replicas. What happened and what do I do to fix her? This is a handwind lamania movement, I think I read it is also called a Seagul? According to The Zigmeister, this is a great movement so it must be something just with my movement. Please help.