Thanks gents.

As for Grand Seiko, just yes. They’ve been creeping up in price for the last few years but there’s still very little that compares. My only issue’s are that I’d rarely wear a dress style watch and some of the sportier GS’s can be a bit fugly, but that’s just me.

…the insurer was unhappy about an F1 driver being behind the wheel. I mean – by any measure, he had to have been one of the very best drivers on earth, but they considered him a risk.

Can you imagine what the payout would be like if a current F1 driver sustained a career ending injury…

As for the bike video, that must be ten years old now and he was riding a modified 2006 R1. Bikes have come on a fair bit since then and I’d love to see what an equally committed rider could do on modern tackle.

Speaking of Tag’s, I’ve still got my first one, a mid size (38mm) F1 chrono bought new in the summer of 2000 –

Within weeks I’d gotten the sickness and was glued to the internet learning the difference between Submariner’s and Seadweller’s etc, but I was earning 20k and planning to do my bike test, I wanted a new MTB and I really should have been saving for a house, so I made a concious decision to stop looking at watches.

I wore it 24/7 apart from when it was getting a battery fitted. The first battery cost me £75 from the place that sold me the watch and they tried to upsell a full service at over £200 on a two year old quartz. The next battery died at around five years old and the shop insisted on a full service due to the age of it, otherwise they wouldn’t send it for a battery, so I left and went to a place down the street who fitted a battery for £5. It performed flawlessly for the next five or six years until one day I looked at it and it was 20m slow. It happened a few more times so I knew it was now due a service but £250 on what was now a £350 watch was hard to stomach. It was around this time I saw a thread on here about modified Seiko’s and the sickness returned. I loved the idea of building a custom watch for less than the price of getting the Tag serviced, so the Tag was retired and I became a massive Seiko fanboy.

In the years that followed I went from swapping dials and hands on my own watches to buying old dead Tag’s on Ebay, fitting a new movement and flipping them. I then learnt how to service a quartz rather than spending £30 on a movement and then progressed to mechanical movements. I had some spare time during lockdown so I decided to pull the Tag out of the safe and give it some long overdue TLC. A new movement for this model is around £100 but as I was time rich and cash poor, plus now having the skills I decided to spend a few hours on it.

Here’s the back view of the ETA 251.262 movement –

There are five different circuits in this movement, one for each sub dial, one for the minute counter and one for the timekeeping, so basically five different quartz movements within one. It’s quite complicated inside when the bridges are removed to reveal the train wheels –

There’s a tiny wheel in each of the five metal parts called the rotor. This wheel is magnetic and is driven each time the coil next to it gets a pulse from the circuit and that’s how a quartz watch works. Many collectors turn their noses up at quartz saying they lack soul or whatever but I gained a new appreciation of them after servicing a few.

Train wheels removed –

Circuit revealed –

Circuit removed to reveal the keyless works which is for hand and date setting –

While the movement parts are in the cleaning machine the case and bracelet get ultrasonically cleaned and new gaskets fitted –

…and finished –

It was nice to get it up and running again and I was going to treat it to a new bezel, but after wearing +40mm watches for years it felt tiny and I doubt I’ll ever wear it much. It seems a bit silly spending £70 on a new bezel just to having it looking good at the back of the safe. Here it is next to a 42mm Speedmaster –

The lug to lug distance is very short and it has a small dial so wears more like a 35-36mm watch. Still, it’s the only watch I’ll never sell so it’s nice to know it’s back to full health again.

7.10 bridge to gantry isn’t exactly taking it easy.

I also commissioned a pretty special Tudor; they did 59 of them for a group of us. I have issue 1, it’ll never be worn.

Regiment engraving on the back which immediately gets sent to a dealer and sold to a walt for a huge mark-up perchance?

Why is the downtube attached halfway up the headtube?

I noticed that too and I’m still trying to work it out. Maybe there’s a good explanation for it but it looks like a future warranty claim to me.

And why no inner cable routing? Seems odd when the original was one of the few frames to have it bitd and it’s so fashionable now.

My biggest gripe with the new incarnations is reserved for the dropouts. The machined dropouts and capped stays have always been the identifier of a Merlin frame. The Breezer style dropouts might be stronger, lighter and cheaper but I don’t care, peel the stickers off a new one and you’d have no clue who made it (apart from the Newsboy obvs).

I could go on about them using the ABG era logo instead of the original but that’s enough ranting for now.

