panerai153

Could anyone tell me when the AP ROO RGRC reps changed over to the new model with the RG surrounds on the subdials and the RG AP logo? I was looking through the Rubberclad photo thread over on RepGeek, and I saw one photo that was captioned 2006, so I know from that they have been around for a good while, but I was interested in when the model changed over to the newer version.

Yeah, and that's just a strip, clean, oil and regulate, no graphite, jewel mods, etc. So basically what you have now is a fresh clean, oiled time bomb instead of a dirty time bomb.

I defer to you sir, this was probably a 50 buck Canal street "best" back in 1996. Best thing then would be to drop another clone movement in this one and use the big hammer to repair the old one!! Actually to be realistic, this one is so bad, I wouldn't spend any money on it, use the money that it would take to buy a movement and install it toward another better watch. Throw this one in the sock drawer as a memory.

Hell Daz, All I want to do is win a little skirmish every now and then, I know there isn't any hope to actually win a battle or the war!!

Very nice!! Matt does super work. He's done a bunch of projects for me including service in some genuine Rolexes. If you are looking at anything along the lines of Rolex watches, Matt is the man to go to. He can source the parts and he does great work. He is a super nice guy as well. By the way, you need to invest in a better camera, as well as a tripod. Having a tripod to hold the camera steady will make a huge difference in the quality of your photos. My Day/Date says hello

Not very true to genuine in a lot of respects, but I would bet that in 1996 they were putting ETA 2824-2 or 2836 movements in these watches, so it has a good movement, and the parts are readily available, so getting it running would not be a problem. If it's been trough a lot with you, I would keep it just for sentimental reasons. I would guess that one of the watch repair folks on the forum could do a complete strip, clean oil and regulate for around 100 bucks or a little more depending on how many parts it needed.

A salute to you sir for all that you have gone through to keep us free. I agree with Daz, there are lots and lots of nice sturdy quartz watches around, Tag's, Seikos, etc. Problem to me is most of the boutique watchmakers (genuine) are producing great mechanical watches, but for some reason are not too interested in building really sturdy quartz watches. Check out this link, Ocean7 makes some really nice watches at a very good price point. I have three of them, and I have used the two Ploprof models on numerous Scuba trips. Very nice, sturdy and not expensive. http://www.ocean7watchco.com/store/lm-5ad-quartz-chronograph-dress-diver-with-domed-sapphire-bezel.html

Women are funny, aren't they Most of them really aren't in to watches, they might have 50 handbags and a hundred pairs of shoes, and they never have enough, but watches, nah!. My wife has a box full of watches. Hers are all gens, she will not wear a rep, period.She wears a Diamond bezel Tag Aquaracer as her everyday watch and a vintage Omega ladies dress watch for dressy occasions, the others hardly ever get worn, but when I say, "Do you want me to sell some of your watches"? She looks at me like I'm the devil incarnate!! "NO! I want my watches, don't you dare sell any of my watches". So she could really do with about 2-3 watches, but like the shoes and bags, she wants every one. But in the same vein, I could probably do with 2-3 watches too, but I don't want to get rid of any of mine, unless something needs to move to make room for something else.

Can't complain, after a week of freezing cold, ice and power outages all over, it's Blue skies and 60 degrees F today.

actually bought this one from another member who had it like 2 days, tried it on and didn't like it. Not sure where he got it from, but I think it might have been intime (Ryan) Here is a review of the FC V3 http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/165045-thoughts-on-the-ap-fc-v3-diver-from-an-ap-noob/ And another one, FC V3 compared to the S/S V5 Diver http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/166567-fc-v3-and-ss-diver-v5-side-by-side/ To the OP, I apologize for hijacking your thread.

