What a great detailed and extensive review. Kudos..!
Also thanks for the updates, much appreciated. Highly useful.
Also thanks for the updates, much appreciated. Highly useful.
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[AWARDED] IWC 7 Days Portuguese 5001 & 5007 Review and Comparison
- Thread starter thermalboyz
- Start date
manuelrep
Getting To Know The Place
Is DW not perfectly centered? Do not worry!
I recently purchased a ZF 5007 V4 replica via M2M white dial, blue hands and, out of curiosity, I went to see the original on the IWC website.
Well, not even the date on the GEN is centered! Look at the images below ( https://www.iwc.com/it/it/watch-coll...tomatic.html ):
I recently purchased a ZF 5007 V4 replica via M2M white dial, blue hands and, out of curiosity, I went to see the original on the IWC website.
Well, not even the date on the GEN is centered! Look at the images below ( https://www.iwc.com/it/it/watch-coll...tomatic.html ):
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I pulled the trigger on YLF as recommended by Li from jtime.. (had a ZF on the way from M2M but the parcel has gone missing/stolen)...
GL'd the watch already, here's a snap!
GL'd the watch already, here's a snap!
- 27/3/17
- 320
- 454
- 63
Hey guys,
First of all, kudos to thermalboyz for an amazing thread. Easily the best IWC Portuguese knowledge base.
I am looking forward to grabbing a Portuguese 7 days 5007 (gold case, grey dial). The initial choice was ZF V3.
My TD, however, claims that ALL of ZF pieces have a problem with DW alignment. She claims that depending on the batch either 1~10 or 10~19 will be a bit off-center. In her opinion 'a bit off' means that for one of these double-digit number groups (e.g. 19 the 1 will be centred therefore 9 will be off centre). It sounds to me like a pretty badly screwed up DW alignment...
A question to all of you for validation please - is this really such a HUGE problem that you literally cannot land a good ZF replica with at least fairly good alignment?
I thought that this was a big problem with earlier batches from ZF given their QC problems.
Also, given that I did not find any extensive complaints about this issue on neither RWI or RWG forums makes me think that this statement may be overexaggerated.
What do you guys think?
First of all, kudos to thermalboyz for an amazing thread. Easily the best IWC Portuguese knowledge base.
I am looking forward to grabbing a Portuguese 7 days 5007 (gold case, grey dial). The initial choice was ZF V3.
My TD, however, claims that ALL of ZF pieces have a problem with DW alignment. She claims that depending on the batch either 1~10 or 10~19 will be a bit off-center. In her opinion 'a bit off' means that for one of these double-digit number groups (e.g. 19 the 1 will be centred therefore 9 will be off centre). It sounds to me like a pretty badly screwed up DW alignment...
A question to all of you for validation please - is this really such a HUGE problem that you literally cannot land a good ZF replica with at least fairly good alignment?
I thought that this was a big problem with earlier batches from ZF given their QC problems.
Also, given that I did not find any extensive complaints about this issue on neither RWI or RWG forums makes me think that this statement may be overexaggerated.
What do you guys think?
You really didn't find extensive complaints? I've been constantly seeing people losing their minds over perceived misalignment of dates, often in cases where they aren't even misaligned. Yes, I would say opinions on this imaginary flaw are highly exaggerated. These comments are scattered all over the IWC section of the forum. Likely in other sections too, but I mostly focus on the IWC threads.
Scroll back. ZF QC is shithouse.
I've had problems with over 15 ZF watches over the years. Either its their movement was so dirty it doesnt work well, their dial had hair and small black marks on it, Hands not aligned, dial markers slanted or crooked, rotor not able to power mainspring, DW alignment issues galore - the list never ends.
I will NEVER buy another ZF watch again. There are heaps of ppl complaining about ZF QC not only on this forum but on Wechat groups and other chinese media. They have a known reputation for crappy QC
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CaptainSplash
I'm Pretty Popular
- 11/8/19
- 1,457
- 1,632
- 113
Sorry to hear about your 15 experiences (I give you props for tenacity, btw), but my own two ZF IWC purchases were excellent - albeit after both of them were serviced, which I believe you should do with any rep you want to keep. I also stick with reputable TD's with a reputation of picking the best of the pile and I then research the heck out of their QC pics. I've rejected more than one over the years, which I (probably naïvely) believe drives up quality in its own right.
Sent from my SM-G988B using Tapatalk
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- 27/3/17
- 320
- 454
- 63
Sure thing, servicing of a new rep is smth I always do, doesn't matter which factory has made the piece. In the earlier days, it was quite of a pain to find a rep-friendly watch smith, but from the perspective of time, I think it really helps to prolong the lifetime of a watch.
In my initial question, I was referring to issues that cannot be fixed by maintenance, e.g. badly assembled and or / and printed Date Wheel. And having done a pretty wide research here and on the RWG it seems like the misalignment is smth hard to avoid but if a TD is not lazy and will source a proper rep, it should not be too bad.
speedomega
Active Member
DAN72
Do not accept unsolicited offers
This is amazing! I have a rep of this from 2015/2016. The amount of review you put together on this watch is pretty amazing!
