I'm curious if your watchmaker told you what and where the weakness in case design was? Was it the "helium valve"? I understand a dab of epoxy can fix that.
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Not worth buying in gen
- Thread starter timnic54
- Start date
I'm curious if your watchmaker told you what and where the weakness in case design was? Was it the "helium valve"? I understand a dab of epoxy can fix that.
Nope not the HeV. He talked about case construction. The Caseback could not be screwed on adequately to form a perfect seal without potentially doing damage to the case.
Ineteresting. Logic would suggest that making a screw on case back with gasket which will seal sufficiently should be infinitely easier than making a crystal and screw down crown to seal.
I am surprised.
He has handled a lot of my reps with no problem. However he bought a V6S 114060 after working on my V2/V5/V5.1/V6 ie the one before the V6S lol. He was really impressed with mine. When he went to work on his he discovered there was only 1.5 threads on the Case and not enough metal to re-thread it. He bought a new case and swapped all the best bits. Now he is delighted with his. QC for reps is no where near the QC for gens. If a flaw is discovered on a gen the part is discarded, I doubt the same process applies to reps. I am aware that gens have their flaws and inconsistencies. Just less so than reps. My watchmaker mainly works on Omega and Rolex and I spend a lot of my time taking to him.
He built a tourbillion from scratch recently (it is a beauty to behold) and spent a day polishing the bridge to near perfection. However he was watching a video on a Broquet tourby and the person polishing the bridge was given a week to polish it. This is all they do day in day out. One flaw and the bridge goes in the bin. I doubt this level of obsession with perfection happens with the construction of a rep.
I still love them and only have and only want one Luxury gen, maybe I will pick up a 5513 as I am a little obsessed by them too. I love the rep watch hobby but I am not looking for perfection in it.
I completely agree that the QC in High end Swiss, German and Japanese watches is more rigorous than in the higher quality rep watches.
It would be unthinkable if it was otherwise. The point I have tried to make is that it is far from as good as it should be.
I would find it hard to believe that polishing a Tourbillon cage for a week was a regular occurrence chez Breguet.
I have spent some time visiting Breguet, Blancpain, FP They are busy factories. They do have separate department for the assembly of higher complications However they are busy places . Being by nature an iconoclast I would like to dispel the myth that these things are assembled by a bunch of well meaning magical gnomes with glasses and long beards. The kind of hand polishing that would go into the parts of a tourbillon cage after the already superb finish provided by machining would very likely take a few hours , whatever their PR machine would have us believe
A lot of the difficulties in QC and Swiss watches is derived from something which is scarily similar to the production of Reps. That is that there are virtually no factories that make the whole watch and very few that make most of the watch even. Hardly anyone makes their own dials except for the odd high end special which allows them to produce a video of dial making. 75% of the screw come from one supplier. I can only think of 4 makers who make hairsprings . The majority of makers who make movements don't make cases.
For example two years ago I was at GO in Glashutte Saxony. I was in discussion with one of their marketing executives. They had recently bought the company who have from the start been making all of their cases. So effectively they were a movement manufacturer and watch assembler ( Not massively unlike Noob) Their Cases, Crystals, dials , hands, bracelets , clasps and straps all being made in different places. This means that final QC will be done by them, and retrospective QC on final assembly is not a great route to eliminating problems . Of course the QC of the individual parts will have been handled by the makers of those parts. As we know from the similar way reps are made this is a recipe for potential QC problems.
I use GO as an example but it is very much in line with what happens at most watch manufacturers
SuperLory
Well-Known Repist
- 22/10/15
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same reasoning apply to the luxury brands of fashion and leather goods. 99% people believe their Hermes bag or Tod's shoes (you name it) are crafted manually by an old ITALIAN or FRENCH man who's been doing that since his infantry in the late '800s..
If only they knew..
True. However i have a couple of Hermes watch straps and they are pretty Fing fantastic
Totally agree on the PR machine. I too find it unlikely that they would pay someone for a week just to finish one bridge. What we garner from gens is there is a whole lot of marketing PR and spin.
Anyway back to the topic. The humble Noob CrPO is supposed to be remarkably good. The possible big tell is the movement seen through the open CB, however I do not wear my watches the wrong way around so I do not see this as an issue lol. I have one on the way but held by customs so I do not know if I will ever see it ( I know [MENTION=105473]efthimis[/MENTION] did a beautifully photographed thread on his.
Indeed!! Even looking on the open CB it takes someone that know to see it's a rep.. This watch is amazing and even tested the other day for waterproofness and it flew over the 6atm easily!!
Sorry for posting too many pics of it but looks too good isn't it?
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I'd be very interested in hearing more stories from inside these factories or in discussions with execs at these large Swiss companies. Please consider starting some new threads based around your experiences!
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Indeed!! Even looking on the open CB it takes someone that know to see it's a rep.. This watch is amazing and even tested the other day for waterproofness and it flew over the 6atm easily!!
Sorry for posting too many pics of it but looks too good isn't it?
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Wonderful watches, however I prefer the chrono versions. Too bad they don't do Aqua Terra and Speedmaster series that well.
ShiroTenshi
Mythical Poster
- 7/12/11
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While not a swiss brand, Seiko with their Grand Seiko line have their movement made totally in house. Case, dial and bracelet, AFAIK, are made by seiko too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6zD1j7U-0A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rnZhkTINV4
Much to the embarrassment of the Swiss I think it is safe to say that Seiko are probably the most vertically integrated watch manufacturer.
Fascinating thread. My conclusions are:
1. Some reps are very superficially convincing and are practical substitutes for a gen.
2. Rolex watches and many other gens are not as perfect as some people seem to believe.
3. Some forum members have a big mouth.
1. Some reps are very superficially convincing and are practical substitutes for a gen.
2. Rolex watches and many other gens are not as perfect as some people seem to believe.
3. Some forum members have a big mouth.
Although all that effort and superior manufacturing, SELs don't fit well in lugs.