w0lf

For the most part, I subscribe to all of the same ideas already mentioned here, as shallow as they are I'm just another man with complexes, vices and vanity. There's just one thing to add on my end - I don't like the finality that comes with purchasing a complete genuine piece. I think that for me the big allure is the journey; the fact that try as you might, you're always on a trajectory to your goal but rarely arrive at the destination. The destination would probably be an all period-correct, matching genuine parts build, which is ultimately stasis and the end of a project. The watches we put together are flawed, we have little to no disposable parts to replace the worn or broken ones and we spend time improving, improvising, hunting for information or parts, buying tools and learning new techniques. We connect with tons of cool people in the process and this why many of us are here and this is why this is awesome.

Done!

The plaque measures 51mm BTW.

It's not a closely guarded secret, but there are only two guys on this forum with a genuine pre-Vendome Panerai. Only one of them actually has a box, but neither one logs in every day or every month even so chances are slim that you're going to catch him tripping over with rulers and calipers to get the dimensions for you. Next best thing is to try and figure out the dimensions yourself. It won't be precise, but it will be good enough. Start by collecting as many good shots of the box as you can find online, preferably shot with a telephoto lens with less perspective distortion. Note the ones where you have both the watch and the box in the same frame, even better are the ones where the watch is sitting on top of the box and inside the box preferably facing the lens, and not sideways or too angled. Take photoshop and measure up how many strap-widths (that you know measures 24mm) go into the WxLxH of the outside of the box, WxL of the padding, etc. and multiply them out accordingly and you have your rough dimensions.

Something like this can still be purchased from MBK: http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/134365-mrs-w0lfs-pam48 I think it's the best 40mm auto model to mod.

DSN was working on 64 and 87 about two to three years ago, roughly at the same time as his 24 & 25 subs came out. The prototype wasn't very good but it seems like the project was shelved altogether after awhile. The older cartel reps of the Bombas were plagued by many flaws, every once in a while you can find one in FS/FT for $300.

Not with seconds at 9. You can do center seconds or a base setup. You will need to combine parts from two watches: For a base Ti without center secs: H-F PAM240 Remove the seconds @9 pinion & date change mechanism Jackson Tse MM104 crystal (great clarity sapphire that will fit H-F case and has no cyclops) PAM112 or PAM219 sandwich dial, snip the dial feet & install with dial dots. The bad news is you will still have the date setting crown position, but then again all 2-register chrono reps like 288, 212, 253, 214, 286, 332 have this extra crown position and folks don't seem to mind. For a SS w/ center seconds N-F PAM29 remove GMT & datechange stuff Jackson Tse MM104 crystal PAM112 or PAM219 sandwich dial, snip the dial feet & install with dial dots

Makes almost as much sense as buying four beat up $30 canal street reps for 400 Euro.

Great job, you're on the right track. In the second pic, and this could be the lighting angle or the shadow, but it looks like the pin is every so slightly curved. I cut many of my pins from McMaster-Carr perforator stock, you can get varying ODs, last one I had was p/n: 98378A211 for 1.000mm. It's very hard, so takes on good finish with almost no edge loss and with any fine abrasive. I like to get the pin completely flat with fine emery, clamped in a sliding pin vise pretty mych flush with the collet, then final polish with a hard felt wheel and being extra careful not to round. Usually takes a few tries but I cut the pin a hair longer than I need to compensate. Also, it looks better if you recess it beneath CG body just a hair.

5218-218A is an interesting model, widely regarded as Pre-Vendome, it was actually finished under Vendome in late 1997. It uses the same CORO Spa sourced case as the 5218-209 & -210 and OP6500 PreA models, but with a strap change system designed for Valgine cases of the 1993-1996 Pre-Vendome models. There are only five widely recognized as authentic, serials P 001 through P 005, but it's estimated that as many as 20-25 of them ended up being made by rogue workers during the transition period and breakup of the Panerai Firenze and Panerai Sistemi. The counterfeit ones, though made with genuine parts, have a few inconsistencies in PVD coating, rodiatura of the buckles and lug screws and finishing. It is a difficult repro to build accurately but it's doable.

