w0lf

Perhaps a movement service would cure this ailment? I'll let the more knowledgeable chime in.

Agreed on all points, except that when you have a bad case you can't really do much. you can strip the A/R on 63 or ask DSN to put a 23 crystal on it instead you can use Luminova relumed 23A handstack on 63 instead of the shiny one he decided to include with it you can replace the datewheel with Leo, Lello or Finepics (and hopefully Taka soon) you can replace the crown with anything really, T48, SLT48, Palp, Sead's new auto crown you can replace the crownguard with an older cartel one you can get a relume on 23A dial to fix the Tang lume and add cream surrounds around ideces But what are you going to do with a case that has short stubby lugs that makes for an off fit of straps and a rehaut that's 2 miles deep?

At this point, I would settle for "good". Cartel daylights are great, the finishing and machining of the case set are at an all time best. But I'll take EL/River/Honpo "good" when it comes to GMTs. The biggest draw for me was that they had good cases & ETA2893's while the rest of the flaws were correctable.

Yeah, options are good to have but please tell me what was the point of re-issue of 63 if you're only changing the serial number on the caseback and the GMT hand. The rest of the flaws in the dial, hands and caseset were copied over and magnified. Well, I guess I see the point - it's a discontinued watch, but a little effort please.

Well, it wouldn't kill him to make the whole case set better but we all know that's not happening. The caseback is well worth the $20 that he's going to charge for it though. We can call it the "fat fish" caseback and look at that serial, capital thinking.

OK, first impressions added.

23A 63C 63C dial print is not great, low crossbar A's make a comeback. The handstack is also not good aside from the gmt hand, it appears it's the only hand he redesigned as the hour and minute hand are not shaped properly and are shiny lacquer finished. It also has A/R for some reason which it's not supposed to have. 23A dial print looks much better and the handstack is also better than the 63C. However there are no 'cream' surrounds around numbers typical of that period T dials. Strange that he put them on 24A dial but not on 23A dial... Usual problems with the rest of the watches, case, crown, datewheel, crownguard are subpar. Since the casebacks are going to be $20 - good budget alternative to Jakob's @1/6th the price. Discuss.

That is totally awesome! Ubi, when are you going to start building *your* watches? You know, I want to see that 1665 franken and a PAM40 some day...

Awesome, thanks for the details.

Looking sweeet! Build details!

Pete, They like to skeletonize the top plate and show the balance through the bottom or top cutout in the dial - hence the "open heart moniker". @OP- ST25xx movements are supposedly very reliable and on top of that you wont find another PR module movement cheaply so I think you need to fix or replace this one with the same model.

Looks stunning

I think the movement is a Chinese Seagull ST25. Check with the usual suspects - JacksonMT, Helenarou, eBay, etc.

Andy, he did this project about 3 years ago and he vowed to never do it again if my memory serves me. Besides JF, V CG was the only other rep CG with a rubber bushing in the lever for tight fit (until MBW's 40mm auto PAMs that came out about a year or so ago). But unfortunately V lever shape and overall finish were inconsistent. No two CGs were the same. The CG feet needed to be milled for fit and in many cases the whole CG refinished. If you wanted an accurate lever you had to bend the tip out a bit as it suffered from the same problem as Toro and SNembo GG lever - too flush to the side of the case when closed.

I didn't see any negativity but then one must remember that we're not in a face to face conversation so some of the context might be getting lost/added. I'm glad to see that my post did not deter the OP from pursuing this further. It is one thing to hatch an idea and quite another to try to see it trough after knowing what's involved. Regarding the "never happy" comment, I can only speak for myself-- knowing the flaws does not preclude me from enjoying my PAM reps. In actuality being this particular about something is the very thing that stimulates the creative process and evolution of our hobby. The fact that two of the most active subs on any rep board is Rolex and Panerai with vast majority of custom parts projects taking place for these two brands speaks for itself. Why would there be any need to tinker if everything was perfect out of the box? Lastly, if what you said about doing a 1:1 CG & lever was not just a rhetoric meant to spice up your argument, and you actually are serious and want a stab at it please contact me via PM.

