panerai153

Pretty amazing, but like you said there are probably a lot around. Nothing like bringing out a "new" version of a great old watch to bring the old ones out of the sock drawers!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Beautiful job on a very nice watch. I concur about the pearl. Ofrei has them at a very reasonable price and I think that some have said here that their source is the same that Rolex gets their replacement acrylics from. Would say get a gen, but they have gotten silly expensive Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

First question, have any of them been pressure tested? Reason being if you get it wet inside with salt water, it's probably going to be a paperweight by the time you can get it home and opened up and dried out. I would lean more toward the Seiko for a beach snorkeling watch and probably the 16610 or the White dial Breitling on leather for the rest of the time. I have gotten to where when I go out of the country, I tend to take watches that are not easily identifiable by folks who might have ulterior motives. Every pickpocket and thug knows Rolex, but my AP FC V3 looks like any other "black watch" to 99.999% of the people around you, and that tiny percent who know are not likely to try to steal it!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My feelings are that to qualify for an in -house movement, it has to be just that. Rolex qualifies although it is still a mass produced movement. If you build a million watchers a year and they are powered by 3-4 different movements then to me that is mass production. Then there are the high end companies that produce thousands a year like Patek, Breguet and progressing down in number but up in price are the small boutique watch companies that produce in the hundreds a year. If it's a movement that is used in several to scores of different companies' watches, no matter how much you add to it in the form of decoration and embellishments, the base unit is still a mass produced non exclusive movement. Comparing movements, I agree the high end mass produced movements are just as good and sometimes better than the in house movements available today. And when you factor in the cost of service, which is approaching the size of car down payment in a lot of the higher end watches, the good old ETA keeps looking better and better. We could argue endlessly the price/value ratio of the midrange to low high end watches, like Rolex. Personally, I have always liked Rolex, from the days many years ago when I owned one watch, and Air King. Soon replaced by and early Datejust and then a Submariner. Way back in the late 1960's!! Are they overpriced? Probably. But considering how they hold their value, one can buy one and wear it for 20 years and provided it hasn't been trashed, it could be sold for more than what you paid for it new. Certainly can't say the same for a lot of watch brands out there today.

Got the Blues!!

Very sorry to hear that. I had a few dealings with Alan, he was always most helpful and a real gentleman to deal with. My condolences and prayers to his family. Thanks for letting us know.

cc, I agree, the project X looks very "contrived" I don't care for the "over aged" lume, the lack of lugholes, the modern sub dial that they relumed, the modern bezel, the flat crystal just "half baked"!! and I much prefer the gilt dial. One thing to me that would make the homage better, milling off that Rolex,Rolex.Rolex on the rehaut.

B, you are absolutely correct in all aspects. If I were in the market for a really nice high end vintage or contemporary watch, but especially vintage, I would do exactly that. Get on a plane and meet the seller at a mutually agreeable spot. Then we get to "eyeball" each other, I get to hold and examine the watch and if we both agree, we make a deal, if not, I got an experience, and a few frequent flyer miles!! And to the OP, don't give up, keep looking and have patience!!

I do like this one. If I were able to buy one, this one would be it., but in actuality, I'm very happy with this one, which is about 8% of the cost if this one is 10K, it's a limited addition of 300 and serves my purposes quite well.

Heading to the beach in a week, so had to get out the old "beach watch" Ocean7 homage to the Omega Proplof

Great, welcome aboard!! We need photos though.

Gen plate re dialed Here is a gen blue dial 9411/0 look at the S in submariner in the gen then look at yours! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No, you need to remove the caseback and tighten the nut that holds the screw in place. When you get it right, replace the caseback and tighten up the screws holding the caseback in place. There are some good tutorials on the forums that show you the layout if the screws and nuts. The inner nut is slotted and you will need to make the special removal tool or use sturdy but fine tipped tweezers to tighten the nut. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mickey, that sounds fine. Anyone who doesn't understand the situation or is upset because you can't fix their watch for the next week or two is not deserving of your service and should be put on your "Do not waste my time because hell will freeze over before I repair one of your watches" list. I can guarantee you won't lose any of the customers of the kind that you really want! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm not going to speak for Matt, but I will give you my opinion. Matt like myself and a few others are a lot older than the majority of folks here. We are all pretty much "old school". Honesty and integrity are very highly valued traits. A verbal or handshake deal is and should be honored the same as one that is signed and witnessed in a lawyer's office. This is not to say that most of the younger guys have these same traits, because they do. But, there are folks who show up here who don't have these traits. look at the number of times on the sales forums, someone PN's you with and I"ll take it, send me your PayPal info" and then disappears. Same with these PayPal disputes. I think that Matt was blindsided by the guy who opened the PayPal dispute. Matt felt like he had been taken advantage of, and it hurt his feelings as well as royally pissed him off!! This was serious, and could have created really serious problems down the line for Matt. I would suspect that the guy who did this was someone who didn't have a long history on the forums and was not and established member. Matt took a chance and the guy burned him. I would suspect that Matt decided from that, only deal with folks that he knows and trusts. Matt has plenty if business so he has the luxury of being able to pick and choose who he deals with. That's his prerogative, and the way he does business. Offering to throw money at him probably won't work, however it wouldn't hurt to send him a PM and offer to pay him via Postal Money Order or WU. Just my 2 cents worth! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

