Hey guys,
I have only entered this wonderful world of Rep Watch in less then a week and was lucky enough to find this site on the first day. I am truly amazed and overwhelmed by the amount of information and knowledge that people are willing to share with one another here.
What started me off was seeing a beautiful Pam 88 in some ads. Then for a short while, I spent more time researching for a rep Graham Swordfish, as some "review site" ranked it as 1 of the top 10 most accurate rep watches AND others are also saying that Pam reps are dime in a dozen nowadays. But in the end, I can't resist the subtle elegance of a Pam, it's bold yet not too flashy.
I have also spent sometime lurking around this area, trying to find out all the information I need by exhausting the "search" button before I put up yet another noobi thread, bugging you guys. I did find a lots of answers/information as I go through different models, and here are some of the things I learned:
1. My first love, Pam 88, probably has two best out of box versions: cartel best version ( $428 from Josh ) and DavidSen. All has its pros and cons with most people saying DavidSen's is a bit closer to the gen out of box and also better bang for the buck. The biggest problems are the shades of the dial/sub dial, boldness of the small numbers, cyclops, placement of the "swiss made" at the bottom and CG.
2. Then I spotted a Pam 186 Arktos, loved it but again, it doesn't seem to have better reps then the Pam 88 I mentioned above. The best I've seen is from Josh for $288. So needless to say, it's definitely not even close to his "best version" as he charges them at the ridiculous price of $428:) Also, it's a limited edition of 500 units world wide, so even if I spot one on the street, I will automatically assume, just like many others should/would do, that it's a rep, not a gen, simply because of the extreme low probability of running into 1 in 500 of anything in this world:)
3. The Pam 212 also caught my eye, but again, there are just so many elements of the watch that even the most dedicated watch collector can easily miss, not to mention that the only reps I find from reputable collectors are all using mineral glass or synthetic sapphire, which are probably other ways of calling regular glass or even plastic:)
Having gone through these, I started to think if my objective is to find a rep Pam that can be as close to the gen as possible, right out of the box, maybe I should look for some model that doesn't have that many "variables" where the details can easily be missed? For instance, I love Pam 88, but if the color of the dial/sub dial, or the mag at 3 o'clock, or even the fonts of the small numbers are some of the easy giveaways, I should find a model that doesn't have those elements to begin with. Make sense?
Now, following that same logic, would you agree that a Pam 111 should be an in-production, AND not a limited edition model that's easier to rep as close to gen out of the box? Or maybe there are some other models ( I just can't believe how many Pam models there are over the years ) that are similar AND is known to have excellent out of box reps? Maybe a Pam 111 from DavidSen with the old rep case if he still has them is the best one to get?
Thanks and hopefully I will get some suggestions from you guys. Cheers!!