robideaux

the 111 and 112 were introduced as E series. perhaps you mean the 001 and 002?

thats the gen. date is small and cyclops is large, but the font doesn't match our reps. looks like there is no scandal...

apparant flaws are as follows: VC cross 6 and 9 on the dial slightly different datewheel font but for sure this baby will fool the AD's provided you dont let them do a side by side comparison with the gen. my buddy is about to order it this week, and i am finally getting the IWC titanium GST. cant wait to see them in person!

am i the only one who caught this? it's currently on in my time zone (hawaii). gotta get back, the comedy of jim gaffagin is up next!!!

check the crystal if you got this from andrew, mine came with what i think was acrylic. i popped in a sapphire (front and back) from my first rep 113 which stopped ticking. looks great now. i advise a new crystal, if you can find a source. looks great though! let us know what you make of the crystal.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/353391/mess...nst+knock-offs- bourgeoise luddites seem to think all replicas are "fake chinese [censored]." that's borderline racist. who's to say that a watchmaker in china is incapable of producing anything but "fake [censored]." With this kind condescending racism, it's no wonder the chinese prefer to dispense high quality "knock offs." Racism like that prohibits any chance of legitimate competition between asia and europe in the market for luxury goods. naturally, it seems that the chinese have decided to beat them at a different game, albeit illegally, by offering a comparable product at a fraction of the price. I wouldn't be surprised if soon more high quality replicas are in circulation than instead of originals with their overly inflated price tags. Only a small minority are knowledgable enough to know the minute differences between "fake" and "real," and unless corporate lawyers put more stringent laws in place to protect their illusory identity, then i wouldn't be surprised if in a few more decades they simply evaporate. It's simply a case of pseudo-modernists refusing to capitulate under the collective realisation that there is no dualism between essense and existence. They are all mass-produced commodities. furniture is furniture and watches are watches. sure there are degrees of quality, but in the case of original movement, 1:1 replicas they are minute. To purchase a gen simply out of moral refusal to consider a replicas is absurd. Such a person must be either a ) a rich elitist condescending snob who probably lives in an virtual world of extreme materialism, or B ) a servile functionary of industry who chooses to grovel and pledge allegiance to a non-existent, reified corporate entity. For the prior, i could care less; for the latter, i sincerely shed a tear...

i've actually taken apart my CN unitas, and the CDG are not stuck on plates. the text however, and the regulation notches (+ & -) are. then there is the fact that the cdg swirls are reversed on the center piece when compared to the peripheral pieces. when it reflects light they show inverted gradations patterns. that bugs me a little, but the worst feature is the dull finish and the crooked alignment of the text. i will try to take pictures to show how poorly aligned "officine panerai" is. if it were straight, i would be pretty satisfied, but crooked lettering looks rought and cheap, and definately fake.

http://www.rwg.cc/members/index.php?showtopic=64&hl=cote i found this topic which had some up close pictures of the CDG swiss, but there seem to be two versions. the latest has "seventeen jewels" and the other peripheral engravings in blue, where as the old was in gold. also, the shape of the swan neck is closer to gen. i want to know if anyone has some shots of the lateset CDG. latest version (courtesy of the man, EL):

i am impressed by some of the dealer's shots of the modified eta 6497 with cote de geneve, but i am somewhat skeptical at how it will look in person. anyone with first hand experience wanna comment on the quality? or even better yet, post a picture? this would really help me make a decision... thanks!

thanks for the adcive, but the problem is i have one screw that wont come out--it wont budge! should i force it out? i am apprehensive because someone with this same model broke their screw trying to remove it...

still the champ:

hey folks, i need some advice. i recently purchased a 111H which came on a rubber strap, and it looks great. i do have an oem croco strap i was going to try it on, but i found the lug screw to be extremely difficult to remove. the top end came out after much force, but then i remembered another member actually broke one of his while attempting the same feat. the lower lug is in there much more tight, and i've bent a couple screw drivers and the bugger still wont budge! [censored]! what should i do? should i keep trying to work it, and chancing the same fate as our other member, or should i be content with it on a rubber strap which looks great? also, do you think the dealer is somewhat responsible for this poor assembly? if i break it, should he offer a replacement case? i have an old one, but it's all scuffed up... alas, please offer me some direction board gurus!!!

for the rest of the week: sapphire 217 on OEM burgundy

217 on OEM Bordeaux: forgive the crappy wrist shot, my young cousin took the photos. take my word, it looks splendid!!

ahh and yes, relume is next on my agenda. anyone know if the plates on the CN 6497 movement can be polished to add more luster? they seem a bit dull head on.... oh and i found out from my watchsmith the crystal (for the 217) is def. sapphire!! the 111 i had to change myself.

