bklm1234

Mine is the same and so are all others I've seen at the rep haven in GuangZhou. What I did was I use an ink eraser to take a bit off the finish on the links because I think they are too dark (I used to have the real thing). The outcome is satisfactory to me. One side effect is the off-color piece (with the inside of the clasp) matches closer to the rest.

I have one. It's the wider one though. It the one below the buckle in this pic. It's for some reason wider than the other links. Let me know if you want it. I can drop in the mail for you.

where can I buy gen crown/tube? eBay?

I have an ugly sub with a really good 2836. Is it possible to fit the 2836 (together with its hands and crown) to a noobmariner? I prefer a ETA to an Asian in my watch. What work am I looking at? Thanks.

regarding questions on service: the $6 service in GZ is primitive in equipment. The guy works out of a hole. His work bench is no wider than 3 ft with a pile of watches, parts, and tools on it occupying much of the bench space already. There's no ultra-sonic cleaner. He washes all the parts in alcohol (I think) in a small soy sauce dish. The only hi-tech machine which looks like 30 years old is the caliberator. Watching him do his thing gives up back much confidence. The guy works non-stop because there are simply so many jobs for him. I don't have a doubt about his skills. He seems honest. When I gave him a rep supposedly to have a brand new ETA to service, he opened the watch and said no need because it's brand new swiss movement. quality of reps: I have a feeling our forum dealers have the best and first allotment priority from the factory because they might be the biggest high-end rep dealers, dealing with the most serious, demanding rep customers. When I was there, I could hardly see a good sub. You would think it's such a common seller. And then I couldn't find an explorer II in stock, many dealers said wait a day for them to order or make one for me. When I asked for a adjustable hand GMT, nobody had it. It gives me a good feeling buying from Andrew, Eddie, or even Paul. I feel they have the best stuff esp. Rolex. GZ might be cheaper but you might not find what you want and it's so far away. All in all, GZ is fun for us rep nuts. There's good stuff if you dig deep. And then there's cheap service, you can swap out a movement, change the crystal, change a date wheel, etc. But buying reps on a regular basis, our dealers are still the best.

I'm back in the Bay Area on Sunday. I was carrying 7 watches with me. I did worry a bit about customs. Luckily, they didn't stop me for an inspection at all. That's kind of my experience - I was never stopped for an inspection, ever (I travel twice a year at least). One common theme among the dealers is swiss movements have gone up in price and down in supply. The price of a rolex rep has gone up from roughly RMB$450 a few months ago to RMB$700 now. To share some info I posted on RWI for those who want to plan a trip there: The watch market is west of GuangZhou Rail Station. It is within walking distance from that train station or subway station (the train and subway stations are connected). Assuming you go to GuangZhou from ShenZhen, you take the GuangZhou East Station train. The reason for taking that train instead of the one that directly goes to GuangZhou Rail Station is there are a lot more and faster trains (only takes 1 hour) going to GuangZhou East Station. After arriving at GuangZhou East Station, I recommend you take a cab directly to the watch market. It only costs RMB$30-35. If you are brave, you can take the subway to save RMB$25-30 but I don't recommend it the first time going there. You can take the subway going back from GuangZhou Rail Station to GuangZhou East Station esp. when in the evening when cabs are hard to catch. Your map is perfect for that purpose. If you somehow take a train directly to GuangZhou Rail Station or arrive there by subway, don't try to take a cab to the watch market because it's too close and cabbies won't take you. Just ask around. Everybody knows where it is. The watch market has many complexes adjacent to one another. The main ones are the south and the new south watch trade buildings. Address in English: GuangZhou Shi, ZhanXi Road, NanFang Watch Trade, and New NanFang Watch Trade Address in Chinese: 广州市，站西路，南方表行，and 新南方表行 Recommended stalls: E125 at New NanFang Watch Trade to get IWC GST Chrono for RMB$1100, Planet Ocean for RMB$700, Franck Muller Casablanca for RMB$700; B76 at NanFang Watch Trade to get 6497 skeleton for RMB$400. Recommended repairman: Mr. Lin, Wen Rong (林文荣), phone: 3159-6255 (when calling from GuangZhou), add 020 prefix when calling from anywhere else in China, add 86-020 prefix when calling from outside of China. He is located in another building: GuangZhou Shi, ZhanXi Road, North Street No. 6, Dong Fang Watch City, stall E8 （广州市，站西路北街6号，东方表城，E8档）. He charges RMB$50 to service 2836 type movements, RMB$100 for 7750. Don't let him overcharge you. People in China tend to charge you more if you don't know the street prices. You can watch him service the watch which is a joy. Do plan on staying a night or 2 there because some watches are on order meaning you have to wait a day to get them. You can go to a sauna to stay the night. They charge RMB$300-400 for a 2-hour massage and you can stay overnight for free. I went to one called TianQuan Sauna (天泉) which is very close to the watch market. It charges RMB$328 for a 90 minute massage. Beautiful facilities, include ping pong (RMB$10/hr), billiard (RMB$50/hr), free Internet, free drinks and fruits, RMB$8 for buffet, RMB$58 for 45 minute foot massage. Mind you the 90 min massage includes HJ. If you are not into it, ask for a clean massage, same price though. Saunas in China is a phenomenon. You feel like a king.

