greg_r

A quick snap taken from the window of one of the offices here at work earlier this year. I live on the other side of the hills/forest in the distance - about 5 miles from here.

Stunning watches!

Always good to see another member from the UK. Welcome, Dave!

Josh was asked about this site by a member over on RWG1.1 a while back and was, shall we say, very unhappy about them. He called them 'crooks' Site looks pretty dodgy to me - lot of stuff on there that is no longer available.

I've been wearing reps for years. People have said 'nice watch' about a dozen times, but only once have I been asked 'is it real?' and that was a Rolex (and you'll occasionally get asked that even if it's a gen). My response was to tell the person involved to get back to work (it's good being the boss sometimes), but if a friend had asked I'd have told them it was a rep. Anybody else, my response would have been, 'what do you think?'. It's a non-issue. Trust me.

And a welcome from sunny Surrey

Most of the PAM dealers can supply rep boxes too. Just bear in mind that the papers will not necessarily relate to the correct model watch. Personally I must confess I never saw the point of rep boxes - would rather buy a good quality box that will hold several watches. For less than the price of a rep PAM box, you can pick up something that will hold 10 watches.

lol Welcome fellow Panerai freak. Like the man said, use the search function - there are quite a few good dealers out there

The pics are indeed of a '21j' version (21J with some add-on gearing to power the faux chronos). I bought one for about $45 from Tonyxkf last year and it's identical (I was thinking of picking up the A7750 version but wanted to try it for size before I committed myself, hence I bought the cheapie as an experiment. Glad I did as I discovered it's not really my kinda thing). Decent enough case. Okay-ish dial. Big date - both digits go to 9 so you'd have to re-set monthly. Faux chronos (adjustable with the pushers). No lume. Basically cheap junk. lol By the way, don't believe a word that Replicahause say - their descriptions are always pure scam.

Superb work. Very difficult to believe you've only just started making straps! Scarface would look awesome on a Fiddy.

Welcome - always good to have another fellow Brit on board!

Don't worry about UK customs - no problems at all (I've brought over 30 watches into the country over the last 12 months without a single issue). It's advisable not to order more than two at a time, though - more than that could get your parcel noticed.

Gen but expensive. Looks like my ex-wife... (who was well-equipped but otherwise a nightmare)

hehe - at least the third time this has been posted, but still fun

Exact Replicas are known to be a problem and are considered by many to be scammers - you might get your watch, and it might be what it was advertised to be, but don't bank on it. Many people have either received overpriced junk or nothing at all. Stick to the recommended dealers here and on the other watch forums if you want to be sure of getting what you paid for...

I've not seen either watch in person, so can't tell you how close they are to the gen - have a good look at some gen photos in comparison which should give you an idea. There are a few reps that are very hard indeed to tell from the real thing and some of the franken watches built by members here can be almost indistinguishable even to an expert - but I wouldn't go into an authorised dealer wearing any of them. Having said that, Breguet are not exactly commonplace so it's very unlikely anyone short of an expert or AD would even know what it is, let alone recognise it as a rep. Reliability-wise, the 'Lemania' (actually a Chinese clone) movement fitted to those watches is extremely reliable and should give you many years of use. Even the cheap 21J movements you find in a lot of low-cost reps tend to be reliable and there's no reason why most reps shouldn't last as long as a similarly priced gen mechanical watch. There are watchmakers who are happy to work on reps and you'll find information on some of them on the board here. Ultimately nothing beats a gen - in sheer build quality if nothing else. Replicas can, however, be very satisfactory so it will depend on your own standards as to whether you'll be satisfied.

Why not ask Precious Time? By the way, Chris (Eurotimez) is also based in the UK. However, don't just restrict yourself to UK dealers - there are no problems with customs in the UK, so any of the recommended dealers will be able to supply you a watch without worries.

Without links and pictures of the watches in question, your question is rather a waste of time, I'm afraid. A $40 rep is NOT going to be the same as a $150 rep, however - I don't care who you buy from.

Actually, no. I also collect antiquarian books and that hobby is even further out of control than reps - largely because the books are a LOT more expensive. I could easily buy 2-3 quality reps for what I pay for an average 150 to 400 year old book (my book interests are very specific and rather rare - hence the cost). On the other hand, at least the books keep my watch buying under control - if not for that I'd probably be buying gens!

Smugmug is worth a look. Not a free service, but costs are reasonable and they're very generous with bandwidth (the site is aimed at serious photographers rather than the happy snap crowd).

Some really cheap 24mm straps aren't suitable for PAMs as they're too thin to take tubes - even with work. However, any decent strap intended for use with Panerai should indeed take tubes - and it's worth the effort to fit them. It'll stop the movement of the strap undoing the screws. As the previous poster says, just gently widen the ends with an awl or even a thin screwdriver - just be gentle and take it slow.

I have several 'dress' watches, but I frequently wear a PAM111h with a suit and it works well provided it's on a smart croc strap - it doesn't look appropriate on a 'vintage' style strap. I don't really see why most sports watches should look good with a suit - my Rollie DeepSea works well too, but personally I'd avoid anything with strong colour (blue bezels or dials, that kinda thing).

A couple of the guys over at RWG1.1 have bought from him recently without problems - fast delivery, good prices and they got exactly what they expected to get. I've chatted with him a bit on the board (he's a member over there) and he seems to be okay, but I can't speak from personal experience, so 'caveat emptor' and all that

I'll second Trailboss's post - stupendously good work and an absolutely stunning VC. I'm seriously envious (being something of a VC nut).