kingkaiser

I can pull off an $800 belt pretty easy; I work in high finance and my clothes tend to be fairly high end brands. Actually tried to buy the gen but after 6 months of them never having it in stock, I got pretty tired of trying to give them my money.

But obviously, I'd rather not be the 'rep' guy in my friend circle, so it being convincing is important.

Might end up taking my chances and ordering it

There are several (6? 7?) photo-pictorial reviews of Bergie's Hermes belts, some which include gen comparisons.

Go up to the search box, up top, and type in "Hermes Belt Review" and make sure FORUMS is highlighted, not "This Thread"

Hmmm, I did check for Hermes reviews before i posted, and I found a few, but no gen-rep comparisons.

Kens belts are solid. Great leather and attention to detail. But without worry. I just wish they would rep the 42mm Hermes belts!

Hmmm- which size is it right now?

depends. Look online and the belt or go to the site and look at side by side comparisons. Generally its hard to tell now a days. Metal molds are pretty cheap. The details are in the leather believe it or not.

Thing is seeing it online only gets you so far with this, since the steel itself has a particular sheen on the gen (I believe it's plated with silver or palladium).

And then there's the leather as you mentioned. Again, a physical side by side tells you much more.

But I'm guessing that it hasnt been done :s

Guys, thinking of picking up an H belt from ken (bergies). has anyone here ever done a gen vs rep comparison? Accuracy is important to me, since a number of my friends have the gens. Or are rep belts simply not good enough yet?

So true! I forgot all about Ruby! I even was saying to Angus how far reps have come in 10 years!! Back in the day it was EL, then the new guy with Pam's was DSN! Some of those early watches would have driven the newest members crazy.

Lol. I'm a member of the loupe police now, but my first Pam was a DSN. The case back engravings were lazered on, the lug holes were completely in the wrong spot (your straps would always rub against the case), lume was incorrectly applied (visible to the naked eye), crown guard pin was the wrong shape, AR was blue, crown was tiny, crown guard lever was floppy, strap was laughable. Oh, and the case was completely the wrong material (titanium instead of brushed steel). So basically there was no part of the watch without major flaws. And yesterday, I was complaining to angus about a fleck of dust under the crystal of my AP diver.

We're a spoiled bunch.

Was it being sold as gen or some kind of über modded?

Heavily modded piece; from memory only the case back, movement, strap/buckle were rep, and it was of a limited edition piece.

While this is a phenomenal step forward, there seem to be a lot of cosmetic differences. Are these due to the movements inside being completely different, or was this just oversight? And the follow up / real question: can this be closer to gen, or is the best that can be done without custom movements?

Need some extra eyes to give me feedback on this qc pic. The bezel screws look to be all misaligned. Is this easy to fix? The lume on 5 looks sloppy. Should I reject or keep?

The only screw that seems off *might* be the 4. From my own pics, I realized that angles can be deceiving.

When people say screws are in the wrong direction what are they referring to? if the complaint is that the screws don't have a properly centered cut I understand that. I have never understood why the cuts aren't perfectly centered. That is not rocket science. On the level screws (above or below the rim of the bezel) it cuts both ways on the gens. They are not all at the same level as it depends how much the smith tightened the screws to ensure sealing out the elements. Although I do have to say that most in the boutique start with the screws slightly below the bezel plane. I always assumed it was to protect the white good screws which are obviously softer than the SS.

I was referring to the direction of each individual screw - if you were to connect the cuts, they should form a circle. that having been said, I think I might be seeing things on that front. The inner bezel still bugs me though since its not perfect...still, its a rep...Will think about it over the day, see more feedback, and make the final decision accordingly.

Looks good to me

Under close up macro inspection the bezel lume minor imperfections show but that is true on all of these v3 watches

Not seeing any issue with mis alignment and anything with the screw heads seems easy enough to fix (and I don't see anything to begin with)

The inner bezel markers dont line up right with the dial markers. They seem to be off by 1mm. The inner bezel itself is fine, but the alignment is slightly off. Was looking at some other pics on the forum, and this isnt true for all V3s...

