Mills

I thought I'd share my QC pics of my recently purchased 005 from Trusty Time just in case any of you are interested in purchasing the same. I've already said yes so it is on its way over. Any failings you find are for me to bear rather than Andrew :-) I'm hoping that I made the right decision going with the Noob version of the 005 rather than the H factory. The movement sold it to me but the GC is the thing that makes me doubt my decision. I'm sure it'll be lovely though. BTW as always, Andrew's service was excellent.

I am watchsmithless. If anyone knows any decent UK based watchsmiths that are rep friendly, I would go down that route.

I've had a 176H for a few months now and found it to be reliable each time I frequently wore it. Unfortunately my baby daughter, with her endless fascination of anything shiny, dropped it onto our tiled floor yesterday and it's now stopped working. Winds still but the hands just don't turn. I've got two options: a) Buy a new 6497 movement and try the transplant. I'm a noob to replacing movements so might [censored] it up but I'm also up for a challenge. send it off for a service and fix. Trouble with option a is the risk I'll mess it up as well as the replacement movement costing $100. Trouble with b is I have no idea where to send it. Any advice?

I used a really good page on Panerai Source that reviewed a load of the aftermarket makers. From this I chose both The Watch Boys and Strap Works and am happy with the results. http://www.paneraisource.com/aftermarket_straps.shtml

Can you give more details on how you polished this up? I've got the same strap but with black stitching and love what you've done with the deployant.

Under advice from the board I dropped mine in boiling water and then doused it in baby oil. Seemed to work fine, getting rid of the weird smell and electrostatic properties.

If Apple is not your thing, the Tab is very nice and thin. The Toshiba gets a good write up but it's way too chubby for me - it's almost a laptop. +1 on Bestbuy. Not sure where there is one in downtown Boston but I know there is one a couple of stops on the metro in East Cambridge.

I've been thinking about pulling the trigger on another Pam, probably the 005 or 111 from noob or h factory but before I spend another $350 (watch and strap) I wanted to get your opinions on buying a gen instead. Looking through Paneristi I see that there is a healthy market for reselling Panerais and most appear to go for nearly the same cost as list within 10%. With this in mind would it not make more sense to buy a gen knowing that if I ever needed the money, I could sell it again? Almost like a shiny savings account with -10% interest rate It is pretty hard for me to reconcile the fact that these reps are so bloody good now and 15 times cheaper though.

Are people recieving these yet? Not surewhat to do now two versions have come out. Ideas?

I purchased mine from Andrew at Trusty time which is the M version and apparently the best on the market at the moment.

Anybody got some good tips on how to clean and maintain the titanium of the 176/177? I had a couple of surface scratches I just took out with Astonish oven and cookware cleaner, which is slightly abrasive, and it worked a treat but I'm sure there must be a better way. BTW Astonish has fine silica flour in it to give it the abrasiveness http://www.astonishcleaners.com/documents/document-astonish-g5ldh.pdf

The Watch Boys are pretty good. Got a Deployant strap from them a couple of months ago and was really impressed.

Taken fresh today so excuse the iPhone blurriness. I think the crown on the Radiomir is far more elegant than the standard Panerai CG. Apparently the Black Seal is also an amazing rep if PVD is your thing.

+1 on this. Never buy from a dealer that isn't listed and reviewed there. Others may have amazing photos, promises of gen swiss movements and 1:1 perfection but if they are not listed on RWG I wouldn't spend a penny with them.

Personally I would go for the 288K due to the faux pusher at 7 on the rattrapante reps. To me, having a fully working rep is important though so the lack of the working second hand would drive me mad. The 288K is an amazing rep that very rarely leaves my wrist as it looks perfect. I purchased it from Andrew @trustytime a few weeks ago and couldn't be happier. I spent the extra $100 and got the "gen" croc strap which, paired with the deployant it comes with, looks incredible. The other option could be either the 212I or the 253I which are made by the same factory and both are apparently as good as the 288. BTW the AR on the 288 is crystal clear and the lume is very bright.

Has anyone received the new 005 yet? Really interested to see how good it is before I buy. Looks great on Andrew's site and if it is as good as the 176/177 recently released I know where my next $200 is going.

That is fantastic - complements it perfectly. Have you got a link to the strap? I've got a 288K and looking around for a couple of new straps.

+1. I've got a alligator Watch Boys strap on deployant and it is lovely. Definitely worth the $109. If only they did a strap that fits the 288k they could have some more money from me.

Not bad apart from the dwarves sword as a minute hand. Thanks for your post - I'd never heard of comex until now and it makes very interesting reading.

My 2 year old daughter would sell her favourite teddy to get her hands on your amazing Breitling with sparkly butterfly. Please tell me you didn't buy that knowing it had a jewel encrusted Lepidoptera on the face of it. That is all kinds of classy my friend.

I've got my PAM 176M that I fixed the loose crown on yesterday with "The Watch Boys" alligator strap.

I use mine to practice on. Just this afternoon I had it in pieces figuring out the movement to fix an issue with my 176M PAM.

Wow, is the second hand drawn on with biro? I think that beats mine

It appears after reading so many threads on here that everyone is obsessed with the perfect replica. I too am having a quick spate of buying Panerai's looking for 1:1 perfection and since I've discovered though these boards the "H" factory, I'm getting there. On the way though we all must make some mistakes, buy the wrong thing, get persuaded into parting with our hard earned cash with the promise of a replica that is indistinguishable from the gen even by an expert only to be sent a saucepan beaten into the general shape of what could be described as a watch. I thought it would be interesting to see how bad some of these really are. Give us chance to have a laugh at our misfortune or how crap the market really is compared to our cosseted, trusted and secure view. I'll begin. After three years of owning a rather lovely Mont Blanc TimeWalker I was getting a bit fed up of travelling with it. Fearing somebody larger (or more stabby) would remove it from my wrist, I thought a "travel rep" would be a good idea. My first mistake was thinking this would save me money, my second was to buy it from here. With baited breath I waited for this amazing watch to be delivered. Was I as excited as when I waited for my gen to be delivered you may ask? More so because of the danger - it might come or I might get raided by burley coppers calling me a scab in front of my work collegues. When it turned up I opened the box and was confronted by two things 1) the piece of [censored] below and 2) the realisation that I'm an idiot that can be persuaded to part with £100 really quite easily. That's authentic nylon on supple, sweat inducing plastic for the strap - classy Face shot And look at that lume POP !!! (fully charged) Anyone care to beat that?

If you are against Apple or are desperate for Flash, I think the only other contender for a decent tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Tab that's been mentioned before. Good review of a developer unit here. Personally I'm a Mac guy and love the iPad, especially for travel.