babola

Welcome to 'Fiddy club' Pugwash...any 127 like yours is definitely a keeper ! Wear it in good health, babola

Yup, that's right...my brain and fingers don't play nicely sometimes...:-) babola

Couldn't have said it better myself, CJ... @kruzer It well depends on the series, 025 Pre-H series had 'L Swiss L' on the dial, H and I series come with 'L Swiss Made L' cheers, babola

It does sound a bit strange..I agree. My H series rep brushed CG is actually slightly thinner than my E series rep polished CG...go figure...maybe a diferent batch :-) babola

Basically a lot depends on what "era" did you get your 44mm PAM rep from. I've got a 112E from 2004, also have JZFu as a spare. Now...I measured them both and the diference is minimal if any...bugger all, really. My 111F CG is slightly (but only slightly) thinner than JFZu's. Yes his CG comes with a lever rubber insert, but that aspect never bothered me. I have handled genuines at my Panerai AD, and believe me some of them bore quite "loose" lever, as well. I also have 3 mths old 111H with brushed crown, and both JZFu and my 112F rep CG are much better proportioned and closer to gen than 111H one, but we already know that anyway. My point is - if you have an older type rep with polished CG, you're most likely fine with your rep CG, in case you own G or H series rep - JFZu's slightly better option, however his ones come as polished, not brushed. babola

Cool looking dial...loose those two bars between "T" and "Swiss" and you have a very close dial to gen. Great effort, babola

HM, please correct me if I'm wrong but your Fiddy comes with the Swiss ETA 6497-1 H-Series OPXI mov't with CDG bridges and S/N regulator. That movement is definitelly Swiss ETA and diferent from the one described in this post. The one we talk about here is a new breed of E-series movements, so called 'hybrids' which are more Asian than Swiss as it seems like all the drivetrain and decorative bits are Chinese, except for the mov't baseplate. Since this movement contains 2/3 of Asian produced bits, it cannot be called Swiss, and selling it as a "Swiss ETA" is definitely something some of us will always frown upon. Davidsen is one of the dealers who is deliberetely refusing to sell and install this movement into his Fiddys, simply because he does not want to mislead us (buyers) into thinking we're buying a Swiss ETA movement. All in all, I hope your current H-series mov't issue all works out fine in the end. cheers, babola

Like the dial and text, great effort altogether. Just pull the 'Radiomir Panerai' text slightly more towards the 12 o'clock, and you have a winner there. The rest of it is simply awesome. cheers, babola

Yup, both gen 243 and 239 have been sighted out "in the wild" (moderator pls delete if deemed innapropriate linking other forum posts here): http://www.network54.com/Forum/353391/mess...yecandy+for+you BTW, those two reps from EL's original post are really something, it's amazing how far have the rep factories gone with attention to minute details and quality of craftmanship. Using CAD/CGI tools definitely helps these days...:-) Which all begs the question - how come we still need to deal with outdated and substandard 44mm PAM CGs, crowns and dials ? The 'lefty' is definitely on my list... cheers, babola

PAM Base/Marina G & H Series. Mark (finepics) is organising for a custom production run of these 1:1 CGs at the moment. Also much cheaper that Jimmy's. I suggest contact him directly for more info. cheers, babola

Nope :-) Dial all fine ! Most of those "explosions" happen with the Fiddy being worn on the wrist, so under an angle. When the crystal explodes the fragments (I call them shrapnels :-)) tend to fly avay from the watch/dial. In my case I only found few tiny glass bits on the dial (you need a loupe to spot them), and easily blowed them away - the key here is not trying to brush them off with a cloth, brush or any other method that will cause a physical contact with the dial. I would imagine you'd need only a slight amount of force applied to damage the dial...those sapphire bits are d@mn sharp. Stay well ! cheers, babola

Yes guys, unfortunatelly it' s real, and there are no only 2-3 guys that experienced the "Fiddy crystal explosion" there are actually a lot more. This particular "feature" comes with the "THE BEST" Fiddy as advertised by our dealers, and it seems to be contained to versions with the case number e0581/1950, and not e0117/1950. All the PMs and emails I received from other members with the "exploding" experience indicate this. BTW, the case e0581 is also an inferior one to e0117, as the sides don't rund up to the bezel properly, leaving an impression that the watch is actually wider than 47mm. Here's the pic of my exploded Fiddy (THE BESTEST OF THE BEST :-)))) with and inferior e0581 case. I have since replaced both the case and the crystal with Davidsen's AR sapphire and e0581 case. @TWG, Davidsen will set you right, just order his AR sapphire...at $85 it's worth every penny. cheers, babola

