Amplitude

Update- Got her back together and running good. Now my chrno functions work and it's keeping good time. Interesting trick they pulled with the movement spacer and pusher extensions. Pretty well made. The inner diameter on the ETA datewheel is ever so slightly larger thsn the rep wheel, but all works well. In comparing the day/date in the watch to photos with different days I grabbed off the web, it looks like IWC used the standard ETA font. It is identical. The IWC logo on the clasp is definetly ever so slightly larger. That seems to be the only real flaw, and it's a very minor one. I still have to finish the crown serrations nicer, and I havent gotten around to the threads or the endlinks yet. I also didn't lume it yet, I got excited and just put it back together so I could wear it. Oh yeah, when I was finishing it up, I blew the 9 o'clock marker off the dial with the blower and had to reattach it. So check your markers too when you do the swap if you are doing it yourself. GS works ok, but it's too stringy for me. I use krazy glue to attach loose markers- but don't screw up if you try the same. GS is forgiving. Krazy glue is not. I LOVE this watch. It does the impossible with hardly any mods- actually fools me! Those wacky Chinese are really improving.

You are right about that. Until I started re-luming at my shop (mostly just hands and dot and stick markers) they just replaced parts. The asian 7750 isn't really very different from the swiss, so any watchmaker should be able to work on one, but the guys who do work on these boards will know all the tricks and quirks with these replica models. You should send it off to one of the board watchmakers.

Yes, part time at a local jeweler. I don't take any outside work though if that's what you are getting at. The Zigmeister is the man you should talk to if you need one of your reps fixered up. And, although I can do lume, especially on simple markers like the 3717, The Zigmeister is an artist. There is no way I could pull off some of the stuff he has posted here. (Like the tiny Ingeniuer numerals, or the Cousteau inner bezel.) If you want this stuff done, go to him. If I end up with a watch that needs extremely detailed lume work like that, you can bet I'm sending the parts to him.

Pics aren't my strong suit. All I have for a digital camera is my phone, but I'll try to get some up. Also, it does a have decent AR, but I still think Chieftangs would look miles better. It's going in his next run as soon as he has one.

Got my 3717- It is definetly gorgeous. The dial and case are beautifully done, with a few minor finish flaws between the lugs that I'm correcting with a stoning and some 400/2000 grit paper. Otherwise the watch head is very close to perfect. Very impressive for a fake. I gave it a light polish with Flitz along the grain, and stoned some sharp spots and I'm completely happy with the result. The false links on the endlinks on the bracelet are a little too rounded, as I noted in my previous thread about the bracelet accuracy. The sides of the clasp hinge were a little rough, but I've corrected that with a bit of work with swiss files and sandpaper and polish. The perlage is not perfect, but looks nice in a cursory exam. It appears to have been done after the latch stud was added, as it's missing a bit around it. I'm slightly concerned about the method of attachment used for the clasp hinge, I'm not sure if it's soldered, glued, or laser welded. I have access to a laser welder so I'm going to make sure it doesn't go anywhere by giving it a few zaps. The movement isn't working properly, the minute register does not function on the chrono. The hands are beautiful, but the chrono second hand bumps the minute hand at around 9 o'clock and stops it. A light jolt gets it moving around again, the standard quality control issues with hand fitting unsurprisingly strike again. It's running a quite a bit slow, too. 4 minutes a day. So, the asian 21k 7750 lives up to it's reputation. I'm personally not put off by these operational flaws, (I expected it.) I'm going to tear it apart and service it tomorrow and add the ETA day/date wheels and give it a bit of c1 lume to perfect the dial & hands. But, non-watch tinkers may want to opt for the higher-beat movement that has recived better reviews here as far as proper operation out of the box or swap it for a swiss 7750. Plan a trip for your low beat 3717 to The Zigmeister if you have one coming and don't work on your own watches. Out of the box it surprisingly water tested to 5 atm, so the seals seem to be well fitted and all there. The crown threads feel OK, but I'm going to take a fine platinum polish disc and smooth them out too to improve their feel. I just worked on a gen IWC quartz yesterday, and the crown threads felt so nice in comparison...gotta get that feel. The stem is also fitted slightly long. Easily fixed. All in all, it's the best rep I've ever seen or handled, and with a bit more careful finishing under the loupe I'm confident I can make it feel and appear 99.1% gen even under a critical eye. It's -so- good I no longer want a gen. Recommended!

Got all the gen parts from Ofrei the Insane. I think the dial was about $200?

