babola

Gen 000/005 is definitely not textured, mate. However not glossy either. Rep dial is very very close and you should leave it alone, IMO Both are basically jet black as you said, with a nice smooth matte appearance, the look which changes under different angles and depends on a light source. Some collectors insisted in the past the rep Base Logo dial needed a coat of matte varnish to bring it closer to gen dial appearance. IMO that was unnecessary, and depending on varnishing technique many have ended up with an incorrect dark gray or anthracite effect.

DSN recent (over a year now) dials for 44mm handwinds are all correct OEM diametar, no worries mate... cheers, b

Agree in general. While there are many mediocre Pam strap makers around, his ones are particularly bad, and I mean - really bad. Almost bordering on "WTF was he thinking" kind of bad. If you do a search on 'Risti you'll find that there are many more that just don't get his straps. I don't think he's been selling many of them anyway, though. On the other hand there are many vintage and 'ammo-pouch' style strap makers around with very tasteful creations. My tan Kaktus Drifter is still one of the best aftermarket straps I've ever owned.

I really don't care much about the logo and/or Omega text correctness. For me the bigger eyesore are the small chrono register hands, they're too short and have larger diameter at the base on this rep. The gen 2008 SMP300 comes with larger subdials and longer subdial hands to compensate for the fact. It appears the rep maker used the older short-style SMP300 hands on this model. For me, this is a no-go unless they fix the hands, or I manage to source the gen ones. Oh and that bezel pearl, sadly, they just can't get that one right

Yeah, a couple of small issues there although fixable and no reson for big concern. It appears that you ended up with the combo of: A] Lello 2892 DW (his DWs usually came with thicker font than Panerai OEM DW one) B] secondary DW mag (cyclop) on the movement (this is installed on both cartel and DSN PR mov'ts to provide extra magnification of otherwise too sunken DW due to thickness of Soprod9040 PR module) C] SSSurfer's DW cyclop on the xtal (his mags come with very strong magnification) The combination of those three provides a slight over-magnification on the DW. I went with the same combo but ended up removing the secondary cyclop from the mov't, and the result was great. Secondly, the DW itself doesn't seem to be in alignment with the DW window on the dial as it's obvious from the pics you posted, there could be few reasons for this but nothing to worry about. really. You might need to send it off to a watchmaker of your choice to have a look at it, though. And thirdly, the DW cyclop will have to be removed from the xtal and re-installed, as it's currently misaligned, i.e. not centered over the DW dial cutout. Not a big deal for someone like Zig-gy or others experienced in cyclop install. Hope this helps a bit, b

Good work mate! The caseback serials aren't E0581/1950 by any chance? ;-)

W...and all this time I though I was the uber-OCD one It appears I have some catching up to do... cheers, b

Yeah, but they aren't that much pronounced. The gen Pam sausage dials come with the very fine groove around the markers and numerals, for example. Good review unregistered! Would you say the crown on the DSN 002 case sits a little to high on the case, i.e. sticking above top of the CG? Is it possible the case is actually Getat/Jackson instead of DSN? cheers mate, b

I went thru the very same dilemma re EL 196 dial originally, decided to keep it stock in the end, just got Zig-gy re-lume it in correct greenish/yellow. As you said, the chances of ruining the very nicely done rep dial are quite high. Even with all the 'issues' it comes with (I'd add low crossbar on letter 'A' and the fact the 10, 20, 30 numerals on a chrono register are positioned slightly off, as well) it's still the closest PAM196 rep dial made to this day, IMO. cheers, b

Good reference photos Pete The pre-V and contemporary CGs are shaped in a quite unique way, and very much different from pre-A to to F-series. They not only have a concave shape to match the sloping case lines, but also flare from the case out making them slightly thinner at the case end and thicker at the CG pin end. On the other hand, the pre-A to F-series CGs have a slight slope towards the CG pin area. Hope this makes sense...somehow b

As Pete said above, it's mainly lugs and bezel that are slightly different between the series. Changes from series to series with regards other case bits are so hard to spot by the naked eye, they're negligible. As far as the FGD dials are concerned and their fit, it pretty much depends on what do you use as a base (carrier for the top dial). If you use a base of the sandwich dial, it should fit just fine, if you use sausage dial it may end up being slightly thicker. If the latter is the case, I'd advise you 'shave' off some of the sausage dial thickness before you attach FGD dial on top of it to maintain the correct thickness of the finished dial. cheers, b

Looking good mate...the lower polishing is definitely a bonus, you can always add a little more later should you desire

FYI...these are the same crowns as the prod ones, except for the lack of teeth over-polishing finish. Tourby's maker was instructed not to polish the teeth too much, everything else is left the same as the pre-prod ones.

Could this be something you're after? New T-48 S/S crown ...and this: New T-48 S/S crown cheers, b

LOL...ha, ha, it was more like a suggestion :-) V1 and V3 10D versions were a flop while the one with V2 dial ended up being a success.

Great result in the end mate :-) On another note, funny how no one commented yet on the fact the crown 'sits' quite low on the case side profile. The movement is placed a little lower inside the case, compared to old cartel and genuine PAM24. I'm sure there were genuine reasons David had to resort to this. Could you post a case crown-side shot if possible, please? I may be just imagining things... That aside, it's a great watch altogether, enjoy!

Ahem...

PAM360 rep is in the works. It should be few more weeks until the V1 comes out, though. The latest dial/hands prototype looks good, however the final product could differ greatly from the gen since no one has posted a real-life photos yet.

VDB...mate, your PM box is full, could you please free some space I need to send you a message, thanks! Or even better, you could PM me with your email address.

Caseback too, no? cheers! b

Great pickup - one simply can't go wrong with a base Pam, especially when well executed. DSN is sure getting better at this these days

Geez mate, you've lost me at '...activation' On a more serious note, WSO CGs are fine but just that - fine. They're a bit rough in finish and not exactly correct physical dimensions. If you're looking for the closest to gen pre-V CG these days, it's still (unfortunately) LH CG that you should dish your hard earned money for.

Hey that's really a nice one buddy...don't you love when all the bits just sit together like they were meant to be

This is very true, including the 24D. Paneristi sales forum had many pictures of 24/25 D-series subs with metal circles around markers, listed there in the past. cheers!

Thanks Mickey, much appreciated!