sssurfer

Not sure, but this might add some protection ....

DHgate's Escrow service is especially designed for online transaction. You, as a buyer, will pay the seller ONLY when you receive and satisfy with the item.

This value-added service is FREE and is available for all transactions on DHgate.

Lello and I already had to resort to that service.

It worked in the end, but it was a pain in the ***.

They judge whether you are entitled to have your money back or not, and you have to pass through several definite steps, and you have only a small timeframe (a few days) to do the most important step that is requesting their intervention.

As they also consider the messages exchanged between you and the seller to make their judgment, better knowing it in advance and making it clear with the seller the precise features of the watch that you expect and any other things that might be relevant.

I sent the watch back to Tony, and to my delight & surprise I received in exchange a Daytona latest generation, 28800 bph (verified), exactly like the one on sale @ 268 USD from "our" collectors.

So, in the end (and thanks to Tony!) this all came out with me getting a $268 + s/h watch @ $190.

As I am left speechless, I am going to leave any comments and thoughts to you...

I stumbled upon this page on DHgate.

Buyer beware. That seller had several identities on DHgate, and several of them with a very poor rating.

I remember I saw a 140 rep on DHgate, but I did not place a bookmark and unfortunately I have no time to find it again now.

Also, most likely it was a scam. Pics looked as of a gen.

EDIT: got the time to do a search. Results (leaving out those looking just like a 104 in a rose gold case):

http://www.dhgate.com/p_ff80808118c21ff901...6b450e424a.html

http://www.dhgate.com/p_ff80808119200db401...ef0b5845b2.html

http://www.dhgate.com/p_ff808081175c785901...5d4a212ff3.html

http://www.dhgate.com/p_ff80808118d3472301...cc3f621510.html

I bet that you would get, at best, a 104 in a rose gold case...

Don't blame a watch for a flagging love life.

:lol:

Even my poor English made me suspect about the double meaning of that... but I was unable to resolve what would have been better... "want the date"?... "want date"?... Which is the correct English for that??

Did you buy that one from TTK ??

couldn

Thanks again to everyone. I am really happy that this watch meets the taste of other PAM fans.

Love that strap M.....What is it?

Thanks, D. It was a plain boring light brown (almost orange, actually) Hirsh Liberty, then customized to make it softer and give it a time and used patina.

Customization included: nail softener oil, Prestige shoe cream (cherry red and palisander), and Letraset promarkers (burnt sienna and henna on the strap, gold on the stitching).

In live the straps looks better than in the shots. In the pics the alternating reddish and brown nuances look sharper than in reality.

Still, I am not completely satisfied with it.

But I could not wait further to make this project public.

nobody outside of Rome has those memorized anyway!

Just wait for my Alzheimer moving a little more forward, and you won't have to worry about it either.

Out of joke, your way is no doubt the best and only way to get a correct 228 rep now.

It just exceeds my currently allocated budget for a rep...

Great watches, Jay!

I especially love the PVD logo. Awesome!

EDIT: I now read that the Jaytech has tobacco dial and brass hands. I did not see them clearly in the pic. Awesome it too!!

Just, differently from me, you seem able to follow the OEM route...

In that case, I hope they also make the 228!!!

Yes, the dial of a DSN 228 should come out very good, J.!

Unfortunately, as you know, the caseback of the 228 is very different from the 088's and 089's...

Thanks all, your appreciation is very welcome!

I have to say that I LOVE IT!!! Wow, what an idea. Here's what I think you can use to build that baby.

Thanks, Uncle, you got quite close. But...

Minifiddy complete case (including crown, CG, & crystal)

PAM104 (slightly modified) dial

DSN 7750 golden hands (slightly modified to fit the Asian 21J)

Asian 21J movement (yes, I also wanted it auto, besides of the date)

Stem adapter to fit the Auto 90 stem into the 120 manual crown tube

PAM 029 metal spacer ring -- to fit the Asian 21J into the Minifiddy case (darn, I forgot to take a shot of the back!)

Customized cyclops applied on the Mifiddy crystal.

I even have the perfect name for it, the "SURFTECH".

Great! "SURFTECH" taken!

If you go the CousinsUK acrylic route, I used a 37.2mm Sternkruez low dome crystal and vaccum said it fit the mini-Fiddy case better than any crystal he'd tried before.

Actually, your low dome looks better than the high dome I tried, IMHO.

I also tried a low dome, but it did not look that way... I wonder why...

In any case, congrats! That's a great timepiece!

I love the Fiddy look, but 47mm is oversized to my wrist, and I really want a date.

So, here is my Ideal PAM Fantasy Project on its current status.

Full body shot:

Full body & strap:

Resting:

Date shot:

Wristshot - daylight:

Wristshot - flashlight:

--------

Next steps:

1 - Larger golden hands, more Fiddy- / Radiomir-style.

2 - Brown & unbranded dial (and, obvioulsy, a relume on that occasion).

3 - Date font improvement.

--------

Opinions are welcome.