Thanks The Zigmeister and Mark, much appreciated ! :-) cheers, babola

The Zigmeister, Mark and other watchsmits who have dealt with this particular "Swiss" E Series OPXI 6497-1.... can we get an update please ? Have you recently seen/dealth with any new batch of this movement type with issues, or was it the case of a dodgy early batch ? The reason I'm asking this is there are so many rep forum members currently "blacklisting" the particular movement, and giving thumbs down to newlyadvertised PAM reps containing one of these mov'ts. While a good part of them are noobs, there are also some longer standing members of these forums giving a bed rep to this mov't by simply relying on early finds by our resident trusty watchmaker The Zigmeister. I've been also exchanging a lot of PMs and emails with rep community members on this theme, but the general sentiment re this movement is not good. I for example have had two of these for few months now, both examined by my watchmaker...all OK so far, just as initialy reported in my previous posts to this thread. The Zigmeister, can you shed some more light on this movemen't if you may, and provide an update if possible. many thanks, babola

You're on the money Josh, a little secret has now been revealed Joshua (perfect-clones), Andrew and River should all have these E series movements still available as spares...be warned prices vary greatly, so do some shopping around. Get one and send it to David for a drop-in one of his custom Fiddy jobbies (AR sapphire, pin fixed, relumed dial and hands), get a decent 26/26 vintage strap and you have a winner for well under $500. cheers, babola

Swan neck yes, but not the 'correct' E-series movement with ERAIPANERAIPAN engravings on the bridges. His Swiss 6497 swan-neck is the H-series one, too new for the Fiddy from 2002 to make it 'historically correct', but still heck of a good movement. cheers, babola

Can't believe you still haven't bought one, mate ! ...after all the "research" you've done cheers, babola

Nice one... ...I'd suggest recessed cannon pin fix and possibly DSN's crystal replacement...but then again, I'm Fiddy freak, it's OK as it is. cheers, babola

Hiya dude, carefull...once you get hooked with this - it's all "downhill" :-) cheers and welcome, babola

Guys, not taking anyone's side here - don't forget that while David's one seems to cost more, its designed for both 44 and 47mm casebacks. It is also S/S made, with finish and quality second to none. cheers, babola

Wow, straight for that "big one", eh !? The CG lever should point downwards on 217, but who really cares, it's nice as it is enjoy it, babola

Nice write-up Rob, really. Just something to keep in mind to those that already started panicking re ETA mov'ts - the availability of real Swiss ETAs in reps has all but strated drying out, and we should enjoy an ample supply of those mov'ts in few more years to come, at least. What exactly will happen at 09/10 nobody knows exactly, the original 2007 deadline was already moved to 2010 on the intervention of Swiss watch industry. The word from our dealers is they're still available in simmilar numbers to 6 months ago or so, and no reason for panic @fellfell - don't be an idiot dude, you may know a lot about your genuine marquee watches, but your posts show you know bugger all about replicas and the movements they contain...the best you stay away from rep forums, for all of us. You managed to screw up and de-tour otherwise excellent post from one of the authorities of rep world. Call us "replica experts" or whatever, honestly I don't give rats ar$e about what you think. babola

Ditto, I believe the same, some of the 036 owner's pics I looked at from paneristi.com definitelly show considerably more glare then other base/marina models of recent times. @taiji - the only gen watches I've seen with blue-tinted AR coating were a couple of Citizen Promaster LAND series watches. All other gen AR coated crystals I've seen so far come with transparent tint. That's not to say the ones we get on our reps are in any shape or form inferior, just with a diferent hue, that's all. I wouldn't worry too much about it at all, actually blue tint adds some nice touch to brown/bakelite dialed 036, and to Ti case as well, IMO. cheers, babola

...or it could be just the fact there are quite a few Panni lovers with big wrists...who knows The watch is very nice, but tad big for my punny wrist as well...it reminds me of Citizen Eco-Zilla, love it but size-prohibitive for me cheers, babola