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Thanks for the reply Zig. I know it's hardly a priority for you, but I'm sure many would find it pretty fascinating - well at least I would! Perhaps a mini tri-pod, macro lens and use of the intervalometer setting on your camera would achieve this quite nicely. My Canon G5 has an intervalometer setting and I use it when I have parties - set up camera in corner on tripod and the camera takes a picture automatically every _____ minutes or seconds - whatever you choose. Makes a cool verit

With ALL due respect Mr. By-Tor (just love your reviews) - please do not insinuate that Murder She Wrote was not exciting! Or that in some way Ms. Lansbury is nothing short of a national treasure. Thank you, sir.

So impressive, Zig! As anyone who's tried to lume something knows, it ain't easy! Equal parts art, engineering and science. By your above comment, are you saying you do this all with an oiler? Would love to see some action shots, though I'm assuming you've little time to entertain us with "The Zigmeister Lumes Sausage" (directed, maybe, by Sidney Lumet? ;-)). Really amazing. Dems: loved that anecdote.

Funny, Brodie. I feel the same way. This post very clearly illustrates just how important the details are when separating the winners from the also-rans: this watch is now a winner. Great stuff, Zig.

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New watches = new thrills. Just like women. It's like paying for the boob-job and then divorcing her anyway cuz you just wanted a new one! Easy.

Otto Frei or Frei & Borel or whatever they call it has the Omega replacement crystal. As bwhitesox said, it's pretty straightforward. I've used the end of a full-size maglite flashlite as a bezel ring installer in a pinch and it works the charm. Remove battery cap and invert, remove battery spring and the screwed end is the same size as many bezels & crystal retaining rings - push down with palm of hand. Careful not to mess up bezel insert!!!

I'm not sure why an adult would want to look like a junior secret agent, but that's the beauty of taste - some have it and some don't! I'm sure the real deal is built nicely, but egad, that's an ugly thing to strap to your wrist. I guess I'm just a less-is-more kind of guy.

Maybe someone is looking for one of these. While not cheap, not exactly over-priced either if accurately described. Makes me wish I still had my MBW 1680...oh well. Rollie Mov't

It's an average deal, really. The friend price in my book would be $2500. Tell him to see how much a dealer will give him for it and match that. I wouldn't buy it just because you thought it was a deal on a Rolex.

This is great. Can't wait to see the end result. Any chance the bracelet is going to be updated - I've read that the rep bracelet isn't nearly as flexible as the the gen and thus is hard to size for smaller wrists. My wrist is 6.75 inches and I'd like the watch to wear nicely. I know there have been mods done so maybe that's the answer. Nice work so far, Paul. Appreciate the updates! (and the organizing)

Ummmm, right. Avatar. Exactly...

The watch is cool - dunno about the askew dial, but hey, it's YOUR watch! What's really hard to take your eyes off of is the Jean Claude Van Dam dance sequence. Wow. Captivating in a way that's making me wonder what exactly is so captivating about it.

Wow. Been needing this post (and all the tutorials) for years. I almost 100% of the time, have buggered the keyless works when re-installing a stem on an ETA movement. Never had a problem with Seiko movements..hmmm. Anyway, I usually brought them to my chinatown watchman (mr. Lee) and he sorts it for $30. I always thought he was doing me a solid - now I know how relatively easy it is (especially for an experienced watchmaker). Anyway, used Bazz' awesome tutorials and had no problems...well I had one problem. When I 'fixed' it the first time, once I recased the movement the stem wouldn't go in again. Damn. I also remembered that when I test fit the stem prior to re-casing to test everything, the movement wouldn't hand wind. I looked up whether a 2846 should hand wind and found out that it should. Took it all apart again and consulted one of the other tutorials that astutely pointed out that you need to put the U shaped spring on the end of the keyless works cover back in it's correct position, which is to put pressure on the yoke, I think, which pushes castle gear up against gear. At least thats what it all looked like. Worked the charm the second time. One more thing - I've read different opinions on what position the crown should be in when releasing. I've always used the third position for removal and installation. Zig seems to go for the first position (winding). Anyone have the definitive on this? Does it really matter. I was successful in the third (hand setting) position. Thanks for the info and an hour of very relaxing watch repairing.

