Stukov Posted May 31, 2009 Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 Hi! I've got bad news. I discovered the rep world in february this year, I have read a lot the three forums, and I digged deeper and deeper in knowledge. In april I made my first purchase (a quartz Tag Link for my wife - still working fine),. After a while the second one: Seamaster Pro GMT - today in the morning I found it stopped, although yesterday I was wearing it whole day. I put down it 22:00, it stopped 00:15 am (less than 3 hours PR?) Nearly a month ago I purchased a nice Noobmariner from a third dealer. After a few days it started to loose time and lost power reseve. The spare movement is on its way from Hong-Kong. The common in the two crappy watch is that the movement in both is DG2813 (NN38 sign on the noobmariner's) So, am I just unlucky with theese, or should I have done better with the higher priced reps with at least clone ETA movement? Is the chinese movement (asia21j) a piece of sh*t? Somebody please talk to me, and give my faith back! What should be my next rep? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapadeus Posted May 31, 2009 Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 Well, the Asian 21J. movement is more likely to give you expreiences like that. Butwatches with that movement retail at around 100$ and here you can get them for 50-60$, so there is not really a need to complain. That doesn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stukov Posted May 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 thx for answer! In the future, I try to buy reps with ETA clone movement. At som edealer's site they say ther is asian ETA 2836, and an other with Swiss ETA 2836 movement. On the other hand a lot of expert said, that we should't expect genuine swiss ETA movement in the rep world. So what is the truth? Asia ETA vs Swiss ETA. Or what? I think about a nice Venus rep /dealers call it Lemania/, for example a Moonwatch! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephane Posted May 31, 2009 Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 Agreed on what Zap says. It's a matter of budget as usual in any kind of purchase. But, asian 21j can be flawless for years. Many members here have Noobmariners with that movement that still run perfectly. I have had some with no problem and I have one that always ran weirdly (no PR, stopping and not wanting to start again...) So your choice is: buy cheap and change the movements each time they fail or buy expensive and have the movement fixed if it fails. But remember, no rep is 100% garanteed to run like a charm for years unless they feature a Genuine ETA mvt which seems to be more and more difficult to get. Clones aren't that great according to what I read here. It's part of the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zapadeus Posted May 31, 2009 Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 With "swiss" ETA movement in a replica you can expect an Asian made ETA clone with reasonable good quality. The term "swiss" shall express here the degree of quality, rather the country of origin. Do you really believe, that thousands of swiss chrono movements are exported to China evey year ? Very rarly you may find watches with used gen. swiss movements from China. There are a fair amount of dealer who advertise their quality movements frankly as e.g. "Asian 7750". I prefer those. cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toadtorrent Posted May 31, 2009 Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 Another thing to consider with the clone ETA movements (non chrono) is that they have the same hand size and fit...even if their quality is not as good as the ETAs for reliability as noted by some here. The issue however is that to pay the premium for a "gen Swiss" does not in fact guarantee you with a real ETA movement (thanks to quality CN QA/QC and business practices)...so I would recommend paying for the clone ETA where possible (not the GMT movements), and if it dies, don't bother servicing it but get a gen ETA movement from a real watch supply house which for slightly more than the gen Swiss upgrade from the Chinese dealers will get you a NEW, clean and oiled movement probably in the OEM packaging which will in fact be reliable for years. Of course, you'll have to find somebody to do the movement swap...but starting with the Swiss clone will mean no issues with sourcing datewheels, hands, movement holders, stem height problems, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noel Fleischer Posted May 31, 2009 Report Share Posted May 31, 2009 sorry to say the movement issue is hit or miss. i have 21j that run great and 'swiss' that are problems. over the years i have had to service many of my reps. the truth is the qc is generally poor- fair on the reps. in 'the old days' you were more likely to get an eta as advertised, today- most often a clone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMK000 Posted June 1, 2009 Report Share Posted June 1, 2009 30% to 40% of reps received (statistical average) have problems. Curiously the 21J are the ones with less ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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