babola

All good here...the collection is still expanding, need to start offloading some pretty soon, though. Glad all is well with you mate! D

I thought I was slightly better looking...

This may take a while though...2 Daylights I currently own are more than enough for me at the moment

Moggio mate...have you been hiding under the rock all this time or underground chasing those wombats inside their burrows Yup mate, these are very real and exceptionally well made. The A/R is a tad on a pinkish side compared to gen, but very close as well. Unfortunately these don't come with ETA7753, instead they house a new breed A7753 mov'ts. Get yourself one...you won't regret it, I promise cheers, your mate from across the ditch

Many of gen owners and members of Paneristi.com are reading this forum. Unfortunately they're quiet and don't post much on either Gen or Rep forums, so don't expect much support from them if you decide to have a go at Kevin on Paneristi. The guy has some shady business practice, that's for sure.

Yeah, the "problem" with DSN Fiddy is that it's one of the only two models (217 Destro is the second) he doesn't make, instead he sources the casesets and dials from the Cartel factories directly. His own casemaker doesn't produce 127/217 cases and dials. Not exactly sure why, it may be that the cost pricepoint wasn't high enough to justify the new 127/217 caseset R&D and production by his own maker. As Pete and W have mentioned above (good memory re those 127 CB numbers Pete, BTW)...there were 3 different well finished Fiddy casebacks made in the past that I've come across in my hunt for that elusive Ultimate Fiddy build - 0117, 0581 and 0492. There may be one or two more, but I've never seen another one in the wild (well made decent one, that is), so please take this with a grain of salt. The 0117 is everywhere, not much to talk about really. The 0492 is the least seen one, and although of slightly different finish than the other two (depth and width of the engraved text) peeps that have this one should consider themselves a bit 'luckier' than the rest of us 'mortals' . The 0581 came for example on my 3rd Fiddy from Andrew in 2007, the one well known for exploding xtals and made by that 'other' rep company. The case set it came with was all over the place, incorrect dimensions and bad finish especially around the areas where the lugs meet the case. But it had a very nice dial with crisp ivory color LP text and correct position of 1950 above 6 o'clock. I can confirm that 0581 CB fitted the standard EL one that came with 0117 CB, and vice-versa. They should be both interchangeable. I cannot confirm the 0492 though as I never owned one, as hard as I tried. Hope this above makes some sense, if any. This is just my personal observation, so don't flame me...please. cheers, D

I agree, these new Daylights look very gen-ish

They sure are matey, I got one as a spare part from Andrew...;-)

Agree on both the strap and the deployment clasp. The rubber strap is a 1:1 replication of the current version of historic rubber strap with the keeper "fixed" by 4 little tabs, two on each side of the keeper. The deployment butterfly clasp is also a different story, it's thicker than the previous version overall, and slightly more curved...so peeps with larger wrists be warned - the ens of the clasp will definitely push into underside of your wrist if you like wearing your straps tighter. The 'wings' that fold into the main frame come with updated (smaller diameter) spring loaded S/S balls, the deployment opens and closes much easier due to this fact alone. The 2 side pushers don't come with 4 micro screws anymore that push against the spring loaded balls, they come with flat-top pins instead. Engravings and etchings are 'out of this world' when talking rep stuff in general. Also, the shorter strap part is removed by a small screw that disengages the inside bar which is machined and polished to perfection. All in all 5-out-of-5 for the look and feel, 4-out-of-5 for comfort from me. cheers!

R, IMO these look much better in about every way bar the incorrect date cutout placement. As W mentioned above already the lume marker at 6 o'clock has been corrected, as well as extra hash removed right from 12 o'clock. The right chrono subdial on old-school dial had small 20 and 30 numerals placed a tad higher, this has also been corrected now. Overal dial txt print is better, bolder and correct font. EL 7753 dial had super thin Luminor Panerai dial txt with low crossbars on letter A. Numerals 4, 5 and 8 are correct shape on this dial (EL's 196 dial is also great in this respect) and extremely close to a gen when compared to current A7753 188 (white Daylight), IMO. The size of chrono sub dials looks spot-on as well, with left and right ones being larger than the bottom one above 6 o'clock. I'm hoping the dial finish will also be correct deep black with slight satin appearance. I've just received my PAM236 so I'm content at the moment as I already own an EL ETA7753 196...but definitely eyeing that new A7753 196 at least as a backup if nothing else cheers!

'Nuf said! The dial on a new A7753 196 is slightly better but as a whole package old-school ETA-7753 powered 196 still rocks, IMO.