If you'd rather hold hands and sing kumbaya we can do that too.

Guys, I'm not just saying this to discourage you. I just don't think many of you have ever done something like this start to finish. There's probably 20 people on this forum at any given time that can do great CAD work. However, I would estimate that 1) having an oem part to work from, 2) taking accurate measurements of it, and 3) making an accurate technical drawing and cad is only about 30-40% of the deal. Many have gone that far and then some. Here's what you *actually* need to think about preferably before you spend a month putting the soft part of the project together -- when you find a machine shop that's not going to rat you out and has the right equipment, you then will have to order a custom tooling setup (don't expect the shop to have the right keyways, etc. for this job) and pay for the prototype run. We're talking about several thousand dollars right now, maybe less if you're going to Asia. It's pretty simple really, let's do a quick search in this subforum and count how many people wanted to do the same thing. Then think of all the others who also thought of it and maybe tried to go the distance but gave up and didn't post. Then finally count those who succeeded. Lastly think about the product they delivered. Best one is a no brainer - JimmyzFu, I would estimate around 200 pcs. in 2005, and there has been nobody that came close to his product since then. Everyone else did small runs but something went amiss in the prep stage or they were doing their runs in low precision shops. The final product came with inconsistent tolerances and they eventually retired. The two that are left standing are LH and Toro and their product is a simplified version of historic that is not even 1:1, both outsource their production. It's good by rep standards because it's the best that's available but by and large both mfg. have glaring flaws. Also, as far as bad economy goes. Just to verify this hypothesis - place a quick call to 10 machine shops in US and Canada tomorrow that have proper Citizen or Microlution machines, and ask them for the lead time to get into small runs queue with a custom tooling setup for, say, 500 pcs. If you get quoted less then 4 months (assume that when you're ready to go it'll likely become a 6 months queue), you have the cash to buy the tooling, and an OEM part in hand - you're in business. Ohh, also make sure you have the minerals to through with this because it's the one part that Richemont will go after you for.

yes, blacklisted as in - if you're lucky you'll get a nastygram + a trademarked item release request from the shop or if you're not so lucky just a nastygram from richemont directly. okabum is right, any good machine shop will give you about 4-6 months lead time for a small order like that.

Don't want to be a party pooper but designing a lever by itself you're assuming that all of these CGs have the same tolerances which we know not to be the case. Designing and trying to get a complete CG made stateside will be next to impossible due to most precision shops having this part blacklisted already.

Can you please expound on this a little more?

Great review and glad you got exactly what you wanted Connie's still the same -- great service, lowest prices and a pleasure to deal with. My 236 and my bud's 188 are also from her.

Pretty simple in my world of straps... Having spent a fortune trying to find the right strap I boiled it down to these: Manual winds: OEM, Dirk, Simona Autos: OEM, ABP

Good god, how did I ever miss this??!! Here I am, sitting at work, I just glance over at my blackberry and what do I see - an email from none other than Mr. The Zigmeister himself notifying me directly about his article! The Zigmeister, thank you for taking the time and putting this together, this is another venerable benchmark review for our community! And thank you so much for servicing the movement, it sorely needed it. I plan on holding on to this watch for a long time so looking at the way it comes from the factory doesn't inspire much confidence in its chronometer prowess. And for the record I'm not a germophobe but I don't much enjoy the thought of dust bunnies and hair clogging up my gears My thoughts on these models are quite formed by now- it is obvious the factories wanted to lock in a proprietary design for the sake of generating more revenue. But kudos to them for making it affordable and cosmetically accurate to the point that after an (obligatory IMO) movement overhaul you're still way ahead of the game in comparison to the ETA7753 powered models. I have no doubt that this watch will provide many years of faithful service and enjoyment, literally, as I count on my chronograph when I cook; thanks to the effort of our best - The Zigmeister, I can't thank you enough for this opportunity!

The price difference between an A6497 and ETA6497 is ~ $70. To me it makes sense to go with a movement that has better quality control and proper oiling which is ETA.

Chad, This, actually makes them look more normal than the picture being painted here.. just sayin, don't judge a few drunk dudes having a good time.