cougar1

Looks great on you Jkay, not much of a PAM enthusiast here, but they're so good now, they've been piquing my interest again lately! Will have to try one again soon

Definitely looks gen, but as said with the "almost complete except for movement, frankens" these days no one can be sure unless we see the movement or at the very least get a look at the caseback and serial. As said above, It's definitely gen dial, all hands, bezel, crown, He and even the bracelet links including the sels look too smooth to be rep. We'd need alternative pics to be certain though, and do question the lack of cards issue...although it wouldn't stop me buying if a nice discount was on offer, always ask for a extra discount when these are proved gen but without cards....resale is difficult these days without full complete set, so it is warranted.

Yep my name is cougar1 and I'm suffering with this affliction for so long I've lost my eyesight from looking at lume all day and through loupes at night LoL, you are not going to get banned! Nobody care's about taking the watch to a watchsmith, you are free to do as you like, there are no rules! It's just that judging by the comments above it seems you won't be satisfied until you get continuous validation of the watch from those seemingly 'better' qualified to validate. Tbh, the best thing to do now to get it off your chest, is to walk right into an Omega AD or boutique and saunter up to the counter, flick the watch off the wrist and place it on the counter, all while asking if you can try on the new PO.....I bet they won't even notice it's a rep, they will glance at the watch on the counter from 4 feet away to see what 'calibre' of customer you are. i.e. (if you are a serious potential sale) once they see the familiar characteristics of the PO you've just taken off (the bezel, the markers) they will see that you are a former omega customer and 9 times out of 10 pay no more attention to the rep. I don't really see what the gain is out of doing it though. The reason why the average local watchsmith does have a nice look at it, is because they spend all day replacing batteries and adjusting bracelets on the $200 crap that 99% of the public wear, when they do see a nice $4000+ watch come in to the shop they like to have a nice gander at what they just worked on.

....but that is the rep game, everybody here is completely anal, they all have OCD and most are insomniacs from all the sleepless nights getting pisssed off over pearl and crowns and happy feet that nobody else would even give a 2nd thought about I've yet to come across a hobby where people are as fixated on the small issues Not only are these forums for rep enthusiasts but they are also a hangout for socially broken watch fanatics that go around the streets trying to spot those subs in the wild that have those perfectly shaved crown-guards, while also attempting to examine pearl from 6 feet away, to see if it might be a micrometer off centre.

Yep, I agree, the first rule of fight club is 'don't talk about fight club' It would be much more worthwhile trying to find a rep friendly watchsmith who you may be able to get to do some work for you in the future if needed, than stepping up the game in an attempt to get feedback on it's 'quality' in the watch world. Is isn't a gen, sales people and smiths are not familiar with aesthetics of these on the outside enough to know the difference. Even an AD might be fooled. The vast vast majority of gen forumites would be fooled, they haven't a clue, unless some smart [censored] rep fan goes on to gen forums and starts pointing out the 'tells' as has happened in the past. Here's a few threads to browse, and these people are familiar with the gen: http://tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=173337&st=0&sk=t&sd=a http://forums.watchuseek.com/f441/new-po-fake-542065.html http://forums.watchuseek.com/f441/fake-po-42mm-looks-very-real-554007.html http://forums.watchuseek.com/f441/one-real-purchased-wus-521803.html http://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/newly-acquired-pre-owned-planet-ocean-42mm-557621.html The quality of the watch is there to see, as can be seen from the countless reviews and teardowns on it across the forum, the only ones able to tell would be the rep forumites and those who are not rep enthusiasts but 'very' familiar with the gen. So on some occasion you would eventually run into some guy who does know the watch extremely well and can tell from the AR or pearl that there is something 'off'. I've heard of occasion where some people attempt to validate their watch by getting cheekier and trying out the AD test, why I don't know, it's not worth it, most won't recognize and if they did, and you have the watch off your wrist while they are examining it, it may well be confiscated and destroyed. Not trying to be dramatic wetwork, just saying that the watch is a good one, wouldn't worry about the local trade seeing the minute differences....not gonna happen...just enjoy it for what it is. A watch that looks great and is 98% of the gen for 5% of the gen price! Congrats Vandel you got your stash through customs finally.

Yep that looks superb, Wetwork, even the pearl looks fantastic.

