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Do you remember these dials? Those were fitted to the first cartel Daytona reps, sold in the years 2007/2008. They featured large cases with 20mm end links bracelets. Well, those dials were pretty nice: nicer than any other version they did after as a matter of fact !!!! The dial was shaved smaller, stripped and revarnished. New index were installed, a genuine coronet, a correct relume. Swiss made subdial hands, a new generation cartel case with assymetrical pushers totally reshaped, an athaya crown, gen T21 crystal, Vietnam Bezel, long tips spring bars and genuine bracelet. It's now looking more than half decent !!!

IWC Big Pilot 5009 - GEN vs REP Comparison IWC comes back with a new limited edition, honoring one of its favorite ambassadors (unfortunately not with us anymore), Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, pilot and writer, and its most famous character, ‘le Petit Prince’. Using the same concept as several other editions of the Pilot collection, it is now the Big Pilot that is paying tribute to one of the most classical books of all time. Please welcome the IWC Big Pilot Watch Edition ‘Le Petit Prince’. Several other watches of the Pilot collection had been used to serve as a tribute to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and ‘Le Petit Prince’. Specifications Mechanical movement Calibre 51111 Pellaton automatic winding system 7-day power reserve when fully wound Power reserve display Date display Central hacking seconds Glucydur®* beryllium alloy balance Breguet spring Screw-in crown Limited to 1,000 watches Special engraving featuring the little prince and inscription “IWC ∙ LE PETIT PRINCE ∙ ONE OUT OF 1000” on case back. Case and folding clasp in stainless steel, midnight blue dial, rhodium-plated hands and indices, coated with Super-LumiNova®*, brown calfskin strap with quilted stitching Glass: sapphire, convex, antireflective coating on both sides, withstands drops in air pressure Case diameter 46mm, Case height 16mm, Water resistance 6 bar Credit to author from Lingmuwatch General Impression : Le Petit Prince (5009-08) From the dial, the overall configuration of the two watch basically look the same. Genuine hands thinner and have a bit of curvature, ZF at this point engraved techniques quite strong, are basically the same axis with the genuine. Dial Logo / Colour : Then compare the two trademark / Logo of the watch, shown ZF plant still have room of improvement. Gen IWC logo shown slightly bold than ZF although not that obvious from naked eyes, but still point it out in this comparison. Sunbrust effect and blue is very close to GEN but the sub-dial not quite as it looks bit more shiny than the GEN sub-dial. Crystal : Genuine watch used an exquisite style domed sapphire crystal glass, with double-sided anti-glare (AR) treatment for translucent clear view, rounded at the edges of the arc reveals elegant retro temperament. ZF crystal in the appearance looks very close to the Gen. Dial : The numerical / index on the dial is our main focus here, the GEN index boarder has some metal reflection effect where ZF index making are very close to the GEN too. Hands : Perfect! To point it out the second hand on GEN and REP is bended inwards to the dial (So it's not a defects) It is because of the curvature of the crystal so that the second hand won't get stuck at the end of the crystal. Like pilot and Portuguese the hands is bent. Index @ 12 : Very well made from ZF. LUME : Luminous effect due to differences in the extent of absorption of light, GEN color lighter brighter. But ZF luminous hands seems not very uniform, which can be seen as a big difference. Crown : GEN crown with a unique design and large design brings comfort. ZF crown look consistent with the GEN, especially difficult to see the difference from naked eye. In high magnification the GEN crown has deeper curve than ZF plant , very hard to see but you can feel the differences. Crown Logo : GEN is one piece crown but ZF looks like the logo is stick on plate and it's sit deeper inside. Case : Carefully observed from the side, ZF has slightly thicker than the GEN, the outer periphery of the metal finishing brush process is very delicate, almost exactly the same with the genuine. Back Case : Next we focus on the back cover of this watch - "the little prince". Despite engraved items back cover design is still impressive, but the matt finished inside the circle still not up to the GEN standard. GEN matt finished looks smooth but ZF still need to improve it's matt finish. Inside Back case : Huge difference here where GEN is smooth but ZF had a circle dip in the middle. Finishing also look different. Back case engraving : GEN Font is slightly bolder than zf, but this is harmless, only notice when open the back cover. Movement : Personally I think ZF has done a great job on it's movement rotor and deco. From the movement deco plate to the rotor, ZF has done a good job on this with engraving. Although it a closed back watch and this shown ZF had put effort into every details. Deployant : The differences inside the clasp is still relatively small, GEN IWC trademark engraved on clasp is deeper and ZF slightly shallow. Leather Band : This watch with a brown calfskin strap reveal a tough industrial style genuine calf leather strap bring elegant to the watch and not compromised comfortable wearing feel. ZF factory engraved bracelet also achieve the same effect, very close to GEN. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ General Impression : Big Pilot Black (5009-01) Dial : The picture below you will find the details of the work is good, the PR colour (RED) in sub-dial has different red. Calendar font color bit whiter on GEN (background colour is the same) and date window size was done quite perfect too. PR hand is quite good too and it just the pinion is slightly large look on the ZF model. Index / Number : Number and index quite spot on. Only the "Swiss Made" at the bottom of date is thinner on the REP. (5009-01 model does not have the metal look frame outside the boundary of the Number like the LPP) Hands : Hands are pretty spot on too, the length is perfect as you can see from the pictures below in different angle. Crown : Crown groove is spot-on, I've count them and it's the same. Crown logo is a bit sunken on the REP but engraving are pretty well made. Side view : Only small difference if anyone can spot it here. It's the curvature of the lug on the REP is slightly thicker. Otherwise, brushing and finishing is perfect. Back Case : Fonts on the GEN is thicker and deeper engraved. On the back of the Back case it have engraving too and it's the same as the LPP version. Movement comparison is the same as LPP version. (Pictures without RED wording represent the REP. Deployant : GEN engraved finer and deeper compare to the REP. The REP engraving also looks a bit flat to me. Back of the deployant is an obvious difference to spot. Conclusion : LPP A very well made pieces from ZF, Blue sunbrust effect with real PR is the main buying point. However, it has a few minor discrepancies between them where ZF still have room for improvement. Especially the Sub-dial looking too shiny than the GEN and the matt finished back case. Apart from that other are not to obvious to spot unless you have a GEN beside you to compare with. Black Black version is pretty well made too again very similar to the LLP flaws (Room for improvements). Sub-sial bit shiny, PR red is not the same colour, Crown, back case plus buckle. In general it's pretty spotted on model.

