Tempus flaws... how should it really be? should I replace the parts?

[pollux.cc]

Hey guys,

during my last visit at one of my trusted rep vendors in guangzhou, he had a BB tempus which i liked right from the start. I was weak, I didn't know too much about this watch, only had seen it before on a pic but i thought what the hell since i he always supplied me with the best of goods. So even though i had some doubts because i wasnt prepared i jumped at it. Full ceramic tempus. Looked awesome (and still does).. I remembered that hublot replaced its black screws for the movement with silver ones a good while ago. Mine on the other hand had blue ones!! hideous i thought, so i told my vendor to have all the screws changed to metallic ones and to change the spacer (or bearing or whatever its called, the thing between the screw in the middle and the rotor) to the smooth round one instead of the jagged. On the next day (i didnt have a chance for research that time) he had it all ready and so i finally bought it.

After a while, finally having time for some research, i realized that my beloved new acquisition had some 'flaws':

(hope you can see it from the pictures, took them under horrible conditions sorry)

1. The pushers, the crown, and the two little sticks on each side that separates the casing are ALL BLACK. On the gen I believe them to be silver/metallic.

2. the ring on the bottom of the watch is also all ceramic-black, so are the engravings: '301 SB 615946 LIMITED HUBLOT BIG BANG EDITION <EMPTY>(i believe here's the actual number of the watch supposed to be like #14) ' the screws are metallic.

ON THE GEN, that ring seems to be metallic and the engravings in black and the screws are also black.

3. the DATEWHEEL!! -how could i have missed that. Of course its supposed to be black

4. there is one blue screw left, its hidden and not accessible without taking the movement apart

Am I right about the flaws, what do you think?

I'd like to take it back to my supplier to see if i could get the correct parts and if possible have everything replaced by a watchsmith and that watch serviced and regulated altogether.

I'm not sure how far I could get though, what do you consider should be addressed and what could be left as it is? I'm not sure about the one blue screw and also the all black thing doesnt look bad at all. but it's just not precise... sheeesh what would you do?

cheers,

pollux

[Chronus]

Well... none of the Big Bangs are accurate apart from the Tuiga, so you could just enjoy it ... get the simple things fixed if they biother you, like the date wheel. There are so many variations of the HBB that it doesn't really matter. The movement will always get called out (by an expert) whatever you do.

[Mexicanito]

Hi i am from mexico, and it´s been around two years now that i´ve been looking for the best hbb tempus i can get... can you help me, i like the ones they sell at puretime, but i will buy from any trusted provider as you seem to be, the thing is i would like my watch to be modified as yours, changing the center wheel on the back, and fot the rest i would like it to be like this one Big Bang TEMPUS All Black Full Ceramic Limited Edition (Correct Date Wheel)on puretime...can you get one for me with all the proper modifications and after some pics ill pay? i live in mexico! pls let me know!

[FxrAndy]

Just enjoy it and if some one says it is a rep just say "of cause it is a rep you dont think i would give out the cash they want for a real one of these do you?"

[deniz21]

hmm, strange i never saw a V2 hublot tempus with black pushers yes your right they should be chrome, silver.

caseback looks ok, they released the all black with two different casebacks, silver titanium one and one in ceramic

btw you bought a lowbeat V2 hublot, do you know this? the shiny dial gives it away and the movement finish

mine is a V1 highbeat all black, the only difference to the tempus V1 is the golden two, rest is identical

if you have a question just ask, im from germany too, nice watch anyways

here is mine v1 hbb all black

Edited February 5, 2011 by deniz21

[pollux.cc]

@all thanks for your contributions

@deniz21 are you sure about the movement?

Im putting this watch on sale, its been never worn and I could use the dough to buy one that fits my small wrists better

Here's a Flickr album with recent pictures

dunno what the going rate for this kind of watch is these days...

Edited August 27, 2011 by pollux.cc

[pollux.cc]

by the way, this is a write-up about the experiences I made at the Guangzhou watch market, posted on another forum:

Thankfully I travel to Guangzhou on a yearly basis and so it didn't take long until I was combing through the wholesale Watch centers next to the Guangzhou central station, armed only with my laptop and my iphone with detailed photos to show and to compare. I did have extra trouble to find suppliers for the real gems at first (you know, no one keeps the good stuff there in case there's a "raid" and they wouldn't even admit they had that stuff). Their customers are mostly chinese with a few asian and african buyers (Im ethnic chinese). I do not recall encountering a single "white devil" and I did frequent those places quite a bit.

The sellers in the centers buy from their distributor nearby. They do occasionally have some what we would call "beginner watches" behind the corner, but normally thats as good as it gets. If you want to have the gems, you will have to explicitly ask for the best they can get. They must be "borrowed" from the distributor since they can not afford to stock ceramic HBBs and theres usually little demand for good fakes and they for sure wouldn't risk storing them behind their counter, so unless you call them up beforehand chances are you will have to make the same tour again another day. If you don't speak chinese... well all sellers have catalogues with pictures, but it'd be better to bring a chinese friend.

For example, I had them show me a lot of TAG carreras (all had imperfections, they were quite good overall, but the best i had seen i had to order first and wait for them to call me when they had the stock) while only few could get a ceramic HBB Tempus to show.

The TAG had a slightly misaligned bezel and a misaligned index around the 5 o clock dial. They sent it to a watchmaker (i.e. watch repairman) and had it fixed. Same with the HBB Tempus ceramic. The tempus was all black, so I had them exchange the black screws and pins for uncolored ones. The movement had blue screws, i had them exchanged for metal ones as well. Unfortunately it wasn't until i got home that i realized the watchmaker had only replaced the easily accessible visible ones, leaving 3 blue ones which are hardly visible at first because theyre obstructed by the mvmt. I could have gone back but it didnt bother me so much as to wait another hour or so to have them change it.

Prices generally vary greatly from the distributor, many sellers have the same watches but they are often not made by the same factory. Usually I couldn't haggle considerably, but it might be different if you come there as a "foreign devil" tongue.gif Prices are considerably lower than the usual HK around the corner "shhh, want rolex?"-run 5 blocks through a maze- shop whose prices may easily be higher than those of the best online traders here. Still, if it's just about the money, and you're buying only one watch, the money you'd save buying there alone doesnt justify the time invested at all. But a RWG enthusiast would have his fun there i guess

Im going there again in a few months, so I came back to RWG so im prepared in time tongue.gif I had my eyes set on a new Portugueser but I fear the MVMT of DEATH issue STILL hasnt been solved yet.