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Why do we take three four pictures when posting a watch for sale..? You have seen the pictures and -- admit it -- when you received the watch your first reaction was: "It looked better on the picture". I think that's why you lied. I won't go back to the hands again. I explained the situation with hands twice already. Bud good luck getting "pristine" gold superlumed hands for Fiddy. You have received the screw. And you still keep lieing. I have traded with many members here, and I always made it right. You disassembled the watch (I might add, your first watch) and you start showing pictures of different defects. After your previous lies and anger you demonstrated trough your PMs, I am not sure at all what are you showing us here. That's all I have to say. In the meantime I sold all my reps... thanks for the publicity.

OK, I'll sum it up one more time. You lied, because you've received the screw. You know that, and you still keep lieing to save your face? First you said you have received an empty envelope, after I told you to take another look, you corrected it to an envelope with an empty baggy inside. So was it an empty envelope or an envelope with empty baggy inside. And why would I do that? I went to the post office, pay the postage and mail you an empty envelope? I tried to make it right... I am not even sure whether you were missing the screw at all. I think the watch in reality was something different from the one in your "dreams". You came up with all those excuses because you've changed your mind. And you got upset when I told you that I didn't spend two days talking to buyers to give you a chance to see, if this Fiddy is for you. Did I tell you about the two sets of hands I had to order from Davidsen? Did I tell you the first one was scratched? I did! The one installed was OK. The best you can get from Davidsen. You wont get a "pristine" superlumed hand set from Davidsen. At least you couldn't get one at the time I was in the market for one. The fact that you complain about those hands has a lot to do with you being unexperienced, if you wanna call it that. You didn't know that you can't mention anything about reps on the invoice? I explicitly asked you not to do that before you even paid. You knew that and now you lied again saying that you didn't know. You drag this case here and accuse me of wrongdoing? You lie here to gain sympathy to justify your action? You've received the best there is for half the price it would cost you to assemble one yourself that you have no appreciation for, because you didn't go trough the process of achieving that by yourself. And your lynch mob that you've recruited here has no clue either.

I discovered this thread only this morning, so excuse me that I didn't speak earlier. First of all, to get the Fiddy that I sold I had to buy three different versions of these watches. To get the movement, to get the 0117 case, do get a decent dial with creamy Panerai lettering. I got something from each watch... Then I ordered the proper crystal from Davidsen and a set of superlumed hands. Whoever done it knows, that he ships his hands in a small baggy... That results in some scratches as the surface of these hands is more of a soft metal. I paid $40 for the hands + shipping and the WU fees. When they arrived, they had a lot of scratches, out of the box. I wasn't happy with that, so I paid again and ordered another set. That's the one that's been installed on the watch. Now the buyer asked me about the hands, and I told him this very same story trough PM. I also told him, that for me the second set was acceptable, and I would rate it satisfactory, but everyones standards are just different... Whoever, that has ordered a set of hands from Davidsen can chime in and have a say about the condition his hands arrive? And there are no alternatives... As I said, these hand were the best I could get, and I didn't spare any expense to get the best possible set. Obviously the buyer has never seen a Fiddy and has no clue what had to be done to assemble a watch that he bought for half of what it did cost.. He had no crystal breaking on him, no cannon pin upgrade done, has no clue about different cases and he didn't have to purchase all these versions and parts, just to get one good Fiddy together. Anyway, so much about hands. The Zigmeister pressed in the crystal for me and vaccum relumed the dial. I was happy with everything as those jobs were professionally done and I haven't seen a "scratch" on the dial. I took detailed pictures of the whole watch for the interested parties to decide if this watch was up to their standards. The CG too. And again, out of three Fiddies that I purchased non of the CG was good enough and I finally got one from Jay that was installed on the watch. Complaining about the CG after he has seen all the detailed shots of the watch, after the effort I made to get the very best parts..? Then I ordered the cannon pin part and had a local watch smith install that for me. Also, there was a $120 dollar SC strap included in the price. And again I paid shipping charges, WU fees... Now, all the fellow members here, that rated this watch to be a $200 watch have probably never gone trough the expenses of building their own Ultimate Fiddy. (The crystal and the strap alone was $250 with fees and shipping) Other alternative would be Davidsen's 1950, but currently he has no more movements with dagger needle and swan neck and he won't be able to restock them until who knows when. And there are also some other issues... OK, back to this buyer. I had literally PMs coming every minute on different boards from parties interested in this watch. Some of them backed out, some promised to purchase the watch and didn't answer right away, this guy was the first who paid. I offered PayPal so I requested not to mention anything about RWG, replica or about watches in general on the invoice. Well, this guy just couldn't follow simple instructions, and he did. So I refunded his money. That's how bad I needed them (LOL). In the meantime, some other folk paid, but this guy said he wants to try the payment again, because he likes the watch. I refunded the other guy, and gave him one more chance to make the payment properly. I tried to be fair to the interested parties. He was the one who initially made a payment, so I wanted him to get the watch. Anyway, I absorbed PayPal fees and I shipped the watch via XpressPost, that left me with $410. The firs reaction a received from him, was that the watch is dirty. So what the hell, it was I used watch. Then he responded with "it looked much better on the pictures than it does in real life" ect. Then I knew, this guy have seen a Fiddy for first time in his life and the dream and the reality have collided. But is that my fault? With all due respect I am not Wal Mart. I can't afford to ship the watch to everyone who wants to test drive it. He also complained about the screw missing from the CG. That was a bit strange, because I had the watch on the previous night and I didn't notice anything. So I sent him a screw as I have many from all those Fiddes that I purchased... A week later he PMs me saying he didn't receive it. I agreed to send him another one, and I did. Now yesterday he PMs me and says the envelope was empty. I suggested to take a second look because I put a small screw in a small baggy that I put in the envelope. He PMs me back saying. OK, the baggy is there, but it's empty. At that point I had enough of him. I had it with this guy and I never ever sell any modded watch to a noob. I told him that, so "he decided to go public". The thing is, that I spent over $750 + shipping and WU fees to make this watch. I had the very best of our modders work on it. I told this guy, that if he sees something on the dial, I haven't seen that and I am certainly not gonna chase vaccum around after 8 months. That picture that he showed must be enhanced in Photoshop or who knows. And all of you who think this watch should cost $200 are free to PM me, I am gonna buy those watches off of you. I must tell you, that I won't be watching this thread every day. I've already spent too much time on this case. I am selling all my reps, and buying genuine watches only for a while now. That's how bad I needed his $410 that I've spent over $750 on. I only have two more reps left for sale that are in the sales thread. To sum it up. This guy subscribed a month ago to this board and right away he wanted the "best". He is a young, unexperienced guy, who wanted something he would never get in the rep world: PERFECTION. He got disappointed and he lied a bit, to enhance his "own truth". He would have been better off if he would have bought few cheap reps first and dealt with some of the issues with Chinese dealers to understand this world. Read a bit more, may be even become a supporter of this site... But I must admit, he's got a lot of balls to take apart a watch like that and separate a sandwich dial that I paid $140 to get superlumed. So all you smart asses, I am awaiting your $200 modded Fiddy offers upgraded with SC straps, Davidsen crystal, superlumed dial, cannon pinion upgrade, 0117 case and a Swiss Swan neck dagger shaped needle movements. Then I'll post a bashing thread about you, how you screwed me over.