Send it now is Parcel Force and they’ll do up to 30 kilos for £12. They’ll come and collect or you can print a label and drop it off at any post office. I’ve had caravan awnings, table saws, all sorts, never a problem.

I’m in N Ireland and Send it now has always worked out the cheapest for sending large parcels across the water. I bought a frame on Ebay last week and advised the seller the same – the tracking details are showing Hermes and it still hasn’t been collected yet ffs.

There seems to be a bit of love for Speedies on here at the moment. Does anyone have a view on the Speedie Reduced Automatic? I bought one twenty years ago but it hasn’t been worn in the last 6 years since I bought a Rolex GMT 2. Anyway, it’s boxed and with all the papers and original receipt (think I’ve still got that). It needs a service, but what’s the likelihood of being able to move it on? Any idea on price – condition wise I’d say it’s a 7or8out of 10. I’d be very interested to hear people’s thoughts.

They’ve risen from under 1k a few years ago to around 1.5k today so worth selling if you’re not using it.

When you say it needs serviced what’s up with it, running slow/fast or completely dead? It’s basically a two piece movement in these with a standard ETA 2892 and a separate chronograph module so you can service the base movement only and avoid the extra cost of a chronograph service. If the chrono is playing up then it could get expensive as module parts are impossible to find unless you send it to Omega or an Omega accredited watchmaker.

Lots of pages here, but my soon to be 10yo wants to move up to a 4wd car from his MadBull. we did oil dampers, glued tires, tie rod steering but is still a basher.
He wants a Traxxas Slash, but can anyone whos followed all this suggest what the current darling car is?
4×4, prefer not R2R, brushless. Bullet proof, but repairable.

If you want a kit then your options are Tamiya at the low end or a high end racing buggy such as Losi, X Ray or Associated. Everything in between seems to be RTR these days.

Just a quick recommendation for Chris Heal watch servicing – my automatic watch (ETA movement) serviced and pressure tested for £80, returned in less than a week.

Glad to hear you had a positive experience but one has to question why so quick and why so cheap? There’s a good four or five hours work there if done properly which must be close to minimum wage once overheads and tax are taken into account, and most watchmakers with decent rep will be quoting in months for turnaround rather than days.

Googling Chealwatch makes for interesting reading, such as this thread on TZUK. It seems he’s sub contracting some work these days so luck of the draw I suppose.

The cc-01 steering isn’t great. My issue with it is the large turning circle rather than the sloppiness of it and I don’t think buying anything will fix that.

Longer servo arm?

Super work there Fudd!

I changed the capacitor in my Seiko kinetic expecting some tiny bit of metal to evaporate with a ping! Never to be seen again.

Cheers! I still get parts vanishing into the ether – last week I was working on an old Omega 752 and there’s a small thin plate that acts as a spring and is held on with a single screw. I went to fit it but the screw slipped and dropped onto the bench. I picked up the screw but the spring had vanished. I spent over an hour on my hands and knees searching for it but no joy so ended up having to order a new one. That little slip cost me £40 ffs.

I love that Seagull 1963 and have came very close to buying one before. The movement is based on the Venus 175 and I believe Seagull bought the tooling from Venus then added a few extra jewels and shock protected the balance, similar to what Poljot did when they bought the Valjoux 773x tooling and made the 3133. The finishing is a bit coarse and I’ve heard the qc isn’t the greatest but it’s a hand wound column wheel chronograph for under £250 new. I’m still tempted…

Thanks chaps. I’ve done these type of posts on other non-watch related forums and they always go down well, but I realised I’ve never done one on here. It’s a couple of hours typing and changing image tags so not something I do often but I’ll endeavour to furnish y’all with some more.

I clean the mainspring and barrel by hand while the rest of the movement parts are in the cleaner –

Once the new pushers, crystal, crown, stem and balance wheel arrive I decide to build it back up with the busted chrono wheel. The watch runs fine as long as the chrono is left running so at least I can wear it while I search for a replacement chrono wheel –

I spent the following six or so months looking for a chrono wheel but with no joy. The last time I needed one I ended up taking a chance on a complete movement with no idea if it had a good crono wheel or not, so I ended up doing that again and spent over £200 on a movement. I stripped it down to remove the chrono wheel and found the clutch was good, but the top pivot had snapped off and the tip where the seconds hand mounts was badly rusted –

I was feeling pretty disgusted at this stage but then it occurred that I might be able to take two bad wheels and make one good one, so I set about dismantling them. Here’s the good shaft from the wheel with the busted clutch and the good clutch removed from the other wheel-

Success! –

The only thing left is to build the movement back up, check the chrono is working and then wear the **** out of it!

