panerai153

SMP lover all the way !! Fantastic quality and a really nice guy to work with.

Biggest problem will be finding parts for the a25j. Watchmakers who work on mostly gen watches probably rarely encounter this movement. watchmakers who work on lots of reps very well might have some old 25j movement laying around that they can get the correct gear from. Another alternative is to just drop in a new 25j or a 2824 movement. they are pretty inexpensive and the watchmaker can test it beforehand to insure that it's running OK.

I will echo what legend said about shipping back. Your broken watch has to clear China customs and the replacement has to clear  your countries customs coming back. Watches returned for repair can get lost in the shuffle and disappear. I would send back only as a extreme last resort.

I agree that would certainly simplify things for folks in search of a watch, part, strap, etc. It's always a downer to read through a sales thread featuring a watch that you really are interested in only to read down and see EU only or CONUS only.

Hi all,
I just wanted to share my experience with MD2020, or Mike Dabrowski, or however you would like to refer to him as. Two months ago, I sent him 5 vintage Zodiac watches which I paid a pretty penny for. As a college student with limited financial means, this was nearly half of my collection at the time – I’ve recently found a passion for vintage watches and love collecting and seeing others’ pieces. I paid him upfront for the repairs in the amount of $165. It’s been two months now, and he hasn’t responded to me in three weeks. He said he would ship my pieces back, but he was “busy” so he couldn’t send tracking info. I downloaded this app specifically to share this story with all of you, so none of you make the same mistake in the future. It really makes me sad to read all of these forum posts about him. He seemed so nice, and we talked for an hour about vintage watches. I don’t know what else to say.


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Here is some of our correspondence, along with a photo of the watches I sent him.


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That’s a right nice build!! You identified and partially rectified the biggest tell with 1675/16750 rep watch builds. That is of course the crown opening. The only way to make this build look like a gen is to do what you did and laser weld the crown guards, add some meat inside and then reshape. Most folks either use a 7mm crown or stick a 5.3 mm crown on and the spaces between the crown and the CG’s are huge, and and instant tell from 10 paces!! I may be more aware as I have a gen 16750 and the 5.3mm crown and the CG’s are proportional.
Here is my gen 16750



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Best discussion around here in a while!! I have to agree with nanug, I miss some of the old guys as well as the discussions, sometimes pretty darn heated, that went on back then.
I still have about a 50/50 rep to gen ratio. Most of my reps are just sitting in the watch box, seldom worn, but most of my gens are seldom worn either. One thing that I will say in defense of gens, it’s generally much easier to sell them as there are just more avenues for sale. Highly modified reps have always been difficult to move. It takes a special person to pony up 1500- 6000 USD for a rep watch.
AFA the original topic relative to expensive reps, all I can say is the dealers will charge what they believe the market will bear, and while we blame them, they are at the mercy of the manufacturers who ultimately set the prices. I would imagine the dealer prices are all pretty much the same as they are all paying the same prices for the watches. They might have sales, and multi-watch discounts, but by and large the prices are going to be pretty close


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It looks like the dials you bought were for a newer version 116610.
Unfortunately, one of the biggest problems we face in the rep world are the inconsistencies of sizes and compatibilities across the rep spectrum. We spend enormous amounts of money, blood, sweat and tears trying to make things fit, in our attempts to mod our watches. The first thing we have to realize is that the rep manufacturers, unlike aftermarket manufacturers, don’t build for or care one bit about size compatibility with a gen watch. They build reps to look like gens, not to make them interchangeable. That’s not to say that some watches are not closely compatible, but that is not the rule. The aftermarket manufacturers on the other hand are building replacement parts for gen watches, so they have to fit. You could replace your case with a ST 3135 case and a gen or aftermarket dial would drop right in.
I can feel your frustration, I have a parts cabinet filled with stuff that looked OK, but was just a little too big or too small, but wouldn’t work.


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One of the founders is from MS. I tried to figure out a way to send him a message but I can’t figure out how to send a message just to him. Anyone know how?


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I like that!! Great work.


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It’s  an error. Only in the last few years have Rolex moved the DJ up in size. The vintage men’s DJ are all 36mm which happens to be the perfect size for a DJ. 

Had the second installment (book) just about ready for publication when Patsy Passed away. I've been trying to get back to it, but just haven't been able to get in the right frame of mind. She was my most ardent fan and it's hard to get motivated without the encouragement she supplied. It's been eating at me though so I'll get back to it soon I hope. 

