Advice sought:

[mastrmindalliance]

Hi, I'm seeking opinions on which way to go with this UPO. I guess it's about overcapitalisng on this rep - usually when I make these types decisions on my own i always make the wrong ones. So i'm seeking your help with this decision.

I have an UPO. Was sold to me new as Swiss but after sending it to The Zigmeister, turns out it was an AETA clone. It was serviced and lumed at a cost of just over $400. And now it's broken again after barely any wear. Something with the winding mechanism/keyless.

So ATM it owes me roughly

$320 (buy price) +

$400 for lume and service +

$60 for a local fix to the canon pinion. (though it wasn't actually fixed - I paid for canon pin replacement but the local guy just bent the hands so they wouldn't rub)

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$780 (but doesn't account for the shipping costs - maybe + 60-80)

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Also of note is that i like bracelet watches. Once I removed the bracelet it was never able to be fitted again. Not by me, not by the mall guy (so +20 for his attempt) and not a professional WS (+ another $20 for his attempt) either. The lug spring bar holes are drilled poorly on one side. All i can say is that those peeps in China must be very experienced to be able to have gotten it to fit in the first place.

So I figure my options are to

A: buy a whole new one, swapping in the dial/hands and logo (this one has happy feet) This would cost another 400 delivered + plus the The Zigmeister costs as i cannot do this myself

B: Part it out, getting a return of max 120-150 for the ziggied dial and hands and pearl and maybe $40 for the bracelet

Which way would you go? On one hand I’m already into this too deeply not to re-use the The Zigmeister mods somehow but that may bump the price up to $1200 and it's not even a franken.

On the other hand the return I’m likely to get for it by parting out and cutting my losses is very poor considering my outlay so far.

The first option of course that comes to mind is just to have The Zigmeister fix the new stem/winding problem and fix the existing canon pin problem. But i have the biggest issue with this option - even if these turn out to be cheap and simple fixes, being in Australia means it would cost me at least another $100 (best case scenariao - could be 200 or even more) putting the investment up to minimum $900 for a watch that's always been "a bit of a lemon". That 900 – 1000 rep would also still have the outdated happy feet logo, a non serviced movement, and also mean that that I still cannot fit a bracelet to it - which is my preference.

I know this a super long post but - what would you do? Am I missing an option?

BTW, I’m not upset about any of these things^^ it's par for the course and with the exception of a couple of delammed Ploprofs, I’ve been one of the lucky ones with my reps so far...

Your opinions are most welcome!

[OSRep]

Yikes! A bit of a dilemma mate. Was this a private sale or from a dealer? If its from a dealer then maybe you can ask them why you received an Asian ETA (when youve paid for a Swiss?). I guess a private sale is more tricky.

Secondly - why why why didnt you just buy a gen dial and hands???? As you say, there really is no point spending $1200 on a rep with no gen parts......you could have built a fully franked up PO for that price.

Other options:

(1) Buying a Swiss movement

(2) Selling the watch as spares/parts (see how much you can re-coup), then start all over again!

I think either way youre going to make a few losses (sorry to be negative)

Rgds

[spooky driver]

do what every other rep collector does....stick it into your watch drawer/box and pretend none of those things ever happened

[andreww]

Am I missing something? Why wouldn't you send it back to The Zigmeister? I'm pretty sure he guarantees his serviced movements for a period of time. As for the bracelet, it is obviously possible to get it on, as it arrived with it on. Possibly try a different set of springbars. The UPO is one of the toughest bracelets to mount at the best of times.

[gran]

I hate it when one pays $400 for service and lume and then the watch simply does not wind or work properly a month later

I have an ultimate PO Chrono myself that was serviced by the famous Domi but it ceased working also...just sitting in the box as I am too [censored] off to have it fixed once more

Having so much money put into it The Zigmeister should help you out for a very reasonable price

[mastrmindalliance]

I'll have to explain better in the morning as its half time during the biggest game of the foooty season and I'm on a phone. But this is not ziGgies reposibilty. I would expect to pay for this. This is not a dig at anyone and The Zigmeister does all my work. Got one coming back from as I type

The point is really about over capitization and seeking yr point viwe on my options.

