babola

Wow - great result altogether! Wear it well! babola

Hiya VDB, I believe they came in original config like that, but hard to confirm for sure, I agree. Then there was a writeup on P-risti about Panerai unable to source non-alarm watches during WWII war years, so went with everything they could find, including the alarm Angelus mov'ts with alarm gear removed. This was steded as a fact there, not sure how correct this statement is, but wasn't questioned by gen 'risti. Yeah, more mov't pics would definitely help confirm this fact, but as you said, we don't know for certain how many gen owners replaced their original mov'ts with alarm ones.

Volker W had these displayed on his web site (http://www.vwmann.de/Vintage/vintage.html) before he's published the book on this very topic. He's since removed all the photos of his vintage Pams from the site. I'll see if I can find some pics elsewhere. cheers, babola

Awesome! Yup, alarm-angeluses missing gear was quite common occurence back in the early to mid 40-es, when Panerai was scrubbing any Angelus 8-day movement they could find, alarm or non-alarm. I'v actually seen more vintages from that period without then with the gear. thanks for posting mate!

Got two Skylands V2 with dodgy A7750 in a row Same dealer...both returned, second one for refund in full. First came with chrono DOA, second just like yours (regulator was pushed completely towards "+" side, gaining 15mins per day) plus I found curled pubic hair under the hairspring. Adjusting the regulator just temorarily "fixed" the mov't. It would run for some 12-15hrs then stop completely unless I delivered a hard blow on the side of the case. Go figure. babola

Cool, thanks for the info!

That one looks like more affordable V1 (darker polished DLC finish), to me at least.

Unfortunately paying $350 for ETA7750 is a long gone affair, I've been searching high and low for sub-$400 for months now. They seem to be commanding prices of +$500 for new, unused, these days. Reps running on ETA7750 have gone up in price as well, you'd be lucky to find a sub-$1K well made rep in that combo. That's been my experience though, others my have different ones.

Having double A/R on Daylight wouldn't hurt, although a well done single A/R would be my pref. My 196 was originally from member 'lovepanerai' who's done most of the groundwork, including a single A/R by chieftang (suposedly, cannot confirm this as a fact). I like my Pams as 'basic' when it comes to A/R, single-side treated (D-series onwards)...when I'm after an A/R fix I strap on a Breitling :-)

Never mind rolli, thanks for your answer.

Rolli, looks very nice! BTW, how deep is the dish on these, it looks like the lever tip goes quite a way in against the crown, when closed. Could you post the photo showing the dish please? thanks, babola

Some great examples of Panerai replicas you've got there Dave. My collection is actualy very similar to yours :-)

Not an expert on Euro zone customs, but from what I read in the past the Belgium one is particularly rep-unfriendly. Probably best to get a rep dealer contact in UK for example, let them do the ground work and source the watch from China first. Intra Euro posting shouldn't be a problem as it normaly doesn't raise the red flag with customs.

Can we see the photo that shows the new crown mounted on the case? I'm just curious to see how far or close to the case crown sits with closed lever, that's all. thanks, babola

I second that Andy, you seem to own the "third" style Fiddy case I've come across in the past, the notorious e0581/1950. I owned it as well, and yes the xtal exploded on mine too. Never tried to fix it up and the case has been reduced to my spare parts box. This very case comes with slightly wider sides than the omnipresent e0117/1950 case, and appears to be made by another Fiddy rep factory. I'm not surprised that DSN xtal didn't exactly fit first up. I noticed on mine that the area where lugs connect to the main case was finished a bit rough. Mine came with that "hybrid" swassian/chiss movement with deciorated bridges and S/N reg, did yours? cheers, babola

Yeah, Panerai have always great with their "leftover" dials from previous years and series, heven't they...makes you wonder sometimes.

You'd be hard pushed to find many more pictures of the 196 prototype, I believe I saw it only once or twice in some promotional material or brochure. The other one you mention (white dial black panda subs) was the 188 Daylight prototype, and just as the one you have, never made it into production. The fact you actually managed to source a rep of the said dial shows you how quickly the rep factories react to any new gen models announcements. My guess is that the Panda rep you have came out as a rep even before Panerai released their production Daylight 188 and 196 models...go figure! :-)

