panerai153

Beautiful job. I will add my accolades to Matt's work. He does very nice work on reps as well as gens. Probably have a couple of other things for him in the not too distant future.

I'm not certain that thte 80% rule has gone into effect. There was quite a bit of push back from some of the brands when this was proposed. I read the regulations a few months ago, but there is some vagueness to it. Especially as to what the 80% would entail. lots of price, ratios, adding up costs and plugging them into a formula to come up with the magic number. It looks to me liike some compamies could ,if they wanted, price their Chinese/foreign made components very cheap, and their Swiss parts and labor very high and get a lot more Chinese or foreign made parts into a watch and still make the 50% ratio. Possibly much more difficult if the ratio went to 80%

Using a high power loupe may be the way the customs guys could be catching reps coming through customs. It would only take a rudimentary amount of training to teach folks to recognize the differences in a Rolex dial and a Rolex rep dial. Even if it were a different model Rolex, say a Seadweller rep, but customs has 16610 as and example. One look would be all it takes. Enough tell under 30X to confiscate it!

What a coincidence, my daughter lives in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, the home of kirk Rich dials. Would the favorite guy be jack Alexyon at IWW (International watch works)? I'll browse around over there, actually I just posted a similar thread on the Doxa forum which might bring out some replys. Thank you sir for the research.

Sad update to the story. I did send the 300T to The Zigmeister, hopefully all he would need to do was relume the hands. UInfortunately, he sent me back a grocery list of things that were wrong, none of which were wrong when the watch was sold. ■excessive and unnecessary o'rings on case-back and difficult to open ■movement retention spring was not installed properly and is bent and damaged ■water ingress damage - rust on stem and case and possibly inside movement ■hands are not your old hands - suspect someone replaced them - back of hands have been scraped and the brass is showing ■the dial is not your dial - it is in awful condition - the paint is bubbling and lifting all over - there is a significant piece of paint ready to fall off between 7 and 8 position ■it is only a matter of time before the paint comes off of the dial completely movement is in poor condition - not sure if it is the same movement Rob worked on - noted some damage to screws and mismatched screws (interesting, because i sent the buyer a NOS 2472 movement with the watch, just in case the old movement failed.) So there you have it. My big problem, I bought the watch sight unseen, I assumed that it was in approximately the same shape it was when I sold it. I have emailed the seller who claims that his “watchmaker” who he has known for 30 years and is Rolex and Breitling certified would never do anything like that, and the idea that the hands were changed and all those problems could not have been the fault of the “watchmaker”!! Here is my speculation as to what happened, short of a dial and hand change. The "watchmaker" disassembled the watch, and left the parts lying around, not stored away in a sealed environment. This guy lives in either Gibraltar or right across the border in Spain. Right near the sea, in a semi tropical climate. Salt air, moisture, etc. over time (The seller claims the watch was at the watchmakers almost the entire time he owned it, from 2007 to 2012). Plenty of time for damages to occur. The other scenario, the owner got the watch wet, moisture got inside, waited a few days before taking it to this "watchmaker", , who didn’t disassemble it right away, and before you know it, damage done. OK, here is my dilemma, I paid for the watch using Moneygram, seller claimed he didn’t have a Paypal account, so getting my money back is going to be impossible.No offers to “return the watch and I’ll send your money back have been forthcoming, and I would if at all possible like to keep and restore the watch. Anyone know who is really, really good at dial restoration? I’m going to need some help with this one for sure.

We may believe that, but most assuredly, the luxury brands do not. I believe that what they contend are lost sales are not because of what we have discussed here,but what the luxury brands call "brand dilution". Here is what they think.And not wanting to sound like a snob, but exactly what i'm describing happened to me. Many years ago, i saved up my pennies, and bought myself a brand new 18k Rolex Day/Date. The price then was about 5k which was a ton of money for a watch. I really didn't know anything about reps, this was before the internet, and all I saw were a few replicas advertised in the back of magazines. i went out of town to buy a vehicle a few months after buying the watch. When i sat down with the sales manager and salesman to work out the purchase details, I noticed that both of them had Rolex "Presidents" very similar to mine on their wrists. Only difference the second hands were jumping, obviously quartz movements. i realized that these were fake, but to the average person they were a Rolex.After that, I saw more and more quartz reps, and after a while, i decided that why have the real thing that I saved for for months, when anybody could pick up a rep for 100 bucks. i sold my Day/Date, and for quite a few years, I didn't own another Rolex, I bought watches from other brands, but that experience soured me on Rolex watches for quite a while. Later on (years later!), I began to see really nice reps on the rep forums, and I decided at that point that maybe my attitude at the time was wrong, I suppose I was bitter about the fact that I worked really ,really hard to save up the money for the real thing and folks who bought the reps were buying them with their "play around" money. I truly believe that the attitude I had way back then is still very prevalent today.There are lots of folks who will not wear a brand of watch, shoes, purse, etc. that is repped to the point that everyone can afford them.Wealthy women, aren't going to rush out to buy a LV bag just because they like the rep that their maid is carrying. That's the reason Rolex and others hate reps, and also why Rolex will never have a Chinese made Rolex branded watch at a lower price point.

I emailed them about this same bracelet a few weeks back. I wanted to know if the end links would accomodate 2mm springbars. Never got an answer! In fact I emailed them twice about this. I have no idea as to what is going on with them, but not answering emails is not the way to build your business. I sent the same email to Yuki about the springbar openings and he answered promptly, sorry no they don't. Sent one to phong, he answered, yes our's do fit genuine spring bars. I bought the phong, but I was disappointed that the endlinks are not 80's, but they do fit my 6542 just fine.

+1 for those!!

Interesting? i got the same email as well. Doesn't affect me, as I live in USA. my question would certainly be, how are they accomplishing the "safe shipping"? Anything that moves in and out of a country has to go through customs. Unless they are bulk shipping to another EU country and then reshipping to the UK, which avoids the Shipped from China postmarks and customs forms. What is the policy of customs relative to packages shipped from say Poland to France, or Austria to UK? Do they go through customs clearance, or are they treated like packages here in the USA that are shipped from Texas to California?

Ulysse Nardin Dual Time GMT +/- Pro's Very easy to operate second time zone (hour appears in window, no hand to set) second time zone can be advanced or regressed by using pushers on side of case. Stylish, slim, to me looks better on a strap, but also comes on a bracelet. Great company with long reputation of quality watches Con's Not very well known, thus would be possibly harder to resell if not what he wants.

Ubi, I never use photobucket anymore, I always upload files from my computer.I believe that photobucket may be compressing files, or somehow reducing their size to conserve storage space. Another thing, there are probably others that have the same problem I have. All of our work computers have "barracuda" which blocks all social networking, shopping sites, etc. photobucket is one of them, so I cannot see any photos on the forum uploaded using photobucket. Regular photo files are not affected.

I would deny it, even if it means taking a loss on the watch. you aren't going to win against US Customs. They will do what is necressary to identify it as a counterfeit, which would require only opening the case and seeing the 21j movement inside. Another thing, even if you deny it, you are now flying smack in the middle of they US Customs service radar. If you order other reps, or have the dealer reship, by all means have it sent to another address and someone elses name. If they catch another rep coming through to your address, you might have some explaining to do. you can deny once, but the second time, they aren't going to believe that it was a coincidence that the package was shipped to you by mistake.

I gotta vote for the Zigmeister. Never had a bad result, never even had a good result, they were all GREAT results!!

The GMTIIc is a much better "out the box" rep. The new ones that are superlumed are pretty darn good. i believe that the only thoing that would be feasible to make them better would be to have the paint in the ceramic bezel removed and replaced with platinum paint (the genuine uses real platinum), and replace the crystal with one that has the cyclops AR. The old er GMT Ii's have quite a few "tells" soome are correctable, some are not.The Bk "Transformers were" the best, but no longer available except as used on the rep sales forums

Great job, that new dial really makes a difference! From ythe looks of the before and after, you did something with the rehault as well.In the first photos, the rehault looks sort of like the one on the puretime 6542. In the "after" photo, it looks like a completely different watch . Where did you get the second glossy dial from?

I have to agree with Andy, I have never ever heard of a Customs agent even giving a wristwatch a second glance. Now if you are carrying a case full of watches, they might get pretty interested. I would bet the incident in Germany involved someone with several watches. First off, how would any country afford to stock every port of entry with a complete set of watches? How many thousands of models have been produced in the past 25 years? So, if what you are wearing, doesn't happen to be one of the models that the Customs "watch department" has in stock, what do they do then? Then, how many trained horologists are there, who could tell if a watch is real or rep? Suppose i show up with my DRSD 1665, everything is genuine except the case? Do you really think that the watch policeman, unless he is 75 yers old, and trained and worked on Rolex vintage watches for years could tell if mine is real or memorex? I don't think so, besides, I have a receipt (sales invoice) dating back to 1983 showing I bought the DRSD used for 850.00 USD!! Easy way to solve the problem. Don't wear one of your treasured "Super Franken" watches on vacation. Wear a genuine. Get a Seiko or something comperable.

