Reliability of 2836-2 modified movement

[AMK000]

Dont know if others have faced a similar issue ...... burt here is mine.

I am nuts for GMT watches and the top of my list is the RX EXP II white.

Finally managed to get one with correct bezel , good date font, long GMT hand, correct GMT hand stack .... and most important , "blackish" rings around the (white) hour dots.

Too good to be true.

..... the movemnt inside , is a 2836-2 modified.

First watch comes and after few dates of testing , the resuls are:

- very hard winding

- GMT hand and hour hand not synchronized (no way to get them synchronized).

- when 12 o'clock or 6:30 where the hour and min hand should completely overlap ... they do not. Hour hand always points few mins before (as an example: when X o'clock the hour hand does not point right on the dot .... it points a 2mm distance before !!!)

That's because the whole damn movement is geared based on the GMT hand and the hour hand acts as a secondary one.

..... any way , watch goes back to the dealer for fixing and servicing (free of charge).

Watch comes back ..... same problems again. Waist of money (shipping cost) and time.

Dealer sends a brand new watch.

New Watch received yesterday.

..... exactly the same problems again.

Watch will go back again.

Dont know if its only me having that great luck ..., cant tell if the problem is due to the "correct stack up" of the GMT hand , or is the modified movement by itself or all the three things together ..... but,

I AM DONE WITH THE 2836-2 MODIFIED !!!!!! :bann:

Note: I will not reveal the dealer .... in any case is not his fault (2836-2 mod is just a crappy movement).

As you can see, his whole attitude, service and after sales support was really great.

Edited May 10, 2007 by AMK000

[elprimerozen]

For me so far one Gmt master with the wrong hand stack same problems realy hard to wind and the gmt hand can not be set...so the watch stops...no power reserve.

Second a datejust died after 3 months of use....with 2836-2 same problem realy hard to wind ...

MBW 2836-2...died yesterday..and now waiting for 2846 slow beat(a real swiss movement) not these CRAP swisschina 2836-2 that all our dealers have

...and the crazy part that drives me crazy is that all my 3 MADE IN CHINA Valjoux works fine!!!!

...and all my 21j modified or not,, are working great!!!

Btw also for me the support from my dealer was GREAT!!

[bklm1234]

it's the correct hand stack exp2, right? it's a common problem. I have 2 such movements, both have problems. I think it's ok to reveal the dealer like you said it's not his fault and that was excellent service.

by the way, if you don't want the watch and consider selling it, let me know. Thanks.

-bk

Dont know if others have faced a similar issue ...... burt here is mine.

I am nuts for GMT watches and the top of my list is the RX EXP II white.

Finally managed to get one with correct bezel , good date font, long GMT hand, correct GMT hand stack .... and most important , "blackish" rings around the (white) hour dots.

Too good to be true.

..... the movemnt inside , is a 2836-2 modified.

First watch comes and after few dates of testing , the resuls are:

- very hard winding

- GMT hand and hour hand not synchronized (no way to get them synchronized).

- when 12 o'clock or 6:30 where the hour and min hand should completely overlap ... they do not. Hour hand always points few mins before (as an example: when X o'clock the hour hand does not point right on the dot .... it points a 2mm distance before !!!)

That's because the whole damn movement is geared based on the GMT hand and the hour hand acts as a secondary one.

..... any way , watch goes back to the dealer for fixing and servicing (free of charge).

Watch comes back ..... same problems again. Waist of money (shipping cost) and time.

Dealer sends a brand new watch.

New Watch received yesterday.

..... exactly the same problems again.

Watch will go back again.

Dont know if its only me having that great luck ..., cant tell if the problem is due to the "correct stack up" of the GMT hand , or is the modified movement by itself or all the three things together ..... but,

I AM DONE WITH THE 2836-2 MODIFIED !!!!!! :bann:

Note: I will not reveal the dealer .... in any case is not his fault (2836-2 mod is just a crappy movement).

As you can see, his whole attitude, service and after sales support was really great.

[chrgod]

Sorry to hear about your problems.. The Explorer II is a beautiful watch, but the heavily modified 2836 with adjustable hour hand is as unreliable as the 7750 with seconds@6. I think they have discontinued this movement now...

I have had much of the same problems on mine, have had no less than four watches with this movement, bought for familiy and friends. One works fine, on its sixth month.

One lost one hour-marker after one month. The hourmarker got stuck under the date window. It went back to the dealer... Two months after, It seemed to have been lost, and I ordered a replacement. Then the repaired watch finally turned up. One month later the hands was out of sync. It has been by a local watchmaker two times, but he never really got it to work. The date rolls over between 18 and 22 o'clock, it runs ca 3 min/day too fast and has a nasty sound when hand-winding.. The GMT-hand seems to run a little bit faster than the rest of the movement, so they are out of sync..

My friend turned it back to me in exchange for a Noobmariner.. The Explorer II is still a very beautiful watch though, lovely date, date-alignment and date mag, small crown, correct dial and crisp numbers on the bezel... I have actually used it a lot lately... It is far better than the replacement EXP II, which rests in my box.

My GMT-Master with this movement also seems to be ok, so far.

[predfan2001]

I've had 2 GMTs take a dump. The first one was the Rolex "Steve McQueen" vintage model with the ETA copy movement. First the GMT hand quit working, then it quit all together. I took it apart and found the the movement came apart. Screws were evidently left out because there were no loose parts in the case??. I didn't really care because I bought this watch to practice mods on anyway.

Then my Omega GMT with asian movement (different looking movement the the Exp II) quit after just a few days. It was replaced by the dealer and the new one has performed great so far. The only issue is the second hand is a little more stutter to it.

I almost feel that if you get a GMT, the best thing to do is to not adjust the GMT hand too much. This is for sure a weak spot. Now I just set it and forget it. I don't really need a GMT hand anyway, I just like the looks of some of the models. I try not to wear it very often because I feel its days are numbered. I've become very untrusting of any modified GMT movements.

I can't blame the dealer for the crappy movement and he stood behind the sale. He replaced the Omega GMT with no problems. He did recommend staying away from asian movement watches, now I stick with ETAs. I'm staying away from GMTs totally after this.

[AMK000]

...... I can read too many sad stories here.

[Stephane]

Hi Guys,

I'm not an expert at all but an happy owner of 2 wrong hand stack GMT Master II.

Here a picture:

One is in my possession since almost a year (june or july 2006) and the other since less than a month.

Both are running fine. I managed to fine tune one so it doesn't even loose or win one single second for 72 hours

Regarding the GMT function, well I do not wear these watches more than a couple of days in a row, if not less even, but I didn't have a chance to notice a difference with the second time hour.

It follows perfectly the main hour.

So, my guess is the choice is: do you really want the correct hand stack and take all these risks or do you prefer the wrong one and have a trustable watch ?

At the end of the day, without a loup or a super super zoom, nobody can tell that my watch has the wrong hand stack.

Cheers

Stephane

[teddy boy]

I have a 28-36 modified Pam 29. I don't know if the stack is correct, because I don't know what the correct stack is for this watch. I can say that everything on mine works great, including (especially) the GMT hand. The whole watch runs 15-20 seconds fast per day, but given my beginnings with vintage gens I'm fine with that kind of accuracy.

[TJGladeRaider]

I am also a bit nuts over the GMTs - but you can have the 2836's. These (four on lower right) all have 2893 movements.

They cost more, but I'd rather pay a couple of hundred bucks more and get a movement that costs a couple of hundred bucks.

Bill