w0lf

Haven't you heard 117, 35, 100 are back in style now. Mark of a true aficionado

Why not just test water resistance on your specific H-factory watch after verifying there is a bezel gasket, greasing the caseback, and crown gaskets? The original is a 300m diver, expecting the same or similar water resistance from a rep is like expecting a film inspired by real events to be completely factual.

There is a batch of Jakob 63C casebacks that had a wide threaded rim and a wider slope. It is based on stock for a thicker 7750 movement & rotor, and as such it may not screw in all the way into a manual case (the rim will hit the movement bridge) or an oldschool auto (the rim will hit the movement ring or run out of threads). Besides it being incorrect for a 289x watch due to appearance of the slope it's also incorrect in design. OEM and Honpo/EL 289x caseback has a movement ring holder. 7750 caseback (PAM88): 289x caseback (PAM63): OEM caseback showing movement ring prop holder:

No, C3 crystal is for manual wind models, it's too thick for 44mm autos.

The crystal MT sells for manual winds for around $40 is the one for the job. It's not correct thickness-wise for any premium manual model case that takes OEM size crystal, but for old school autos it's perfect. I tried it on EL B100/500, B400/500 and Honpo lower serial cases successfully. The chief cyclops is the 2nd gen 6mm with A/R but A/R was stripped. It's not necessary for B & C year watches.

Mt=militarytime, something I found by accident a long time ago. Their crystal is as clear as premium c3 or h-factory, and it's just the right thickness for honpo or EL automatics with a cyclops. Glossy/semiglossy lume is a consistent detail, I find that many older pams with hobnail or otherwise textured dial had a slight sheen to their markers. It's not something that jumps out at you but it's there.

The 29 comes with the right 2893 pinion kit from the factory and both cgs are honpo, Sead levers fit right in. In fact that's the only kind of lever I found to be tall enough in the profile for honpo CG body.

Thanks very much guys! Just in case anyone is worndering what went into the two-- 29 Build List: Honpo base w/ ETA2893-2 (OFFICNE full deco) Finepics glossy relume Finepics 2893 DW Chief Cyclops MT crystal (much clearer than stock Honpo or old cartel) OEM crown / The Zigmeister custom tube OEM GMT Handstack OEM semimatte calf 63 Build List: Honpo base w/ ETA2893 with H5 kit (Geneva striping / top grade) The Zigmeister matte Relume Lello 2893 DW Chief Cyclops MT crystal OEM crown / The Zigmeister custom tube OEM semimatte gator

W's is old school deploy. I managed to get that in 20mm for my wife but I've not been able to find one for myself at any reasonable price. It's the best one too-doesnt dig into your wrist.

I'm out. Thanks for checking.

I'm in for two brown. Thanks for doing this, mate!

If they really come from Hirsch Armbander GMBH, I'm in for antique brown and bordeaux if they exist.

And you know whats really funny, the 6th generation of PAM63 is a DSN version that came out along with his T dial PAM23. If you look at the 23 dial it has high bar A's but his new 63 dial STILL has low bar A's. Talk about how prolific that first WH dial was, it has been over 5 years and they still copy their original flawed design.

Thanks for all the kind words guys! D, for sure, thank you! I just realized something, and I hope you can forgive me not mentioning, my parts hunt began with you sending me a Chief cyclops 2 years ago! It took me another year to source the 2nd one

Thanks, it could be not locked completely or it could be a slightly older pic that with a stock CG lever, I've replaced with Sead levers since.

