babola

Mate, that looks like DSN case set on your picture. The bezel with the high base, the centered CG lever, the crown with over-beveled teeth and stumpy lugs shape all look more DSN than Cartel to me. As Drulee mentioned above, getting parts from DSN to fit existing 'hardware' is a major hit-and-miss. His bezels definitely won't fit cartel cases, sorry. Best to leave it as is, or get the whole new case set altogether (although very pricy) from him. The auto cases he uses on 27/28 PR models come with low bezel profile, very gen-like. There's a downside to that though...the lugs on those are stumpy and short, and there's a large cutout between the lugs. Up to you bud, cheers! b

The pleasure was all mine, mate...that was at least I could do after you've done all the hard stuff and made us all a little happier, once again I bought a better digicam in the meantime which should fix the issues I've been having with macro photography in the past as evident in my photos posted above Can't wait to see the hands from your second run

Hi T, the gen Ti crowns aren't bead-blasted, at least not on the historic models I handled in the past. It should look pretty much like the one in the middle in your photo above. cheers, b

That's a great 'matching' 201/A you have there, Merlin - awesome result!

Impressive!

The method is a MAJOR hit-and-miss, one-way street...this was a risky thing to do as I had only about 50-60% success in the past, stuffing up many hands and test dials in the process. I decided to take my chances this time, and it worked. The second hand was wiped straight away after the coating, the lume is porous so couldn't be wiped off accidentally, anyway. I'm a fiddler and a modder and I guess I just got lucky this time...but with these hands I'd advise to leave them the way they are because the risk of stuffing them up outweighs the benefits by far. cheers, babola

Sweet gators, mate...the lefty isn't half bad either Enjoy!

Hi VW, Davidsen should definitely have the Rad tube as spare. Many of us sourced it from him in the past to fix our stripped stock rep crowns. Also, I never had a rep Rad crown threads stripped, it was always the tube. It appears the tube is made of softer S/S than the crown. If you could source a gen or DSN tube and already have a rep crown - you should be sweet my friend! cheers, babola

Nice one bud...did you airbrush the lume as well or used some other alternative method? Looking good!

Yes it does, but very faint one. If you're building a nice 183 rep, it's probably best to leave it without any AR IMO. The alternative would be to send it to one of the A/R service providers like Chieftang or Takashi, then strip the A/R coat from the top. Photo of a gen PAM183H next to the 'legend' cheers, babola

Yup, as I stated above not a a biggie at all, some people will care about the little details more than others, though. My aim was to provide a brief review to a wide range of RWG audience, some more OCD and 'technical' in observations while the others not obsessing small things at all.

First of all guys, let me thank Simon for another great product from the infamous 'FGD factory' ! I promised him I'll post few words once his pre-V set makes its way Downunder-Kiwiland, and while I haven't had a chance to install them yet on my pre-A 040/Ti, here are some pics and commentary I thought the community would find beneficial. Also, I've slightly changed the color of the lume strips as the original color was crisp white...and I apologize I haven't included the 'pre' pictures. More about this one on one of the photos below. BTW, I haven't done any Photoshoping on any of the photos, firstly as I didn't have time to play with white balance offset etc, and secondly I wanted to show the hands in their natural appearance. The FGD pre-V hands in their full glory (slightly airbrushed to darken the crisp white lume): This is one of the photos of a genuine 5218-201/A that shows the original hands in macro, comparing the rep/gen photos shows how close to 1:1 FGD pre-V hands are: ...and another photo of a gen pre-V: Few more pictures to show FGD hands texture, shape and overall appearance: Not many would notice, but there are some minor differences between the minute and hour hands. The lume strip is only slightly wider on the hour hand, and the angle of the arrow tip is slightly wider on the hour hand, making it looking slightly blunt. This again, isn't something that most of us would catch by the naked eye. I only know this because Simon and I noticed it on the blown-up prototype blueprint, that's all. While the extra thickness of the hour hand is I believe correct, the cut off tips are incorrect, but again...not something most of us would catch without being blown up on photos. This photo shows the original white lume on the back of the minute hand vs airbrushed 'tritium' lume on the hour hand. It appears the hands maker missed Simon's instruction about the correct aged lume color, and went with straight C1. The small second hand is as 1:1 as you get these days. The frame is thinner as per gen T-hands specs, finish is semi-gloss, and the whole look and feel is very gen-like. Again, this one has been airbrushed in aged T-lume by me: This photo shows the lume strip width differences on both minute and hour hands (or does it? :-)) It's actually hard to notice...so what is your guess which is hour and which minute hand? These pre-V hands should actually fit many of our projects, including pre-V, pre-A as well as A-series watches. They all seem to come with same type of hands, wider and longer lume strip, extending well into the tip of the hands. I have included below some photos of gen pre-V, pre-A and A-series models... pre-V 201/A: pre-V 203/A: pre-A 001: A-series 001: Some suggestions for the next run, if I may: The photo below shows the different hand tip angle on hour and minute FGD pre-V hands, with minute hand having the arrow cutout tip with slightly sharper angle compared to hour hand. The genuine have the same angle on both the hour and minute hand tip, at least this is what I believe. Not a biggie, but also an easy thing to 'fix'. Another insignificant detail is that the tips of the hands are slightly cut off, the genuine pre-V hands appear to be sharp at the tip...but I could be wrong and it could be the photos I've seen...not 100% sure on this one. Feel free to add your thoughts and comments on this: Lastly, the lume should be slightly darker or creamier white, more like ivory, instead of pure white C1 the maker used this time. Again, this should be an easy fix, and the second run of the hands could address all this little (and shall I say unimportant) bits, and make them even closer to 1:1 to gens, if that's even possible as these hands are probably the best and closest Panerai rep hands any aftermarket maker made so far, IMO All in all - a wonderful product Simon, keep up the good work, mate! cheers, babola