Thanks for looking,

:sss:

sssurfer, thanks for the suggestion of the acrylics at cousins

That was the least I could do, after having been a so poor prophet...

will check those out. acrylics are actually very practical as scratches can be very easily buffed out. my genuine rolex datejust had an acrylic and every 4 or 5 years i'd take it to the jeweler and it would come back looking brand new.

I absolutely agree.

They are also so inexpensive that you may even buy a whole bunch of them to keep you supplied for aeons.

I tried a few of them already, and I found that the model with the most similar shape to our fiddy and minifiddy crystals are their Sternkreuz high dome (HWS) crystals.

Also, be informed that you may renew your acrylic crystals by yourself with the easy-to-find (and inexpensive as well) PoliWatch product.

If you measure the diameter of your crystal (oops, of the bezel where it used to sit, I mean ) in order to get a replacement, please let us know. I wrote it down when I disassembled my minifiddy, but I seem now unable to find the paper where I wrote it.

Hey SSSurfer,

I'm so happy you pop up here.

I want all the community to know you educated me in Pams

Well, I'm still wanting to ask tons of questions of course, but at least I didn't fall in any scam or poor 196 and for that I thank you (aswell as for your patience )

You are always welcome, Stephane.

I am noone to educate anyone, though. I just like sharing with good members like you the little I happened to become in knowledge of.

Ok, well, each time I'll wear it with the Rubber one (wich I love), I'll have a thought for you M, ok ?

Glad to hear it, Stephane. Congrats once again, and wear it well!

Argh watchwatcher, really sorry to hear the bad news.

Especially exactly in a moment when I am wearing my minifiddy on my wrist while I am typing this.

Maybe a 212 crystal would fit?

(Edit: measured the glass crystal of my 212. It is 37mm diameter).

Else, inexpensive acrylic crystals are available on cousinsuk.

To me, the "L SWISS MADE L" touching the 6 is more bothering than the large space between SWISS and MADE.

The short marker @9Hr is supposed to be an easy fix for a relumer.

What I feel placing DSN one step forward is his very accurate caseback.

In any case, I think that our apprentice's step is remarkable

I absolutely agree. How refreshing to see a... collector... willing to echange knowledge with us purchasers/fanatics. Each of us knows things that the other may lack, a mutual exchange is very likely to result to mutual benefit as well.

So, thanks to Mark for his clarification, good will, site improvement... and especially for his avatar (please forgive me, I go crazy on Asian chicks).

Mark, I humbly suggest you classify your HBBs as 1st version (slow beat, "low" cost) and 2nd version (high beat, high cost).

Any insights on the pros & cons of each version from expert members like Pix is highly welcomed. I learnt a lot from these two threads. Really thanks to anyone involved.

That timepiece is a masterpiece, Stephane. Congrats to you, and kudos to all the great members involved in making this project a reality! (A special hi to my old friend W)

As for the strap, and as a personal homage to your project, I thought you might like a pic from the genuine OP 2004 (G series) catalogue:

As you can see, they propose it with a black croco strap...

...but, honestly, I prefer it with your rubber strap.

In any case, just leave brown out. Better playing with black, or black + grey, or black + off white.

Davidsen

I cant forget....I cant forget any news?

Lello is currently in trouble with his new PC.

Patience.

I was thinking of the so called custom runs of super reps. Here is some math: If they sell 200 $800+ HBB's to forum members @ $300 profit that's $60,000 in the bank. If 200 represents 1% that's a 6 million profit on on the HBB alone which is I bet more profitable than Hublot. I guess we're all living in the wrong Hemisphere, and I'm shocked our collectors would even bother to return the emails of us picky bastards, reply in threads, etc! If we're talking reps in the $100-$150 dollar range, then I'd say the forum represents far less than 1% of the reps sold on a single streetcorner in NYC.

Exactly.

So the true mean figure should stay middlepoint between those two extremes, and 1-5% might be not so far from reality.

Most likely near the lower limit, though.

It is one of the better looking timepieces I ever happened to look at.

Congrats!

The dealer in question maintains that's last year's price and that the website has not been updated in error....

Uhm. It is a few months now that I am keeping an eye on his rose gold model

http://www.timeshops.net/Hublot_bigbang_Ai...c_case_1121.htm

and I know it was @ 397 USD until late February.

Now it is @455 USD.

One thing that prevented me from buying it was the 42mm size.

I know, buddy....but personally, if I thought we could do it, I think it would be worth trying if only to find out how much juice we as a group actually have.

I think somewhat between 1 and 5%.

I think it is different between topics opened "just" to raise a discussion, and informative posts like answers to specific questions, or tutorials.

I think that Toadtorrent was referring to the second type of posts when he started this topic. And I thank him for doing it.

What I can say is that, when I answer a specific question, a reply -- even a simple "tank you" -- is appreciated.

A "thanks" rating is appreciated as well, but especially from members who are not the one originally asking the question.

I also have to say there has been a time, a few months ago, when courtesy was looking almost forgotten, but now things are going much better.

On my personal book, anyway, those who don't even care to leave a thanks when I answer their question(s) are going to get no new answers from me on possible next questions...