RobbieG

Yeah, there are quite a few gen PO guys here. Congrats. Now we have a pumpkin variant in the family. Most of us had the rep first and fell in love with it. Surprise of the year for me. If it wasn't for RWG and the reps I never would have noticed these simple and elegant watches at all. I know Wheaton has a 45.5MM version as well. And dluddy has us all beat because he has a franken that is as good as any gen and for a third of the price...

Right, which is why it colors as it ages that way. As opposed to say Sterling Silver which will temporarily tarnish but will not change color as it ages...

Welcome to the best corner on the web for watch enthusiasts - replica AND genuine on the web. You will find as muh if not more watch knbowledge here than anywhere else on the web - including many genuine watch forums. If there is Patek info you need, you have come to the right place and there are several decent Patek reps as I recall as well as satisfied owners. I'm not much of a Patek guy, but be sure to search for the threads about them and ask lots of questions to those who have posted pics as owners. That will be a good starting point. As for dealers, stick with the ones approved here and you will be OK. The few available decent quaity Patek's are no doubt made by just one or two factories and as such, most dealers here will be sourcing the same goods. Good luck and happy hunting!

Great shot Corgi! Nice watch too. Don't see too many TT's in the wristies.

What Piratedzeus said - obviously...

Yeah I should have thought to check there. But I think sometimes the stories are more entertaining before you know it was hoaxed...

Now that has got to be Shopped no? Looks as big as the Grizzly.

In the usual work attire of pajamas or when I actaully get dressed and leave my office, which these days is much less often, I just never tire of it. It just seems to go with everything and is of course so comfortable. I have had one DJ or another for at least 15 years and there has never been a time when one wasn't rotating in my box. I can't say that about any other watch in my collection. I know there is nothing inherently cool about these watches, but it is interesting how many long time collectors like me still gravitate towards them...

Cool lume on that Seamaster Rocky. Don't remember seeing that one from you before...

Wow. What a great score. Nothing like that ever happens to me. I bet you always get the front parking spot when you go to the grocery store too? Meanwhile I would get killed by lightning on a sunny day indoors with rubber shoes on before finding a spot at the end of the first row... But seriously, nice find. Plus not every fine reguation mechanism is marked with those particular descriptions of fast and slow. So if you are ever feeling particularly stupid on one day or another you now have a watch which will call you a derogatory name just by looking at the caseback.

Now that was funny. BTW, now that we are on the subject, how much does our esteemed member CBR look like Steven Baldwin?

I was actually one of those hikers in his stomach. But not until I put a good hurt on him. Read this: http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=577818

I was looking for a bear photo for another thread as a joke and I found this little news item. Could be a hoax of course but seems plausible just the same so even if it is there is no doubt it certainly could have happened for sure. This picture is of a man who works for the US Forest Service in Alaska and his trophy bear. He was out deer hunting when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy emptied his 7mm Magnum semi-automatic rifle into the bear and it dropped a few feet from him. The big bear was still alive so he reloaded and shot it several times in the head. The bear was just over 1600 pounds It stood 12' 6" high at the shoulder, 14' to the top of his head. It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world. Of course, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep it as a trophy, but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourists of the risks involved when in the wild. Based on the contents of the bears stomach, the Fish and Wildlife Commission established the bear had killed at least two humans in the past 72 hours including a missing hiker. The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated, found the hiker's 38-caliber pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol was the remains of the hiker. The other body has not been found. Although the hiker fired six shots and managed to hit the grizzly with four shots (the Service ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7mm slugs inside the bear's dead body), it only wounded the bear and probably angered it immensely. The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own death by the gun of the Forest Service worker. Think about this: If you are an average size man; You would be level with the bear's navel when he stood upright. The bear would look you in the eye when it walked on all fours! To give additional perspective, consider that this particular bear, standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house and look over the roof, or walk up to a two story house and look in the bedroom windows

Yeah, I have heard that. I wonder what the history of that is? Maybe King Kam days probably? Not that I ever ate the head anyway so I wouldn't know abouty the dreams. But I've eaten hundreds cooked with head on and no problems yet. I really miss Hawaiian reef fish. And Tako? Don't get me started. Tricky to spear too. An old timer taught me how to spot them at 20-30 ft. in my youth and freedive to get em', but it wasn't easy. Hawaiian guys are born with it - like a gift of nature. Took me a long time to learn to spot them on the reef as good as my teachers. Leeward side is best and in the summer of course as you well know - water clean. Lots of good Tako spots over there. Nanakuli, Pray for Sex, Maili Point. Miss it...

Now you are really showing da island boy coming out... What brahdah? You like troh net? Hah? Why? Jus like the old time Ali'i I like the red ones Lani. Try catch some Aweoweo and Menpachi fo' me! Leave em' whole jus gut em. A little mayo, shoyu and green onion inside. Wrap em' in foil and on the grill for a few. Presto. Reef fish - backyard luau style. Kay Den!

Yeah, Jim is a great guy. I did a project with him many years ago. As for JT, he may be a watch collector, but what a d*ck. Just off the charts on that scale. I hung out with him a bit just outside of Santa Fe while in the midst of another project 10 years or so ago. He lived next door to a house I was staying at and ate lunch almost daily with a whole group of us. He is one of those people that I can honestly say I feel I would have been better off never meeting. That is a short list for me and one has to be a pretty advanced Co*cksucker to make his way onto it. But at least I got the chance to tell him so one day and the group I was with got a good laugh out of it (including some of his friends) so I suppose it was worth knowing him after all.