By the time I’ve ordered a new strap for it I’m into it for over £1k, so not quite the shrewd investment I’d thought it would be, and not to mention the 10-12 hours spent working on it…

I actually tried to sell it for £950 a couple of months back but the timing wasn’t great with lockdown announced a few days later, but I’m glad it didn’t sell because it hasn’t left my wrist for the last few weeks. I love the style of it but it’s the most illegible watch I’ve owned with the black hands over the navy sub dials and black day and date wheels. I’ve decided I’m going to relume it in the hope that fresh white lume in the hands will make it easier to read and I might send the case off to get laser welded and polished by this guy

As for future value, the Panda is one of the most expensive in the 6138 range and has seen the largest rise over the last few years, so in the event of a price correction I expect it to suffer more than most, just like all those Rolex that were in shop windows a few years ago and are now selling s/h way over retail. I couldn’t care less as I bought it primarily because I liked it and not because I saw it as a good medium term investment.

If you’ve got this far then well done you and thanks for reading!

Flip it over and start on the train side –

Rotor removed to show the auto winding bridge –

Auto winding removed to reveal the chronograph bridge –

Balance and chrono bridge removed to reveal the chrono mechanism –

Chrono layer and train bridge removed showing the train wheels. The wheel in the centre is the chronograph wheel with the vertical clutch and these can fail. Replacements are scarce and the last one I saw was listed at $200 and sold within minutes –

Aw bollox. See the gap on one side of the clutch? That means the spring in clutch has failed and a replacement wheel will have to be sourced –

Just the centre wheel, escape wheel and pallet fork left to remove –

All stripped down –

I refit the balance to the mainplate and remove the jewels for cleaning to discover the balance wheel pivot has rusted and broken off, so that’s another part to add to the list –

Since we’re still talking about watches for investment whilst heading into what could be the worst recession in living history, let me share an old Seiko I bought with the hope of making a few quid on if I were to sell-

It’s a 6138-8020 from 1975, also known as the Panda and I picked it up on Ebay a couple of years ago as a cheap fixer-upper for £650 when the going rate was £1k+ for a good one and some chancers asking up to £2k. The crown was missing and it needed a new crystal so £50 in parts along with new gaskets and a movement service should see a nice profit if/when I decide to sell…

Here’s how it arrived –

The top sub dial hand needs painting and the minute sub dial hand is detached. This is when I also notice the pushers are wrong and sticking out too far and the case has been over-polished. The red tip on the seconds hand has lost a bit of paint and the tachy ring is misaligned but both easily rectified.

The condition of the dial is by far the most important consideration when buying vintage so this next shot is when you find out if you’ve bought a munter or not –

There’s a bit of loss on the minute markers between 25 and 39 and paint loss on the edge at 10 where the tab for locating the tachy ring has been pressed back. The dial lume has turned the same grotty green/black as many Seiko’s of this age do but as it’s only only on the tips of the indices barely noticeable. The hands are dirty but the lume is clean enough and any other marks on the dial are just dirt so I’m pretty happy at this stage.

As with many of the Seiko 6138/9 line, there’s a ton of fake dials, hands and bezels out there so due diligence is essential before committing. I even did a bit of last minute research before buying this one and found a thread on WUS comparing original vs good fake dials and it got to the second page before it was pointed out that both dials in the OP were fake, so even though I was certain I’d bought a good one it was nice to see matching date numbers with the case back –

Dial off and I start pulling it’s pants down –

This is the calendar layer which operates the day and date wheels –

Calendar layer removed to reveal the keyless works at 3, which is basically the mechanism for setting the time and date. Then you’ve got the chrono levers and springs on the rh and the hour recording gubbins (technical term) up near 12.

Top side all stripped –

weeksy
Subscriber
oh, that escalated….

SOmeone was chatting on PB forum and pointed out one of these little things.

So that’s on it’s way 🙂

Sorry!*

*Not sorry

I put in a buy limit order to buy a chunk of barc at 90p. At some point in the next days it will hit that value. I then put in a sell order at 1.10. when it does so I then repeat the process.

Apart from those two, am I missing something here?

Yes, it’s called a stop loss and that’s the price you sell at when the market drops further.

Prices go down as well as up so you’re currently missing half of your exit plan.

