panerai153

Looks very, very nice!! Great work by the incomparable Mr. Legend!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Marathon also uses Tritium tubes. Not as bright as charged Superluminova, but they are just as bright at 5AM as they were at 10PM. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

16613 today. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

WOW!! You have been busy. Really great to hear from you. I sure hope that you and your family are well.

I have had very good results with SeaGull 2824 clones. Only problem I have found, there aren't many folks selling them. I bought the first one from and eBay seller from Portugal, when I needed another one. Contacted the seller. She emailed me that she no longer carried them because SeaGull raised the prices and they weren't competitive with other 2824 clones. Ended up getting one from a seller in Hong Kong. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The old 1680 today Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Miyota 9015 is a good solid movement, but it's a high beat. I have never heard of anyone converting it to a slow beat movement. The 2824 gave you that option, should you want to get the beat rate to the same as the genuine AP diver. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

PanAm 6542 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You might want to take this over to the Rolex forum and see what they think over there. I do know that mymanmatt builds some really good DayDate reps, but I believe all of his are the 36mm version. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Removing serial numbers is still being done. For me, the grey market dealer would have to offer a really significant discount for me to even entertain buying from them. Not only do you not get the warranty from the manufacturer, you aren't even sure it's really a brand new watch. Example, you go to an AD, buy a new Omega for instance. You wear it a day, and decide that you really don't like it. You take it back, and trade it for something else. The AD cannot sell this as a new watch, but they can darn sure sell it to a grey market seller who in turn resells it to you as a new watch. Same thing with watches that develop a problem right after purchase. Replaced and resold. I would expect that these occupancies are a tiny part of the total grey market. The vast majority are coming from AD's who sell to grey market dealers that are not in competition with the AD, geographically. AD's use this method to unload unpopular models and slow sellers, but they also use this to increase the volume of watches and possibly qualify for a bigger discount. I don't know that all manufacturers have sliding scale discounts, but lots do. The more the dealer buys, the less the price per unit. Watch manufacturers really don't like grey market dealers, as they establish the price of a particular watch at a price point well below the manufacturers suggested retail price. Also it creates a PR problem when someone tries to get their watch repaired under warranty and the manufacturer refuses because it is a grey market watch. One year out, the watch owner doesn't remember the fine print that specified the watch was not covered under the manufacturers warranty! The owner is now mad at the company because they won't is his watch Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Second what TomHorn said. Proceed with extreme caution if this is the same DW. He scammed quite a few folks here and probably other forums. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Good work sir. Looks like you are well on your way to getting your watch back to a very nice state. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks for the photos. So what you are saying, the hand that is a week tracker (1-52) on the genuine is in fact a seconds hand on the rep. Or are there two versions, one that tracks the week of the year and one that uses that hand as a seconds hand. I agree with the statement about the "moonphase" dial. Why do they keep using that silly smiley moon? I've seen that exact dial for 10+ years on every rep that has a faux moonphase! Totally incorrect and pretty lame. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I was curious and looked this one up, as you said, lots of flaws, but unless you are surrounded by WIS, probably will never meet anyone who has even seen one of these, or cares! Which functions are "movement operated"' as opposed to requiring manual setting? I would like to see one of these on a leather strap as opposed to the bracelet, but I don't believe that's and option in either the rep or gen. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Nice watch, and your ride ain't half bad either!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Ocean7 GMT modded with replacement Mercedes hands and red GMT hand (was silver) Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Probably pretty easy to find old closeup Macro lenses around. Price shouldn't be very expensive for good quality glass. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I believe the Colamariner may well be like the White dial "PanAm" 6542, only Rolex knows for sure and they ain't telling!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The author pretty much sums up what I have been saying for years. People just don't give a damn about what someone else is wearing (women excluded, as they notice everything!!!). Most people can't tell a Rolex from a Timex. They see that beautiful AP ROO on your wrist, and to them it looks a whole lot like the big chunky watches they see for sale at the watch counters in mall department stores. The only folks who will notice and may or may not comment are fellow WIS, who honestly are pretty few and far between. And like the young fellow said, if you are not knowledgable, better to stay silent. I would bet, in most circles, one would get more comments wearing nanug's Mickey Mouse watch than they would wearing any stainless steel black dial watch, be it a Rolex sub, an AP diver or a Blancpain FF. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Longines Lindberg Hour Angle Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Having been around here for neigh on 10 years, I have seen a fair number off repair/mod folks come and go. Some went gracefully with lots of accolades and tears because they were leaving. Our beloved The Zigmeister comes to mind here. Some left after screwing over a whole bunch of folks to the tune of thousands and thousands of dollars worth of watches, parts and prepaid funds. The worst culprit by far was MD2020, long gone, but not forgotten or forgiven! Why do these folks come on with so much enthusiasm, only to fade away? I don't think that there is one pat answer to the question, but many reasons. I do think that there are some primary factors that lead to a once enthusiastic individual finally deciding to fold up their tent and move on. First off the repair person/ modder is starting a business. It may be on his kitchen table, corner of his den or a nice shop in his basement or garage, but it's a business. Every business needs a plan, operating procedures, rules and regulations. Generally all of this is ignored. The successful guys have a very rigid scheduling system, they schedule watches in and will not accept anything that is not on their schedule. Others just tell folks" send it to me, I'll look at it. Very soon these folks are inundated with packages.One guy years ago, who was about as disorganized as you could possibly be posted a photo showing a pile of unopened boxes that literally took up half his living room. I bet he had a hundred boxes stacked up in there. Suffice to say, he flamed out and left a bunch of unhappy folks in his wake!these inundated repair/modders are spending more and more time at their bench, the family is unhappy because dad is never available for the family. Pressure builds and soon he's taking shortcuts, or if not the owners of all those watches piling up in his dining room start to raise Holy Hell because he hasn't gotten to their watches. Something has to give and ultimately, the owners suffer the consequences. Good qualified professional watch repair people have a published price list of their work. They impress on folks that this is the MINIMUM price for the work, and should they encounter more problems the price may be higher. They also require a deposit of 25-50% of the anticipated cost before they open up a watch. What this ensures is two things, the deadbeats( which you would be surprised are many) will have to at least cover the cost of his time and parts before he starts, and also eliminates those who after the watch is finished, decide that the repairs were too expensive and just tells the repair person, "just keep the watch".this happens often enough and even guys like The Zigmeister who had a really sound plan and pretty rigid rules, got stuck with orphan watches. Of course a deposit often deters those who send a watch in on a whim and then decide later they don't want to pay for the work. Guys who are successful are very careful about what they advertise they can do. If they don't work on sec@12 or sec@6 a7750 movements, they refuse to accept those watches. If relumes are not their forte, they don't advertise or accept relume work. Quite a few folks start out doing one thing really well, but either pressure or their egos send them into areas where they have little or no expertise. Just because you can relume a dial or reshape the crown guards on a Rolex 1680, doesn't qualify you to disassemble, clean, oil and regulate a movement properly. Generally what happens here is owners get watches back and the work is not up to par. People complain, demand their money back, open PayPal disputes, etc. and pretty soon another modder bites the dust. These are just a few of the things that work to create a revolving door repair/modding network. Not much different from opening other types of small businesses. I'm all for trying to encourage more folks who repair or mod watches to participate here, but at the same time they need to realize that they have a responsibility to the customers who trust them with their watches, and by the same token the customers have a responsibility to do the right thing by the repair/ modder. Do your due diligence, ask questions, read reviews and communicate with the person doing the repairs/mods. If you feel that the person does a fantastic dial relume, don't assume that he can make your broken AP ROO movement work like a genuine AP movement. Sorry for the long, probably off the subject diatribe, but we all have to work together if we want to have good honest folks making our reps even better. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

