babola

Asian SFSO - mineral glass, no A/R whatsoever...honestly not worth the money unless you are ready to settle for SFSO rep's poor cousin...or you're after spare parts like case and bracelet. I have to agree with Pug on this one, strong duble sided A/R is what makes the Braitling watches stand out from the "crowd", and SFSO being one of their shiniest examples. If you end up buying Asian SFSO anyway, send the crystal to Chieftang for double sided A/R. cheers, babola

It's perfect...just drop him a reminder to push it all in when mounting it on the bezel. cheers, babola

It wouldn't be too hard to figure that one out on my own...but thanks anyway.

FYI: the response from dealers is that this is a scam, and that the pics show gen 233... go figure... babola

Defo a rep mov't...I'm surprised we haven't heard about these from our dealers yet ?! ...on the other side, imagine something potentialy going wrong with this Asian P2002...hmm, The Zigmeister should start smiling right now ! :-) cheers, babola

...and youre about to get beaten once again in 2007 Rugby World Cup soon my friend...yeeha ! 'Flight of the conchords' - mate, they themselves can't believe their luck and recent raise of popularity - they're absolutely stoked ! It' funny how popular 'down-to-earth' Kiwi humour can sometimes become cheers, babola

Yupsee, the so called Ruby's PAM036 MM is all gone now...no more. I've been telling people who were sitting on the fence for so long to get one while still available, had received 2 PMs in the last week from mates banging their heads now... For approx $200 - it was a heck of a rep !!! They were selling on 'ioffer.com' for up to $500 recently Who knows, Joshua may have one or two more available.

NOOOO ! Sorry for such 'off the hip' reaction, but I (and number of other forumers) had one - and I'm not afraid to say - it's bad news. I believe you're referring to his $298+S&H "Swiss" Fiddy ?! Yes ? OK, the watch is a bad news, and we all know that but only few of us have guts to say it openly, the crystal is NOT sapphire and in over 50% of cases it shatters (mine blew up while writing a memo on a PC )...the movement is Swiss/Asian 6497-1 hybrid, also known as 'Swasian' or 'Chiss' (those two were the nicknames that came up here and RWI forum in the last few months), while it can be a good movement, it's definitely not Swiss ETA 6497-1 based, and not worth the money...the case is now 'infamous' e0851/1950 which is slightly incorect size-wise and with rougher finish especially around the lug areas...hands are not great neither, they use octagonal tube that slightly protrudes thru the top of the minute hand ao even when you fix the cannon pin you still have that 'recessed' ppin feeling...shall I go on ?! The only positive side is the dial - it's superlumed and with thicker sandwich layers, and lighter Luminor Panerai dial txt. As you can see, I've done my homework on this stuff and have a vast amount of experience all things Fiddy-rep accumulated over the last 2.5 years, having owned 4 Fiddys...and now only one - the latest DSN Ulti-Fiddy. I'd suggest you save up money, be patient and 'pull the trigger' when you're 100% sure it's the right one...and learn from other's mistakes, this is why we're all here, to learn, guide and help the others about to do the same or similar. By reading your posts in the past I noticed you haven't had much luck with all things reps, and yes it does happen to a lot of us, but some of us tend to be a little bit cautious and reserved before we go for that 'next rep' in our collection. Just sit down, relax read the past posts, do your homework, find about all the issues/probs/etc about the particular item or area, talk to other forum fellows and then, when you're absolute sure and certain you're doing the right thing - go for it! Otherwise it can become a big time and money waster...trust me, I've been there myself... Drop me a PM if you'd like to receive more of this blubber...I definitelly have truckload to say about this particular matter. cheers, babola

It's a so-so 005 rep, but then again, I haven't seen the 005 rep with the 'correct' OP logo, yet...DSN's 005 dial comes closest in that respect, IMO. good points: - matching G-series 005 dial (L Swiss L) and G-series caseback serial, strip the black paint from the caseback and you have a 'perfect' 005 caseback - so no fantasy rep at all, at least not externaly. - cheap not so good points: - no dial lume, whatsoever - as mentioned, OP logo is still 'too straight' and not great - recessed cannon pin (however newer Asian 6497 mov'ts come with the higher pin, so all you need to do is 'adjust the minute hand tube to fit nicely) - Asian E-series movements, but who cares, it's closed, and if it's one of the latest good quality 21,6kbph 6497-2 mov'ts it should be just fine - Mineral crystal - I know description says Sapphire, but I don't believe they started installing Sapphire xtals on 'cheapie' reps with Asian mov'ts, that just doesn't make sense from the economic sense, so the best is to ignore the description here. I'd go for the Swiss mov't powered one, piece of mind, Sapphire xtal etc...and then at least relume the dial and fix the cannon pin. Hope this helps a bit... babola

