cougar1

I can pay with women, money or watches ....or all 3, the women might not be the best quality though if you go for all three

Good man Jkay, you won't be disappointed!

Sometimes we all moan about PP, and they are wnkers but I'll admit it is very bloody convenient and straightforward at times. Nothing wrong with other payment methods but sometimes I cringe when I see the process others use. At the end of the day though timeshops will sort it out, Mark is a good guy.

Black Smp today, .....Gran, will you sell me that AP Jules?

These 3rd party pay methods are a bit annoying, but as above, Timeshops is far from a scam, not a TD here but RWI users are quite happy. They sell noob subs like hotcakes. Just contact them again and tell them to cancel both transactions and do it over again without being so trigger happy next time

Shipping back to China is a PITA, I'd much rather negotiate a decent discount off an future watch I wanted from the dealer, save on shipping and get the work done closer to home these days. At the end of the day though it is buyer prerogative to pay return fees, unless you are dealing with a big store that would offer to pay return as a gesture, but that is rare these days.

Any response from Tony?

Yep probably the spring in the clasp not hooking and closing correctly, the end link issue was just abou fit and they looked abit shoddy compared to gen. Beware though of getting into gen bracelet parts, they add up fairly quickly.

Yep, agree again ....Galimanas you are over analysing it, it's perfect for a rep, give the go ahead for crying out loud

Maybe that's just the photo, not sure, really up to yourself which you go for at the end of the day, it really does just come down to wanting that extra pearlage and decoration on the sw200 or not. Did you order yours?

Yep, that's right jkay and maxman on the pearlage. Also on the bezel font the AD spotted from 10 feet away, I held gen next to rep and couldn't see any difference, alright, alright, through a loupe the cut of the numerals was slightly smoother, maybe we all completely missed that big 2 tell, or that AD has some sort of 6th sense?

Yeah, sounds like stiff spring, or long stem, the gen will most definitely sort it out, you were going down that route anyway, just a pity it happens out of the box, perhaps the stem needs to be cut a mm shorter, that can be tested on the rep stem/crown before installing gen. The bracelets can be a bit of a nightmare, the clasp issue could just be the pins not clipping in correctly, diver extension not closing correctly etc I'm not 100% familiar with the PO bracelet, as I always wear mine on leather or rubber, must get out mine this evening and have a look at it. It's probably an issue that can be sorted with a bit of fiddling.

Looks fine galimanas!

The bracelets can be a bit finicky, it may need oiling or even brushing down (or even slight filing at that link) to smooth it up, it is strange, but bracelets can be hit and miss on link finishing, it might be just some grit or just poor smoothing, try bend it fully over on this link and see how rough the finishing is? Is the clasp secure now? one side was perhaps just open? Is it needing both pushers to open it now or is it still opening with one? The crown issue, don't worry about the winding sound, check the crown is 'straight' on when screwed in? If it is slightly lopsided then it may be on its way to crossthreading already, but maybe this one isn't. Unscrew the crown again and next time before screwing down, screw the crown one turn or so anti-clockwise against the treads...(yes the opposite way it should be screwed in) ...until you hear/feel a slight 'click' (this will make sure the treads are lined up at this point) then screw down slowly clockwise and see if it's any better? I wouldn't worry too much about stiffness, it may just need a bit of silicon grease on the tube/crown threads to make the screw action a bit more fluid. Or it may be the spring action is stiff or stem is too long. How many turns is it screwing down when you do it? Is it like 1 or 2 or is it a more solid 3 or 4 turns?

Wow, I've always thought of them in a kind of Longines or Oris type market position, but they seem to have stepped up a gear lately. Maxman....that chrono you pictured looks damn sweet!

Congrats man, he looks nice and quiet ...for now btw, Max is a cool name, good choice!

Yeah, the gen has lovely blue lume which is very striking white in daylight, it is a tell, still a nice rep though. The blue chrono is closer to gen on the lume front. The black is lovely though, too many blue smps around

That's unusual, they must be completely sold out then, I heard they were getting 'rarer' but didn't know they weren't being produced anymore. Contact Tony over at asian7750.com, he told me about 6 months ago that he still had a couple...it's the 2006 version. .....If he doesn't have one then they must be gone. I have one, but it's not for sale, at least I don't think it is, but my arm could be twisted

Thanks for the info on the camera Vandal, typical behaviour from all women on the camera issue, we're always supposed to make do with what we have, we're supposed to 'innovate' rather than throw money away ......but when it comes to them, spending money is always a necessity....new shoes, new appliance, getting their hair done....you'd think the survival of the human species depended on it btw...I think the bezel 20 issue is an optical illusion or something it's definitely on the gens aswell.

You must be looking at two different watches, the RWI promo watch is a great bargain, but offhand can't say much about the other one as 1. I'm too lazy to go searching the browsing nightmare that is timeshops without direct links 2. There is a difference in price without the RWI promo but not that much difference....it's something like a 40 or 50 dollar difference. .......so no idea which watch you are referring to as the 2nd watch?!

Hi Vandal, yeah i know I sound like i'm a bit of a pessimist on the eta vs clone issue. Tbh you've got a good dealer with Andrew so you can't go too far wrong. I didn't mean to make it sound like it's silly buying swiss over clone or anything like that. As Ade says many rep buyers do it without knowing either way and are perfectly happy once everything is working as it should...and that is the main thing. The whole issue deserves a thread of it's own so I don't want to throw a great review thread off on a tangent with any more discussion on this issue. It was more reactive to galmanias questions and was trying to be brutally honest with him, either way...in a nutshell afaik, with all our reps, the clones are as good as the Swiss and the Swiss are as good as the clones and every one of them probably needs a service out of the box anyway, ......so as long as they work fine for a few years before a service we are doing well. Anyway, still amazed by the pics in your reviews, what camera are you using? Although I think it's more user skills than camera itself...you make it look even better in the photos than the reps do in real life, ...superb dial details..the AR almost looks transparent (as AR should but the PO reps are hard to photograph with the very strong tint) Also glad to hear the crown/tube on this one feels good, should last just fine if it's as substantial as you describe....just don't go at it with gorilla strength like you used on the last one ....joking! Wear it well!

Jesus....hope we didn't open up a can of worms with the eta vs clone issue

That looks really cool, you should submit the designs to Omega, use the black bezel though

Just for reference and worth a read: http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/eta-2836-2-61801.html http://www.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php/swiss-vs-clone-69430.html http://forums.watchuseek.com/f72/how-do-seagull-hangzhou-compare-eta-depth-look-216945.html

Lovely review vandal, some amazing photos and great write-up. On wether it's gen eta I agree with Ade, no expert here, but from the shock housing area and engravings around the regulator area and stampings it 'looks' swiss eta. You would need closer macro shots of this area to get a better idea, and tbh I agree totally with ade that to know for absolute sure you would literally need a 'full' teardown and disassembly of the movement. But from a brief look it does look 'gen'. These days it's so hard to tell, some are true swiss eta, some are old swiss eta (needing service) others are reconditioned eta (with a mix of old swiss and new chinese parts) some are franken swiss eta. That's why I always say go with the eta clone...at least you know for sure exactly what it is. It's reckoned by many these days that hardly any swiss eta are true swiss eta anymore. Now this may all sound a bit negative but many have done teardowns across the fora, and many of the results are surprising. I think the main thing here is are we getting a brand new out of the box swiss eta movement when we pay the money for one?....probably not! It might actually be of benefit to rep buyers in the future now that eta are restricting sale of the movements and parts, it's possible in the future we do end up getting proper sellita movements instead of eta swiss?? movements in our more expensive purchases.