Thank you all for your suggestions. I have decided. I currently have an Revue Thommen Diver with date that sits 16.6cm thick on my wrist. So I just went ahead and bought myself a PAM111. I've been a member on here for over 4 years and this is my first ever rep. Thank you all, especially the PAM oracle that is ALE for the stellar work. Roll on the QC.
Speaking of which couple of things I would like to wonder aloud about: This is not a rant, but just want to see what people think/know.
1. I got my RT Diver for around the same price I am now paying for the PAM. However, the RT diver is water resistant to 300m and has an ETA2824 beating inside without a whistle since I bought it 5 years ago. I've never dived with it, but have worn it in the shower, swam in pools walked around in the rain etc and it's held up without a bother. Now, if a Swiss company that employs less than 50 people can manage that feat and sell their watch for €350, I struggle to understand why manufacturers in China are unable to make watches with bomb proof movements and excellent water resistance. IT's not just limited to RTs; Grovana and all the other entry level Swiss makers sell their watches for less than the price of reps (albeit them being homages) with excellent water resistance and good Swiss movements. I don't think the fact that the different parts are manufactured by different people is a good explanation (at least in the case of water resistance). I don't know who makes the Asian movements, but they would have churned out enough of these to be able to know what they are doing wrong or apply some quality control. I have worn my watch since i've had it without ever wondering if it would stop working. However excited i am about the PAM, I don't think i would wear it with the same confidence. So what's the reason?
2. As this is my first rep and my attention to detail (or the lack thereof) is something i struggle with, I am sure that i would do a hash job on the QC. I will miss something. I know i will. And i will also pick that up again when i read the forum and suddenly it would be the one thing that i can't look past! Tempted as i am, I don't think posting QC pics are the right way to go about it going 'does this look alright?'. So, a lot of the really passionate people here know what the flaws are and what to look out for in each rep. Would it make sense to put together a model specific QC checklist? Of course, the checklist would/should only note things that you need to watch out for (say issues with crystal, lugs etc) and not stuff like dirt on the straps on dents on the case. This would stop guys (perhaps!) from posting QCs in threads. I know that there are reviews and PAM guides, but those are detailed reviews of the rep and in many instances, issues are spread over multiple threads. Suggestions?
Again, thank you all and really appreciate the support and excellent work.
1. It boils down to quality control and the conditions reps are assembled in, basically. Most reps that are built using gen case construction can be waterproofed to a decent degree, the problem is a lot of time when a rep is being assembled the gasket seals are either put in dry or omitted entirely, crystals aren't always seated fully, etc. It's just little finishing details that are fairly easily rectified on the end-user side of things, but you can't rely on them to be perfect from the factories.
Same thing with movements, there may be nothing wrong with the parts, but the way they're assembled (and more importantly, the conditions under which they're assembled) can lead to issues down the line. You've got to bear in mind that even though we say that X rep comes from Y "factory", it's not really a factory so much as a fairly unclean space where outsourced parts are hastily assembled by sometimes less-than-qualified individuals. Your Swiss watch was still put together by someone who took the time to ensure the movement was perfectly clean, properly oiled, etc. in an environment conducive to assembling watches. Because reps are illegal, despite what we want to think about China's
laissez-faire attitude towards IP and copyright law, raids do occur from time to time, and as such it's more likely that your shiny new rep was assembled in someone's basement as opposed to a clean room.
As for Chinese movements from reputable factories, I know at least some of them sell movements to third party manufacturers with the expectation that said third party will conduct their own final QC and service of the movement prior to final assembly. Because this obviously doesn't always happen with reps, you can end up with anything from bone-dry to over-oiled movements, dirt, pubes, etc in there. That's not to say that they're bad movements by any stretch, with a little TLC they should run just as well as any Swiss counterpart, but you see where I'm going with this.
2. Not only is it not the right way to go about it, posting QC pics in such a context ("does this look okay?" etc) is actually against the rules of the forum. What I normally do is try to collect as many pictures of the rep in question as I can from sources outside of TD pictures. Don't get me wrong, TD pics can be used but usually pics posted by members are higher resolution and focus on the details that you typically should pay attention to with a given rep. If you want to make a generalized checklist, either to post or just for yourself, I don't see the harm in it - but I do think most of the people who read the stickies in the general discussion section know ahead of time that posting QCs without a specific issue isn't allowed already. Conversely, most people who post QCs in light of that probably won't read the checklist if they can't be bothered to read the stickies. Still, it might be worth doing.