He, he, he ... Matey !!! babola

That 210/a rocks mate. wear it in good health, babola

There are actually two Fiddy case versions. The old one uses steel mov't spacer ring to hold the movement that goes in the case from the back. The new version requires the bezel (together with crystal) to be removed to be able to access dial and movement from the front. I have had both, but preffer the older version. cheers, babola

It's BoB's Vintage Light-brown Buffalo, extra vintage-ized and darkened by normal wear and tear Am a self confessed Fiddy-freak, it's been on my wrist for some 90% of weekends Not sure if these are still available, I bought it some 2 yrs ago. cheers, babola

Gen 217 owner !? Congrats ! So can we see some pics of your ulti-Fiddy in its current condition ? cheers, babola

No way I say...

Mod ?! On DSN Ultimate Fiddy ?! Tell us more mate... babola

Spot on, and we shouldn't forget about digicam's 'white balance' settings either. Most of them use a default WB, which sometimes doesn't depict shades of white color correctly. One of the examples of 'out-of-whack' WB are Panerai watches, most of their dial numerals and indices come across as crisp white color on photos, where in real life they're actually more cream than white. cheers, babola

...so are you guys planning to post some photos of the latest Ultimate-Fiddy...or do we need to beg ?!

ETA 2824-2 powered SFSOs are back on the market after short mov't supply problem. At least this is the info I got from one of the largest cartel rep dealers, yesterday. The price of ETA mov'ts has skyrocketed in the last 6 months, with the supply somewhat restricted, so it could be a contributing factor to a situation where the rep makers were looking for more affordable Swiss auto mov't alternatives. Sellitas are excellent mov'ts, however SFSO comes with ETA-2824-2 as genuine, so I could understand why some of us are hung up on the idea to actually have one in our SFSO reps. Sorry you got 'stung', I guess it's like with everything rep-related...it's just luck of a draw, and most of the times you can't do much about it . I was always against that overused phrase "buy the seller" but in rep business, I believe it rings true. cheers, babola

Genuine "white" SFSO (the model is actually called 'silver') comes with champagne/beige color dial, but the color changes with angle of light. Also there's this 'electric' effect of concentric circles on the dial, so it's never the same...but definitely NOT white. Blue dial is a peculiar one...I've seen the one on leather band @ my AD last week, and the color changed from deep blue to a very light electric blue - much lighter than the blue rep dial. Again, it all depends on angle of viewing and intensity/type of light. Black dial is again not black in gen, it's more like anthracite/charcoal color. The rep photos I've seen of the black SFSO show much darker black dial color, but I could be wrong, as I've never held black SFSO in my hand. I'd go for the blue dial SFSO, I believe it's the closest one of the three. ...just my 2 cents worth. babola

No, sorry. Confirmed by DSN himself. babola

Hmm, mixed feelings here, lume dot on the bezel is more evenly filled now, and with the same lume color as dial markers, but slightly incorrect shape. 3, 6, 9 and 12 o'clock dial lume markers as you mentioned do look a bit smaller than gen's, dial txt is also a bit off now, why the recessed He crown is beyond me...so I'm guessing this is another case of 1 step forward 2 steps back, but hey, at least the logo looks like the gen now. It looks this latest version was made by the different rep factory. Bezel numerals look OK, actually. just my 2 cents worth... cheers, babola

When I first 'examined' 51 back then, it had both hour and minute shorter than the gen (appart from the other noticable flaws). This put me off the purchase originaly, plus I developed attraction towards the PAM mech historics, so didn't bother afterwards, anyway. The pics from the Honpo link could simply be the old ones, or 'new' version where they managed to fix few flaws and introduce some new ones - again! ...either that or you simply got lucky when you procurred yours. cheers, babola

Not me mate, must have been someone else... babola