panerai153

Or, you can use the old "tincture of time" method. Here is mine. Took 28 years, but it came out pretty good!!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Well, if you are a cowboy or cowgirl, you would love the engraved Tudor. Otherwise it probably won't appeal to most folks. Interestingly, there is a company here in the USA called Montana Watch Company, located in Montana of course that makes a series of watches that look a lot like the Engraved Tudor. Their prices are anywhere from 2-5k!! Their cases are all hand engraved, unlike the Tudor which is most likely stamped. Western wear, boots, jeans, belts, buckles has a fairly large audience here in the USA, so they might have a niche, who knows. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes, that is the Tissot Powermatic 80 DW.

Pretty much what I planned in the first post, the guru single sided AR Crystal and the powermatic 80 movement. Misielkped did the work, outstanding as always, and all I'm doing is wearing it and loving it. I believe the Lume is adequate for the watch. Although the dealers claim double AR it is somewhat lacking. If I were doing it again, I would go for the double AR cyclops. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Beautiful watch. I like the two tones, I'm not a fan of the "nipple" dial versions, but the ones with the regular dial indices are pretty darn nice. Here is mine. 16750 from 1986 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My wife and I went to that same "shopping experience", sure can't call it a Mall!!! We pulled into one of the parking areas in front, and Lordy,Lordy, I never saw so many exotic cars in my life. Around there, you don't even get a second glance if you pull up in a Porsche Carrera or the top end Mercedes convertible. Don't remember the AP shop, but we were mostly gawking!! I'm sure we looked like a couple of country bumpkins. OK, I looked like a country bumpkin, my beautiful bride doesn't qualify in that category a!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk And yes, you can't go wrong with the V7. Beautiful watch and mighty close to the gen version.

Absolutely!! I can guarantee if there is a better way to do it, Mr. A will be the one.

A I agree completely. The only problem that I see is the LWO is a lot more reliable movement. It's very frustrating as you know to get one really, really close to the gen, and then the movement lets you down. I know that there are guys who say that they have never had any problems with their a7750 movements, but to me that is like the guy/gal in medicine who says"I've never missed and IV or a spinal or and epidural" my answer to them is. "Partner, you just haven't done enough"!! If you do enough, you will have problems, same with the a7750, the law of averages will catch up sooner or later. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Happy Birthday you young whippersnappers!!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Probably nothing. I have too many watches and only one left wrist!!! Misielkped is building me a nice franken 116710 with gen dial,bezel,insert Crystal and crown, hands and DW, converted yuki 3135. Probably will be my last big project. I'm in my 7th decade so it's time to stop spending money and get my retirement in order.

You are absolutely correct. I have never ever even been close to being "called out" on any watch. In fact the only time anyone questioned me about a watch was a gen Rolex submariner! A sales person selling medical supplies asked me if my sub was "real"? My answer was "do you mean is it a real watch or a real Rolex"? He sort of stammered and said, "I guess is it a real Rolex, but that's silly because I know you wouldn't be wearing a fake Rolex anyway". And that was the end of the questions. I know what I can pull off, and just about any Rolex and most AP's would fall into that category. I don't give what watch I'm wearing a second thought to be honest. I don't wear my reps into AD's, although I have found that most of the AD's around here are staffed by folks who are at best marginally knowledgable about the products they sell, but you never know when you are going to run into and older sales person that loves watches and has been selling them for 40 years. He might be harder to fool! Outside of that, I wear them everywhere. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have one of those "mash ups" I took a white dial RC and replaced the bezel with a S/S bezel, as I already had another white RC. Lots of different combos possible. I do really like your grey themes, beautiful watch.

I believe that the newer noob V2 is probably the best out there now. it also has the advantage of accepting genuine parts, so when you buy it and then go crazy like a lot of us, you can mod it to your hearts (And wallet) content. If no modding, it's pretty nice out the box. Biggest tell of course is the Incorrect hand stack. I don't believe that any of the dealers are still selling the correct hand stack movement, but I could be wrong. like I said, if you want to mod it, you can turn it into and almost genuine watch with a gen dial, gen bezel/insert, gen crystal, yuki 3135 movement converted to a GMT, gen hands and Date wheel top it off and you will have a GMT that will fool anyone. al of that comes at a pretty steep cost though.