Looking good. OPXVIII is an exclusive calibre that Richemont outsources to Jaquet. It's a double column wheel chronograph based on an ETA775x eubache. It's a fully integrated movement, so the chances of finding a genuine movement at a price significantly less than the cheapest genuine OP model featuring this movement are next to zero.

Awesome job, omgiv, and you are correct about how thick the stock rim of that dish is - I see you managed to get it just right. I just noticed that I missed your bezel question - the chamfer I was referring to is the base of the bezel adjacent to the midcase. I don't quite know what to call it, but on the noob 111J this base perfectly squared off but maybe a hair too tall. On the Noob 111M & 111N, this base is no longer too tall but it's too rounded like an older over-polished watch.

Took some shots for you: Left to right: Ti B-J series, SS B-J series and SS PreA-A&Btrans series Titanium: Stainless: PreA-A&Btrans: Also, since CG screws were mentioned, left - Noob, right - OEM

Perfect, this is exactly what was missing. Can you tell more about the bezel? I'm guessing you squared-up the bottom chamfer as it's rounded on those.

I recommend the search function.

MBK still makes a PAM49, but they're pricy @ $450 and no bracelet. They can be quite nice when modded correctly.

I have a few different generations of OEM crowns, I'll try to take some good photos and post them up. Ideally, the beveling job is done on a lathe with a fixed cutter so you can set the angles. If you have no lathe, a good emery stick and a steady hand are a must. Use grits 320>800/1000 and after 1000 you can follow up with fine aluminum oxide finishing film or high grit emery, 2500 and up should work. If you want a polished bevel & dish rim, newer watches and autos have the polish more pronounced because the crown is used less; it can be done with with a chromium oxide impregnated leather strop or a cape cod cloth. The idea of this mod has been kicked around for a long time, I did it to contemporary builds a few times and kBiz wrote it up here: http://www.repgeek.com/showthread.php?t=175833

Great results, I have two small mod suggestions both on the crown, one is functional the other is purely cosmetic. Cosmetic: The beveling on either side of the Noob crown knurling is done at an obtuse angle, in addition the knurled teeth have micro burrs and are too sharp. H-Factory crowns have almost nailed the OEM look but their beveling angle is also too obtuse. Most OEM crowns have a more aggressive bevel and are completely deburred and have polished teeth as well as the bevel, as a result the knurling isn't sharp and the crown appears visually thinner. left OEM, right H-Factory. The functional mod, and you may have done this already, is threadlocking the Noob crown shank. I'll try to explain in detail so if you know what I'm talking about (maybe because your crown came apart when you were unscrewing the stem), don't read any further - just use some red loctite and put it back together for good. For everyone else, think of the crown in terms of the shank and the dish. The shank is the part of the crown that goes into the crown tube, holds the stem and contains the spring mechanism of the crown. The dish is the knurled part that we wind the watch with. The shank of the crown houses the spring and the stem bob which the little hexagonal (at least in the case of Noob, Genuine and the latest Titanium H-Factory crown) bit that the stem screws into. The significant differences in the construction of the shank the two leading factory crowns are as follows: H-F & OEM: The dish and the shank are one-piece, at the very tip of the shank where the stem bob is, a small cap screws into the threads on the inside of the shank to keep the stem bob and the spring mechanism from popping out. Noob: The dish and the shank are two separate pieces, the whole shank is essentially the cap (just a very tall one) holding the stem bob and the spring into which the dish screws into at the base. The weakness of this design, besides providing more torque where it's less advantageous and can cause you to leave the shank inside the crown tube one day, is that you're adding a potential leak point. Whether it will leak in reality is difficult to say at the very least because there has to be enough water pressure to squeeze through the threading. Technically, over time this may still happen and the water will seep into the seam between the shank and the dish of the crown, go down the threads, into the shank and then into the movement. There's a reason behind OEM crown and caseback construction - minimizing potential water ingress points by putting all screw type joints behind the gaskets, not in front. Look for broken crown posts, sometimes people post photos of their crowns that have come undone, it will be the visual aid to all of the above.