Eurotimez, there's a name I haven't heard in a while, he did some nice stuff, that DSSD would be rare now! Yep the PO problem above was mangled crown threads, the tube is fine, just replaced crown and it's now turning nicely 3 or 4 turns, not as smooth as gen but it will do

The thing about Rolex is, you can't win either way, if it's gen, it's seen as a fake, if it's rep it's seen as a fake, so if you like the watch then that's all that matters! hawaiian robot: the asian 21j is just as nice, the movement comes in for a bit of criticism but it's not too bad, they are a straight forward swap out with another should anything go wrong with the movement, (even saying that makes it sound like expect the worst ) they really are not that bad at all. Plenty of people are happy with their a21j PO's. vandal: no watch yet, nothing worse than waiting, I'm sure you'll be sorted soon, the apparently don't bother seizing these in the US, the dealers are so confident they offer to replace all free of charge in the unlikely event that it did happen. They're just being slow. Now if it was in German customs that would be another story. Also agree on the aquaracers, both chrono and non chrono are really good (I didn't realise until recently that the chrono was so good aswell) I originally had a gen quartz blue 500m.....really gorgeous, then I got the rep black and sat down one day and examined both watch heads side by side, they really are amazing you'd need a loupe to see the minute differences, some people complain that the logo isn't cut as accurate as gen....yes that's a valid argument...when examining the logos under a 10x loupe

Love the railmaster, it was a watch i didn't like when I first saw it, but it's definitely a grower, the design is so unique and simple, it's lovely. Both those replications are very good, i have the 39mm....the 49mm is a little big for my tastes. The sub is a great rep, can't go too far wrong even with the cheapies on these. The 3 models you listed from pc, not really my style, and not too sure about the replication of the hysek or the bulgari, not my cup of tea, if you are looking for similar style you couldn't go too far wrong with Hublot reps, very well replicated. I do know that the ebel of the one you showed were excellent reps in the past, see bytors reviews, if they are at the same quality now then they are a decent choice. For a watch with big wrist presence and excellent replication then you couldn't go too far wrong with the new tag aquaracer 500m chrono http://www.rwg.cc/to...0m-chronograph/ All in all, we could never have all the reps we want Also just to add, that citizen anadigi is lovely, really unique looking piece, love the retro look to it. My gen PO....hmmm I've been humming and hawing over what to do with it for about 6 months. I don't want to sell it unless/until I can get a good franken together, I baulked on doing one about 6 months ago because of time restrictions etc but it's on the table again. The thing that's holding me back is expense, I know I could sell then gen in the morning for £1600, it's a 2006 modell but in perfect condition having had a routine service spa treatment back in 2010 just before I bought it. The rep is really so close out of the box, but having worn the gen I would need the lume/bezel/crown at least on the rep before i'd consider selling. The entire project would have to be under £400ish to be even worthwhile. The Idea of £800ish franken on a watch that can be bought for less than 50% extra doesn't seem worthwhile. I'm gonna work on picking up parts 2nd hand, bezel etc then it might be doable on the cheap.

At the moment I've cut things down to a nice size, I've bought and sold quite a few over the years but these I have currently. 42mm PO eta clone (as above) Omega railmaster 39mm swiss eta (old style) Sinn U2 eta clone (superb rep) Rolex explorer I 36mm (eta clone) Rolex explorer I 39mm (eta clone) Rolex sub 16610 (eta clone) noob Tag Aquaracer 500m (eta clone) IWC Mark xvi (eta clone) IWC pilot 3717 (A7750) VC patrimony white dial (eta clone) A few others that I never wear (quartz moonwatch etc) All are pretty damn accurate reps imo. I've quite a few gens such as the Moonwatch, SMP black, Smp blue, PO, AT teak dial quartz, AT rose gold white dial, Longines Olympic, Stowa Airman etc. So I gave up on decent smp's etc after many years of pissing about with those reps. I'd have to do some work to see what I've bought and passed on, too many to mention. At the moment I have a craving for more simple dials and less busy movments. (that could change again) Looking at above I just realise I still need to tone it down, especially the gens, may sell the PO gen, will hold onto one smp gen, but would never sell the moony, it will have to be prised from my cold dead wrists

I agree, it's really lovely to get a rep and you go "wow", when you wind and screw it down. It's extremely good. Let's hope the movement holds up

If the rep crown is working then leave it alone, no point changing, it's not really a cosmetic thing, only reason to change is if the crown action felt poor or had failed or was about to fail. The watch in question I was looking at was being advertised as (selling point) as having gen crown assembly but it is completely cross-threaded. So really it is completely useless, a rep with gen franken parts that dont work is basically a broken rep.