Thanks for the reply, Zig. I pretty much expected some of this stuff, so I'm not totally surprised. Like everything, a little extra effort is required to get the maximum benefit! I'll try your temporary fixes for the hour hand to see if that's the problem. If I end up enjoying this watch, then I will seek a more, ahem, hand's on, approach from you. Much appreciate the input, sir.

Hi SD. Really? Obviously it's not meant to look that way, but you're saying that inherent to the movement design, this is normal. The watch keeps pretty darn accurate time and the power reserve is impressive for how little I've worn and wound the watch. Is there some kind of clutch that drives the second hand and let's it slip? Seems to do it more going downhill, noon to 6, when 12 is pointing up. Thanks for the heads up...probably wouldn't have ordered this movement if I knew that...wait, I should have researched the movment?

This is kind of what I was thinking...

Hi all. Just got these two watches (review of Breitling below). Overall, it's hard to argue that they're super cool looking watches, but at what point do we hold the dealers hands to the fire for their listed claims of watch performance. Breitling: hands mostly reset to zero. A couple of tries usually gets the minute counter straight up and down, but it's a crap shoot. More annoying: The hour counter hand 'creeps' when the chrono is not engaged. Pushing the reset button puts it right, but it just creeps again, which means to use the chrono, which some advise against anyway, one has to re-set the hour hand prior to starting the chrono, which then works as it should. Before someone chastises me for mis-using or somehow damaging the chrono movement, I am well versed in gen 7750s and my preferred Lemania 5100s. I know my way around an auto chrono. Is this just par for course on an A7750b? Sinn U1: While keeping very accurate time, the chinese movement'ed U1, sends the second hand around the dial in an erratically jumpy manner. It mostly moves like a low-beat low cost movement, but it will also pause for 3 beats and then catch up, pause for 2 beats, catch up, 4 beats, catch up - then resume it's low-beat march. Looks crap when you glance at your auto watch and the second hand is dancing like Elaine in the famous Seinfeld episode (herky jerky comes to mind). Is this a 'Welcome To The Wonderful World of Reps' moment for me? Will the U1 settle down and work itself out? The chrono creep is not gonna solve itself, but I also had a titanium and rose gold gen Omega Seamaster chrono that did the same thing. I AM NOT CALLING OUT ANDREW AT TRUSTY! For real, I'm not. I would order from him again - prolly get the swiss movement for the U1 next time. However, when he says he's checking the watches before sending out, what are they checking for because the way the watches behaved when I first got them must be how they were when "checked" by them. For bargain reps, I'm loathe to send them back to China (20% of the cost of U1!). So tell me, esteemed forum. What would you do? Full disclosure: The breity was $250 and the U1 was $138 (IIRC). All things must be considered, right? TIA for any insight on this matter.