Wish you could have gotten them outside in better light.Yours really looks nice!! No matter what anyone says, the Date window position on the reps is pretty much a dead giveaway, if you have ever seen a gen and especially if you have seen the gen and rep side by side. Certainly nothing wrong with his, but it's pretty apparent how much better the gen dial/tachy as well as the gen or slimmed down hour hand rings look. Nice thing about AP's probably 99% of people don't know anything about them, so they can fly under the radar. I suppose in some places where there are a lot of high end watch owners, the knowledge base goes up. Question? Did AP ever make a grey dial rubber clad in S/S? I have a Rose Gold RC with a grey dial, but didn't know if it was made in S/S.

Sadly in my limited experience, when I bought something with the idea that it' was a bargain, and then find that a "Few Parts" were missing, It usually ended up costing a lot more in the long run and a huge increase in the frustration quotient. Better to pay more and get the complete movement, save yourself money and grief.

I tend to agree with you cavi, back in the late 60's and early 70's there were very few choices when it came to real "Dive " watches. I mean the ones that guys who were diving in the water, not desk diving!! The BP FF, Doxa's 300T series, Spirotecnique, Omega and Rolex were sort of out front, although the Rolex even back then was more expensive. As time went on, Rolex began to spend a lot more on advertising, sponsoring lots of sports that attracted more upscale clientele, Auto racing, Polo, Golf, etc. It cost a bundle to sponsor sporting events, buy TV time and full page ads in expensive upscale magazines.. I believe that as their advertising budget grew, and they were really shifting toward more upscale buyers, they began to push the prices up and up. Obviously there was not much push back as Rolex sold every watch they produced. There were some slow sellers, one of which was the Daytona Cosmograph. It was a throwback watch, manual wind with no date in and era of automatic date watches, but over time, all sold, and Rolex kept pushing the prices upward. Are they worth the price, obviously to thousands and thousands of folks who walk into AD's and walk out with a brand new Rolex on their wrist, they are. To me, they aren't. If I were in the market for a genuine, I wouldn't even spend one minute in and AD, looking at list price watches. I would find a good gently used one at a pretty big discount from new. If you can get one for 30-40% of the new price, you are in safe territory, because should you not "love it", you can sell it on and not take a beating. In fact if you buy right and keep one for a few years, you might sell it for more than you paid for it. Here are two examples that I own. 1. 16750 GMT 1986 purchased in 2006 Price 2400.00 USD today 5000.00-7000.00 USD 2. 16610 2000 "P" serial Sub purchased 2011 3250.00 USD today 5000.00-6000.00 USD So if I were to sell these I could more than double my money on the GMT and almost double my money on the Sub. So to me it's a no brainer. Buy a good used one every time. The nice thing about Rolex, they build thousands of each model, so there is no exclusivity about the watches. There are hundreds of each common model for sale at any given time, and while Rolex can control the new market with and iron fist, they cannot control the resale market.

Wearing my Kingston Date today.

Glad to see you back. Looks like you have the trappings of the consummate " Southern Gentleman" !! Mint Juleps, everyone?

Wearing this Tudor "Big Crown today. It's not getting much wrist time, and may be up for grabs soon.

Good luck on that!! Sorry to say, I don't know of anyone that I would recommend for and a7750 repair. Most folks won't touch them, especially the ones that have the extra gears to move the seconds hand to 6 or 12. Yours is a straight up a7750, so possibly there are folks who will chime in. Hope you can get it fixed.

Just a quick question on the endlinks? I was under the impression that the 1665 used 585 endlinks. The 580 on 1680 subs from that era. I know that gen 585's are more expensive. I bought a brand new set from a seller on the VRM. Several years ago and I believe they were around 200.00 USD Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The v7 is absolutely the best available today. It is really nice out the box. I am certainly not an AP expert, but I do read a lot and look at photos! I do own a V7 and in my estimation,mother only thing that would make this one better is to drop in a Tissot Powermatic 80 movement to achieve the slow beat movement like the gen. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I hate to say, but this is probably the worst Rolex rep that I have seen since they were being sold from ads in the back of magazines, which is probably before most of the folks here were born!! Terrible, terrible, terrible!! If you really paid 900+ USD for this watch, you got fleeced big time. Sadly, you could get one that mymanmatt builds for what you paid for yours, and it would have a genuine dial, bezel, Crystal and crown with an ETA movement that is about 99% true to the genuine Datejust. Which by the way is what you have, as the day date has a day of week window at the top of the dial. Here is what a DayDate is supposed to look like. They are only made in gold white gold or platinum, not the two tone stainless steel and gold like yours. . Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

AP FC V3 Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Not particularly. Possibly a tale like this told in person might be funny, but not in print. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk