Thailand Seamasters

[adamzoz]

I bought a regular blue Seamaster at MBK for about $90, too much I know but I dont care so much about saving $20, started of haggling at $160! I really liked it automatic with see through back all gold movement and just the simple nice front of the stock standard Seamaster looked really nice.

Thing is I might be sensitive to smoothness as I work in 3D animation but the jarring unsmooth second hand really did my head in.. every time I looked at that second hand jarring its way round that dial I gritted my teeth, I think that anyone who looked at this watch close up would see that the second hands movement is nothing like the swiss would be making.

 

I took the watch back today and swapped it for a quartz chrono seamaster, damn I really loved that simple blue dial on the auto and I feel it looked much more legit.

 

I looked around at all the reps, they all had the same jarring movement, others were buying them and looking very happy with their purchases but yeah, not for me.

 

Are all these auto reps like this? the ETA movement ones? can I get a perfect movement?

 

but can I expect any reps to have a smooth movement?

 

I would pay $300 for a perfect auto mid size seamaster that is wearable while swimming in shallow water, is it possible to get?

 

I may even just buy a legit quartz, what is the cheapest that I could find? seems like about $1600+

[amptor]

What do you mean man, hah.. none of them are 100% smooth sweep, that is impossible with a mechanical movement I mean unless you want to sacrifice all of the power reserve.  Even a rolex is not 100% smooth.  21j movements are 5 ticks per second and the ETA 25j is 7 ticks per second.  You aren't going to find any rep that is more than 7 ticks per second and afaik even the genuine Rolex is 7 ticks per second and omegas are something like 6 usually due to increased power reserve which is why some people like to get them with 21j (I don't).

 

I have had really cheapo 21j movements before that were very crude and I could see the seconds hand tick past where it should so that would be "jarring" for me and I hate that. I mean sometimes it can tick one whole second like a quartz would and probably is very inaccurate.  But most of the 21j and 25j I have now don't do that.

 

Anyway the only way you are going to get 100% smooth sweep in a wrist watch is to buy a gen Seiko Spring Drive which imho is an ugly watch and costs too much money for a Japan watch.  Still it supposedly is a marvel of engineering since it is perpetual and kinetic at the same time.

 

Imho if I was you and liked the watch I had, I would have kept it.  It probably was fine.

 

A legit quartz?  $1600+ for the Omega is a lot to me because it is only quartz.  The gen ETA movement inside it is worth about $25 or so new, so you're basically not getting much for your money that way.  I like those but I would rather buy a few rep Omegas with that cash.

 

Anyway to answer your question, to get the smoothest movement in a rep get the ETA version.  There are some 21j that are 28,800bph but I have no experience with them and those get very mixed reviews from users on here.  I believe those ones are modified 21j and it is sometimes said they are less reliable that way.

 

First time I ever saw a user come on these boards that doesn't like automatic movements.  Puzzling but it happens sometimes.  You'll find that 99.9% of the users on here won't bother with a quartz.

[fraggle42]

The cheap Chinese movements are made with poor tolerances and this really shows in the second hand, the gears don't mesh properly and there is lots of slack in them which results in the uneven sweep that you have noticed.

The better quality movements are better and better at this, Asian movements are still rough but better than Chinese. Old ETA repaired with Asian parts are, well, old and will be worn, so will be as good as new Asian movements. New ETAs are great, and I think the closest you will get to a new ETA is a TC movement unless you get lucky and find a genuine NOS ETA movement.

I've got a couple of gens with new ETA, one with 2824, one with 7750 and I've also got a omega PO rep with a TC 2824. In my opinion the TC movements are as good as the ETAs.

[indywatchguy]

Yes adam you can get a very nice Omega thats waterproof to at least 30m for around $300 easily. I would go for the Noob Omega LMPO from www.puretime-asia.com great dealer and service. Check out my review of the LMPO under the Omega section. It's my favorite Omega atm. Enjoy to the max!