The pilworks Collection

[pilworx]

I have always been a watch lover since I was a kid and have had quite a few different types of watches over the years. When I got older I obviously began to lust over the more expensive watches an adult man would naturally find attractive but there was always something in life that would get in the way of acquiring one of these beauties, usually the lack of enough money or reason to reconcile spending multi thousands of dollars on a watch. Things in life took over for a while and I even went watchless for quite a few years and then every now and then an ad in a magazine would catch my eye and remind me I do indeed love watches. About a year ago I rented the Nicholas Cage flick, Bangkok Dangerous, and found his watch in the movie making me think about one of the first digital watches that were available in the 70’s that I had as a kid. The next day I searched around and found the watch Cage had in the film and discovered that it was ridiculously expensive. I had made my mind up that I was going to get myself a new watch and the digital bug was what dominated those first few searches. I found some pretty cool Japanese stuff and two sites in particular I found to have some very unique pieces;
tokyflash.com and ledwatchstop.com have some of the finest most modern and retro led watches on the net. I drooled over a few different models from these sites for a few days and eventually all my searching for watches led me to RWI and the planets aligned….i have not been the same since.

It’s been a little over 7 months now that I have been collecting here on the forum and it’s been a lot of great fun and one hell of an education. It’s only now that I feel I have enough under my belt that I can reveal my collection and make some relevant and hopefully informative comments about my acquisitions in the hope that others can gain some insight from my humble experience.

When I look at my brood it’s clear I have acquired some of the same classics that many of us find ourselves magnetically attracted to. I guess it’s because they are timeless in their design and rich in their legacies. So I guess my collection is not that unique as many of us have these same watches but I wanted to present them in a way that was unique so I have taken some considerable time to thematically photograph my collection and present it here for you all. I know I have teased a few times in the past about finally getting up some pics so I apologize for my delays in getting this post together. I don’t have a great still camera with a good lens and I was unable to get as close as I would have liked sometimes but I did the best I could with what I had. All pics are taken with a Canon HV20 cmos video camera that takes still pics as well. So without further adieu, I give to you, the pilworks collection.

TOKYOFLASH 12-5-9 L-Version

This is my one current “gen” watch and a piece that never fails to get attention due to its unique design. It tells time using the 12-5-9 method and Japanese Kanji numerals. A single press of the lower pusher ignites one of a few randomly selected led light animations that settle into telling the time; the 12 right vertical leds indicate the hour, the top left row of 5 lights indicates minutes in units of 10 and the bottom left column of 9 indicates single minutes. If you push the pusher twice it skips the animation and goes to the time directly. The leds stay on for about 5 seconds and then trail off. This watch is so different from my other traditional rep watches and it makes a great changeup in watch style every once in a while. I still do have a great affinity for smartly styled modern looking watches and this one fits the bill perfectly.





THE TAGS

The Mercedes SLR was one of the first reps I sprung for and I got it from WatchEden. It’s a fantasy model with no real gen counterpart but I was drawn to the design. It’s quartz and basically a low-end rep but for the money it is quite surprising how well made it is. It has a very substantial feel and the bracelet is quite comfortable and attractive with its Tag Link styling. It sports an inner adjustable bezel, which is manipulated with the left crown. This bezel adjustment is a little loose and at times I will look down at my wrist and see that the bezel has moved just from regular wear. The Tachymeter numbers around the bezel are not really printed as fine as they should be but as far as flaws, that’s about it.





I got my Aquaracer from Hont. It’s an a7750 and pretty much the definitive Tag model for me. By-Tor has an excellent review and resource for this model so I won’t elaborate too much as it’s been done before. Anyone who is a BCE lover should love this watch as they have a lot of qualities that appeal the same way; intricate concentric ring dial, bold bezel design and impressive wrist presence. I know the black dial is a more accurate color match to the gen but I really do have a thing for blue dial watches. About 8 weeks after receiving and wearing the watch the day wheel got stuck and became non-functional. I did some research and found that this is a common problem with a7750’s that have this date complication. I was able to find some info over at RWG that showed the day wheel is only held in place between the back of the dial and the movement with friction and in many models there isn’t enough squeeze there to keep it in place properly. There was a recommendation that a small washer be placed on top of the day wheel to keep it tighter. I had to find a new rep-friendly watchsmith since my BCE debacle, which was still happening when this happened, as there was no way I was taking the Aquaracer to him. I found another local guy who agreed to work on it and took it to him. He was able to do the mod but in the process of removing and reseating the hands, the large chrono second hand would not reset properly and basically had to be replaced. The guy said he could order the hand and another multi-week ordeal began. Long story short; the guy installed a chrono second hand that he got from who knows where and it is not even close to looking proper, and it still doesn’t reset properly to 12. He gives it back to me telling me to never bring it back to him as “there are many things wrong inside that watch.” Right…it’s working fine now except the chrono hand is really analizing me out so when I make a new rep buy I’ll get the proper hand and find yet another willing watchsmith. I’m almost tempted to get the tools and start doing this type of work myself, but we’ll see.





THE ROADSTERS

The Roadster chrono was another one of my very first reps. A Watcheden acquisition that came with the Tag SLR. It’s a quartz as well and accuracy-wise, this model has many flaws when compared to the gen. Firstly, it’s a quartz when it should be an automatic. I’ve yet to see an automatic rep of this Cartier, probably because a 7750 is too big to fit in the Roadster case. The roman numerals should be splayed out and the subdials should be oval. The caseback says automatic on it and doesn’t incorporate the crown tube like the gen does. Nevertheless, I was very attracted to this model. There is a relatively decent non-chrono automatic rep available but I really liked the black dial and as this was one of the early forays into rep acquisition perhaps I pulled the trigger too soon but I still like the watch. I find it wears well with a shirt and tie. Mine has a small knick in the dial like someone damaged it during assembly but it’s almost a loupe thing and I hardly notice it. Again, you definitely do get what you pay for in this hobby.





As a present for my wife to celebrate her successful triumph over smoking, she quit with the aid of Chantix after smoking for 28 years, and to ease my rapid rep accumulation, I got this Ladies Roadster model for her from Hont. This is an excellent piece that is extremely gen-like. It’s quartz, but so is the gen. I wanted to get her a quartz model as she’s not really a watch nut and I didn’t think she’d want to fiddle around with an automatic that might run down on her and have to be reset all the time. I highly recommend this model for any woman interested in a nice bold style watch that doesn’t have a dime-sized dial. I’m surprised I don’t see it recommended more on the forum when someone asks for a nice lady rep. This is a real gem and she loves it.





THE ROLLIES

When I first starting looking at all the reps available of course you can’t avoid the ubiquitous Submariner but interestingly enough I was not initially attracted to the Sub and even spent some time searching around the RWI user control panel trying to find a way to change that infernal “Who Has The Best Sub?” caption below my username on my posts, of course, to no avail, lol. It wasn’t until I had bought 3 other reps that I came across a new post by Hont in his sales section for the 2008 Blue Ceramic Sub. The awesomeness of this stunning blue dialed Sub in Hont’s picture captivated me and it wasn’t long before I had to have this piece for my burgeoning collection. This was the first version of this watch and there were some obvious flaws; it didn’t come with the correct glidelock clasp and the lume was green instead of blue. These issues have been addressed in the current iteration of this rep and Spirit has an excellent review of his piece. I didn’t really care about these discrepancies and ordered the watch anyway as I just couldn’t wait for a new version. When it arrived I was just amazed at the quality of this Sub. I believe the Noobfactory makes it, so any of you familiar with their pieces will know that for not a lot of money you get an incredibly fine Rolex Sub iteration. This one is no exception and I was immediately in love. The new Oyster bracelet with polished center links feels very nice on the wrist and the whole watch has a very fine, dare I say, quality of presence. The blue dial and bezel are pretty striking and definitely not for everyone. You either love this watch or hate it because the color is so bold. With the right shirt though I find it to be very attractive.