Good point. My girl scored a J12 rep from me and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt it is absolutely 100% ceramic. Don't know about the Bangs. Anybody else want to chime in as to why not make the insert of of ceramic if they have the material and can do it. So maybe we should assume it is a very expensice process? Let's think it through...Maybe getting the numbered channel into ceramic is what is hard? The J12 has no channeled bits into the ceramic. I have no idea. Just wondering.

Thanks for singing the praises and welcome to you. RWG is a wonderful community for true watch nuts. And some of us are nuttier than others for sure but we share a common bond and a level of passion which cannot be matched. You have found much more than a place to help you buy a rep. Be careful, you might just make a few friends here...

Agreed. Most of their prices make for a good value for the money. Although I do think that there is a definite difference in overal fit and finish between the lower end IWC's (Portofino/AT's/Portochrono) and the middle end (7-Days/BP/Ingy). Pretty nice on the latter and a bit marginal on the lower. But they make up fro it in design and low prices so I'm not complaining. I actually own a low end IWC so I must not think too bad about it. But truthfully, both the PO and the Steelfish are equal to - or in the case of the Fish maybe even a hair nicer feeling and finished - and both for a bit less money. But overall, I think the the line is tight and well thought out with a ton of variety in design and function and no duplication like so many other brands with very convoluted ranges (sorry Breitling )... But one thing peeves me about IWC: I think that they could do a bit better at movement finishing in their display backed models and especially with some of their flagship stuff. I remember being a bit appauled some time ago while handling their eighty thousand dollar minute repeater. The level of movement finishing was more in line with something from Sinn or Oris. Nothing wrong with that of course, but when they are running with the big dogs? Nuf said. Imagine how amazing say the BP would be if that movement was finished on the order of something like GO (which incidentally is done quite a bit by machine contrary to popluar belief unlike Lange and others). .02

Yeah but from what I recall you don't ever sell any of them do you? That said, you may not be counting my bruddah but you've got to have passed fifty pieces and maybe even be approaching a bill by now no?

Or just post pics of your GF with your arm around your arrival. No offense, but we don't care about your watch that much. But girls? We like those alot when we can get them around here...

Welcome to RWG. I'm sure you will find plenty of PAM experts here to guide you in the process. Feel free to also share your current collection with us in the appropriate subforums. As you have probably figured out by now, we love pics around here and everyone is pretty commited to sharing ongoing pics and stories of their watch collections - replica and genuine. And pretty much any of the dealers you see all sell most of the PAM's and all other brands. There are a limited number of main factories and most of the dealers have access to each of them. Pay no attention to what they have posted in their sections. Just send each a PM of what you are looking for and they will send you links to their Photobuckets/websites where you can view all they offer and even if you don't see it there, ask and they will probably be able to source it for you. Although you should know that the PAM field is a little thinner than it was. PAM's are no longer in the "hey-day" they were a couple years ago. Although I did hear from one dealer that he is focusing on a whole new vintage PAM line which is supposed to be the next big thing out of China. We shall see. In the meantime, good luck, relax, kick your shoes off and enjoy. Happy hunting!

Yes, many prefer others to Lange as some feel they are almost too organic and almost imprecise in that way. I love that all the balance cocks are differnet myself. In fact, if you sent your watch to Lange, everyone there almost would be able to tell which engraver did it - and she is probably still there too! And yes, Lange is famous for making all the bridges and plates out of untreated German silver which ages to a golden warm patina over time. Many don't know but the choice for the silver was a regional one. The Saxony government talked Adolph Lange into helping revitalize the area and gave him some subsidy in the beginning to do so. Glashutte sits against the Ore Mountains which used to be a major silver mining center. As that industry waned there were many out of work but fairly skilled laborers. Lange moved there and trained many of the original labor force from the mining industry and decided to use the plentiful silver right on his doorstep when creating his first movements. It stuck and continues today. Neat stuff...

The AT's are 42MM but wear larger as they are all dial. External bezels make watches look smaller by effectively shrinking the dials. The 44Mm special editions wear WAY bigger. Anyway you get it, these bracelets are arguably the best design around. I still can't figure why they never did the Ti version although I understand there may be a raw materials Ti shortage in China right now. I think they really nailed the whole Slevin SS version rep though. Pretty tough to find many faults with it when comparing it to my gen. I considered getting the Slevin rep just to have both as I like the white accents a lot too. I also considered getting a rubber strap for mine but I doubt I could see wearing it much. Like I said, nothing beats these bracelets...

I have a gen PO and to my eye I would think a 90/10 C3 to C1 mix would be about perfect, but without perfect lighting and a VERY stringent side by side comparison plain C3 will be fine. Of course if one were to so such a comparison, all but the most frankenized rep will give one of its other secrets away long before anyone noticed a slight difference in the lume color. And of course most all lighting will produce some charge of the lume so all bets are off on color then anyway. Another very important factor is the amount of lume and there is always a trade off there when modding reps. Many people feel it is more important to use less material in the interest of keeping the indices flatter like they tend to be on most brands of genuine watches. Relumes are of course done on top of the factory lume. The Zigmeister tends to build up the new lume pretty good in the interest of getting good color coverage and brightness out of the new lume. The tradeoff of course is that the indices no longer look quite right and the lume is kind of globbed up on the index standing a bit too tall. The alternative is to use hardly any material trying to keep it flatter, but then it won't glow as bright and the resting color might not be right letting the old color show through if it is too thin. Just a matter of taste really. On some watches - like the SFSO for instance - it is nearly impossible not to have lume rounded over on the index as the original lume was so globby to begin with there is no way around it. So it may glow like a torch but the indexes rarely look right. Hope that helps...