Cool, no probs...both black crock and/or JV gold would do. Both straps should nicely match the black dial. If you decide on black, make sure it doesn't come with white stitch as it would be a little off as a match with those aged numerals on that DSN dial, IMO. Any way you chose, it's your watch ultimately...don't worry what others like us say

I think it would look great. Lighter tan, caramel and sand colored leather straps make a nice visual fit with black aspect of PVD/DLC, IMO.

Interesting ?! Hardly mate...

Nope mate, it hasn't been a decent one made so far. The V1 of 196 rep is much closer than any 250 rep made so far, IMO. And I share some of your sentiments towards the 312...it was almost like - "hmm, we're really running out of ideas and things you can do with our 3 types of cases and 10 types of dials, so let's make this time a mishmash of bits and pieces we can throw into a single watch" I'm all for new designs and ideas but IMO the flat Luminor xtal doesn't fit Fiddy-style case, it was originally designed with the domed xtal in mind and it should have remained that way. The date window on Fiddy watch is also something I'm unable to savor...sorry folks.

Yup, that's him. Just ask for a crown tube for his T-48 spring-loaded crown, leave the other details aside. See the first pic in this post: T-48-SL crown review cheers, b

Thanks mate...yeah kudos to Tourby, and there's yet more interesting stuff to come from him in the near future :-)

They come with single o-ring seal installed closer to the 'mouth'. I believe Tourby could provide you with the one he recently made alongside his new spring loaded crowns. This one should fit standard rep crown as well as his T-48 and T-48-SL crowns. Ask nicely and you never know... Otherwise you can always ask Davidsen, the downside with his crown tube is that internal diametar is slightly wider, to fit his own spring-loaded crowns. So if you we're about to use standard rep crown or one of Tourby's or Palps with DSN crown tube the o-ring seal will provide very little water resistance, if any. Hope this helps, b

Definitely spring-loaded, mate. BTW, it looks just like pre-A and A-series crown, with thicker neck and two o-rings installed on the neck, rather than inside the crown tube which is the case with the series that followed. See the pic below: Hope this helps, b

That's certainly great news and fantastic offer. Especially considering a high-cost of ETA-6497-2 mov'ts which is about 3-4 times of it's slower 'sibling' 6497-1, if you can find one that is. Tourby, would you have a pic of the non-decorated one that you could post here? Many thanks, b

It's true - Dado's alive!!! Welcome back, mate!

Looks like problem solved, z3k0 - it doesn't get better than this...

Nice, very nice...even the tip of the hands were cut off to make the lume strip appear more T-lume like. Exceptional attention to detail, from the chunky lug case to CG to crown to polished and flattened cannon pin and of course the infamous FGD dial Enjoy!

As FGD said, on most of the Pam reps (and gens alike) there's a nylon gasket that 'holds' the bezel to the case. It's very similar in design and appearance to xtal gasket only slightly higher and larger in diametar. It's installed between the bezel and the outer rim of the raised case ring. cheers, b