Evening friends, I had a little bit of time to myself this evening and instead of doing something productive, of course, I decided that I have to post two of my most favorite watches here. That and the fact that if I see another "QC dealer pics" or 005K thread I will bestow some serious a$$ whooping on the TS..... j/k it's all good ... or not, no really, we're all pals m8s here Be as it may, the watches I'm posting about arguably aren't half as exciting as the shiny new H-factory end all be all PAM rep, but rather they come from a different era. Time flowed slower, parts were scarcer and friendships were forged over a, sometimes virtual, pint and a triple gasket OEM crown It took a long time to put something special together, but it meant a hell of a lot more. The two Honpo GMTs I hastily photographed are special to me not so much because they're freaking awesome..(lets face it, there's maybe a total of 20-30 of those 29's out there) but because while getting them correct, I met some wonderful folks right here on RWG. I want to thank Watchmeister, Ubiquitous and Dluddy for all of their help and support and of course our resident wizard The Zigmeister for impeccable craftsmanship that made it all possible! Seriously guys, I know I should dial down the cheese but it's from the heart My PAM63 and PAM29, actually the only two complete watches I now own: In case you're not familiar with rep history, here's a little something I was able to piece together from reading the forum and having drawn out discussions with original gangstas. If my timeline or facts are skewed, please feel free to add or correct WatchHonpo was a niche Japanese rep dealer that was commissioning high end PAM builds ~2004-2007 in small batches. They would typically do a run of 50-100 watches and won't start the next model until they sold out. The name WatchHonpo is still around, but like RXW, nobody really knows if it's the same folks as the stuff on their website looks to be run of the mill China reps. Back in the day, W.H.'s GMT, PR, subs and chronographs were the best and most high end replication efforts around. Some, including yours truly, would tend to think that they still are. You could say they were to PAM reps what MBW was to Rolex reps in terms of quality. W.H. laid the foundation for many years to come with their designs, for example they were the only ones with a correct PAM187 rep powered by ETA7753 and a real titanium PAM194 of which there are only two left across all fora. W.H. are also the reason for misspellings in OFFICNE PANERAI engravings, and the "B" millesimation on all consecutive iterations of PAM63 of which there are now 6 distinct versions. W.H. watches are better in every regard in comparison to the same models that followed from, quite possibly, the same China factory when W.H. stopped commissioning high end builds. W.H. were the only models with running sequential production numbers on the caseback, usually low numbers in sub 100 range. Word has it, that their first fifty PR dials were made by the same dial print shop that Panerai used themselves. Don't know if there's any truth to this but it's just something I heard. Since W.H. used their own CAD we ended up with some very well known and documented artifacts for years to come, e.g. low-bar 'As' that mutated and made it into many consecutive models throughout the range. The factory simply copied from their stuff rather then starting from scratch. Naturally, the factory kept churning out those models for EL, River, Josh, Silix an other prominent dealers at the time since they already had most of the tech squared away. Within a short period of time, the ETA powered models gave way to clones wrapped in similar sheet metal but more obscure movement models disappeared completely.

sonic, from a purely looks standpoint the H-factory 177L case probably the best looking case we had in Ti period. However, I personally would take the oldschool case like sul's over it any time because of the bezel construction.

It's from the discontinued fantasy 177F rep (F2052/4000 caseback) http://www.puretimewatch.com/product/pam177f-best-edition/ Best Ti case out there, same case also came on PAM118F rep around ~ 2007, even more difficult to find. CG is not very good on these though, but was among the best when it was available. Right now there's a better option - Sead's Ti CGs.

beautiful, great job!

Yep, they actually ship right away. I ordered some tools and didn't get any notice of shipment so I emailed the cust. service after about 12 days or so, got the tracking # the next day but it was already out for delivery when I went to track it.

must has!

well, it's certainly cheap enough to just keep one on the shelf for future projects.

Rolli, I disassembled 177 & 219 and they look like the 104 in your picture. Except now the bezel gasket is half as thick.

all the daylights are from that factory as well.

Where there's a will, there's a way And regarding waterproofness - I think if we survey original front loading fiddy owners or watchmakers that worked on those on the condition of the bezel gasket after 5 years, we'll have an accurate picture of what to expect from the Hublot factory PAM bezel gasket thats 2x thinner. I know I opened an old fiddy bezel to reseat the crystal once to find the bezel gasket that crumbled in my fingers.