It's very disconcerting to see the lengths people will go to deceive. The whole vintage Rolex market has gotten so filled with dodgy watches, sellers that are misrepresenting watches and higher and higher prices that it has become very risky to buy unless you are very knowledgable or have access to someone who is. We all know that sales sites like EBay are the "Wild,Wild West, but when folks that are selling themselves as reputable dealers turn out to be crooks, it really is discouraging. AFA this Watchgroupcorp, if one went to their website, it becomes quite easy to see that they are in the business of enhancing and altering watches. I would never in a million years buy a vintage watch from a company that Is in the business of CAD/CAM, laser welding and reshaping cases, and obviously building watches from parts, obviously not all of which are genuine. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Been a while since I had a genuine Panerai strap, but it seems like the ones I had were stamped Austria. Yours is stamped Italy. Not sure if this is relevant, maybe some of the real Panerai aficionados will weigh in. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Legend and nanug, very, very well said. I really don't think that there is any way that I could have said it as eloquently as you fine gentleman. You have summed up my feelings about this fine forum my friends. I suppose one way that I could compare RWG to the other replica forums, using the beach analogy, RWG to me is like you and your significant other sitting on a beautiful beach, watching a spectacular sunset sipping fine wine, the others are more like the beach during spring break, lots of bodies, lots of noise and certainly no peace and quiet. Sometimes the scenery ( bikini or less clad young darlings) is pretty interesting, but the cacophony of noise gets old pretty fast, and soon forgotten. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk