I was soooooo excited that my 6542 had arrived. Now that I've had a chance to handle it... Well, let's say that the excitement diminishes pretty rapidly. I will keep it, for sure - but as plenty of others have reported in this thread, it suffers from a whole set of issues that will need addressing.
Here's what I've noticed so far:
- The scratchy, sharp bezel is horrible!
- The fit of the bezel insert is pretty ropy.
- The bezel insert paint is damaged in a couple of places.
- Although I didn't order the "hand-built" version, mine has come with plenty of crud on the dial and under the crystal.
- The hands look about 40 years older than the dial.
- The second hand sometimes catches on the minute hand and stops.
- The lume is badly applied in places and seems like someone dipped the dial in cotton wool while it was still wet.
- Using the winding mechanism is painfully tight, winding is almost impossible.
- Winding is also almost impossible because setting the stem to the right position tightens the crown onto the tube - any further out and the date change is engaged.
- The DWO isn't as well aligned as it looked in the QC pics.
So, plenty of things that will need attending to, which is fine - I'd read all the reports here, but you still kind of think, "Hey, maybe mine will be the one they got all the niggles ironed out on".
I'll add it to the growing pile of reps I've collected that need work, and it will help me get better at watchology.
Pictures will be coming, when I've read up on how to post them here...
Oh, and W124E - sorry to hear about your customs seizure. What a total bummer.