Can anyone see the photos?

Looking sharp, my favorite release of the last couple months.

Great job, omgiv, what was the nickel-removing powder that you ended up using? Was it just a water solution or did you have to use plating electrodes? Also, to answer your earlier question about how visible it is when cased, I'd say it's very visible once you know about it: Looking at these, I'm also thinking that it's possible that OP may not be using the 2.15mm/3.15mm HW/CP H3 kit that we in the rep world are so accustomed to. The crystal distortion & magnification adds to the effect, but doesn't it seem like there's just a hair too much space between the hour hand and the minute hand? I think it's not out of the question that OP used a combination of H2 HW and H3 CP. I found that the brass HW seems to be unique to ETA6497-2 based calibers because if you look at PreV watches with the ETA6497-1, their HWs are nickel plated: And fully cased PreV, you can clearly see the separation between the exposed (and oxidized brownish) brass of the hour hand tube and the nickel plated HW underneath it: ETA6497-2 was introduced at the same time as Vendome takeover, and sure enough, as early as the first PreA watches the hour wheel is already brass: Lastly, in order to make a longer micrometric screw, and it's not a good solution by any means, you can either use two screws by decapitating one for its shank and another as a whole and screw them in from either end of the swanneck separately. Alternatively cut just the one screw in half and use loctite to get just its ends secure in the swanneck which will give you the illusion of a longer screw.

ISO6400 photos, obscure angles, for sale by a banned member Rockarep / G.S.W. "looks legit"

Sure, quality work there, for sure. About the HW - It's brass or gold plated, it's not the eta standard nickel plated kind.

Very cool, thanks for sharing. What are you doing for the hour wheel?

Hiya, As I was working on this beauty for a good forum pal, I snapped a few quick phone pics with his permission. The idea was to show that even a simple task like re-casing an old school franken build with better modern case parts needn't be a mindless exercise. It can be a bit more than loosening and then tightening six screws - every project, no matter how small, deserves a little bit of a caring touch to make it shine. I will leave it up to the owner to post good quality pics as I think phone pics should suffice for this one. First up was the replacement case. As DSN cases come lacking any strap lip at all, if you mount even a regular thickness strap it will rub on the bottom edge of the case. So I normally cut in a brush a period-correct strap lip profile to mimic the gen case. Crystal install was straight forward so I'll skip it, DSN's gaskets are nice and thick, no surprises there. The old school case that the watch came in had poor geometry among other inaccuracies. The gen bezel fitted on it was secured with cement and no gasket. It was a bit of challenge to get it off without bending. Rather than using a case knife, I taped the case up with polyamide and wedged single edged utility blades from opposite sides simultaneously to break the bond. In order to affix the bezel to the new DSN case, a more graceful method was used. Genuine bezel gaskets are impossible to find so I made a gasket by combining 5mil poly with a rep gasket, this gave me the right .56mm thickness and a nice and tight fit. Here you see the final fit with the service gap facing 10 o'clock per OEM design. Next up was the caseback. It is in fact the only good thing about the older rep, the caseback engraving and fonts are more accurate than DSN's caseback. What's not adequate for a timepiece of this magnitude is the tinny-tiny mineral glass display of the old caseback. Luckily, I had one of the old sapphire backs from a very old Eddie Lee rep. The crystal is not only thicker, but is also beveled, cleaner in appearance and gives the movement an extra bit of sharpness. The screw ends need to be flattened so they're flush with the lug, a small detail that needn't be overlooked when working Ti cases other than H and N-Factory. Lastly and I didn't take pics of this step, it seems trivial but don't underestimate the proper fastening of the movement inside the case, especially if it's a manual-winder. Always use the right size tabs and screws, I prefer the tall shanks and wide heads of ETA screws with correct 6497 wide and thick tabs. Rep screws are much shorter and flimsier, make half a wrong turn and you'll leave the screw shank in the mainplate. Rep screws are not any more accurate than ETA appearance-wise either because Panerai uses a cheese-head screw for clamping. I don't have the time right now for a proper setup but I will leave you with a quickie, just to show-off the TST dial construction and patina in led light.