What the big companies like the Richmont Group, LVMH.Swatch,Rolex SA have on their side, is deep.deep pockets. It's absolutely impossible for a little homage watchmaker to go head to head with them. It really doesn't matter who's right, it boils down to the who has the wherewithal to be the last man standing. Obviously the Homage makers have to tread a very thin line in order to stay out of trouble. I believe what got Ken Trading in trouble was the use of "Marina Militaire" which is a public domain name (Naval forces),but somehow Panerai got a trademark application passed in the USA in 2005. Also copying of some of Panerai's patented watch parts got their attention. The fliplock crown guard is definitely a patented part. Another thing that happened, I believe the Richmont group scared some of the genuine watch forums as well. WUS doesn't allow the sale of Marina Militaire homage watches in their sales forum,

Pretty amazing that Italy has such a tough stance on Replicas, considering there are peddlers hawking knock off handbags on almost every corner in Venice!. my wife and I were there a few years ago, and the sellers became quite obnoxious. They wouldn't take no for and answer, following you down the street trying to sell you a handbag. I usually travel with a maximum of three and usually two watches. One problem, is pilferage in hotels. If the hotel where I am staying doesn't have an electronic safe with occupant settable passcodes, i don't like to leave anything in the room when I'm away. i figure some of the hotel employees probably have a master code to open the safes, but hopefully it isn't the woman who cleans the room! I have traveled out of the USA a lot, and I have never had a customs agent give my watches a second glance. I worry about them being lost or stolen in other places a lot more than I worry about customs seizure. I would say that if you are indeed worried about losing a watch while on vacation, either to a thief or customs, then I would solve that problem by wearing an inexpensive genuine. Buy a cheap Seiko, a Cashio, Invicta, etc. and have fun!! After all that's what vacations are for,right?

Joey, You did a beautiful job, that wonky movement isn't any of your doings, We both agreed to give it a try. it could have just as easily;y gone the other way!! What I was trying to get across here, is the 2846 is old, lots of them are worn out from use and neglected service, and what we are getting is a crap shoot, pure and simple. If you happen to get a good movement that doesn't have a million miles and no grease jobs, you are lucky. But, you are likely to get one that has been used and abused. Sometimes a good service, oil and adjust will fix the problem, sometimes it's and expensive repair. AFA getting puretime to replace the balance assembly, by the time I fool with them, pay for postage, etc. i would probably be just as well off buying a new assembly. Also, who's to know whether or not the one they send isn't one they picked up out of a scrap parts bin !!

Beauty!! Both of your crystals appear to be standard T-39 crystals. I believe the service crystal is the same as the standard T-39. neither has the curved dimensions of the superdome T-39. I have (Had) a superdome on my DRSD, and I'm always banging it on something, well, a few weeks ago, it got it's final bang!! Cracked it right above the bezel between 2 and 4 O'clock. I'm probably going to replace it with a service T-39, just to get a little lower profile.

Very nice and definitely a great start in the right direction..Definitely needs attention to the dial. Freddy's right (heck,he always is!!) getting the dial relumed with vintage lume will be a big help. Get some paint thinner and work on that paint inside the lettering on the case back. Never see a genuine with the paint filled letters. Another plus, you don't see too many with 585 end links which are the correct ones for that watch. AFA the HEV, I don't know what it will cost to source and install a working HEV, but the new cases that Highoey is building will come with a working HEV. They also solve a few of the problems that are inherent to the MBW cases. Of course until and actual case is in the hands of one of our super talented modders, we won't know for sure. What case was used for this build? You are correct the 1665 is an iconic watch, and probably a line of watches that over the years, if they could talk, would have the most interesting stories of any of the Rolex lines. It's one of my favorites of all the Rolex watches. In fact if I were allowed only two watches, no exceptions, One would be a 1665 and the second would be a GMT , probably either a 6542 or a 16750.