Mwee, just a word of caution on that 183 "Swiss movement" from Trusty, nothing's Swiss on that mov't, 100% Asian, so choose carefuly. Also, while they went extra mile on that model in rep factory and fixed the long minute hand tube so it sits flush with the cannon pin, the subdial second hand is wrong style, it's the one you'll find on Luminor Marinas. Radiomirs use shorter and smaller subdial second hands. As far as the different stem lengts, I've noticed that DSN Rads come with longer crown tubes (hence providing for more crown turns) that looks a bit out of wack when compared with the gen Rads, but most of the standard rep Rad cases come with close to 1:1 crowns and crown tubes. Just be careful with screwing and unscrewing the crown on a Rad in the early days, normaly there's some debris and final metal shavings to be found after you receive the new Rad watch from the factory, it's so easy to cross-thread if you're not gentle. Removing the crown and polishing the threads on crown tube, then greasing both the tube and crown before the re-assembly helps as well, in my case it made a big difference as the crown would screw in softly like butter. babola

Unless you have an odd Fiddy case, DSN xtal should fit just fine. As I said above, in my case DSN Fiddy xtal fitted two diferent case styles from different times of manufacture. To answer you second question, yes, both xtals came with a very good and respectable A/R treatment, one was more blueish one purplish in appearance, but both quite good. Plexy was extensively used on vintage Panerais in between 1940-50es, but the PAM127 "1950" SE model came with sapphire domed xtal. DSN has both plexi and sapphire that fit 1950 case, although I wouldn't install domed plexi on Fiddy, it just isn't 'right', IMO, go with the sapphire. babola

Wow, a 196 prototype dial - great find mate, where did you get this one? I thought until now that the dial only existed in it's gen prototype form...awesome!!!

There's currently one PAM028A for sale in Queens Arcade jewelery shop in Auckland, NZ. Had a look at it first hand, I believe enzo also had a look at it. It's been sitting in the window forover a month now. That one is a gen for sure, but the whole deal is a bit dodgy. The watch is on rep black calf strap, but genuine buckle. When I asked for the box/papers info I was told they're "overseas" but if I'm interested they'll ship it to me...what?! And by the way the price was ridiculous, even higher than those hyped up Panerai prices of few months back. I'm sure this is the same watch we're talking about here, but I could be wrong. babola

I've seen that very one, on pictures though. It's 'hybrid' at the best. There is a dealer 'time4direct' on Dark Side selling them as "ETA Based" claiming they swap everything in the factory with Asian made bits except for the base plate. The whole thing just reeks of the 'hybrid' 6497-1 from late '06, of which I was one of the protagonists. The Zigmeister wrote truckloads about them and lot of us added to the conversation...the mov't ended up being reffered to as 'swasian' or 'chiss', but for most of us it was just a 'hybrid'. The latest iteration of this so called hybrid mov't is no exception, IMO. The similar ETA stamped base plate with missing 6497-1 stamp replaced by confusing numerals instead. IMO, it's 100% Asian, but I'll leave the final conclusion to others. cheers, babola

Not quite. The JF CG is "wrong", but the case with elongated lugs and without sharp cutout between the lugs is very good, probably the best rep case you'll find. That LH mov't is really a nice touch, dials also althought the dial txt could be a little thinner IMO, but that's nitpicking. :-)

I got DSN Fiddy xtal fitted on both 127 rep type cases, the one that opend from the back (standard) and another that opens from the front by removing the bezel. Saying this, even DSN xtals aren't all the same, and provide diferent dial distorsion when installed. The older model was much closer to gen xtal in the sense that provided almost a 1:1 distorsion when looked at both top down or slightly from the side, angled. The one you don't want is the one that visualy "squashes" the dial numerals and indices towards the centre of the dial, the one you should look for is the one that 'breaks' the numerals when looked at from the top. The break point on a good xtal should also be visible when you look at the dial at sharp angle. after owning 6 different Fiddy iterations in the last 3 years, I eventualy settled on the one that was combined from diferent parts, like EddieLee dial and case, DSN hands and older generation sapphire xtal.

The Zigmeister and Ztech you're both correct in your observations. I would just add the reason gen sandwich dial PAM could sometimes appear it glows stronger than the superlumed rep is that the gen sandwich dial comes with bottom brass disc that's been machined to create wide indices beds for lume to be applied. They basicaly have grooves slightly wider than the top dial disc cutouts, provideing for thicker lume application and consequently more intensified luminosity and glow. All the rep snadwich dial bottom discs I've seen come flat, so the lume has to be applied in flattish 'sausage' style, so to speak. Anyone else noticed this, or has similar experience? cheers, babola