It would be nice if someone in the UK was willing to do the drop shipping. Although it would be some trouble, as they would have to receive the package from the USA, and then take it to the PO and re ship. What would help if the sender had the watch in a box with Domi's address, as well as a return address of the shipper in UK. this box could be put inside another box addressed to the person in the UK,. All they would have to do is open the outer box and the inner box is ready to ship. Send the shipper a PayPal for his time and postage to Germany. I wouldn't be worried about shipping back to the USA. I just got a quote for a sec @ 12 movement clean and service that is only a stripdown, clean oil and regulate, no mods at all, 250.00 USD. I know that this is a PITA movement to work on, so I suppose this price is justified, but spending all that and not getting the extra jewels seems like an expensive temporary fix. Why don't some of the watch repair guys on the forum learn how to do the jewel mod? It would be a great service to the members here on this side of the pond.

You may be correct, I read that it was the ZF factory somewhere on RepGeek, but I can't find the thread. suffice to say it's not H Factory or noob.

It's all about cost/selling price with the rep manufacturers just like everything else in the world. The only difference here, is basically you are buying a product with very little or no recourse. the factories/dealers are located in China. Probably the vast majority of the replica consuming community lives half way around the world. It's not like buying a genuine product from a reputable seller who is interested in your business, and is willing and able to help you if problems occur. Probably the only way the factories feel pressure is if they send out a particularly crappy run of watches, handbags, sunglasses, whatever. If the folks selling the products get a lot of pushback from the customers, they may complain to the factories, but I doubt that this happens very often. AFA the supply, I'm not sure. I have been on these rep forums for probably 12 years, and there have been several times when there were crackdowns, closures, and folks were saying the end is near. So far hasn't happened. The wild card ,of course, are the customs services of various countries. How adept are they at getting inside every package without opening every one, and since these are government employees, how much effort are they going to expend looking at every package when they have thousands and thousands to process every day. Sort of like the old "I Love Lucy" show where Lucy and Ethel were working on and assembly line that didn't stop. Over a few minutes they were getting further and further behind, and then started doing all sorts of crazy stuff to catch up. How many times are they going to stop the line to scrutinize a package? Sterile watches, If they were producing watches with no markings and sterile dials, the market would dry up instantly. no one is going to buy a sterile dial watch who is looking for a rep of a genuine. Now if you could buy a sterile dial watch at a discount, and they were willing to ship dials separately, maybe some folks would buy, but I believe that would effectively kill the rep sales especially the lower end ones that you buy on the street.

Still is, and the price keeps getting higher and higher. This totally caught me wrong, because I predicted on the MKII forum that when the dust settled, they would go back down and the price would be just a bit over retail if not less, Boy was I wrong on that one !! Not too many contemporary watches actually appreciate in value right off, but this was definitely one of them.

Anyone here in the CONUS doing the jewel modification. Might be difficult to ship directly to Domi in Germany from the USA, not sure how German customs are, but was told that they are pretty thorough looking through packages from outside the EU?

It is the ZF factory. And you are right, noob is getting really sloppy. Someone told me in an email a few weeks ago that the guy who was running the noob factory left and the workers had taken over. How much substance their is to that is unknown, may be just a rumor. I do know that the noob 5.1 is not a step up from the 4.1. Also the ZF factory uses the Seagull movement in both the FC V3 and the S/S V5. It's a much more reliable movement, and compared very favorably with the ETA 2824-2 in a review a couple of years back on WUS. This was a complete teardown review by a knowledgeable watchmaker.

