chris5264

And then there are the times when ordinary gold hands won't do:

Is that a 1938a? That is a great watch, I foolishly sold mine. I like the hands,, really makes a statement.

If someone was letting these go for around 20 US, I would def get one, perhaps two.

How's this? its a 47 mm vintage with gold hands. If I could just get it to work now. I replaced the Russian movement with a gen 6497 but I'm having a few problems getting it all working. Still, looks good I think.

Thanks, the strap is a custom from Greg Stevens.

Great pics,,,,,,,,,,,,,I'm going to have to get the 212.

I got my gold hands from Davidsen today and here is what they look like on the 183. I'm pretty happy with them and actually think they look better (at least more vintage) then the black hands.

I had this with my 183 and found I actually liked it better without the screw down crown. I took the back off, and removed the stem and then the case tube. Filed the threads totally away and cut the stem a bit shorter. Obviously doesn't help make it more water proof, but worked for me.

Does the machine put them in the correct place? I took a few feet off today and use "dial dots" that double sided adhesive and it seems to work but while I was doing this I tried to figure out,, even if I could get the feet back on, how would I get them in the correct place? Obviously I could get them in the general area, but how do you get them exactly where they need to be?

I have no idea who leaves those slips at my door, but the people at the post office know me and I do get some strange looks from them. We were driving past the post office yesterday and my two year old said "that's the post office" and I asked her why we go there? and she said "to buy watches" funny,,,

Nice pics,,,,,,,anything to fill that hole! I have the davidsen hands (blk) for the 111 and was going to also put them on the 183 but was worried about the size differences, but your pics look good.

I'll probably have this one on the watch table more than the wrist tomorrow. but will have it on tonight.

I just got this today from Joshua. Overall, very impressive for the money. Of course, strap is a joke. I can deal with the fake power reserve but the movement has to go. This watch has such a nice sized crown, perfect for manual winding and this movement is automatic only. Anyway, I have the day off tomorrow and will try to replace with eta 2801, it looks the right size and this watch would be very nice with a manual wind. Any advice?

This is def on my list, but I'm going to wait till it is around 400 and we get enough reviews to see what the major problems are.

overall feeling was that they didn't have a great grasp of the rep scene.

I think that is it, a few people on the gen forums believe that reps are all about ripping people off. Perhaps situations like the 1938a now being produced by panerai will help some of the gen get to know the rep world a bit more accurately.

Most genuine sites will not allow talk or postings about reps, however for some reason the mm20 and the rwc 1938a seem to be acceptable. The 1938a probably didn't bring up any concern because it wasn't even offered by panerai, until now. Now that it is (or a very very close version of it) will it become off limits on the gen forums? any predictions?

Very nice....What is the watch in the middle? I know it is along the IWC BP, but can't make it out exactly what it is.

I think it is actually easier to see a black dial with white letters/numbers. In fact, I noticed that not only are all of my dials dark, but I also use a dark background and lighter font when I type if I can change the preferences. I have a 113 dial I tried over and over again to like but just can't get into it at all...

I just noticed my membership no is 113, wish I could have gotten 112...

Thanks,,,,I think the problem with working on these is that you really know where to look for the flaws, because you put them there! I ordered the hands and will post it a week or so. I'm surprised no one tried this before, there was some talk about doing this with gens on one of the panerai forums a while back.

I think you have to be willing to pay for the mistakes, literally. Of all my reps I've done the most work on this one. I "fixed" the screw down crown by grinding down the treads on the crown tube, changing the stem size and super glueing it in place. All that worked well with no mistakes. But then after changing the hands a few times, you can see where I took some paint off and now they have to go. So, a 30 dollar mistake. However, with the new gold hands it should turn into something I'm relatively happy with.

Yes, its the 6497. I'll try giving davidsen a pm, it would be nice to get some smaller gold hands. Really seems to make it more vintage in my opinion.

I tried this with some davidsen hands for the fiddy, but the min hand had less than 1mm from touching the case, generally they were too big but I think it would look cool. I decided to leave the seconds hand and yes, I screwed up the hands a bit.

I agree with many of the posts, reps allow variety, however I've had most of my reps apart to some degree. The one on tonight I had the movement out, sized the dial, set the hands and even had the keyless works apart. There is a sort of connection you get with a watch when you work with it. I could have had a gen 111 on my wrist tonight, but decided on my watch project. There is a good reason why the gen forums do not have a section on working on watches, you have to be a skilled watch person to actually work on an expensive gen, far too much room for error.

That's worse than a recessed pin and poor lum put together....

The 8 days display seems wrong in some way...I'm not sure why but it was the first thing I didn't like about this watch.

I just got this together after a few minor problems. I had to grind the dial down with a dremel at least 1 mm. This wasn't easy but not impossible. funny, last weekend I scratched a dial changing hands, this weekend I modified this one and no scratches (only dust on the pic). Just got the hands, not a bad way to deal with things until the longer parts are common.