cougar1

Wow $12K is a hefty budget, you could pick up a 2nd hand PP calatrava for that. The PO is a lovely watch, might be a bit on the chunky side for suit wear but would be great for the afters I'd go with something like an AT 8500 or a JLC master control with a few quid left over, of course the Portuguese is a great choice also: For the reps, you could do worse than something low-key, like the new IWC portofino reps

Amazing work, gives new meaning to the word 'modding', thanks for sharing!

41mm is at least a good start in the right direction, 39mm would be welcomed in time. All these slate/anthracite dials are really cool!

That's a very nice sub! Hope you got a good price on it. Wear it well. Also I see you've got some Tag Kiriums in the watch box, brings back fond memories, I wore one for years in the mid nineties, beat the living daylights out of it for a long time, still going strong , haven't worn it for years... They were cool and comfortable watches on rubber!

Great job Teejay, that strap looks pretty damn strong! That's a cool tip on how to put together a strong strap for heavy duty use such as building work or similar.

I agree with you watchmeister, I think the watch looks great, at least from the pics, it's never gonna have the finishing of the gen even if we see this 1:1 stuff thrown about a bit too easily these days. I think little things like the number curve and caseback(who really cares about a caseback) are minor minor issues overall. I do think however that if the triangles are shoddy and have messily applied lume every 2nd watch it is on a position that really throws the whole watch off, and that would be poor attention to detail....especially considering what looks like great attention that went into the lume evenness on the dial and dial markers/dial writing etc. It would be a shame that's all. tbh I'm not even sure this is what is happening, so we'll wait until we see some proper reviews

Please don't say we've already got a varying bezel triangle lume issue?

That's great work danza, the crystal makes a lovely difference compared to rep, it will look perfect when you get the bezel.

God that looks lovely! The dial/printing/dw and bezel look cool as fcuk! Thanks for the pics! Is that not a plastic cover over that triangle @ 12? It would explain why it looks a little 'off'? I got caught out with that on sinns before Lets hope so!

Give it about a year until the honeymoon effect wears off, then they black bays will be all over the sale forums, the price is way too dear to justify having it tied up in the watch, just a hunch but I'd say there will be quite a few flippers. It still is a lovely watch, I'm not sure it will be same lust for the watch with many after 3 months in of daily wear compared to the frenzy the lovely brochure pics and Basel launch created. This all depends of course on how restrictive the supply is, it does looks pretty restrictive at the moment! Good one!

They look very very good aswell, not sure I can be arsed cracking open the watch just for the bloody whiter than white effect though, the watch looks fine. I'm waiting for some in position pics vs the old one to convince me

That is a good question surely try a wtb request, PO's are so common there must be some floating about. I don't have any free ones atm, else you could have one of those. If you cant get one try the dealers, someone could surely supply you with a few. afaik, usually hearing movement winding on screwdown is a sign the stem is a little on the short side, or in the case above maybe just a tad off center. In your case it could be either, try opening the back and see if all lines up, if it does then you could try loosening the crown on stem a touch and then securing, or resize a new stem. tbh, I have it in a couple of reps, doesn't really bother me unless it makes it makes the screwdown very difficult.

Yeah, there are some reps available, both cheaper and higher priced, I'm not so sure really how good they are in the flesh as I've never held one of the higher priced ones. On looks they are quite a nice looking rep but for the price $400+ dollars they need to be much much better. Of course it's impossible to get an accurate looking 8500 movement clone, .....lets see how well they do on the new ceramic Planet Ocean reps to see if they can decorate a movement somewhat similar to the 8500. The current rep below is flawed in more ways than are worth mentioning, the dial/dw/hands are all really poor for the asking price, reps have come on leaps and bounds since then but I'm not sure the factories see this watch as a real seller so I guess they are not be interested in giving us a true worthy $400 rep in the future. The ladymatic (ladies deville) rep is quite a good one so the potential is certainly there to improve things with this deville. This is the current best: Bytor writes about it quoted below (I don't know when this was written but at least 3 years ago, and his opinion on it is still rock solid) Also toad does a fantastic review/preview here: You may have seen them already but just including for reference.

Great stuff, no problem btw, post some pics when you get it

Yeah this is the newer updated one with new markers that is meant to be even better than the recent release. In what way it is better I'm not sure, some improvements to the dw alright, what is really tempting is this new one also has a lovely grey sunburst dial editiion which looks very tempting!

Is this the currency in which he placed the bet? 6 year old kid with a few hundred trillion dollars: Why not make the bet really interesting and put it at $100? That way he will truely learn from his mistake, it's not an 'all talk' amount and it really is at a put money where mouth is level He has to prove it to you so he can be fleeced by the dodgy rep site offering 100% 1:1 Italian made reps aswell, Lol..........they are born everyday!

Cheers, thats perfect, couldn't be better than getting a look at it in the flesh before parting with money, if it is in 'as new' condition then it is actually a pretty good price considering the cheaper ones I saw on gen forums would've had more wear. It's a great watch, I have one for a few years and love it, the black dial is so cool! If you do go ahead with the purchase I'm sure you'll be delighted with it, it looks quite classy and imo is nicer than the blue smp bond as this one can be easily dressed up or down better! All the best!

Unfortunately no, speedy reps have always been a bit off, I think there is a cheaper rep version of this around but not really sure how good it is, but it is definitely flawed! If you are happy with budget type reps then I'm sure most dealers could get you one: http://www.watcheden.net/omega-speedmaster-working-chronograph-with-black-dial-s-s-gift-box-is-included-i-138540-p-1.html and a few others such as this: None of these are gonna win any awards for accuracy though

Yeah it's definitely gen, there is no good rep of these. So they are asking 2850 NZD which is about 1400GBP/1800EURO ...sounds about right, have seen the odd one go cheaper on gen forums. The main thing is now can you be sure the seller is actually legit and will send you the watch pictured and as described? Tbh, I'd seek better pictures if parting with that much money for a watch. If it is as described then great, but are you sure and what comeback if not?

No definitely use the rep gasket, the gen gasket wont fit.

That's some good work! I wrote this off as a complete no go until I saw this thread. Thanks for the update!

Lol! Maybe they were onto something!

Thanks watcher, good to know for reference!

Looks great, these are fairly rare now so you should hold onto this one it goes well on the PO bracelet btw!

Wow, great stuff, looks superb!