What you’re doing is day trading and a simple strategy would be limit sell at +20p and a stop loss at -10p. If half of your trades are successful you’ll be a millionaire in no time!

modchop
Subscriber
Here’s two I had a love/hate relationship with.
My original Seiko diver was a quartz and I never had any issues with it at even after years of abuse (I don’t have any photos of it unfortunately) and loved it until I finally lost it.
This auto version went back to Seiko numerous times for faults, losing time, randomly gaining hours etc. The chrono also stopped working and nobody seemed able to revive it and the chrono has a total mind of it own.

https://www.instagram.com/p/4JZTH1NaiG/?igshid=l95qx9ma3vfh

Two nice watches and getting quite collectable these days. Shame they played up and you got rid.

The quartz one is a civilian version of the RAF Gen 2. Issued ones with the P on the dial are the most sought after, but the civvy versions are still collectable in their own right.

The SKX diver ‘Black Bullet’ might actually have been bought by myself as I had one about four years ago and I do like a fixer-upper at the right price. This model was only sold for a couple of years around 2007-ish and they were priced below the SKX007/9. This was around the time the modding scene was exploding so many got butchered and all original ones are quite rare these days. The one I had came with the original bracelet and I think it sold for £250 when at the time a new SKX007 from Creation was less than half that. The same watch is probably over £400 now.

My local Omega AD. It probably helps if you’re wearing the watch you want the new bracelet for when enquiring.

I treated the Speedmaster to a new bracelet today –

It’s an 1173 with 633 end links as fitted to Speedmaster’s from the early 70’s but still produced today. It certainly feels like a product from the early 70’s with folded end and centre links so pretty lightweight and plenty of jangle, but much more comfortable than the chunky modern offering which I couldn’t get on with.

plyphon

Member
The more I think about it, the more I can’t get on board with that price…damn. There is so much competition at £11k. I’m not sure it would be the watch i’d buy if I ever had that to spend on a watch.

I wish Omega all the luck competing with Rolex, though.

Can you imagine if Rolex were to remake the Valjoux 72 movement, announce it would be restricted to 2000 units per year with one watchmaker overseeing each watch produced, then fit the ‘new’ movements into a modern yet faithful interpretation of the Paul Newman Daytona?

There’s no way the first one that appears on Watchfinder is going to be under retail.

You’re right – I hadn’t considered the NASA certified aspect too much. That’s a huge draw of the speedy – the fact it’s still certified for flight.

Though saying that – they sell the sapphire version as ‘certified’ – but NASA only certified/flew with the hesalite version, right? So there must be some leeway in that certification. I wonder if the movement is the crux of it. They also flew with the 321 movement (which Omega have just reintroduced) so wonder if they’ve already certified the 1861 once before.

Anyway – I really don’t like the co-axial speedmasters. Well, not compared to the professional anyway. I fell in love with the history and still love my Speedy! I wore it yesterday, in fact.

The sapphire version isn’t certified. The case back tells you that it was the first watch worn on the moon but there’s no mention of it being flight certified like on the standard version.

It was the 105.003 with the 321 movement that was originally certified and the 105.012 was the first watch worn on the moon. I guess when the 145.022 with the 861 movement was introduced in 1969 NASA decided that the spec hadn’t sufficiently changed for it to require re-evaluation.

There are plenty of other watches flight qualified by NASA but still only one qualified for EVA after over 50 years, and the fact that it’s basically a vintage watch you can still buy new is pretty cool.

I’ve been inspired, by this thread, to revive my +1, which has been sitting in a drawer for 5 years.
It’s a Christopher Ward Quartz Chrono, and from memory when I took it in to the local jeweller 5 years ago for a battery change, they said there was nothing wrong with the battery, it was the movement. The crown also doesn’t screw in.

I’ve sent it back to Christopher Ward, and have just been presented with a £300 quote for a service and repair, which includes a new case. The watch cost me about £130 brand new! I’ve asked why it might need a new case, so I’ll wait to see what they say.

The market rate for a quartz service seems to be about £120. Forgive my ignorance, but when a new movement (ISA 8174-220) seems to be about £38, wouldn’t it be cheaper and easier to just swap out the movement, rather than servicing the old one? What am I missing?

CW will replace the movement at service – makes no sense to pay one of their watchmakers 3-4 hours labour to service the old one when a new movement is so cheap. Replacing the case because the crown won’t screw down sounds fishy. If the threads on the crown tube are gone the tube can be replaced in minutes and they only cost a couple of quid. They’ll probably fit a new crown rather than replacing the gasket in the old one, maybe new pushers too. You’re looking at £60-80 worth of parts there if the case tube is replaced and two hours max to do. This is why Rolex, Swatch group and an increasing number of other manufacturers won’t supply parts to independent repairers – far too much profit in it when you have a monopoly on spares.

