swdivad

This 'super copy' was around for a while, my wife sells rep handbags occasionally and she had a few. They were good to the last detail, including a patina developing nicely on the LV bags.... I have also seen some very nice Hermes bags out of Korea, although the supply has seemed to dry up.

She just purchased a Chloe Paddington bag from a Chinese supplier, the first sent was defective; the handle was sewn on backwards. It was sent back for a replacement which arrived and was perfect in every way.

The LV bags out of China are very good, but don't develop the patina you get on the gen, which sticks out like a bad crown guard.

Nice catch there mate! Seen this piece myself at TWT...awesome GMT

Thanks! Richard was a pleasure to deal with, he also replaced the CG for free, as there was an aweful attempt to polish the one I received.

It took a bit for me to get used to the watch, but it is growing on me every day, just got a new strapmasters blue shark for the more casual days:

swdivad = anthracite [censored].

OK, I'm guilty

Does anyone know of a gen non-GMT PAM in either all brushed SS or Ti that has an anthracite dial like this? I'm not a big GMT fan, but love everything else about this watch!

PS this is an 89D

That's my 089F, just took delivery of this a few weeks back

There are a few anthracite models available, including the 091 I just sold to get this one... I just have a thing for anthracite

There is the 086:

There's also the 106 & 170 submersibles:

I believe there is a blue anthracite model but it may be manual wound.

Well, these are the two for me... How cool are they???

If someone is interested in a translation of the Thai txt from the "Chrono Momento II" description let me know.

I'd just like to know the time these will be available and an approximate price.

pvd 196? hmm..don't remember reading a post abt it.

Will be back together after almost a year

I want one... That's a keeper!!

My wife loves her 049

@FP, thanks for the info on the bezel... I guess I will just wait for your crystals... now that you're shipping the 7753 datewheels out, I can have my 196 back on my wrist and wait for the 212 to be finished

Azigav Your 212 looks beaustiful... I can't wait to get mine back together and running well, I agree the extra heft from the spacer ring will make it feel just right

After my PVD 196 project, this 212 will be my favourite rep, they will both be just as good as gens IMO

Hey, don't forget that the clocks change tonight for many of us.

And for some folk on the forum it can be a big job! In fact, some have only just finished resetting their watches from the last clock change!

Cheers!

(Oh crap, I just worked out that I lose an hour's sleep )

LOL, I'm late for church

OK... I love this watch, it is the perfect chrono design for me.

I have already bought a Swiss ETA quite a while ago and it has been relumed by both The Zigmeister and Finepics (that's another story altogether, let's stay on track her, shall we? )

As you may know, the original swiss PAM 212s came witha mineral crystal and a non-engraved rotor, as well as a beautiful (cough, cough) Snow White plastic spacer ring

So anyway, swdivad thinks to himself, "Himself, what can we do to make this EVEN better?"

I embark on what seems to be an anal modification to end all my modifications... Please be aware that I have no watchmaking/modding skills AND my eyes are pretty shot for close focus work, so I have commisioned my watchsmith (who loves my reps, by the way) to do the work for me...

I buy the latest PAM 212 asian from Joshua, as to my delight, it includes a nicely engraved rotor, a metal spacer ring, AND an AR coated sapphire crystal.

So, the job at hand is to swap all this stuff around and come up with the ultimate frankenrep outta the original, less than perfect ETA 7750 relumed model.

Well... I visited my watchsmith today to check on the progress, which I must say, has come quite a way so far, but to my disappointment, is not seeming to go too well in some areas.

Let me ellaborate, and maybe the collective knowledge here can help with some of the problems:

The sapphire AR crystal on the new watch is not as perfect as the mineral... Although the AR is very beautiful blue and very subtle, like a gen, the surface distorts reflections, where the mineral does not, i.e when you put the sapphire crystal to the light, and rotate it so the light moves across the crystal, there is definite distortion along the path. The mineral does not exhibit this behavior, and the reflection is perfectly uniform across the light's path.

Is this normal? I was under the impression that sapphire crystals are ground, but if they were ground, there would be no distortion whatsoever. I would think that the gen would not distort the light either.

Another thing with *this* crystal is that there seems to be a white ring along the outside edge, the mineral does not show this either.

This white ring could be caused by two things that I can think of... Either the edge of the crystal is not polished, almost frosted, and/or, the crystal seal ring is white plastic, and the color is exaggerated from this, or a combination of bioth.

If the problem is a white plastic ring, and a black one would remove this hideous white area, great! If it is the refraction of a frosted/unpolished crystal edge, I fear this makes the crystal pretty bad for this project (along with the unfortunate distortion).

Another problem with the crystal is that my watchsmith is a bit timid about pressing it (and the bezel) out for fear of scratching the case (trying to remove the bezel (there is no knife slot)) and also he fears he may shatter the crystal, bringing this project back to square 1...

Another problem is the spacer ring, which will add to the needed heft of the watch, and alsomake it look so much better... This does not quite fit, telling me that the asian 7750 is a bit different to the ETA 7750... Not a big deal, a bit of machining will fix this up quicksmart... Just an observation in case anyone else wants to embark on a similar journey...

The last small problem that we are running into is the rotor... Not a show stopper, but a small niggly problem that I hope and think is not as bad as I think right now... The rotor from the asian 7750rubs ever so slightly on the one bridge... it still rotates fine, but there is a very slight rub spot that will probably wear in after a few days/weeks use... Another observation.

The mods will be done to the spacer ring to allow for the switch, the killer for me is the crystal and the bezel. I'd hate to ruin these, but am wondering if the crystal is good enough to use in the first place...

The bottom line question for this is, How do we pop both of these suckers off safely?

Thanks in advance for any insight anyone can give so I can get this back on my wrist

Great gesture Wan!

Here's a good read on Pre-A and Pre-V Panerais:

http://www.paneristi.com/archives/PreA_Pan..._A_Panerai.html

Jesus, just read this and almost fell off my chair... Even though I wouldn't buy from Paul/wo-mart, mini-porsche mart, I surely wouldn't recomend him to my friends and then start a thread like this... It's just unbelievable.

I would highly recomend the mods to delete this thread, like Paul or not.

I'd also take everything posted by someone who's been around here for two days with a molecule of salt.

I gotta say, this place is getting pretty busy with a bunch of no name noobs selling stuff and jumping up and down about [censored] like this, it's concerning. There's gotta be a way to curb this stuff

Yes, but people chose the masks to wear. It's obvious they want to be prejudged.

Mask?? What mask

Looks great, almost looks like a gen. Why is the individual number edited?

Beautiful watch V

Perfect alter ego to its otha brutha

That crown is thick as [censored]

The grey dial is a very nice watch, mine is going out the door soon...

Not to be a stick in the mud or anything, but for *me*, I have a hard time reading the time on the grey due to the lack of contrast between the hands and the dial. In some light it's great, others it takes a bit to actually make out what time it is. This is one big reasons I like Panerais so much, there just ain't no mistaking what time it really is

Take that with a grain of salt, although, as my eyes are pretty [censored]ed after years in front of high res laptops

I will be ordering the blue... Although I'm not really a TH kinda guy, this watch is definitely top notch and probably one of the top two or three reps out there... The quality is truly amazing

Get one now before the manufacturers pull an SMP on it

Levis 501 jeans are very important to me.

I work at home about 50% of the time, on site the other half... I feel lucky to be able to dress casual, I wear a nice shirt and shoes most of the time while on site and that makes jeans look good.

Shirts I like are Armani, Boss, Ben Sherman, and Bowling (nice business shirts from Thailand)

Shoes are either Bally or Lloyd

Pants are always Levis 501s

Sorry, mine are none you ssked for, but noteworthy all the same

PAM 026:

Pam 195:

I am hoping that that is a saying that doesn't sound quite as wrong in some other language... either that or you two are really good friends...

Worse would be,

"I want in your pants, Jonathan "

Life is great! But I could always be happier...

Why do you want the rep if you have the gen? Or did you already sell the gen ?

Sorry, just a little confused here.

I've checked it in the (artificial) light and cant tell whether there is AR, I'll have to check in daylight.

I *used* to have the gen... Really nice watch, although at the time, I was wearing a suit and the watch didn't suit a suit as it is around 16mm thick.

My wife bought me a gen SMP pro non chrono for my birthday and it suited a suit just fine

Now that I don't need to wear a suit so much, the chrono may be in order, the jury's still out as there are so many nice reps out there and more to come

Unfortunately, JF crownguards don't come in a chrono, so that's a no go...

It's a crap shoot if you get a good firm lever on these reps, the worst part is they are ground down at the factory to close 'properly'... sometimes they go a little far, but don't bother to make it right.

You could try to get another from the dealer, but there's no saying if you'll get a better or worse one.

Best thing to do, if you can is contact the dealer for a resolution. Our trusted dealers will most probably be helpful with your situation.

The errors with the rep is the glaring tick mark missing at the 9:00 position, plus the color(s) of the dial. Also the gen is titanium, the reps are polished SS.

The rep comes in blue, black, and brown... guess they were having a B day when they designed it

The reps are quite nice actually, plus you can get them in genuine VJ7750

Ok quick question.......................what kind of car is that?

Ken

Ummm... let me guess...

Bugatti?

Ken... Read the instructions