Zagrosrocker
Getting To Know The Place
I have one of Steve's double AR crystals. It is too clear to be gen, but it really makes the dial pop. He may be a good resource for a new crystal.
hey guys
i need your advice. i have a sort of twisted situation with my 7 days and i would like to hear how you would solve it.
so, it all started in late 2016 / early 2017 when i was travelling through thailand. the 7 day reps were out and it was revolutionary as everyone was waiting for this rep. i managed to find a TD (toro bravos) to send me the ZF version of the laureus to a hotel i was staying for a few days (of course with me giving green light on QC pics first). i was happy with toros delivery and the watch, but soon realised that ZF did a crappy job at QC. the rotor was not winding. i had to handwind as i had no watchsmith to fix it while traveling. after a while of hand winding, the gears wore out and the hand winding wheel had maybe a third of its teeth left. so it slipped and basically, the movement was screwed and sucked.
i really loved the blue dial though and ZF blue was way closer to gen than YLF, they nailed the color. so i kept wearing it, even though the movement got worse and worse.
and then one day, i hit the case and it also got a big dent in it.
in the meantime i was really getting fond of the iwc beijing film festival version. i deemed it to be one of the greatest dials. i even considered buying the gen (only 50 were made). but despite asking the iwc boutique in beijing (it could only be purchased there) multiple times whether they have stock, they were unable to answer to that question. for those wondering which model i am talking about, this one: https://www.iwc.com/ch/en/past-colle...ional-fil.html
there was a rep of it, so i ordered it mid 2021. this one: https://puretimewatch.io/portuguese-...a52010-v3.html
this dial had the flaw that the subdials were grey instead of black, so it was actually a fantasy, in didn’t care though.
however, i received QC pics of a different one, a white dial panda sort of version (a fantasy which IWC maybe should have released - white dial, black subdials) so i declined and told the TD (toros) that this was not what i ordered. he checked and said YLF is out of stock on the silver dial. bummer.
i usually don’t purchase fantasies but i started to like the idea that fantasies are actually fun, especially when people try to call you out and you just tell them it’s a rare version or a prototype dial. so i ordered it and got it and it’s quite nice actually.
the weird panda fantasy never really got any wrist time though.
so my heart is with the laureus.
in the meantime i took the crystal out of the damaged laureus ZF case and sent it to prof for double AR, and it’s on its way back as we speak.
i now decided that i want to go with the ZF laureus dial. it’s just my favourite dial!
so i would consider of frankening the ZF laureus with the YLF. to use the case and the movement of the ylf, and the crystal, hands, dial, caseback of the ZF.
do you think that’s a good idea? does the ZF dial fit into the YLF case wothout problems? will the ZF crystal fit the YLF case? is the YLF case a good case or is ZF better?
movement wise i dont care so much as the laureus has a solid bottom so no one will see it.
best
simomat
i need your advice. i have a sort of twisted situation with my 7 days and i would like to hear how you would solve it.
so, it all started in late 2016 / early 2017 when i was travelling through thailand. the 7 day reps were out and it was revolutionary as everyone was waiting for this rep. i managed to find a TD (toro bravos) to send me the ZF version of the laureus to a hotel i was staying for a few days (of course with me giving green light on QC pics first). i was happy with toros delivery and the watch, but soon realised that ZF did a crappy job at QC. the rotor was not winding. i had to handwind as i had no watchsmith to fix it while traveling. after a while of hand winding, the gears wore out and the hand winding wheel had maybe a third of its teeth left. so it slipped and basically, the movement was screwed and sucked.
i really loved the blue dial though and ZF blue was way closer to gen than YLF, they nailed the color. so i kept wearing it, even though the movement got worse and worse.
and then one day, i hit the case and it also got a big dent in it.
in the meantime i was really getting fond of the iwc beijing film festival version. i deemed it to be one of the greatest dials. i even considered buying the gen (only 50 were made). but despite asking the iwc boutique in beijing (it could only be purchased there) multiple times whether they have stock, they were unable to answer to that question. for those wondering which model i am talking about, this one: https://www.iwc.com/ch/en/past-colle...ional-fil.html
there was a rep of it, so i ordered it mid 2021. this one: https://puretimewatch.io/portuguese-...a52010-v3.html
this dial had the flaw that the subdials were grey instead of black, so it was actually a fantasy, in didn’t care though.
however, i received QC pics of a different one, a white dial panda sort of version (a fantasy which IWC maybe should have released - white dial, black subdials) so i declined and told the TD (toros) that this was not what i ordered. he checked and said YLF is out of stock on the silver dial. bummer.
i usually don’t purchase fantasies but i started to like the idea that fantasies are actually fun, especially when people try to call you out and you just tell them it’s a rare version or a prototype dial. so i ordered it and got it and it’s quite nice actually.
the weird panda fantasy never really got any wrist time though.
so my heart is with the laureus.
in the meantime i took the crystal out of the damaged laureus ZF case and sent it to prof for double AR, and it’s on its way back as we speak.
i now decided that i want to go with the ZF laureus dial. it’s just my favourite dial!
so i would consider of frankening the ZF laureus with the YLF. to use the case and the movement of the ylf, and the crystal, hands, dial, caseback of the ZF.
do you think that’s a good idea? does the ZF dial fit into the YLF case wothout problems? will the ZF crystal fit the YLF case? is the YLF case a good case or is ZF better?
movement wise i dont care so much as the laureus has a solid bottom so no one will see it.
best
simomat
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