LOL! You crack me up mate! cheers, D

Beautiful Panda dial W...kudos to Rob! :-) cheers!

All good here mate, although feeling a bit under the weather at the moment, standard family related stuff ;-) Good points re gen Fiddy xtal. As you pointed out, the slight blue-ish tint is definitely there even on the gen 127, although visible at some specific and extreme angles amplified by a light source as well. I used to have some gen 127 photos from Paneristi Anthony Tsai that also exhibited this very effect...unable to dig them out my archives at this stage. The rep Fiddy A/R though is all over the place, some is more blueish some pinkish some hard to notice. The one Dave shows in his original post above, comes with one of those "not-so-good' A/R coats, and IMO should benefit from its removal altogether, but that's just me. I owned a rep Fiddy with similar A/R finish, the blue coating was so 'intrusive' it would emit sort of a greenish-brown hue at thhe edges under a daylight, mostly under direct sun. As far as the rep 127 xtal distorsion is concerned I also agree with you, I haven't seen yet a rep 127/217 xtal that comes with the distorsion break-point at the correct spot. 99% Sapphire rep 127 xtals have a break-point too close to the rehaut resulting in artificially shortened and narrowed numerals being 'squeezed' towards the centre of the dial. The break-point on the gen is closer to the middle of the dial, not by much but it's definitely in a different place. Many a rep 127 collector has opted for mineral glass instead of sapphire since the mineral glass doesn't exhibit that much of a distorsion. I stuck with an older rep sapphire xtal myself, with the 'break-point' somewhere in the middle between the rep and gen. I don't tend to notice the minute diffs on my 127 anymore, less and less rep-related flaws seem to bug me these days anyway :-) cheers, D

Dave, ignoring some of the suggestions from the post above that border on silliness (sorry), I'd say you've got yourself a pretty good 127. Things have to be put in perspective which many people that recently joined the fora miss - the close to 1:1 EL/River 127/217 reps from '05/'06 are now long gone. Granted, the dial is unfortunately from the recent batches that come with beige/light brown dial text, and the xtal may benefit from the A/R removal - all in all it's a nice one. It comes with old-school Fiddy case with sharp corners. CG pin is an easy fix for someone like you, so no worries ;-) Have fun !

The diff appears to be a miniscule one, although still noticeable. I've borrowed 2 photos from a wonderful 236 'rep vs gen' review from Bollobandit (hope you won't mind mate) See for yourselves guys...I'm not too phased, even with thinner DW font the rep comes scarily close and doesn't really warrant a DW upgrade, IMO. Gen: Rep: cheers!

Hmm, the difference between the two does look smaller on those pics, indeed..but it's still there, unfortunately I've asked BB to post couple of macro dial shots if possible...

Great review mate...much appreciated! So it appears the diff between the DW cutouts isn't that big, but still evident unfortunately. Would you mind posting some macro dial shots that show DW cutouts side-by-side if possible? many thanks, b

That one is very good actually, old-school dial with correct L-swiss-L placement, great for a nice L-dial project, IMO.

Spot on mate, I agree! The print on that T Swiss T dial in Ti PAM040 above is much closer to gen than the L Swiss L one.

I'd say neither at the moment...give it a month or two and the Hublot factory should be out with the new generation 111/112 sandwich dial reps, at least that's the latest I heard from Andrew. If their latest Daylights are anything to go by, these should be "sweet as"! Patience my friend...and welcome to the forum!

Looks gen. Movement, dial, caseback, crown. If we could see the CG and case profile shown a little better, we'd probably confirm they're OK too. As txcollector said above, the serial is good for E-series base historic Pam. OP6568 case designation is correct for this model.

I only have V1 with ETA7753 left now, as my PA196. That one comes with close to perfect lugs, check the photos Kruzer posted previously in this thread on page 1. He showed 188 and 196 reps with V1 cases, both with ETA7753. My 196 is the same model. The V2 will not take gen ETA7753 without case mods, including the pusher. Would you mind me asking why would you even think about that...considering a close to 'perfect' cases are now being produced that come with these latest A7753 188/196 Daylights? The V2 case isn't good at all mate, it may be functional as part of a watch but it's far from being a close 188/196 replication. cheers!

Great pre-A 40B Miles! Here's mine, basically the same specs as yours: pre-A 40B is one of those beautiful Pam models that got forgotten about simply because they never made it mainstream, and only a handful were made in their genuine form. chers!

Just for a comparison sake, here's his latest L-dial he uses on 111E now. Bar the slightly off L Swiss L font under 6 o'clock - a flippin' good looking dial, IMO! That number 6 is PERFECT!