Yep hope it works out, I'm sure it will, you've had a bad run lately with the reps, but this one will be fine and the rest will be fine. Sometimes I find it's almost better to get the bad out of the way first (I know you've had experience with reps before)....most people just give it up as a bad game after a bad early experience which is a pity as you could have 20 perfect reps after that one misshap. It's a great game, but it's still a bit of a lottery, one thing is for sure and you could almost write it in stone...everyone that indulges in this game will have a bad run with reps eventually! I keep away from A7750 chronos now, even if it's a watch I really like and really want. A7750's are the work of satan

Missed your post...just seeing it now...seems that is the case. It does seem to be cross threading.....balls, it will need a repair.

You really got a very good one then , I would say many rep PO's had about a 25% - 50% of rep crown threads stripping within the first year...hence the recommendation for gen tube crown swap so often. You are one of the blessed ones that PO will probably be fine permanently. Many dodgy ones stripped easily simply because there was little room for screwing down...maybe 1 to 1.5 revolutions until they were home, so little leeway for the crown to 'grab' the tube....they aren't the best reps in this behalf. At the same time some reps are really good, my IWC mark xvi is better than most gens I've handled in terms of screw down action. I believe the rep with the franken tube I described above was a poor assembly job or handled by someone extremely hamfisted who cross threaded it in past ownership. It really is almost near impossible to cross thread the gen, you'd need gorilla like coordination to do it and even then it's difficult.

Lol, I had to laugh at that, love the sarcasm! She'll be looking for you to pick her up a few reps soon

No problem wetwork, I must say...just seeing your picture now, and the watch looks superb, enjoy it...wear it well!

Came across a franken PO today with gen tube/crown assembly and it had awful screw down feel to it, not at all like gen, if fact worse than most PO reps...which would be hard. Now it could be damage as there were previous owners, I can't believe somebody would be so ham fisted as to f*** up the gen assembly aswell So my question to you frankener PO people is how does the crown action on yours feel in comparison to a real PO? To describe the gen it is buttery smooth, with about 4 to 6 full very fluid revolutions before it snugly fits home. How do the frankens feel in comparison? Are they a mish mash of somewhere in between the s***ty rep screw down action (half a grinding revolution and then done ) and gen screw down described above and does it depend on how well the unit was installed in the first place? Should it be very consistent with gen once it has been frankened with gen crown/tube? I would assume so? The one above even though it is definitely a gen tube crown in it, it hits the stopping point after half to 3/4 turn and feels like it stops half way and to get it in fully it needs a cloth put over it to get the resistance necessary to get it down.....surely not right is it? I tried some rodico to clean debris and then some silicon" grease to see if any improvement and the improvement was marginal if at all

Just to add, I seem to keep cross reading posts and missing others. I think that having the option open is a good idea, It would obviously start off with less expensive repairs/mods and see where it goes from there. A relationship has to start somewhere and in a way we can see how it has to be very hush hush until things establish themselves and he builds up a relationship with his rep clients. This watch-smith has a real life bricks and mortar store and I'm sure he doesn't want people bugging him constantly to see if that $88 asian21j noob sub has been brought back to life yesterday. I'll be trying it out as an alternative sometime...thankfully all my reps are working fine atm.

Edit: Removed as per request

Thanks Rymeister, we'll all be checking it out, looks promising alright, but there have been cases where other watchsmiths have done a bunk with some fairly expensive rep merchandise in the past so buyer beware as they say. On the other hand, ----- confirms that he regularly works on £30K+ gens so would have literally no interest in taking off with suitcases full of reps on the tube out of London. He apparently just wants to keep it low key.

Removed.

That guy valiola, keep an eye on his stuff, he does lots of gen parts, some good deals at times, not so much on the new stuff, but his 2nd hand stuff can be really good value. P,S. god damn it...keep dealers like him quiet...we don't want everyone nabbing the good stuff before we even see it

No problem, there are plenty of people from all over the planet on here, we all get along just fine Also if that is your first rep, you got a very good one, good choice! btw welcome to the forum!

Thanks wagner, I have to say, Mary's QC pics are still top top quality, much better than many of the other dealers, only marvellous replica is up there with her when it comes to quality qc pics. Congrats, lovely watch!