Thanks guys, It is a nice watch. unfortunately just as the 39mm Rolex vintages are too small for the guys like Mike on a bike with 8+ inch wrists, this one has size limitations as well. My wrist is a shade over 7", and it's right at the limit for me. I see lots of photos of guys on this and other forums who have 6-6.5" wrists wearing the AP ROO's, and to me they look really odd, sort of like they are wearing a clock on their wrist! But to each his own, and if you feel like you can pull it off, then you probably can. I would suspect though that the biggest reason larger watches hit the sales forum is the wearer tries them and decides at some point, "this watch is just too darn big". I tried a couple of the bigger PAM's, can't remember the numbers, but I believe they were 47mm. I couldn't pull those off, and they didn't hang around long. sputin, you know, it's really funny, for all these years, I have really never given AP's a second look, then the FC diver came along, and I say some photos someone posted in the general discussion, because I never went to the AP forum at all. I bought the FC V3, and I really liked it, so I bought the V5, and I like it as well, now this RGRC, which I also like. I'm still a little leery about the sec @ 12 movement. Wish we could find someone in the USA who did the jewel modification like Domi does in the EU.

It's all advertising hype. Do you really think that the manufacturers buy one of every watch that they sell, take it apart and make their parts as a 1:1, because if you do, I think that you are living in a dream world. I do think that in some cases, they may do a 1:1 replication, but not every one that you see on their websites. When they get it "close", is where the problems arise. You try to use gen parts, and the case is a tiny bit too big or too small for gen dials, or the bezel assembly isn't like the gen (looks just like it, but a gen won't work!) These are the really frustrating watches. And as we have found out some of the watches are not gen like because of necessity. They are too tall, because the rep movement would not fit in a gen dimensioned case (AP ROO's for example) , the date window is off, because the rep movement DW is not in the same position as the gen. All of these are problems we encounter every day with reps. I think that we as buyers have to learn that this is hype, and it's probably based on half truths and embellishments. The safest approach is not to be a "first responder" Those are the guys who hit the buy button the first day that a new model is released. Better to wait a while, let those first buyers receive their watches post photos and reviews and then make the decision to buy or not buy. At that point, you have cut through all the hype, have good photos of actual watches delivered to members, and you have a better idea as to what you might need to do to make the watch better (and they all need something to make them better!!) as I have never seen a rep "out the box" that couldn't stand some tweaking.

Here is a little FC Diver porn for you guys to look at while yours is on the way!!

Don't get too excited. CNY is just over, and everyone is just getting back to work, nursing hangovers and jet/party lagged!! All the backlog that piled up during CNY has to be worked through, so there are folks who paid right before CNY who are ahead of you. They will get to you, just sit back relax and do some reading and research while you wait.

I believe C&R is endemic to watch fanatics. We get caught up in all the hype, and we buy into it and next thing you know, we have a new watch on the way. One big problem with reps is the inability to try them on at an AD like a lot of genuine watches. We go to and AD and try on the genuine equivalent, and then when the rep comes in we are disappointed because it's not exactly like the gen. Our biggest problem is our OCD, we agonize over little discrepancies that will never be picked up with the naked eye, but we know they are there, and we fret over them and finally convince ourselves that the watch is "Unwearable", because it's got these miniscule flaws. Most of us need less watches and more life!!! AFA the Black bay, it never impressed me at all. I'm not a big fan of snowflake hands, even though I own a genuine Tudor 9411/0. Another thing, I believe that folks discover that the red bezel is not neutral like a black bezel or S/S. When you realize that it's a little too sporty to wear with a business suit, it looses some of it's appeal. Add all that, and then you look at some of the flaws that the manufacturers and dealers sort of glossed over and it becomes expendable. Over the years, I have sold and traded a lot more watches than I have kept. Most of the time, it just didn't resonate with me. I would try my best to love it, but if it wasn't there, it wasn't there. C&R is not novel to reps, just go to WUS or TZ and look at the number of practically brand new watches are on sale every day. Folks buy them looking for something that isn't there. that plus the fact that most of us are serial "flippers" anyway. What was interesting to me, was the MKII Kingston. the watch was over 3 years coming from deposit to delivery. The watches trickled in to the owners over probably a year or more. After all that wait, there were brand new Kingston's hitting the sales forum on WUS within days of delivery. Guys waited patiently for three plus years to get the watch, and poof it was gone in days.