After quite a bit of time and a fair amount of parts sourcing, i went ahead with my 6542 project. As part of the project I decided to purchase a puretime 6542, hoping that we could use it as a donor watch. Well, to start things off, after the puretime got to me, i decided to wear it for a few days, It didn't take much time to realize that the watch wasn't staying in time, it was losing a couple of minutes every few hours! I felt like this may be due to a really dirty and dry old movement. When I sent it up to JoeyB for the build, he put it the movement on his bench, and it was staying around 5 sec/24 hours. We debated whether or not to replace the movement with a DG3804, but Joey felt like the movement was doing OK and it might be alright. Well, long story short, I got it home, and sure enough, it went back to the same pattern. losing 3-4 minutes every 24 hours. I sent it to another very good watch person here on the forum and he told me today, the balance assembly is no good. His exact words,"The balance assembly is toast". So my point is this old 2846 is going to cost me more money, and a lot of time and frustration, mostly that part being on the shoulders of the watchmaker who has to find the parts and reassemble the movement! The moral of the story is this. These old movements are getting really scarce, they are old, and a lot of them are worn out. they were put in, no telling how many, umpteen thousands of everyday watches. I'm sure most of these watches were never serviced properly, they were just worn and worn and worn, and finally they died. I'm sure the Chinese rep makers are sourcing their movements from these same old watches. they cannibalize the watch take out the movement and probably sell the rest as scrap. They don't check them on a timer, they just put them together, and if they wind set and run, they get shipped. What can you do as a buyer. If the dealer will send photos of the watch on the Timegrapher, that may help, but remember, mine was fine in a static position, but went crazy when worn. What I probably should have done, was to send the watch back when i discovered the time was that much off. Of course, I didn't so my bad. Just keep in mind that the 2846 is a very old movement, hasn't been produced in over 20 years, and the one you get may be on it's last legs! Even if you did as I did, on another watch a few years back, purchase a NOS watch just for the movement, it will still be dry, as it has sat in a box inside a watch for 20+ years. If you found and old classic car that had been sitting for over 20 years, before you attempted to start the engine, you would drain the crankcase, replace the oil and filter before starting, because you know that over all those years, the old oil has deteriorated, and doesn't possess the lubricating qualities it had when new. Well your watch movement is even more critical. And as and aside, if you are planning to build a 6542, don't waste your time and money buying the puretime 6542. In the end, the only thing we could use was the movement. the case is all wrong, the dial wouldn't fit my Ming Quy case, the bracelet end links were terrible . I tried to use it on my better case, wasn't even close They "forgot' to put a Roulette datewheel on the watch, so I couldn't use the datewheel either. All in all a total waste of 200 bucks! So you would be better off trying to find the case set you want to use, a dial to fit, and then go on Ebay and buy a NOS watch with a 2846 movement. Have it serviced, and you have a brand new movement. One of the really nice things about this forum is folks here tell you about the mistakes as well as the success stories. If one reads and heeds, a lot of time wasted, money lost and frustration can be avoided.

the only thing consistent about the USPS is it's inconsistency! I bought a box of Cigars last summer from a seller in Australia, Post Office showed tracking to San Francisco, then the tracking reverted back to "origin post is preparing shipment" Even the guys at my local post office didn't know what that meant. I notified the seller, and a few days later, they said that the package was enroute back to Brisbane, A few weeks later, I emailed them again, asking about the package, never arrived in Brisbane. they sent a replacement, got it in 2 weeks. about a month later, the original package arrived in my PO box!! All this took about 2 1/2 to 3 months. About two months ago, i bought a Doxa from a seller in Spain. 2 weeks later, it was still showing as never leaving Spain, USPS was showing tracking expired! one week later it showed up here, never showed one single scan from Madrid to here, except after arrival, It showed as delivered. It's probably easier for the seller to initiate a trace. I would give it a few more days,and then contact the seller and get them to start a trace. may not be any more sucessful than mine was, but It may tell you exactly were the package is.

Do not put your watch(s) in your checked baggage!! They are xrayed, and there have been cases of bags being pilfered at airports in the USA, not an epedemic mind you, but if it's yours, it's 100%.If there happens to be a thief among the baggage handlers, the TSA approved locks will be of zero help, probably every baggage handler has or knows where to get a key. i even saw an article about these locks, and some lady said she could open hers with a paperclip! You won't have any problems at all with customs, although if you want alittle more security and peace of mind, make up a receipt for each of them with the purchase price and date of purchase, just to prove they were bought in your home country. Helps when you go through customs coming home as well. I would bet that you will never be asked about them, bu tif you are, pull out the paperwork, and you will be fine. One on your wrist, one in your carry on, not a problem. Heck, women carry bags of jewelry, why shouldn't a man have two watches?

Beautiful watch Ubi.The flying pig story was pretty convincing too. Before I saw your final photos, i said to myself, that one deserves a really nice Brown Gator, and sure nuff, a couple of photos down, there was my little lizard, all tanned up and made into a nice strap. He gave his little reptile life just to make you smile everytime you strap on the old Patty. Great watch, great story and a really great guy