AP ROO SILVER Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just another addendum: I decided to see if my Blue dial was water resistant. Tested it to 6atmos. I'm afraid it was not a pass. I took the Caseback off, greased the gasket and put it back on tight. Again up to 6atmos. Better this time, but not good enough to wear at the beach in the water. I was not impressed with the gasket, so if you plan to take yours under water, I would recommend a pressure test before you get it wet. I believe mine is fine for general wear, washing hands, etc. but not immersion. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The gen strap threads in most light look black. In bright sunlight, they appear a little lighter, but I would say Black. I have a Brady sail cloth with the steel grey stitching, and it is definitely lighter than the gen BP. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Welcome to the asylum!!! This is the place that your heart will love and your wallet will hate. Nice DSSD. I have the feeling that this is going to be one of many! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Honestly, if you really love this watch, and it's a frequent wearer, I would be on the lookout for an ETA 7750. Just remember the 7750 comes in a bunch of different configurations, subdial locations, date, etc. so when you look, make sure what you buy is what you need. I believe the one that has the subdials at 3,6,9 is the 7753' but not sure. They aren't cheap, but they are a lot better movements. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

All I can say is hang around, keep posting, contribute to the conversations, you won't be new forever! I can understand Matt's position, he got burned pretty good a short while back, everything ended up OK, but it was worrisome and could have turned out bad for him. I believe that since then, he's pretty picky about who he deals with. He has plenty of work, and this is a part time deal for him, so he can afford to be selective. You might want to look at watches that might come up for sale M2M here and the other forums as well. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Not sure about the high IQ, my wife thinks I'm not nearly as smart as she is!! I do believe that for the most part, the contributing members of this fraternity are pretty sharp. It's pretty hard to believe that folks are only "watch wise" and not pretty astute in other aspects of their lives. Returning to your diver, did you do any other mods, outside of the plate decoration and the slow beat movement? Just wondering if anyone has done an AR mod on the cyclops? My FC V3 has very poor AR, at least to me. Having said that, I have never had a gen FC diver in my hand, so I really don't know if the gen AR is any better than mine. Next time we go on vacation to some place that has AP dealers, I'm going to try to get a feel for some of the gen models. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Since I purchased the RG a few months back, I have really come to like the watch. I thought that the Blue dial would be a good second addition. I really do like the RG, but it's not a watch for everyday wear, although I suppose you could wear it every day if you so desired. I think that it's a little too dressy for jeans and t shirts, also since it's a gold plated watch, there is the wear factor. I believe that most of the high end reps we have today have good thick plating, there is always the chance that it will wear through over time. With all that in mind, I felt like the Blue dial would be a good choice for my second FF. It's a striking watch, low key enough to wear with any casual clothes, no problems relating to surface wear and still dressy enough to wear with a coat and tie. The primary reason I didn't chose the black dial S/S version was I simply have too many S/S black dial dive watches. Adding another one was not an option for me. I thought long and hard about the Blue dial, primarily because of a really nice review here posted by Asheron82, back in January. My main concern after reading his review, looking at the photos and reading all the comments was the wavy pattern guilloche around the edge of the dial. The genuine blue dial has this pattern, the rep does not. I really couldn't decide, should I go ahead and buy one now, or perhaps wait for a V2, hoping that the dial would be improved. My biggest concern with waiting was, suppose they don't come out with a V2? The BP's while outstanding reps and probably the closest to gen "out the box" are not as popular as AP, Rolex and Panerai. Not in the world of genuine or the rep world. I believe that the dealers and manufacturers improve on the wildly popular watches, simply because a modest improvement creates tons of sales. look at the AP watches for example, the black dial AP S/S is now in it's 7th version over just a few years, and now there is a V8 (or some say a new V1) with an open caseback like the latest genuine AP's. I just don't think that BP's are popular enough to generate frequent updates like this. Because of this, I decided to be on the lookout for one in M2M sales. As luck would have it, that opportunity came about a few weeks ago, one came up and the seller PM'ed