The guy on Facebook’s name is Mike Dabrowski. He has a watch repair service called Top Time Watch Repair and Restoration. He is active on the Old Vintage Watch Facebook group. This is a closed group and you have to be invited to join.He is from Hoffman Estates IL, which is where MD2020 is from. I can’t remember the spelling of MD2020’s last name, but if some of you guys want to do a bit of snooping, it’s OK, but remember if you go in with guns blazing, you are apt to get a “timeout” from Facebook .


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Welcome brother, glad to see to you are offering repair services. Sorry to hear about your wife, that's a huge void that never completely goes away.

How about you're writing? I was eagerly looking forward to another book from you> 

Just and addition to Mike's post. I went to the Facebook page "old Vintage Watches" and if it's the same one, which was the only one that came up when I searched, it's a closed group. You cannot see anything but the home page. You have to submit a request to join, so I would guess, that unless he branches out to other open venues, we are safe.

Congratulations Mike. A justly deserved reward for your incredible work on the forum.


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Beautiful watch sir. Don't let it become a "Safe Queen" !! Wear it on occasions when you feel like you aren't going to put it in danger, but by all means wear it.

Happy Easter to all. Have a wonderful day everyone.

@XM195,

Lots of folks who have big collections are indeed serious collectors of watches. There is a great deal of difference between collectors and accumulators. A collection has focus a defined goal and the collection iscomposed of interrelated objects. AFA watches ae concerned, a person who collects Rolex submariners and is attempting to own one of every model made has a defined goal and while he may never achieve it, he is focused on achieving it to the best of his ability and finances. And accumulation would be more like folks(me included) that buy watches they like at the time with no real focus. You might have a mix of gen and rep, quartz and mechanical, brands, complications, etc. There is nothing wrong with this per se, and certainly I'm not condemning it. I'm just saying that at some point the accumulator may wake up and realize that things are getting out of hand. Another factor is what happens if something happens? Collectors tend to have a meticulous description, value and knowledge of every piece in his/her collection. Should something happen to them, the disposal of the collection should be relatively easy. The surviving family members have and accurate description of the watch, all the pertinent information like serial numbers, paperwork, boxes, etc., along with a fairly accurate appraisal or at least a purchase price.  Most of us accumulators never write anything down. So God forbid, you get hit by a bus on the way home from work, what are your survivors going to do. If the watches are genuine, they can be appraised and value assigned, the reps not so much so. I doubt if most of our spouses even know how to get on the rep websites much less reach out for help. So all those nice reps you gathered over the years will probably be given away and /or thrown out in the trash.

To answer your second statement about disposal of watches, I have over the years found it infinitely easier to sell genuine watches than reps. First off you have many more avenues for sales from Pawn shops to sales forums on genuine watch forums, jewelers, and of course Ebay. On the other hand rep watches can only be sold on one of the rep sites such as RWG,RWI, RepGeek, etc. You cannot sell a rep on WatchUSeek, TimeZone, EBay or any of the genuine watch sales venues. So in my experience gens are much easier to sell than reps. Also while not common, there are some genuine watches that actually increase in value. You will never see a bone stock rep sell for more than you paid for it several years down the line.

Not sure what they do to mess up threads on bracelet screws, but I had a similar problem with a Rolex bracelet several years ago. I couldn't budge several screws. I bought it from mymanmatt, so I emailed him and he told me to send it back to him. he either got them out somehow or trashed the bracelet and sent me a new one back I don't know.

It's possible that if they are just tight, maybe soaking the bracelet in some penetrating oil would help. If the screws had burrs and are binding, I doubt that would help. Big problem, if you bugger up the screw slots too much, you will never be able to get the screws out. You might also try heating the bracelet, that might expand it a bit, also it would melt any adhesives like Loctite (if they used anything) wish I could be of more help, but that's about all I can suggest

Confessions of a watch junky!! Where do we stop, or is there a stopping point with watches. I know that a lot of you folks will disagree with me, but you have to factor in many things when you decide that you need to limit your watch collecting(accumulating) craze.

After a lot of thought and weighing several factors, I have come to the conclusion that my watch accumulation is way too big. Several factors weigh in here, one is my age. I'm well into my 70th decade, I have retirement looming with decreased income more than likely, and third the distress of having watches sitting in my watch boxes that never get worn. Some were purchased on a whim (Always a bad plan!!), others because I owned similar watches, and a few because they had real utility such as GMT's.

