panerai153

Freddy, please don't shoot it, send it to me!!!! Went diving yesterday, wore this one.

Although I have never been a fan of the nipple dials, on. Subs or or newer GMT's, I have to admit those watches that are pictured are all outstanding, and I'm sure veeeery expensive!,

Since DW has gone away, I,m not sure their is a good "watch" available. I believe the only way to get one is to either buy one from another member on one of the sales forums or build one. Try to find a case set,dial, movement, etc. and have it built.DW was definitely a good source for reasonably priced vintage Daytonas, as well as parts, but that's not going to happen now.

You got it!!! Atlantis Royal Towers in the background.

Half a world away from Dubai!! Hint: close to Florida, but not USA , They drive on the wrong side of the road here too!

Where am I today?

I'm not sure, I bought it from another member, who took it out the box, tried it on, and decided it was not for him.

Pete, I can certainly appreciate where you are coming from. While I have never had one that I really hated, I have had a multitude of watches that I was very excited about when looking at them, but when they arrived, I almost knew immediately that they were not going to stay around. I'm sure their are many, many more who are suffering from this malady to some degree or other. If it were not pretty prevalent among watch lovers, there would not be a sale section attached to every watch forum in the world!! Look at WUS, TZ and other gen sites as well as the sales sites on this and other rep forums. They are filled with watches that are either brand new or worn only a few times. We are never really satisfied, I believe that this is just something inherent to the modern human, especially those of us who have the means to keep seeking the elusive "Perfect" whatever.

I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving, eat well, drive safely and most of all enjoy the fellowship of friends and family as we all give thanks for having the bounties that the Lord above has bestowed on us. My feast today is a bit different from Mike's. my family really isn't too much on turkey, so I've been slow cooking a stuffed pork loin on my pellet grill. Stuffed with spinach, sliced almonds, gorgonzola cheese and fig preserves. All wrapped up with bacon slices for added juices. While that cooks, I made a Crab and Corn bisque which all the family members love!! Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon with my lovely wife, son, and his beautiful wife and my two great( most of the time!!) teenage grandchildren. Good food, good wine and good fellowship, what more could and old guy ask for.

Just a little update relative to the movement reliability. I set the watch to the atomic clock on my phone the afternoon of the 24th after taking the photos that are in this thread. I checked my watch this afternoon about 4PM, 11/27/13 which is around 3 days. the time was off by -7 seconds!! that is a little more than 2 seconds a day. This is very good for a new movement, and shows that the A2824's that are used in this watch are pretty darn good movements. Minus 2 seconds per day is well within COSC parameters. As to whether or not it will hold up and be this accurate over time, only time will tell. However for the time being, I'm really very happy with this watch.

AP Forged Carbon

Beautiful build, You are amassing a really spectacular collection my man!!

Let me be the first to congratulate you!! That was super fast, I figured you would get it sometimes next week. I promise you, if I didn't have one, I would be ordering one right now. Beautiful watch, and like you said, I can't see anything wrong with it. I'm glad to see that the serial numbers are different, such a sure tell on so many reps that all have the same number Wear it in good health.

Welcome from another ULL grad (Of course I'm from the old USL era, way back in fact) Hope you find a nice watch, and like you said, it's pretty absurd to spend thousands on a watch when the rep is about 99% as accurate as the genuine. If you buy a Quartz, it probably has the same motor that the genuine watch has inside!! Good luck

Nah!! You will be posting one just like this in a week or two!! I'm trying to get some of the AP experts to tell me what's wrong with it BTW I saw your little collection in the AP photo thread, you have some seriously beautiful AP's. I do have a question though. I've been reading a bit about the sec's @ 12,I noticed that you have several chronos with that configuration, have you had any problems with any of them? What can be done to fix the problem? sort of sounds like the same problem that the Rolex guys are having with the sec's @ 6 Daytonas.

You got it, in case my horse decides to go for a swim!! BTW your Big Crowns just get better and better