me as he knew I was interested in one. We made a deal, and 3 days later the Blue dial was on my wrist. I am pretty impressed with the quality of both of these watches. There is really nothing big to fault with either one. The movements are pretty solid, a2836 movements, which should be good for quite a long time. I was fortunate enough to have and almost brand new ETA 2836 that was taken out of a Rolex rep that got a gen movement, so I had it serviced and transplanted into the RG. This was not because of any problems with the movement, but I felt like over time the ETA would be a better more accurate movement. The movement in the Blue dial is the a2836 that came with the watch and it's running accurate has a good power reserve, and will not be changed unless something happens to it. Not sure about the crystal AR, it seems to be good, I don't believe it is double AR, as you don't get that "My crystal fell out!!" look, do get some reflection, but it's not bad. I wouldn't spend any money to get the crystal re AR'ed, as it's very adequate for me. I also replaced the rep strap on the RG with a genuine Sailcloth. I wrote a review comparing the rep to gen straps here a whole back. If I were to do it again, I doubt that I would spend the almost 300USD for the gen strap. In fact I have had several people PM me about the straps, and my feelings are unless the rep strap doesn't fit, either it's too long or too short, I would stay with the rep strap. If it doesn't fit, then the gen is and option because BP makes three different length straps. The rep strap on the Blue dial is very nice, it looks very, very close to the gen strap in it's construction, however I cannot comment about it's color accuracy, as I have not seen a gen Blue Strap. I believe that one thing the rep makers have done is increase the length of the straps to match the length of the standard length gen straps. I believe that when the FF was first introduced, there were some who thought the strap was too short, but it's now the same as the gen. Possibly the makers copied XS strap in the beginning. I find both the genuine and rep sailcloth's to be very soft and comfortable. One deterent is the odd size of the lugs on the FF. They are 23mm which is and odd size and not as many strap options are available "ready made".While on the subject of straps, the dastardly BP lug screws have to be addressed. Almost every other brand of watches uses either a slotted screw in lug bar (Panerai, AP) conventional springbars (Most everyone else), but not BP!! They use bars with either hex head or Torx threaded caps on both ends. Following the advice of others who have encountered strap change problems, I purchased a pair of Torx screwdrivers in sizes 3 and 4 (2 each) I'm not sure that they are the correct removal tool, but they work. Just make sure you take care, because if you round out the inside "shoulders" you might end up having to resort to extreme measures to get the bar out. Although I have read where some folks said that the BPFF were "huge" and didn't wear well, I don't find that to be the case with me. I have about a 7 1/4" wrist, and they fit fine. I believe that the way one's wrist is shaped hasa lot to do with watch comfort. If you have a very round wrist, almost every watch is going to want to "turn turtle", slipping from side to side. If your wrists are thin but flat, watches will not be as prone to slipping. So while wrist diameter is important, wrist shape is important as well. Folks would need to try one on to see if the are a "Fit" for them. I find that mine wear very similar to my 44 mm Panerai's. Fit and finish wise, I believe these would stand up to any reps out there. The engraving on the S/S Blue is crisper, primarily because I believe the RG is engraved and then plated over. Otherwise they are very close in their finish and attention to detail. Lume is pretty good on both of these. Pretty distinctive when the dial numbers as well as the bezel "light up" when you come in to a dark room from outside. Like most reps, the lume doesn't "Glow like a torch" all night long. Looking at lume in a photo is or can be very misleading, if you have a good camera/lens with a sturdy tripod, you can make in camera adjustments and make the lume look as bright as the sun or dim!! Longer the exposure the brighter it glows. All in all I'm very happy with both of these watches. They are similar but different enough that having both gives you more options for wearing. While they are a far cry from the old 60's era BP FF's, which were tool watches in the strictest sense, they do carry the heritage forward more so as a "Dress Diver" than a tool watch. However, if I were assured that my Blue was water resistant to 5-6 atmos, I would not hesitate to wear it at the beach, pool or even shallow snorkeling. In fact we are heading to the beach in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to check the WR before we go. Here are a few photos of the two together

Have to second what droptopman said, mymanmatt is the go to guy for Rolex DJ's and DayDates. He has great sources for gen Rolex dials, bezels,etc. If you want a really great DJ, look no further. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk