When I went looking for a GMT to replace my broken Alpha I checked all the usual sources and came up with 3 "affordable" candidates. The ubiquitous Steinhart, the IWI Black Ocean and the Bernhardt Globemaster. The Steinhart is a bit above my price range and I have heard too many horror stories about IWI. I would have gone for the Globemaster but I have enough blue dial watches. I continued to look and found the O&W M-6 which I ordered. The M-6 isn't a true GMT with the extra hand, but it does have a nice lumed GMT bezel, sapphire crystal, 2824-2 etc. Since I hang around a few watch boards (WUS and PMWF as well as 3T), I saw a reference to the G-1 on the Affordables forum. Personally I liked the styling, and the price was only 60 bucks more than the O&W. At first I thought, oh damn, I could have had a real GMT for a few bucks more. However, I have to go with Ken here. I received an unpleasant email about a year ago from the O7 owner about a post I made on "his" forum about different watches. Essentially, if I did what he said, I would have lost a $500 Accutron (one of the reasons why I stopped collecting them). Other members of the same forum told me, "chalk it up to experience" when an Accutron watchmaker wasn't sending my watch back and wouldn't answer my email. The hell I will! The only way I could communicate with this watchmaker was to put a message out on the board to perhaps put some pressure on him to return it. Why would I let some buddy of the list owner to keep a $500 watch! I was treated like the bad guy because I posted an inquiry about this guy and his disappearance from that forum, coincidentally at the time I sent him my watch. Needless to say I no longer participate there. Because of the message I received, O7 won't get any of my money even though I like some of the designs.
I like the idea of supporting small watch manufacturers, and one of these days I may be able to scratch up the cash to get an Orsa or a Scorpion as I like both. However, O7 is permanently off my list.
By the way, here is a pic of the watch in question, a mint condition 1974 Railroad Approved backset 214. All I wanted was a tune-up and regulation, I received neither and was lucky to get the watch back in one piece after 7 months.
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