Btw. The bracelet really won't go on. I've paid twice to have it fitted and tried many times with multiple spring bars, spring bar tools, curved spring nars the whole bit.

Hehe, if someone wants to have a go, feel fre to stick yr hand up

[mastrmindalliance]

Oh man^^ what a terribly written phone post. Yes Andreww you are missing something, but this is probably my first post's fault... Though the bracelet is really the least of this watch's problems - it was never really attached properly.

Gran, You really want to see a boring [censored] pic of a broken PO? Ok. Will revisit this in the morn.

We won! Go the mighty Maroons!

[watchhunter]

The bracelet really won't go on. I've paid twice to have it fitted and tried many times with multiple spring bars, spring bar tools, curved spring nars the whole bit.

Can you get the spring bar on to the watch on its own, without the bracelet? (just to give an idea of how bad it is)

[mastrmindalliance]

Not sure why the bracelet fitting has captured the attention but ok, here's a pic:

^fresh spring bar fitted at the dodgy end. as you can see, it's pretty bad.

Until recently I also had 45mm PO chrono. Now, while the bracelet was still a [censored] to get on the PO chrono, I could do it (offshore's/watchbitz' springbar bending tool helps a lot! Totally reccomend). I could put either of these two bracelets on the PO chrono, but neither on this^^ UPO. You can see with the naked eye with no strap attached that the lug holes are way out of whack on one side. Also, on the crown side, the hole isn't drilled as deeply as the others. i can fit straps - but not the bracelet.

When the watch arrived it was indeed attached, but, even if i didn't have to resize the bracelet it would have simply fallen off after some wear. There was a noticeable gap between the case and the end link on side. Dont have a pic but here's a diagram I made quickly of how they managed to "fit" the bracelet when it arrived:

When i remeoved the bracelet the end nub and spring just popped out of the tube, i didn't mention this to my dealer at the time because i didn't think it would be such a problem - i thought new spring bar would fix it. Who would complain to a dealer about a dodgy spring bar?

anyway....

Am I missing something? Why wouldn't you send it back to The Zigmeister? I'm pretty sure he guarantees his serviced movements for a period of time. As for the bracelet, it is obviously possible to get it on, as it arrived with it on. Possibly try a different set of springbars. The UPO is one of the toughest bracelets to mount at the best of times.

Yeah, the post was already long enough so I left out parts of the long and stupid story that seemed irrelevent. The Zigmeister serviced it (at a guess) about 8-9 months ago, so it's way out of his realm of responsibility (never was really) especially considering that someone else has worked on it since. After i got it back - The minute hand would catch on the hour hand at 9.50 oclock. Chatting to a local guy, he told me it was a bent canon pinion - a simple fix - so i opted to have it fixed locally rather than send back to canada. It took four months to get it back from the canon pin thing. But that was largely my fault. It sat in his queue for a couple months (as expected), then i took my sweet country time about picking it up - eventually asking to have it mailed to me from not very far away. When i got it back it was apparent that the canon pin wasn't fixed - the hands were just bent so they wouldnt catch. And so it sat in my watchbox for another couple months until i chose to wear it just the other day. Setting the time - keyless/stem/or whatever it is, failed. Leading me to this post and a dilemma

And so here i am, after a long and stupid (on my behalf) story of putting one foot over the other, spending money at every step, and leading to this scenario. Just to clarify - i hold only myself responsible for this mess, for making pretty poor/blind faith decisions every step of the way.

The simple question is. Would you spend any more money on this or scrap it?

[sneed12]

Honestly, if I were you, what I would do is learn to do some simple work on your own watches. You could have saved yourself several hundred bucks. That's what got me into this hobby in the first place, I showed up here looking for "the best sub" just like every other noob but there is so much information out there... if you have two hands and $50 for tools you're better off doing simple things on your own.

PS: I don't buy a "bent cannon pinion" if the minute and hour hands were catching. They probably just weren't on quite straight.