So I met my good friend and brother@blackboxes over lunch and coincidentally we were both wearing our hulks. An obligatory comparison was made and "Franken-ly" speaking I could not discern any visual differences between the two.. and to put the myth of 904L visual superiority to rest, I can say that there is ZERO difference visually between the 904L steel Rolex uses and the 316F/L steel used by the rep makers. Of course this was upon casual but careful inspection, 1m from the eye. The question is, which is gen? Lol. I tread softly along the fine line separating raving insanity and lucid moments of ingenuity. The issue is I've no idea which is which mostly.

Left is gen Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk

'Franken-Ly' that's pretty good brother lol. [emoji23] Visually putting them together I can't tell. It's way easy to mix them up.

Im unsure Alvin however I am happy to have either please? AJ

Fine looking watch! "Do you remember these dials? Those were fitted to the first cartel Daytona reps, sold in the years 2007/2008." I bought three (four?) from Paul at Abay with the ST19 when they first came out and still have them. Froze the hand at 6 on one and the others are same as new. I looked at it while ago (black dial) and the coronet is now shiny black (??). You are right about the dials, they are pretty good. Had one regular size 'Daytona' with Russian Poljot 3133 but the movement needed a balance so I sold it. It came out a few years before the ST19 models and there were not very many around. I am a 'collector' of rare nos replicas. That in itself being a rarity. "long tips spring bars..." For anyone looking for them...on 20mm lug cases you can use 1600/16000 DJ spring bars and on the 19mm cases use spring bars for 6694 OD and 1500/15000 OPD. The center tubes are 1.8mm, not 2.0mm like submariners/GMT etc.

Watch Station is part of Puretime. Puretime does the retail polish with prices in USD and some comeback if the watch gets nabbed by Customs or stops working. Watch Station is more wholesale with less frills, but lower prices. At least that is how I understand it. I guess it would depend what I was buying and what I was planning to do with it, but if I was planning to swap out the movement and dial as often happens here, I think I would be tempted to save 80 to 100 bucks, take a risk on the movement I don't need anyway being DOA and convert the price myself. I'm not really defending WS, I've never bought from them, although I've used Puretime, it's just it seems to me to be a choice and choice is good. If you don't like the terms of business of one dealer, then by all means use one of the others.