The issue I take with Omega is that their Moonwatch still comes with a 1861 movement which is almost as old as the Speedmaster design itself. I know its a workhorse movement that has pedigree etc etc which holds a lot of weight – but it becomes hard to justify it’s tolerance of +/- 10sec tolerance when even the “cheapest” of Rolex watches comes with a Superlative Chronometer Official Certification which is +/- 2sec … it’s a noticeable difference. Last time I checked my Explorer it came in a +0 secs…

If they changed the movement it would no longer be the only watch certified for EVA and NASA would be forced to evaluate a bunch of new watches. I bet they’d choose something different after 50-odd years of progress and it would be marketing suicide from Omega’s perspective.

If you want a different movement there are plenty of other Speedmasters to choose from. The fact that the Moonwatch has barely changed in 50 years is one of the main reasons I love it and I can live with mine gaining a consistent 5s per week.

N-1.
20 years of faithful service & the bezel has gone.

The chap behind Animal watches now runs Elliot Brown watches and I hear he still works on Animal watches where parts are still available. That would be my first port of call.

Right, the Count’s SKX007 has developed a fault. It’s started losing a random chunk of time, between 15 mins to 1 hour some days. Every time but one this has been overnight, so I assumed around date change, but one random loss in the morning has confused that.

Any idea what the issue might be? With the 7s26 movement is it really worth trying to get it repaired or just bang a replacement in? Could even get it upgraded at the same time to a hacking/winding one.

Definitely not magnetised. When that happens the coils on the hairspring stick together, effectively shortening it and causing it to run several hours fast per day.

My money’s on a worn/loose cannon pinion. It’s the bit the minute hand is mounted on and is friction fitted to the centre wheel acting as a clutch when setting the time – in normal use the ‘clutch’ is locked and transferring power from the movement to the hands, but when setting the time the clutch/cannon pinion slips allowing the hour and minute hands to be set independently of the movement. If the cannon pinion is too loose then it’ll start to slip when the date change introduces some more resistance and eventually as it gets worse the hour and minute hands won’t move at all.

It’s a relatively easy fix for a watchmaker to do but requires almost all of the dial side of the movement to be removed. Most watchmakers will quote for a full movement service and possibly for more than what the watch is worth so it works out cheaper buying the upgraded movement and required crown/stem and only paying for a movement swap. Make sure you buy a movement with the date at 4 and not 3, otherwise it won’t line up. Also be aware that new movements don’t ship with a day disc but if your watch has a 7S26C movement you can use the old one on the 4R36/NH36/6R15. If the watch was made prior to 2008-ish then it’ll be a 7S26A or B version and a new day disc and day advance wheel will also be required.

Hmmm, 94 watches listed under Prospex, all of them listed as in stock and all of them also listed as not available for sale… Dafuq?

https://www.creationwatches.com/products/seiko-prospex-299/

I bought a couple in the Watchgecko sale and they’re useless- far too long for me so the buckle is at the side of my wrist and about 10mm from the springbar. I know the Erikas MN’s are stupid expensive now but at least they’re custom made for a perfect fit. Hopefully Watchgecko will offer them in S, M and L in the future.

A heads up for anyone who fancies trying an Erikas MN strap but can’t stomach the recent 50% price rise, Watchgecko’s almost identical ‘French Nato’ straps are on offer for only £6.

watchgecko.com/french-style-elastic-nato-watch-strap-by-zuludiver

William Pogue famously wore a Seiko 6139 in space and that watch is an auto with no handwinding function.

Ebay auction listed as spares or repairs might get you more than expected, otherwise get it serviced and it’ll be worth around £1.5k.

The only differences between that one and brand new is that the lume is tritium, 861 movement and a short S dial. Collectors like tritium as it changes colour to a creamy yellow or brown over time but the luminosity has long since died. The 861 vs 1861 movement in the later ones are both exactly the same except the 861 is copper plated and the 1861 is rhodium plated. The short S dial refers to the Speedmaster logo but looking at that one vs the three year old one I have I’m struggling to see the difference. No bracelet on that one either and it would have originaly been fitted with a 1450. The 1450 is probably the most desirable Speedmaster bracelet and you’ll need to find another £2k if you want to complete the set.

