sssurfer

Definitely.

There used to be two avatars that hit me, but it is a long time that they disappeared, I don't even remember which members they were of (one of them swdivad, maybe). One was a rotating tesseract. Amazing. The other was a 3D and animated Taichi (Yin-Yang). ...Oh, and naturally an evergreen favourite of mine is ajoesmith's!

Apologies for being a little late. DSN. TWP's has the needle swan neck, not the dagger one. I also become very cautious anytime I read "synthetic sapphire". Being the sapphire of watch crytals always synthetic, that is a redundancy that might cover something different (Andrew and Josh teaching). TWP's is also incorrect in that sort of "clous de Paris" pattern on the movement bridges. OP introduced that pattern only on H series (2005) and onward -- while the 127 comes in E series only (2002). In the end, I am sorry I have to qualify TWP's model as incorrect. While DSN's is 99.5% correct.

O M F G

Wonderful! What about a blue strap to the blue watch?

Which model did you get?

Argh. I would discourage you from trying this without the proper tool. Even with the tool one can break it, and/or scratch the CG, if the tool is not good quality or one does not pay attention to keep the needle properly aligned with the pin... Believe me, removed many levers here.

Hi dadog, I always use the same pin remover tool also used for bracelets: The only tricky thing is to guess which end you have to push, as only one of them will work. Usually you have to push from the bottom (wrist side) to upside. A more reliable way to tell is looking any differences in dimension between the two pin's ends. If one end is smaller than the other, then push on it. If you are unable to figure out which end to push, then start by pushing on the bottom side with LIGHT pressure (just 1-2 turns of the tool screw). If you feel strong resistance, then try the same on the upper side. If you feel strong resistance here too, go again on the bottom side and apply a lttle more pressure. And so on. Soon or later the pin will start moving out.

Oh. So I missed this thread until now. Polishing cloths will not work on sapphire, only diamond paste will. Both polishing cloths and diamond paste will remove the rep AR coating in a snap. Not an issue, as on PAMs the AR coating is on the inside only, so you are not going to touch it unless you remove the crystal out from the case and handle it carelessly. 3.5 micron is fine enough to give a polished look, no need to go lower. I rather have a feeling that it will take ages for you to make the scratch disappear starting with such a fine grain. Most used technique is starting with some coarser grain (10-15 microns and up) to remove the scratch, then going down to finer grain just to polish the "foggy" effect left by the coarser paste. But it naturally depends on the depth of your scratch. And as it seems a rule of this thread going a bit out of topic too, here is my small contribute:

PM sent.

Congrats, Jiro! I would not worry too much about that medal. I bet it will vanish as soon as you get to your 1K post. And congrats to Pug and BT as well. Brilliant idea.

Best wishes, Victoria. Feel we all close to you.

The less features you have on your PAM, the less places for flaws you get. That is why the 112 is (usually) better than a 111, that is (usually) better than a date model, that is (usually) better than complicated (chrono, GMT, PR etc) models. Still, if you cannot resign yourself to base models (e.g., I absolutely need second hand for my work, and date for my Alzheimer) you may find some good reps. The 050 is a good out-of-the-box rep, and the 029, 063, and high-cost 027 can be made almost perfect with some mods. There are rumors that almost perfect 104 and 164 are near to get released. You also have to take into account your wrist size. PAMs are usually large (44mm), often huge (47mm). If you have a small wrist you might want to focus on 40mm models, max. 44mm. About the swan neck regulator, here is a pic. On the right you see the whole swan neck regulator device, with a(n incorrect) needle-shaped regulator. On the left there is a 'dagger'-shaped regulator (correct on PAMs).

Holy crap indeed!

I am afraid that spring crowns will hardly be seen on reps as long as similar tension can be provided by the rubber gasket. BTW, what is especially new in the replica world in the last year are prices hugely rising up.

To each his own, I suppose. Personally, I find the screws (and the related short minute marks) the easiest way to tell a rep. BTW, the only BR reps coming with correct screws and marks seem to be the PR models -- unfortunately coming with incorrect PR gauges as well Agree.

A gorgeous watch indeed. As far as I know, the gen BR03-92 Limited Edition only comes in orange, not blue. Don't worry about the color, as the screws (mis)placement on the dial does not make for a 100% rep anyway. And it is a great watch anyway. I surely would not go for a quartz movement when the gen is mech. But this might be just a personal dislike as well.

I tried several diluents and so (acetone, turpentine, bleach, and others). They all ruined the dial. Only one of them attacked the dial 10-15 secs after removing the letters -- so that you have a very short time to clean it after it removes the letters and before it damages the dial. It was such a tricky task that I did not even take notice of which substance it was, I seem to remember it was acetone.

Great review and great comments. Thanks to seraphe and everyone who replied. Now the whole board (I especially) got much a better knowledge and insight about this model.

Maybe the stem disengaged from the crown (bad thread)?

Sure! Use "natural" SL for the lume, make the dial brown, make the back sapphire, and place a nice Angelus SF240 movement in. Anyay, great pics! Congrats! (whisper: it's 8 giorni brevettato)

Agree 90% For the remaining 10% of watches: 9% proper tools 1% my watchsmith

Watch it. The film is horrible, but Kirsten Dunst is lovely (as always).

Thanks, TTK. PM sent.

Some truth?!? This frame from the video should be pinned on every boys' textbook!