Asking the experts here, as I haven't been able to find out anything definitive about this using search. My first question which seems to come up on other threads is this, does the newer 7750 sec@12 come from the factory with a jewel(s) modification? Also, when approximately did the factory begin using the modified movement in ROO's? Is the factory mod good enough, or is it just a "band aid" on the problem? And finally is their anyone in the USA doing the jewel mods on the 7750 ROO movement. I know Domi in France does a multi jewel mod (I believe), but I'm a little concerned about shipping rep.watches back and forth from the USA to the EU and back. Reason I'm asking is I have a RGRC that I recently purchased from another member on RepGeek, who originally purchased on RWG. He's pretty vague about the service history, said it was "Serviced" but was done by the previous owner.I also have a White face RC that's incoming and the owner sold it to me at a reduced price as it has a short (12-24 hour) Power reserve when off the wrist, and that indicates to me that its going to need a service. So I will be looking at a service for one for sure and possibly the other at some point. Thanks all

WOW !! you guys are getting hammered. Weather channel is saying that you are due for a Nor'easter in a day or two, so more on the way probably. I'm sick of the cold. My yard looks terrible, we had ice a couple of days ago, and limbs down everywhere. My son who lives a 1/4 mile from me across our lake has been out of power since Tuesday night, We lost power for about and hour Wed afternoon, but I feed off the main line and he is on a feeder line that serves three houses, all are out of power. Plus I have a 36KW Generator, which is pretty darn handy out here in the country!! Stay warm and don't go having an MI shoveling snow.

Just bought this one a few days ago in a M2M sale on RG. The seller had the watch for about 8-9 months after purchase from another member over here. This certainly isn't a review, as I'm such an AP noob, I would probably not know good from bad, unless it was a glaring error. First impressions, the watch is heavy!! After wearing my FC V3 Diver for a couple of months, I really noticed the weight. It's also tall, however I believe that because of the totally flat caseback, it seems to ride better on my wrist than some of my previously owned large watches, in particular the Rolex DSSD. I don't like tight watch straps, and I can wear this one at a comfortable length and it's not always trying to "turn turtle" on me. For reference, my wrist is a shade over 7".Because of the height and size, I find it a little uncomfortable under a sweater with tight cuffs. I'm looking forward to spring and short sleeves. Will be much better I'm sure. This is a very imposing watch, it just looks good! The Grey dial, black subdials and Rose Gold case really go well together. It's residing on the rubber strap that it came on, but I have a better Black Hornback strap incoming, so I will change to that when it arrives. AFA the movement, this is my first encounter with a sec@12 watch, so hopefully it will work out. I don't play around with the chrono so, that should help the longevity. The precious owner sold it as "Serviced", but by the first owner, and he couldn't offer any details as to what was done. He also mentioned that he thought it had been AR'ed, but I don't believe that it has anything other than the AR from the factory. If anyone who looks at the photos and recognizes the serial number as a watch that you sold and could cast any light on the service history, I would appreciate the info. One glaring fault, and it's only noticeable at magnification, the date window is crooked. It looks like there are two parts to the date window, the dial and the bottom of the Cyclops. It appears that either the dial date window was cut crooked, or the Cyclops was installed crooked. At my normal focal distance, I can't tell anything, only when the photo is magnified. All in all, I think it's a pretty nice watch. I'm happy enough with it that I'm going to order a Safari after all the CNY celebrations and order backlogs are cleared. Please feel free to comment as that is the only way we learn, listening to what the more experienced members have to say. One last comment on the lume. What you see here is a good example of how you can make a watch with mediocre lume look good. It was exposed to bright lights during the photo session, after I took all the regular photos I turned out all the light except for the room light in the next room. It was pretty dark, but enough light to focus. This was a 20 sec exposure at F.2.4 ASA 800. my camera was mounted on a big rock solid tripod and I use the self timer to trip the shutter. Looks like it was superlumed by one of our moddersd, but in fact it's just average at best. Photos