I’m more of a vintage watch guy rather than latest and greatest but apart from some tiny details like listed above it’s the same watch they released in 1969, so rather than paying another 1k+ for something with a tritium dial I opted for an almost new watch in mint condition. I could’ve saved a few hundred by buying something 10-15 years old with the marks to prove it and possibly in need of a service but that didn’t make sense to me, plus I wanted the big stupid box with all the accessories and the latest screw link bracelet.

I quite like a NATO but only the thinnest and cheapest ones due to the bulk. They aren’t as durable as the premium NATO’s but at only £3 a pop they can be treated as consumables. I tried the Omega NATO that came with my Speedmaster but it was back onto the bracelet within minutes.

Current favourite strap is the Erikas MN. Not cheap (copies are starting to appear which are cheaper) but low profile and as secure as a NATO.

Cheers! It’s actually the arrival of a Moonwatch that has brought about my decision to sell.

Ebay have a £1 max selling fee offer until tomorrow evening so before I list a couple of watches I thought I’d see if there’s any interest here. The first one is a Seiko 6306-7001 from January 1979 –

I’ve owned this one for around five years and it was serviced by my good self when I bought it. I knew it had worn barrel arbour bushings so in January this year I serviced it again and fitted jewels in place of the bushings. Pictures here. Solid link oyster bracelet is included and has a genuine Seiko clasp fitted. Most on Ebay are over a grand, I’m after £700 firm.

Next up is an Avia Marino chronograph from the late 60’s –

I bought this one last July and like the Seiko it was serviced as soon as it arrived. A new mainspring was fitted along with new crown and case back gaskets but not the pusher gaskets as they’re a press in type and I haven’t invested the £200-odd on the tool to remove them yet. The hand winding Landeron 248 movement is running nicely with strong amplitude and it’ll come with the tropic style strap in the pic. I should also mention that the crystal has been given a light buff with Polywatch since the pictures were taken. £800 takes it and more pictures are here.

neilnevill

Member
As said all parnis watches are hommages, Rolex gmt, the chrono above is the Rolex Daytona, the militare watches are Panerai hommages and so on. It’s a but naughty to copy others design work, but it’s not the same as faking. You buy a parnis knowing it’s a parnis.

I’m not sure how good parnis are, are the movements ETA, sellita or seagull? Also not sure what the case and bracelet quality is…. Has anyone got experience of them?

I’ve never handled a Parnis but assume the movements are Chinese. Definitely not Swiss at that price. I’d argue that some of them are more than “a bit naughty” and borderline fakes as Marina Militare is a Panerai trademark, as is the crown lock design.

igm

Subscriber
The Valjoux 7750 was launched in the early 70s I think and was only made for a few years. Stocks lasted a bit longer of course.
It was relaunched in 1985ish by which time Valjoux was in the group that became Swatch along with ETA.
I think all post 1985 Valjoux 7750 movements are ETA produced but I could be wrong.

Correctamundo, ETA and no longer Valjoux since Swatch Group swallowed them up. The only 7750’s not produced by ETA are the Chinese knock offs.

MrSmith

Member
Nice watch but silly expensive considering it has a standard ETA 7750 inside

no it doesn’t. that would suggest it has at the cheapest available version of the movement (made by the chinese). the reality is the base design of the well proven Valjoux 7750 is being used my numerous manufactures in many different guises, its the most popular movement for a reason.
you are buying an IWC not an ETA. you could have an unbranded pilots watch with a similar movement or an IWC (or any other proper brand in between)
watches are not a rational purchase, if they were we would just use our phone to tell the time.

I wasn’t implying that IWC use Chinese clone 7750’s, hence me saying ETA 7750.

There are different grades of 7750 – some have blued screws and higher level finishing, but the only difference between an off the shelf £350 7750 and what IWC use is the IWC logo on the rotor, something which is done by ETA before delivery to IWC. IWC will tell you it’s a modified 7750 and in certain models it is, just not in this one unless you class a decorated rotor as a modified movement.

earl_brutus

Subscriber
Anyone got experience of IWC? Got a small bonus coming and massively hankering after one of these Pilot!

Nice watch but silly expensive considering it has a standard ETA 7750 inside. Brands such as Stowa or Archimede do very similar watches with the same movement but much cheaper. That particular watch has had the case refinished if the ad is to be believed and also the ‘mechanism recalibrated’ but being a five year old watch it’s going to need serviced soon.