thomasng

Picked up the watch today and indeed it was 100% gen. It was an amazing deal for $10K USD. If anyone wants I'll post some pics here!

Thanks everyone for the opinions. I'm going to check it out this Wednesday. 

Since I've been rather out of update with how the Diver reps have been evolving, I am actually turning to this board for help on authenticating a Diver:

It'll be a local cash deal, so I get to inspect it in person. The first tell to me would be winding the movement - the AP 3120 is different than any other rep movement. But otherwise I don't want to waste my time. 

What does everyone around here think?

I just received a new 4.1 from Puretime, and I noticed today that one side of the crystal seems to sit higher than the other (about 0.5mm) whereas the other side is flush with the bezel.

Anyone who has taken the Diver apart - is this something I could rectify by myself? I'd prefer not having to send this back to PT. 

Looks like the QC issues are starting to flow to the surface.

The inner bezel has always been the problem in the V3 - factory has too many of these defected bezels to get rid of, and they just simply seems to refuse to go for a new batch - cost reasons? And just tried to get a pass by luck!

Pity to see such a great rep is gaining a bad reputation so fast.........and the factory doesn't understand the story of "killing the hen for the golden eggs"

It has proved to be extremely frustrating trying to get a replacement bezel gasket. After 10 e-mails, whoever is handling PT's customer service can't understand the problem despite me sending multiple pictures of the jagged rubber bezel edge.

On a somewhat related note...

Could someone let me know the Zigmeister's contact details? I used to have it, but It has been so long since I've been in the rep world.

Watch just arrived. Looks amazing in person.

However the bezel gasket on mine is pretty poorly finished, a few of the edges are rough and I think I'll ask for a replacement. The watch is gaining 5 seconds per hour, so it's definitely in need of a service too.

It would be a shame, if you don't accept this one! It is perfect! Take it!

Thought so. It's been quite a few years since I ordered my last rep, before this age of getting QC pics. I remember the old days where we would just send our payment, cross our fingers and hope for the best.

The 11 o'clock marker is definitely off, such a shame considering how good the rest of it looks. I'm still thinking of accepting since I probably won't notice in real life with my bad eyes anyways.

It's slightly thinner, but it wears really well. The new buckle is more comfortable than the deployant for small wristed people like me. Had a look at one of these last week.

That case is pretty worn out, but I think it's pretty sexy in its own right as it's not like 99% of Carbon TAs which are safe queens.

Brand new it looks a lot better, when the case gets worn out it starts looking stringy at the edges because of the nature of the forged carbon material. Too bad the cases can't be refinished and they have to completely replaced which costs thousands.

And knowing you as a gen & rep collector in the past -

why bothering sporting a good fabricated rep at work

if it does not fall apart at a glance?

Well, I always followed the philosophy that buying gens were the better deal- I could score a great deal, wear it for a while and resell it for no loss.

But I think I ignored the fact that the watch could either be damaged or stolen,- some scumbag on the Boston Metro basically ripped my watch off my wrist right when the doors were closing. Now, I know Switzerland is safer but that's put me off gen watches for the time being.

by all means. WEAR your rep to work (as long as you don't work in an authorized dealer).. but shipping to switzerland is usually a problem from what i hear. Get the watch shipped to a friend in france, germany or Austria.

If the people who interviewed me are any indication, I'll probably be working around a sea of Pateks, APs and WISes in general. One of the VPs was wearing a watch twice my projected annual salary.

I have friends in Austria and might go there quite often for skiing, so I'll send it to them. I'll be sure to order from EU dealers though.

@valerian, thanks for the PM.

For now my new job is in Pfäffikon, but the wife doesn't like it. Still searching for a place preferably in Thalwil, Zug or maybe even in Zürich. The rents here are mad expensive though.

Ah, in retrospect it probably was a stupid question. Never mind then.

Probably would have been a bad idea to wear a rep to work anyways.

I recently moved to Switzerland, and I'm wondering if anyone knows what the standard protocol for shipping reps here is? I made sure to get rid of every rep watch I had before I moved here. Is it still risky to buy reps even if they're shipped in from other countries in the EU (I know Switzerland is part of Schengen, but Swiss customs is still independent).

Or should I just kiss rep watches goodbye?

Can anybody confirm if the AP Survivor is really PVC coated?

I've worn my watch twice so far under a long sleeve shirt and the buckle's corners have already worn off to the point where the metal underneath is showing... seems like a pretty delicate coating considering it didn't come in contact with other hard surfaces.

Did anyone notice they fixed the bezel seal location?

http://www.puretimewatch.com/index.php?productID=2013

Incredibly tempting... just when I'm getting out of rep watches they're pulling me back in. $658 is an awful lot though...

And by the way, that strap will fit on a standard ROO, some people on the gen forums have posted pictures of their standard ROOs with Survivor straps.

P.S: I found two minor flaws: the first one being that the "AP" logo does not have a white bar in between the letter, the second being that the strap plots and the crown are missing the coloured "dots" which has been discussed on the Purist forums before.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/125468/thread/1226161641/Survivor+red+and+green+dots--

It's one of the classier AP ROOs, too bad AP doesn't do a regular production ROO with a solid gold bezel.

One thing I don't get is they got the watch pretty much right but they had to stuff up the serial number with a non existent P-series.

Merry Christmas to all. Sporting this on my pencil sized wrist:

PhD student and instructor at a large private university in Cambridge, MA. Used to be a senior analyst at a large investment bank, then a chief financial analyst at a big four accounting firm.

Wow, that looks really good.

However I must point out that the Tachymetre bezel looks off, it is not the correct style for the Themes dial, and belongs to an older generation that had dot markers.

The genuine of this can be had for about $11K-13K for used, but the time and heart that goes into crafting one of these is something different...

I ended up buying one of these replicas, as I just couldn't resist. I had previously owned a genuine and sold it for $52,000 when the economy was good and made a nice profit after wearing it many times.

My opinion is modding it is kind of a catch 22. People who know the watch will be able to tell it is fake anyways (cyclops too far to the right and not AR coated, also too shallow and lacks the depth the genuine has) and the fit and finishing of the case isn't quite there yet. The clasp is not titanium and the wings of the clasp are supposed to be sandblasted titanium. The bezel screws aren't aligned like the genuine (this can be easily fixed). I also think the crown and caseback is stainless steel as it doesn't have that titanium look (I want to be proven wrong though).

People who don't know the watch won't be able to tell the difference between a modded and a unmodded $600 piece. The watch alone has gotten many compliments from strangers who don't know what an AP is. So in reality, it doesn't really make a difference between modding it or not, except for your own satisfaction.

Given the bad economy, the genuine can be had for about $40K and can be easily resold as it's still a hot watch among AP collectors. There's a lot of potential to make a profit off a genuine even after wearing it many times.

Just my 2 cents after a long hiatus.

Ridiculous as it sounds, there was an actual version of the Perpetual Calendar being put into a Big Pilot case, although the rep looks really bad.

I believe there was a LE in a Ti Big Pilot case made for Cellini Jewelers a while back and another LE PC made in a BP case for Sincere in SIngapore.