I'm on vacation in HK, ShenZhen, and GuangZhou. I never had this much fun vacationing these locations before picking up the rep collecting hobby. The best part is visiting the watch market in GuangZhou. It's located west of GuangZhou train station, which is the old train station. There is a new station called GuangZhou East station. There are a few complexes for the market. 2 of them are for retail watches, most of which are replicas. 1 complex is for wholesale stuff like watch parts, straps. There are all kinds of tools, winders, etc. I picked up 4 nice screw drivers, a case opener, a real nice tweesers, a hammer, a plastic base to hold a watch for resizing the bracelet, 2 pliers, 3 bracelet pin pushers, lug pin remover, a jeweller cloth, all for $14. The watch hunting part is not easy but super fun. There are so many dealers (maybe 100+ of them) selling different qualities of watches. The costs are lower than those offered by our forum dealers but it's a hell lot of work to get good stuff. Our dealers' prices can be cheaper but I tell you they've done quite some hard work for you and I think it's totally worth it buying from our dealers. I don't remember how many dealers I've talked to there and how many (same) watches I looked at before I pulled the trigger. All in all, this is an extremely fun experience for a watch nut like us. Besides watches, parts, and tools, watch servicing is so economical. Guess how much it costs to service a 2836? About $6. I'm not kidding. I don't know if it's a full service. I watched the guy take the watch apart in a couple of mins, not fully apart though. I asked him why. He said unless the movement has problem, it's not necessary to disasemble the part that he didn't. He did take a [censored] load of things apart, cleaned them, inspect many of them, re-oil the movement, put everything back together. Everything done in an hour. What a joy for me to watch. I have the utmost respect for repairmen now. Here's the damage: IWC GST Ti Chrono for ~$140 + $13 for servicing => this watch is a must buy replica, it's so accurate in appearance except for the misaligned text under the day/date window. I looked at a used gen in HK. I can't spot any other flaws like I would with Rolex replicas. You know, the slightly dipped 'D' of 'WED' day text is actually existent on the real thing, may or may not be dipped as much. I highly recommend getting it before it's out of production. The asian movement is no slouch either. I immediately got it serviced for $13. It runs like a dream, as accurate as my other 2836's in a span of a couple of days. The chrono function works very well and lasts for hours without any problem (I stopped it myself). Explorer I - I (had the repairman) pulled a 2836 from an old sub, bought an Explorer I case+bracelet+dial+hands+crown set for $17, paid the repairman $3 for assembly. Bingo, I got myself a Explorer I. Franck Muller Casblanca w/ new ETA (2824, I think) for $90. It's perfect, the finish, the weight of the watch and bracelet. It's as satisfying as the IWC. Datejust champagne for $50 + $6 service - movement is a used 2836 so servicing it is a good idea. GMT II Pepsi (adjustable GMT hand) for $110 - I regret getting it. It looks good at first and then I found so many flaws with it. The bezel insert, the case, the dial, the SEL, the bracelet are perfect. The bezel is too thick, the GMT hand's triangle is too large and the hand is too long, the crown is too thick, not to mention the CG being wrong. I would say buy this model from Andrew or Paul or Eddie. Their cost is worth it. I can't find any good sub nor Pannies, nothing near our dealers' stuff. Weird. I gave one of my old subs to the repairman to reshape the CG. I know it could be a total failure but I don't want the sub anyway. If he can reshape it, I'll be real happy. If not, no big deal. He charges $26 for the job. When I get back to the US, I'll post pics of my acquisition in this trip.

a colleague of mine nice enough to let me take pics of it:

I don't know the history of prices. Looking at today's prices, I think davidsen's has a lower overall cost when you factor in the lume, the crystall, and the pin fix. I was wondering if the davidsen's has some major flaw which I can't spot.

I also wonder why it seemed davidsen's 127 isn't as widely owned. It seems it needs no mod. The pics show his CG lever opens at the top half. But I'm sure you can ask him to change it. I've seen a post that said exactly that. What flaws does it have that explain why people rather buy from someone else and go through all the trouble of modding their 127s?