Here are a bunch of pics of gen bracelets snagged from a timezone.com thread. It looks like the false links on the endlinks on the gen are sharper, but the clasp finish (perlage/engine turning) looks identical. I can't tell for sure, but it also looks like the IWC engraving on the reps is more centered on the clasp and slightly larger. The crown looks ever so slightly different, but it may be an illusion. Can't wait to get mine so I can check it out in person. EDIT: Forgot to add, I have the ETA day and datewheels in hand, and the day font is identical to gen. The numerical font also looks to be identical, but -may- be a little less bold. I'll have to compare once in the watch to tell.

Yes, tested to 5atm with pressure tester. But, I added a gen crown and tube, replaced a missing seal in the HE valve, and lubed all gaskets. (Also added gen dial, hands and pearl) Bought originally from Paul. "5th gen" 42mm

US and UK...but for brutal effectiveness the Mossad does win the gold medal.

Now watch the counterpoint: The Great Global Warming Swindle http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3028847519933351566

You can buy orange superluminova from RCTritec. No problem there.

Cool. Kirk dial will put new feet on for about $30 or so.

It is not normal. Get it serviced. Sounds like you have a wonky hack lever for one. Something is amiss. It won't work itself out. "Break in period "is a myth. If it doesn't work right from day 1, it isn't assembled properly or has crap floating around in the movement. '

Somewhere on this forum there are pics of a relume job The Zigmeister did to a Cousteau diver...very impressive. You ought to take a look at his work and get in touch with him.

No engine turning inside the clasp, or some that shouldn't be there? Does it look sort of like this clasp? http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=tre...82690&rid=0

Does the bracelet & clasp work and look like the genuine on this model? I have the asian slower beat version on the way to me. Anybody got any refrence pics? Opinions?

Really? Those pics of one with the coated crystal in the "3rd AR" thread looked very nice in comparison to the unmodified pics.

Aha. I actually have the same watch on the way to myself. I'll be doing this mod too, and the ETA datewheels. I asked Chieftang about the next AR run, and he said to just watch for it. If I was you I'd just wait til you get the watch and pop the crystal out. That's what I'll be doing. (Have a watchmaker do it for you if you don't know what you are doing and are nervous about it.)

If you haven't broken your crystal, and you want the AR gone, use a buffer wheel with white media, or a dremel. It'll take the AR off in less than a minute.

As I have reported for almost two years, Bob Frei is an [censored], plain and simple, he phoned me at home to personally "Scold" me and "Educate" me on his business, how much he hates people that don't know how to order stuff, and just about everything else of his problems etc... I listened to his rant for an hour, it was funny as hell. Hilarious. He did the exact same thing to me, twice. I have ordered $2000+ worth of tools and who knows how much in parts from him and he called me to [censored] at me for "wasting his time" when he couldn't figure out which caseback screws I needed. The funny thing is, (even though I did give him the correct info) he spent at least 20 minutes bitching at me for "wasting his time". If his time is so valuable, how come he has the time to call customers out of the blue and yell at them? He's a nut. Borel all the way since then. They are fast, the ladies are sweet on the phone, and they carry or can get most anything for you.

Hell yeah. Sitting put in a nice dry place they'll last for longer than your lifetime. Modern oils don't dry as quickly, some 10+ year old watches will still run pretty well if restarted after that long a sit. But, like The Zigmeister said, just get them serviced and you'll have no worries. Don't freak out if you wound the watch after a long sit though. It won't suffer any damage from that. Just don't wear it much before you get it cleaned and oiled. Despite our small quarrel here on the forum, I can with great confidence recommend him for service from what I've seen him post. He is old school and seems to be very meticulous. And he looks like a major wiz with the lume, too. (Not kissing his ass, just offering my opinion.)

Use a powerful UV lamp. It'll fade for sure. Only safe way to do it really.

Take it to a watchmaker. It'll be a 5 minute fix. You shouldn't use glue on it at all. If you screw the crown down tight on the stem while holding it in a pin vise, you probably won't need to use anything at all. I do use a -microscopic- amount of blue loctite on some stems, but it isn't necessary in most cases. If you loctite it, all you need to do to remove it if you need to is heat the stem a little with a lighter and the crown will come loose again.

Good tip for beginners. It's really not that hard to do with good tweezers. Use newish or dressed #3s or #5s. One thing you could practice to get your tweezer skills up to par is pick up a small dial-side screw with your tweezers, and practice rotating the tweezers in your hand while keeping a grip on the screw without clicking the screw off into the void. When you have developed your "touch" to this point you won't need to use anything but tweezers and a hand set tool.

The levers swing out. Take your screwdriver or tweezers, or pegwood, and grab the hook on the lever, swing it out, then move to the next one. Make sure both levers are fully out of contact with the feet and then lift the dial straight up. (May require a little wiggling...a LITTLE) if you pull one up before the other you may bend the dial feet. Hope that helps.