After wearing the blue sub and liking it more every time I looked at it I started thinking about getting a regular black faced one but seeing as how it would essentially just be the same watch as the blue one I started looking at the latest GMT as an alternative. When it arrived from Hont again I was equally impressed with the whole fit and finish of this watch. It’s the Incorrect Hand Stack version with the same asian 2836 movement I got in the blue Sub. This watch is virtually a perfect clone of the gen when on the wrist and has become one of my favorites to wear. Rehaut engraving is slightly off but definitely not noticeable unless you very closely examine the watch. The only real anomaly I have experienced with it is the GMT hand seems to run slightly slow and after a few days is just slightly behind where it should be on the 24 hour bezel.





THE BREITS

The BCE is without question my grail watch and it had to be a blue dial with silver sub dials and SS bracelet but after some investigation it seemed it would be hard to get one that was as accurate as the graphite or black dial. I definitely wanted the correct date wheel and at the time the V3 was the choice of rep to get so I placed an order with PT and in about 2 weeks I got the watch. Initially I was quite enamored with it and it appeared to be everything I had wanted it to be except one day I was looking at the big maneuverable graphic on the Breitling website of “my” watch and marveling at the “real” one on my wrist when it became glaringly obvious there was a big problem with my BCE…all 6 hands on my watch were black in color instead of silver. I was stunned, how could this be? You can read the whole story on this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=66&t=50862&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

I have determined that what I originally received from PT was in fact NOT a V3 BCE, but a V1 BCE with an upgraded datewheel. My research here and on the other 2 forums has revealed that the V1 dials omit the 11 minute marker on the 12 o’clock subdial but have correct smaller minute markers at the 59, 14, 16, 29, 31, and 44 minute positions around the dial, but 1 and 46 are incorrect. The V2 and subsequent dial version have the 11 tick on the subdial but all the minute markers adjacent to 12, 3, 6, 9 are long and incorrect. From most accounts the finishing on the V1 dials is supposed to be better with the concentric rings being more defined. Regardless, anyway you slice it, they are all not exactly like the gen and hardly anyone besides us can tell anyway but I definitely wasn’t living with the black hands. For me, the watch is now perfect and remains the jewel in my collection.





The other Breit that really caught my eye was the Superocean Steelfish. I was really drawn to the white dial and all my other quality reps had darker colored dials and I really wanted to get a higher quality rep with a white dial so the choice was easy. This watch is 45mm and is at the limit for the size of watch that I comfortably feel wearing. I have smallish wrists but still like the bigger watches and for me 45mm is the limit. This is from Hont again and is the “genuine swiss 2836 eta” version. The movement does feel different when adjusting the time with the crown out compared with the asian 2836’s I have in my Rolexes but I have not opened it yet to confirm whether it is a genuine eta or not. The watch feels and wears very well and for all intents is extremely gen-like.





THE FUTURE?

I’m pretty happy with the variety in my collection and probably don’t see myself getting into a collection that is going to expand much more than what I have. I think I’ll get a Fakey Planet Ocean and a Panerai still but there are so many Panerai models I’m going to have to take my time to make the right choice although right now I’m navigating towards one of the submersible regatta models.
I hope y’all have enjoyed my pics and I’ll try to update this thread when I get anything new.

[brtelec]

Great post. I really like the Tokyoflash, very unique.

[zinduna]

Pilworks -
Great pics and fascinating narrative that goes with them. I can certainly identify with your tastes. Thanks for sharing your story of this intriguing and sometimes frustrating hobby!
Z

[ahw676]

I don't think that you have anything to apologize for in your pictures. I found them truly stunning.

And you should feel honored that I even looked. I almost never look at the eyecandy section.

[DonBrizzel]

Great watches and great pictures. I like that flash, different yet pretty neat.

[guru]

Hi Pil,
great post and great pictures. I am happy eveything worked out with your BCE.
If you want to get a Pam, get a 111 from vaccum. Fully modded, you will love it.

[russtang]

Nice pics. Fine collection!

[markotu]

Nice collection and great photos. I did enjoy the read too.

[pilworx]

thanks guys for the comments,
i really appreciate it.
:mrgreen:

[Spirit]

Great post and great pics too! Other than - of course - the Rollies, I specially like the wristshot of the Breitling with the mega-Yacht in the background!
...You really did capture the essence of each watch with the wristies.. I enjoyed alot reading this and looking at the pics

Cheers,

Spirit.