The lume imperfections I know are to be expected with this particular model, and I'm not fixating on that (esp as none of the numbers are blurry)

Inclined to agree after looking at it again that any screw misalignment is too minor to be bothered with.

yeah, your screws at 4 and 7 are in absolutely the wrong direction. Mine seem to be off at 2 and 7. (not as bad as yours though).

And that inner bezel...I know that 1 mm difference will drive me insane, and I think you have to open this up to fix it...

Hi, I just got my AP diver QC pics, and needed some fresh eyes on this. I think the bezel markers are slightly off, but would like to get the views of other users who are more familiar with this watch.

Also do the screws look properly set and countersunk to you? Cant tell if its the angle, or if theres something off about the watch.

Thanks!

Btw: that OP III movement doesn't look right to me. The other OP IIIs I've seen have panerai engraved into them repeatedly. This doesn't seem to have any. And it doesn't appear to have an incabloc either (but I'm no expert at seeing the incabloc to be honest).

More experienced members should chime in, but if I was offered to buy that as genuine, I'd probably refuse.

Guys, is the cannon pin ok? It looks a bit 'nippley' to me.

I've owned both the gen and the rep. It's a well done rep but in no way a 'superrep'. While the new n and h facts are 99% there, this one is more like 90%.

Foggy crystal, incorrect numerals on dial, obviously incorrect movement, wrong dial text color.

Ech. Hate guys like that - don't really mind the fronting as if the watch is gen (loads of us do that), but trying to belittle you for owning one particular watch is just classless. Normally not a fan of calling out, but this guy is just douchey...

The date wheel placement seems better than I'd expect from a rep (and crystal crlarity) but the hand thickness around the stem, and the size of the crown lead me to think rep.

Thanks for the feedback So the crowns can't be swapped out without work, and you wouldn't know bout the xtals, right?

Dya think the DSN dial would fit a h-fac case?you mentioned the dial feet on the h-fac; not sure if that meant that a DSN dial couldn't be swapped in.

My first Pam was a DSN 086 with the anthracite dial. While Ive fallen for the new breed of super reps, that dial is amongst the best panerai dials I've seen. so I was thinking that maybe it could do with a shift out of the incorrect DSN titanium case with blue AR to a nice h-fact brushed steel or titanium case. Or hell, even just the h-facy crystal.

Problem is, I'm not sure if it will fit. Any guys here who have tried to play and match with parts? how successful was it, and did you have to shave down the dial a bit or did things fit without any problems?

Thanks!

So I have a watch I havent used in years. Started up in seconds of being on my wrist, has a date function, seconds at 5 (??), and a day/night indicator. Not sure what movement it is - could someone more experienced help? This is the watch:

Thanks!

I have, picked it up about a month ago, starting to patinate (old pic). Interesting piece to own, not knowing how the watch will actually end up looking, new experience for me.

I've been on the waiting list for months now . Anyone know any dealers with small waiting lists, let me know

Can buy, and have bought. There's something nice about NEVER worrying about being called out, but frankly our reps have nailed the aesthetic. Plus, as I see watches around town, I realize that I have never been close enough to see the tells; even if it's with someone I grabbed lunch with. Unless its an investment or a watch for which the rep didn't exist, I don't think I would go gen again (beyond the handful I already own).

Anyone notice anything unusual with this?

Apart from being a 42mm, there isnt much unique about this one. Although it does seem to have the 359 (angus/PT) rep factory crown guard lever....

I'm clearly not alone in feeling that Panerai played mix-and-match in its parts bin this year. (and with the weird lever on the pic above, maybe ransacked a plant in China for parts too)

And yeah, I think a lot of manufacturers are using unique materials to screw up reps - anyone can craft steel, but carbon, ceramic, weird scratchproof gold, etc is much harder to rep.

Never realized how good the crownguard was on this one! Is this a noob? Because this bodes VERY well for the next production batch of the 111s, 005s, etc.

The CG is my normal 1 second tell - and now thats gone.