God damn it! WTF? I paid $250 for this automatic titanium Breitling chronograph and it's not....PERFECT! I thought it was Trusty Guy? OK, before the root structure of this great forum lines up to place their rep prada boots in my [censored], I am of course jesting. No the watch is not perfect, nothing is. But, it's pretty sweet looking toy for what I paid. Got this from Andrew and it is the first rep I've purchased from Trusty. I got a pam from DSN a while back that was gorgeous, but ordering from DSN felt a little different from this experience - he felt more like a collector and this felt more like BUSINESS. All my other reps cam from the trading boards and I've been lucky to get great stuff from several members. I sold everything last year in a gen grail pursuit. You know how it goes, nothing beats a NEW watch, whether rep or gen. Comms: very prompt emails from "andrew" and tracking info for EMS that worked just fine. My cc company called to make sure it wasn't a fraudulent charge - no big deal and comforting to know they do this all the time. The Tracking was effective. Mail: EMS delivery to the states works quite well. Took 10 days from order to delivery. Not bad at all. Packaging: I got two watches (I'll talk about the U1 when I get to it). They were in bags and more bags and in bubble wrap and then in a styrofoam coffin and then in a box which was well secured with super-strength chinese packing tape (where can I get sum?). Watch: Breitling Titanium Chrono Avenger (I think that's what it's called). I wanted a big auto chrono that didn't weigh a ton and I've got a soft spot for the Pro I bracelet so this was the watch to get. Andrew had it for $258 (IIRC). Seemed like a good deal. Advertised as having a A7750b movement, AR, full titanium everything with screwed bracelet. Observations: Immediately, I was like, WTF is this piece of [censored]. The second hand, constant and counter aren't the smoothest in the world, but I've never seen an A7750 run so I'd nothing to compare it to. I tested the chrono and of course it didn't run or reset properly. I am in the PO at this point, mind you, and I'm thinking - see, dude, reps will never replace the real thing! You just wasted your money!. I set the time, wound the watch, threw it in my bag and split. When I got home I'd sort of decided to re-visit the watch fresh in the comfort of my house. You know, it's quite a cool watch. The titanium looks great. The pushers are bad-ass. The cross-hatching on the crown is deep and clean. The dial's a knockout. AND OH YEAH, DUMBASS, IT WAS ONLY TWO FITTY US PAPERS. I then became thrilled with the watch - it's super cool. Timing & Chrono: The watch is keeping good time. Setting it was easy if a bit loose in feel. The date clicked over nicely if it's a bit low in the window. The chrono: I remember someone saying you gotta run it in a bit. So I did that and now it's working and re-setting...wait a second, is that hour hand creep? OK, so it works. I suppose you should have the A7750 serviced if you really want it to work precisely. Works good enough for me now. Crown: The threads on the crown are a bit un-refined. I'm not surprised by this and the crown works just fine and screws down tightly. I've had gen watches with shitty crown threads, so whatever. You should always be gentle with crown threads - most people [censored] up their threads because they're meatheads! Bezel: The pearl is clownish compared to photos of a good on. Whatever, I'm kind of a Carebear about it being gen-like. I bought it as a beater watch and will treat it as such - I didn't get it to fool my local Breitling dealership, or fool my friends. The ratcheting action is a little on the sloppy side, but it works just fine. Crystal: There appears to be AR on the underside. I don't get the AR hoopla. I collect mostly vintage gen divers and I've never had a problem reading my dial. The purple hue looks cheap to me in general, but some just love it. This watch also has a curved crystal that distorts at a sharp angle. Enh. Also looks cheap, but I know expensive watches have this curvature distortion as well, so it's just my preference, or whenever I see those morons with the giant zirconia encrusted rapper watches on the subway, the crystal has that distortion, so I associate... Bracelet: Damn. What can I say, it's titanium with screwed links that are machined quite nicely. No problems adjusting the size. The clasp is a little hinky - it works, just not like the gen (I have a gen Pro I steel bracelet to compare it to). I bent the sides of the safety clasp in just a touch on both sides and it grips the clasp a little better. I've no fear that it's gonna pop open. The laser engraving looks shallow and crap. Overall: Awesome bang for buck. I'm sure this watch has been reviewed before, but I've not seen a recent review - unfortunately I am a just a tadpole in the great swamp of rep knowledge, so my review is really just a cursory examination of a watch, not of this model. Hope it helps someone. I'm pretty sure this particular watch has some old school, closed factory, super edition that is impossible to get anymore, so add that to the mix when considering this piece. I am a happy camper on day one. Ask me how I feel tomorrow when the hour counter hand pops off!!! Some crappy pics:

Stunning.

Not to fear. All the big names, pronounced for you. Rosetta Stone Watchspeak

That watch is soooo beautiful. One of my all-timers. Any chance we can see a pic with the acrylic bezel? Thanks for posting such a rarely seen classic.

Man that was just brilliant. The legitimacy of the forum is unimpeachable with posts like this. I belong to sever gen watch forums and NEVER do we get stuff like this - it's just awesome. As Lanakai said - get me a beater movement so I can start playing. The effort that goes into these posts is evident and appreciated. Man if The Zigmeister and Francisco every joined forces...cue diabolical laughter, while rubbing hands together, "BWAH HA HA HA HA HA!!!" THANK YOU.