babola

Consistency in dial print and lume finishes isn't something Panerai is normaly proud of...the lume glow on gens goes from blueish-green to greenish-blue, depending on the series and model. The lume on this 177 isn't that far off the gen, though.

Angus uses old Fiddy pictures, that's why it looks better then it really is, simple as that. The original Eddie/River Fiddy rep from 2005 was copied from the gen sample. The only drawback was the incorrect ETA6497 squared bridges OPII mov't, but that one got replaced not long after in early '06 with correct ETA6497 mov't with E-series bridges. The deco on these was rough and rugged compared to later series E-series movt's. Pick your poison...either or to get the 'ultimate' Fiddy created, you'll need to do have the aforementioned early Fiddy rep as a base, into which you'd drop either the latest (discontinued) ETA6497-1 (slower beat) E-series movt with dagger S/N reg, or higher beat Asian ETA-clone (ETA6497-2), or even a gen mov't. You could also use gen bits like case, dial, hands, CG, crown etc...the major pain is to get the caseback with non-E0117/0851 serial. hope this helps, b

Gee it really did take some time this time around, Andrew... Glad you've gone for "V3"...much closer to the real deal IMO, and much cheaper as well Wear it in good health!

If he'd gone for the completely accurate he wouldn't have used DSN dial at the first place. The fact is the resulting piece is one of the nicest 201s put together by rep members here, yes...the FGD dial upgrade would have made it a little closer to the gen, I believe we all would agree with that ;-)

It's the effect of the taller xtal combined with the dial indices and numerals being located closer to the rehaut edge, thats's all really... the latter is the case with all 'standard DSN' dials which are slightly oversized for cartel-style 44mm case.

For that SFSO I'd go tan-croc or darker brown-croc, sorry but that ostrich strap is a bit out of place with that watch IMO. Too much information... if you know what I mean. ;-)

Yea yea yea...we all heard you over @RWI...you show off!!! kidding aside, that's one of a kind Breitling, hope it will get some decent wristtime instead being reduced to the watchbox

If it's one of his recent dials from about 6-9 months back, yes it will. DSN doesn't produce his custom 44mm Luminor cases anymore, he's been using standard cartel rep cases instead. pre-V cases are exception, he makes those but they need some more work done on their design and manufacture to make them look closer to the real deal.

Except for the fact that the bracelet is neither the innovation nor newborn idea...Seiko had these on their chronos in 60-es...they were great then

Yes The Zigmeister did, and they're bad news. Basicaly once you remove them you will in most cases be unable to re-installed them. cheers, b

Hi P, just responed to your post on RWI, the more expensive V2 Breitling reps that come from Hublot maker have bezel force pressed onto the case, and the 8 bezel "screws" aren't actualy screws. Cheaper V1/V3 Skylands for example come with real screws and the bezel can be removed like the gen Breitling one. cheers, b

The first gen tell is actually the dial, gen 111 sausage dial is still miles off if you know what to look for. CGs and crowns are not so hard to get 1:1 these days, but you have to have either JimmyFu's CG or one of the well made polished rep CGs from the past, and gen or T-48 crown. b

How good is it, any better than single primary mag ? Has anyone compared the two ? Was it simply made to rectify the issue with second hand 'catching' on thicker primary mag? thanks...any info on these new is much appreciated. Will PM M also. cheers, b

K, is that a brand new ssurfer's cyclop you're referring to? I got mine (027/028 cyclop) 6 months ago from him and remember ssurfer saying for his cyclop to work the best the secondary cyclop had to be removed from under the dial, and that's exactly what I asked The Zigmeister to do. So has he now made a different one with lesser degree of magnification to work with the secondary mag? cheers, babola

Dial is better, for sure, but still needs slight improvement, so fingers crossed. And what's with the second hand post hole on the dial ?! cheers, b

DSN should still have few older cases available, check him first. ;-)

The Zigmeister has done excellent match to gen T-lumed dial of A/B series on this dial. Those dials had a lume "leak" between horizontal and vertical bars on numbers '2' and '3', and The Zigmeister managed to reproduce that to a great degree here. Not sure if he was going for it or not, but it came up very well. Also, that CG and crown are to 'die for' cheers, babola

Both gen and rep 027/028 PR cases are one of a kind, speicial dimensions to accomodate thicker assembly of ETA2892 + replica of a 'Soprod 9040' PR module mounted on top of it. It's also one of the very few reps that uses a 'secondary' mag installed on underside of the DW window on the dial to provide extra magnification for the sunken DW that's sitting quite low and deep because of the PR module assembly. Strangely enough gen 027/028 don't come with the secondary mags and still project the date to the wearer very well. I believe this is due to better magnification of the primary mag installed on underside of xtal, as well as larger DW opening on the dial. Either or, fidlling with the 027/028 reps as far as parts compatibility and swap come, is very limited to the rep collector. My 027 rep received Marco's mag and Lello's (older version without known issues with installetion) DW. It also has Kruzer's gen crown with duble-seal assembly on the neck, just like the genuine A and B series Pams had. I'm still sitting on the fence re T-lume, as the rep I have comes with nicely aged lume from the factory already, will have to think about this one, though. cheers, b

Yup, judging by some reports from the 'risti site, Panerai started gradualy introducing A/R in their C-series, and all D-series watches came with it.

Nice onw W, treasure it...reps like these are so rare these days they're almost as elusive as their gen counterparts.

Thumbs up for that dial, very gen like and close to those '05/'06 dials that used to come in 001B old-school rep. If you can source more of these dials as spare parts thru "your" dealer for members here, something like a group buy, that would be fantastic, I'd be the first to go for one or two. cheers, babola

Just be careful, these days pays to request the pictures of the actual Fiddy watch you will be receiving. The first pic from Angus shows the old-school Fiddy with correct dial text position and color, as well as xtal with correct distorsion (break points) line. These are NOT being produced any more. The one you will receive from DSN has pretty much the same components as the Fiddy available thru rest of the dealers, Angus included. Dial txt will be light brown or beige in color, numeral 1 is wrong shape and xtals aren't that good anymore, both from the perspective of strong pinkish A/R hue and distorsion lines. Taking all this into consideration, I'd still give DSN a slight advantage, as he will at least show you the pic of your watch assembled, and most of the times help with issues and spare and replacement parts. babola

Yup correct, and I learned this the hard way, although a long time ago now :-( The frustration was so high that I pulled a trigger on peepshow's (originaly owned by 'lovepanerai') 196 with ETA7753, modded by The Zigmeister. Well, live and learn.

Nice one mate, I'd just add to one comment above, the dial txt should be just a tad thinner, but that's not a biggie, really. You know my contact details...when finished drop me a note! cheers, babola

Prsists...not sure where you get all this wrong info from, listen to peepshow, he knows his Pam stuff ;-)