As the guys have already said no dealers in Oz but shipping there from China etc is no issue and you'll find the trusted dealer section here really easy to find pick one of them you fancy and away you go, just try to keep your wallet closed for a while........if you can Welcome to the mad house

I believe that Legend should be commended for going out on a limb and trying to get this resolved. He did have some risk, because while he has a credit card with strong anti-fraud protection, events could have unfolded in such a way as to cause him to lose his funds. Kudos to you my friend! Some lessons should be learned from this debacle. First off, Paypal gift is really, really risky. I would never take a chance on PP gift unless it was someone I have known for a while as well as someone who is a participating member with a really strong sales history here and other forums. If the seller insists on PP gift, and has little or no history here or other forums, I would run not walk away from the deal. Even with regular PP, it is much better to link through a credit card. Then if the deal goes South, you have the resources of the CC company behind you. Believe me AMEX and Visa are much more capable of getting their funds back that you are. I would not use a debit card as a payment source unless I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that my bank would refund me in case of fraud. Some banks do, some don't. As has been said here a million times , buy the seller first, then the watch. Fortunately for Legend, he had his ducks in a row before he finalized the sale. The other buyer may not be so fortunate. Guys, let's don't make it easy for scammers. Do your due diligence before you buy, protect yourself in the event it's a scam or the deal isn't what it appears to be and last, if you are in a deal that even appears to be going sour, let the mod crew know. Sometimes early intervention by a moderator will make a big difference, and for sure it alerts us about the seller and puts everyone in a "watching you" mode with the seller.

Hey Guys, I don't post much on the forums these days but felt that this one deserved a post. Or some pictures at the very least. I feel like I need to say that this build was probably the most difficult I have done in terms of almost every little thing fighting me. The project started a couple of years ago when I ordered the old style 5002 rep without a working power reserve. I then started the long search for genuine parts. I had found all of the parts that I needed and started to work on the old movement to use the genuine date wheel, when I was told to put the project on hold. There were rumors that the factories were working on a new movement with a working power reserve indicator. I waited a while for the dust to settle once they came out to see if the new movement was up to snuff. The initial results were very positive and I was ready to pull the trigger when I was told again to hold off. The factories were working on an "improved" V2 movement. I was fortunate to be a part of a group buy of LPP BP's and was finally getting a working power reserve movement and the project could once again proceed. One note I should mention is that the only difference I can find on any of the power reserve movements I have see is that some have the wheel in the automatic mechanism that winds the ratchet wheel fully jeweled, whereas other just have that wheel riding on a post. Jewels are always preferred in the long run but I wouldn't call the other movements bad at all. To my disappointment, The new movement would not work with the old style case. The stem position was not in the same place. I was going to use the new LPP case instead since the stem position matches the case tube position, but then I noticed that the LPP case lacks the strap bevels (for lack of a better term) on the back. I decided to tackle that hurdle later once things were further along. One good thing was that the old 5002 caseback fits the LPP case. Getting the hands to fit also took some work. Mainly the hour wheel. The rep hour wheel is about 1.35mm and the genuine hour hand is about 1.7mm. That was quite a difference and the only option I could see was to make a sleeve for the rep hour wheel to match the diameter of the hour wheel. Once that was done the other hands just needed minor adjusting. The date wheel was another hurdle and one of the most critical of the build in my opinion. The date wheel almost works with the movement as is but the quickset gear won't work with it. That left me with the option of using it as an overlay. The rep date wheel measured at .5mm and the genuine at.3mm. I needed to reduce the rep date wheel by .3mm so that it would be about the same height when I added the genuine date wheel on top. I didn't have a chuck for lathe that would work, so I had to make one. The case tube was another thing that needed to be addressed. The rep case tube was not compatible with the genuine crown. The genuine tube was too long to fit in the case so it had to be modded. The genuine tube must have been coated in something because the only graver that I had that would cut it was carbide. Once I got the case tube cut and fitted to the case I was trying out the crown when I noticed that the stem diameter was not the same. The rep stem had a thread of 1.2mm and the genuine crown accepted a .9mm stem. A stem converter made the stem too long, so I went searching. On a hunch, I decided to try an ETA 7750 stem. By luck, it worked. Now that everything seemed like it was going to work, it was time to tackle those case bevels. After a few trials I think that I got them close. They aren't 100% but looking at pics of the genuine article, it looks like the rep bevels aren't 100% either. I finally got everything together today and have to say that I am pretty happy with the way that it turned out. So, after a long time I would like to present my 5002. Build List: Genuine Dial Genuine Hour and Minute Hand Genuine Second Hand Genuine Power Reserve Hand Genuine Date Wheel Genuine Tube Genuine Crown LPP Case 5002 Caseback Genuine Brown Buffalo Strap Genuine Deployant Modded gen tube on the left and rep LPP tube on the right Genuine crown on the left and rep crown on the right Genuine crown on the right and rep crown on the left