yep, like i said, the bordeaux OEM strap it comes with is in transit to me as i type. hopefully it will arrive today. will post fresh pics right away!

here is my 217 that i received from josh in a little over a week. he's great to deal with as you all know. i also ordered a subzilla strap from ken at etaworldgoods.com. i love the combo, but my girlfriend said it's a little "power-rangerish." that nearly killed it for me, but luckily i have an OEM bordeaux 26/26 (from a gen 217) in transit. should be arriving tomorrow. will post pics here is the 111 i received from trusty andrew. also arrived in about a week. the crystal was [censored] acrylic, but i paid a very low price. fortunately i was able to pop in a sapphire crystal from an old 113 rep that was no longer ticking... lemme know what you think.

i would suggest trying to see if your dealer can supply the 001 with the cn unitas movement. i have only seen this version in a swiss unitas, which unfortunately feels different while winding and has a slower BPH (18000 vs 21600 for CN). if i buy one more watch, it will be a combo like that. most accurate pam ever. btw, the stock crown on the 001 reps is very similar to the gen 001, which looks like it was slightly thinner than more recent models. i dont think you would need to swap the crowns....

who is providing the 050 and 051 with the new asain 7750's? i asked josh if he could get one of this custom made, but he responded that he could not and that they would soon be out of production. NAME YOUR DEALER!! i need a 049 for my lady! ---ooops, read title. from river. have you opened the back to verify that it is truly the new and improved 7750? i'm dying to know....

crossover marketing ploys.... i can't stand them. i was flipping through PC world only to see an ad for an acer ferrari logo computer. what business does the ferrari logo -- a symbol of what i understand to be (i'm not really into cars) a fine automobile -- have being placed on a laptop or a wristwatch? i can understand someone describing a machine of equivalent elegance and artistry as the "ferrari of watches" or the "ferrari of computers." But to simply slap a logo on a top of the line computer or watch and call it a ferrari watch actually turns me off. If anything it seems to denigrate the name, "ferrari" (not that i really care). So why do i like replica watches? don'y they even more so denigrate companies of prestige? well, my rep collection consists of 3 panerais and 1 franck muller. What i like about them has little to do with prestige and much to do with design principles. The beauty of panerai is all about economy. the majority of their models more or less adhere to this credo. when i first saw panerai i immediately knew i wanted a rep. i had a friend who had one that he bought in china, and a few months later he brought me back one more. it was an awful piece of junk, and broke in a matter of days. i knew i needed a product of higher quality. a google search brought up ioffer.com, which led me to a member of our community who sold me my first rep (PAM113). I then became a member of this community, and subsequently purchased many watches for myself and friends. my next 3 watches were a PAM029B, Franck Muller Conquistador 8005 SC (black), and most recently a PAM217. You might wonder why i ordered a Franck Muller, seeing as my fondness for panerai comes from their simplistic bauhausian design principles. personally, i find the black and red conquistador to be reminiscent of late 19th century victorian gothic/modern design, which i am also equally fond of. as you see my taste for panerai and franck muller do not stem from a defense of bourgeoise culture and values. for these things i could care less. i do however support the subversion of the artificial upper class. for this reason, i turn my friends on to reps as an alternative. for little mark-up, you can save thousands of dollars and obtain a nice, functional watch, of comparable quality. forgive my tangent meandering, but back to the ferrari logo. what business does it have on a watch? can anyone shed some light on this? seems kind of ridiculous to my naive self....

yes i've read all the tests about how to test if it is sapphire or not. the water drops look just like it does on my other sapphire watches, but i heard that this is unreliable because mineral glass can be polished as smooth as sapphire. i was just wondering if anyone with the same edition 217 knew for sure. it would save me the trouble of potentially scratching my crystal to check. thanks for all of your replies!

i recently ordered a Pam 217 which was advertised as chinese unitas, swiss case, and sapphire. i am beginning to doubt the crystal. anyone else who has the 217 with the chinese movement wanna chime in? i suppose i should stop at my local watchsmith if no one here knows for sure...

what sucks is i probably inflated the auction to 100 by bidding at the last second. i was outbid at 50 bucks and lost my space in the top 5. shittay

i remember a while ago one of our dealers offering an original movt. perfect fiddy rep for around 2000 dollars. if the serials match our reps, this is definately one of them....

hey The Zigmeister, do you know if it would be possible to combine the best features of both the most recent eta 6497-1 with swan neck with the CN 6497-2 copy? the cote de geneve on the cn movement is awful, there is no swan neck, and the letters are crooked. what i would like to attempt is a 21,600 beat 6497-2 with the nicely decorated parts (cote de geneve bridges, swan neck, winding gears) from the eta 6497-1. do you think they would be interchangeable? i know you have handled both movements so i thought i would ask. i hope you can give me your best approximation! thank you for all prior insights into the world of horology!