That's great. Another question I have is: does the CG fit most of our dealers' H offerings without additional modding? I know it won't for davidsen's. I asked Josh if his H's are 1:1. He said his cases are very accurate but not sure if they will take aftermarket parts without additional modding. Same goes for belial2k's. Anybody know which reps these custom-made CGs can fit without mods?

sorry for my ignorance about the diff cg shapes, H or non-H series. From Panerai's site, I see that the cgs for 112, 176, 111, 000, 177, 005, etc. look like this, with the cg lever about in the middle and the space above and below it more or less the same size vs. much thinner on top like the one from Perfect Clones. So the cg Mr. Smith is making looks like the top 3 pics, right? Again sorry to question this if it's too obvious. from Perfect Clones

Ubi, Is your davidsen plexi 40x6.8mm? You got it nice and not-overly-tall sitting on the bezel. Did you have to file the plexi down? How much did you file off? Thanks. - Bert

At the China side of the train station, there's a shopping center called Luo Hu Shopping Center. Just stay right after you exit immigration (assuming HK to China direction). Go up any escalators that will take you up a level. You can't miss it. It's like a 8+ story building. It's a counterfeit haven. DVDs, shoes, clothes, bags, and our beloved replicas. There are many many stores that sell replicas. Take your time. They will ask for RMB$1000+ for a ETA sub. You can definitely get it for around RMB$800 (US$100). Ask them to open the back and keep a close eye on the piece you want in case they switch it. Pay only when you're totally sure. The watches mostly come from GuangZhou, the replica capital of the world. It is about 1.5 hour north of ShenZhen by train. There is an astounding watch market at Train Station West in GuangZhou. A member told me it takes more than a day to roam. While in ShenZhen, pay a visit to a sauna. Luo Hu Shopping Center certainly has some good quality saunas. Get a 2, 3-hour massage for around US$30-50 (RMB$200-400), tip US$10-20 (RMB$80-160), the masseuse should be real happy. I personally prefer blind masseurs. They have incredible hands. If daring, try foot reflexology. It's best after a day of walking and looking for your favorite reps. PM me if you want to get kinky. A note of caution to US travellers: don't bring back any counterfeit hollywood DVD. Each one found costs you US$10,000 at the customs. Some guy got fined $80,000 dollars. Not funny at all. I don't know about Canadian customs. ShenZhen is an incredible, wild place. The women to men ratio is 7:1. It has some of the best clubs and most gorgeous people I've seen. I'm going back there in November.

2 watches from HK, 1 from Singapore, 1 from England, to California, no problem so far, knock on wood. Is Dallas partcularly bad? If California is OK, send your watches to me and let me resend to you. My service is postage and your watches on my wrist for merely 1 week :-)

sad that it's so problematic, good that someone, The Zigmeister, can make it work. If you really want it, buy it and get on The Zigmeister's wait list fast. Maybe next year you'll have a good running portuguese...ha ha ha...

Email him. Let you know you'd rather wait.

Got a PM from davidsen: ******************************************************************** hi, Thank you for telling me that i should up grade my 005/195 dial with bolder letters and beeter spacing. I am working on that issue and soon i will have something to show you and other memeers. will show you my up grade very soon. Thank you ********************************************************************* I AM PYSCHED. The head honcho listened to us. Woo-Hoo!!! I'm sure upgrade to the other dials (111, 112, etc.) will follow. Save your money.

in terms of durability. I understand those with second at 6 should be avoided (is it 11 gears to get the second at 6?). Is the 6, 9, 12 configuration (like IWC GST) better than the 3, 6, 9 (like Panerai Daylight) configuration? Thanks.

I don't see China as a supported country. How do I send money to China? I just send USD and let the dealer worry about converting it?

I heard Money Broker is the cheaper way to send money to our China dealers. Can someone teach me where/how to get an account, etc.? Thanks.

Davidsen's 005 has a solid back and it doesn't say the movement is an upgraded, http://replica-watch.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5933. Are you referring to the new 111h he's offering, http://replica-watch.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9459? The pic of his 111h movt (Swiss with swan neck) looks like that of the real 111h on Panerai's official site except for the engraving which has a larger font that the real thing. Are you talking about the engraving? Sorry to be dense.

I know it's a known issue. I have no doubt davidsen will get to it sooner or later. But I'm thinking maybe if we talk more about it, davidsen will do it earlier. Look at his 005, http://replica-watch.info/forum/viewtopic....rd&start=15. In case the images are missing, I backed up briank996 images (sorry brian, I don't mean to hijack your images, but when I went back to the link above, your images don't load. I went to my cache and uploaded your images to photobucket so everybody can still see the pics). Look at the watch, paricularly the thick crown and CG. The CG is perfect, the space above and below the lever is even, with the former just a tad thinner than the latter. It totally matches the current HISTORIC pannies. The case, crown, and CG are a perfect foundation for the current 000, 111, 112, 005 models. You know how good his superlume dial and hands, AR sapphire, and movements (even his CN movements are very good - read The Zigmeister's report). If only he makes the dial letters bolder, proper spacing between them, proper position of the words (e.g. the word Panerai should be lower, closer to the indices). That should be very doable. If eddielee can do it, I'm sure davidsen can do it. I think we just have to tell him we want that done very much.

neat, uh!

it's my newly acquired davidsen. I wound it till it couldn't turn anymore. Is that about right?