29 replies to this topic

[Watchmeister]

rogerthat, on 22 February 2012 - 03:36 AM, said:

For IWC models as mentioned above best value is a used member sales watch ; they come up quite often with various levels of mods and price points

Without any mods at all IWC does seem to fall short but with a cheaper dollar amount of mods than other brands a super rep is achieved

Well put.

[mbjoer]

kramerica2, on 21 February 2012 - 03:37 PM, said:

2. A super rep with a faux split sec? Not in my book.

That is not even a rep. It's just fake....

[garrincha]

How bout the Portofino non-chrono?

http://puretimewatch...er-strap-a2892/

[Logan]

Puretime just listed a pile of IWC's. Mostly the seconds at six type, I've no idea if the movement is any better as those were a disaster last time, but there has been a trend to jewelling these transfer gear setups recently so who knows..

[Seadweller4000]

The only "super"-rep IWC I know out of the box, was the GST. The ti color is not that off, as ti changes its color a bit over the years as far as I know.
All other IWC reps in my book need at least some minor modification. Usually ETA datewheels, relume, AR...

The good thing is, IWC uses pretty much standart ETA movements, they will fit inside most rep cases.

[spooky driver]

tomhorn, on 21 February 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

While they may not be 'super reps' out of the box the nice thing about many IWCs is that they can easily get there with some minor mods.

Not to mention that there are a few suppliers of gen parts if you want to take modding to the extreme. You can essentially build a 3717 out of all gen parts for less than buying a gen.

tom have you gone down that route yet? i;ve seen your 371,7 with fantastic straps, before so obviously your a big fan.

[tomhorn]

spooky driver, on 23 February 2012 - 11:03 PM, said:

tom have you gone down that route yet? i;ve seen your 371,7 with fantastic straps, before so obviously your a big fan.

Actually I'm quite happy with my 3717 as it stands now, so any more mods to it are further down on my list of projects. Right now I'm working on a DateJust build, so my attention is focused there. Just waiting on a couple of parts to arrive from raffles-time and it will be time to put things together.

Obviously the order of my projects is subject to change if the right parts show up someplace ...

I would consider a gen dial and hands, but doubt I will go all the way to a gen case. Of course if someone sells a complete 'genenstein' at the right price, I'd be tempted to snatch it up. Love the 3717, so I will always have one in my collection. I am also looking for a Damasko DC56 because I like the pilot watch style.

[Watchmeister]

I am with Tom...I went the gen dial and hands, swapped a standard Swiss ETA movement and called it a day. I still have an order in for a foreign day/datewheel set and crown and pushers but stayed away from gen movement or case.

[BrentYYC]

tomhorn, on 21 February 2012 - 01:53 PM, said:

Not to mention that there are a few suppliers of gen parts if you want to take modding to the extreme. You can essentially build a 3717 out of all gen parts for less than buying a gen.

I'd like to get a gen dial and second hand for a Mark XVI. What supplier would I be able to source those from? I haven't had any success trolling the boards or watching auctions.

[atomic_doug]

The GST Chrono was very good, but has a massive tell on the dial: on the gen "Schaffhausen" is lined up with the day-date apertures, on the rep, it sticks out.

I think the Mark XVI is the closest. Get a gen datewheel and it's 98% there. Gen crown and an AR job and it's basically perfect.

Even out of the box, though, and side-by-side with an owner of a gen, it's close enough to where the gen owner wouldn't notice any tells unless he was specifically looking for them and, even then, he could chalk it up to minor variations in between model years.

If you're looking for something out of the box that you don't need to do anything to, I don't think there's any watch in any brand that is that close. It's all varying degrees of how much inaccuracy you're willing to live with.