Quite a few years ago, I adopted and "ironclad" rule. no more than 10 watches. If I wanted a new one, and old one had to go. This plan was not without pitfalls. One, it dictated that I get rid of watches that I now deeply regret ever selling. All of these were genuine, including a Rolex Sub 1680, a 1665 and a  early 80's era Daytona. Also several Chronoswiss, IWC and A few others that I regret selling. But a rule is a rule, and I stuck with it, at least for a few years. At some point though, the inflow began to exceed the outflow and eventually, I had around 40 watches, about evenly split between genuine and rep. Over the past year or so I sold a few, gave my grandson a couple and now I'm down to 26 watches which I still feel are too many. I would like to get my numbers down to around 15 or less, although when I get that close, I'm bumping into some that are dear to my heart and would be tough to sell unless times got really hard.

So what do others feel? I have heard of folks with 50,75, 100 or more watches. So when you have a hundred watches, how many do you wear? Look  through your watch box (boxes) and realistically how many have not seen the light of day in a year or more. Would it be more satisfying to 1) keep them all, just to look at, or 2) sell them on to someone who will wear them on a regular basis. I read somewhere not too long ago an article by and efficiency expert who advises folks on reducing "clutter" in their home (Hoarders possibly?) At any rate this person said that the rule of thumb should be that outside of seasonal items, if you don't physically touch wear or use something in a years time, it needs to go. Why shouldn't we use the same or similar rule with watches? If you have these "orphans" sittng in your watch box and you can't remember the last time you wore them. maybe it's time to let them go.  Watches you bought that you thought you would wear forever, but for whatever reason, they fell out of favor . Maybe they are too big, too small, or they are just uncomfortable to wear. Case in point for me, I have 7 AP watches. I have tried for several years to love them, but unfortunately, outside of my FC diver and my 15400, the rest are just too heavy and uncomfortable for my wrist, so there you go, right off the bat, 5 watches that I really should move on. 

One thing folks, I don't want anyone to construe that this is a backdoor attempt to sell watches, which it isn't. I just wanted to bring up a topic which I would expect that many of us have thought hard about over our watch buying career. Where should we stop or even should we try to stop? 

But you don't have to be a VIP to buy!!!

Nice looking watch but if it was supposed to be a homage to the 7924 "Big Crown" they made a huge mistake with the hands. the Snowflake hands are not correct as they came later. I suppose they are afraid that using Mercedes hands would make it look too "Rolexy"!!

AFA as the wearability, it's really strange how some watches wear like they are part of your wrist, and others are just never comfortable. They are always trying to "turn turtle", are too big, feel too clunky and top heavy. Problem is, you really can't tell which ones will fit you until you try them.

These are beautiful watches. I have the noob version of the Blue Fifty Fathoms. It is a great watch and one that would be hard to fault. The only tell, which requires both a really close up view and someone who either has a genuine or is a real BP WIS, is there is a thin wavy guilloche band around the outer edge of the dial on the gen but not the rep. I believe the new ZF version has the guilloche around the outer edge? I will have to say that in the sunlight, this is one of the most beautiful dials around!!

Here is the older noob version

I agree with Sogeha, the genuine AP chrono movement is a pretty complex movement. The rep makers are totally driven by sales numbers/return on investment. They have cloned the Rolex movements simply because replica Rolex numbers sold are many multiples of AP. While AP wouldn't be considered a "niche" brand, and is wildly popular among it's enthusiasts it is nowhere near as popular as Rolex. Because of these factors, the rep manufacturers use a "work around" movement. They add a couple of gears to a Asian 7750 movement to move the seconds hand from 9 o'clock to 12 o'clock which allows them to produce a watch that is pretty darn close to the genuine. Certainly not 100%, but close. Add Legends spa treatment, and you have a watch that will withstand pretty close scrutiny by all but avid AP WIS.


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Just got an email from Photobucket, looked at the plans. The only one that allows third party hosting is 33 USD/ month or 399 USD / year. That's way too expensive for the casual user.
Their big problem now, to me, is unless you are a paid up subscriber to the 399/year plan, not only can you not post photos, you can't see photos!! So even if I buy the plan, 99% of folks on forums won't be able to see my photos. Can't sell watches when no one can see them !!


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