Wrong clasp for a 45mm model. The dial is genuine or relumed. Hands look genuine. The tip of the second hand... the orange is brighter on genuine ones than it is on the rep. Looks very close to the genuine color. I think it's a Franken.

...zo

Last time I tried to relume a sandwich dial, I screwed it up so bad... How the hell do you do that Rob? That's an outstanding job. Amazing.

Srdečne Ti blaho

Let me just add one more vote: The A&F tool is a waist of money. Get a proper tool from Ofrei, save you some headache.

Here is how this watch came together: Vintage custom case from Repaustria. Rounded edges, reworked CGs, ding here and there, polished a couple of times, polished reahaut. The case has been then modded with Rolex bezel assembly to accept genuine 18k gold bezel. the Rolex gold bezel was then fitted with a genuine Rolex bezel insert. I have installed an OEM Rolex tube and a genuine Rolex triploc crown. For the movement and dial I just dropped in one from EL's TW Best case TT Submariners. The case was fitted with a genuine Rolex 127 acrylic crystal. The whole thing was finished off with a heavy aftermarket solid 18k gold / SS Oyster bracelet with the best of the clasps-buckle I found in my watch box. The idea of doing a TT 1680 came from a custom TT 1680 I've seen at a shop nearby. I know the dial and the pearl is more like the Transitional 16808 Submariner, so we can call it a 16808 with a Rolex 127 acrylic crystal. The case is excellent. Kudos to Repaustria. When you unscrew the case back, it even has some markings from a watchmaker in it with year 1984 and some other writing inside. Here are few pics. I am not a photographer, so excuse moa...

Fantastic job vaccum. Now it's really an ultimate PO.

Good info. Thanks.

That's excellent. Thanks.

Very nice The Zigmeister. Thanks for the great walk-trough.

I also can't get to my messages. I get "SQL error: Can't connect to MySQL server on '83.98.192.32' (110) SQL error code: 2003". Mods, please, fix this problem as I need to answer a sales message. Thanks.

I bought a mint 16800 TT dial for $80 on the bay. Only thing that the dial feet wore removed from the back. With ETA 2824 I don't need the anyway.