First off, I really am and AP noob. this is the first AP that I have ever owned, rep or gen. I've been around the watch game for about 40+ years, and I 've owned lots of different brands over the years. I have always owned Rolex watches except for a period in the early 1990's when I sold all my Rolex watches and decided to try some other brands. Got back into them in the late 1990's and into reps shortly after that. I saw the photos of this rep a couple of weeks ago when Hike01 started a thread in general discussion about the best version of this watch. I saw the photos, read a bunch of threads on this forum, and a few over on Repgeek, and frankly I was hooked. I was going to buy one from one of our TD's but was able to pick this one up from another member here. Brand new only a few days old, and never unwrapped. this is my first black watch since I sold a genuine Chronosport UDT several years ago. One of the first things that I did after getting the watch in was give it a good going over with a 4X and a10X loupe. I have to say, this is probably the best constructed rep that I have owned. Not many "warts" can escape a 10X loupe, it sees everything. I am very impressed with the dial, the numbers, the lume, just about everything about it is spot on. Now having said that I'm not saying that everything is correct to the genuine. Not having ever had one in my hand. it's hard to say, however I did download some photos of genuine FC Divers, and I can't see much that is different, certainly nothing glaring. Like all rep watches, It wouldn't do to wear it into an AD and flaunt it around, however outside of that I don't believe that there are many folks around that can tell this one from the genuine, at least without a gen to compare. I was particularly impressed with the lume application, no lumpy spots, no overruns, and unlike a whole lot of rep watches the lume actually glows!! Everything is very precise and right where it should be. The crystal AR looks to be quite good, I don't notice any color tinges. Not having ever seen the genuine, I wouldn't know if the Cyclops is the correct mag or even has any mag. If there is, it isn't like the Rolex Cyclops that is 2.5X. My case is nicely figured, certainly no "wood grain" affect in the least. All of the edges are very straight, and no problems around the lug ends, etc. The lug fit isn't as good as some I've seen here, but after owning vintage Rolex watches for 40+ years, and seeing the sloppy fit and looseness of genuine Rolex bracelets, endlinks and lug fit, this one looks outstanding!! The watch sets and winds very nicely, the date clicks over at 12, as it should. The inner bezel mechanism works, although I doubt that I will be using this function much if at all. I realize that the 28800 BPH movement is not correct, and the best of the Asian 2824's isn't as good as an ETA, however I will at some point send the watch down to Vac and let him change out the movement. I have a brand new ETA 2824 as well as a NOS 2846 for the slow beat conversion. At the same time I'll get him to address the bezel screw height issue. The hex head bezel screws are not all precisely the same height, there is the one at 20 which is set a tiny bit lower that the others, again no biggy unless your OCD is in hyperdrive. It definitely is a lint magnet!! I wore it under a sweater today, and it took me 5 minutes to clean it up to take some photos, and I still had a little dust on the watch. Mine must be static charged! I'm very concerned about water resistance with reps. All the TD's tout the water resistance of their watches being >30, >50 atmos etc. I know that's a bunch of horse hockey! I doubt that any of these reps are really tested in a pressure tester, unless one pays for the extra service. I do have a pressure tester that tests up to 5 atmos., so I ran the FC through a pressure test yesterday and it passed a 5 atmos. test , 5 Atmos. is not suitable for snorkeling, Scuba or any activity that might subject your watch to pressurized water, but it gives me confidence that my watch will not get wet inside when washing my hands, or occasionally immersing it in water, probably safe for wear at the pool or beach. This is pretty important for "pulling off" a rep, because it looks pretty suspicious if you are take your Rolex Submariner or AP Diver off at poolside and leave it on the table!! If I saw that my immediate impression would be, Ahha! a non submersible submersible, must be a rep. Won't have that problem with this watch. Sorry for the rambling, I really do like this watch, it's very well made, to my old eyes, it's very close to the 27,000.00 USD genuine (Does anyone think that there is 26,500 USD difference between the genuine and the rep?) i'm going to have to keep looking at AP's as this one has made me a believer. Here are a few photos, sorry they are not the quality of some of you AP owners. I'm really impressed with some of the photographs on this forum, lots of professional quality photos.

Beautiful watch, it's a bit blingy for this old man, but still outstanding. you have good taste in wine as well, I bought a case of the Chateau Cantemerle 2000 , and it has been and outstanding wine. Most of the 2000 Bordeaux's were/or pretty good, we like this one a lot. Wish I had put aside 4-5 cases at the time, just didn't have enough space to store it properly. outstanding watch, outstanding photos and outstanding wine. what more could you want!!

WOW!! hike, you have some seriously nice AP's, and I really like your photos.

Guess what I'm gearing up for?

Definitely left!

Second that about ladies, especially lady Cajuns !! I bet she knows what boudin and jambalaya are!!! Welcome from another Tabasco lover

Thanks, Actually I didn't realize the special effects were on. I am going to redo those photos with the camera on normal setting. I'm very pleased with this watch. First AP. I looked it over with a 4X loupe, and I'm amazed at how nice everything is put together! The screw @ 20 is a tad lower, but doesn't bother me that much. I plan on sending it to Vac at some point for a movement transplant. I have new ETA 2824 as well as a NOS 2846 for the transplant. I'll have him even out the screws at that time. Also, I ran it through my pressure tester yesterday, passed 5 atmos.

Actually, it was and accident, somehow I went from normal "photo effects" off to "watercolor effect" without realizing it. had I been looking at each after I took it, I would have noticed it on the first one, but I took abiout 5-6 shots and then looked and realized what happened!! Here is a wristie that I took a few minutes after I discovered the "special effects" and turned them off!!