Finepics

Carefull with that as a cheapo will likely have a mineral glass crystal which is more prone to exploding /breaking. Don't be worried about it - sapphire can take a lot of heat before it goes. When you apply the heat keep watching the cyclops closely- it will be very obvious when the adhesive pops.

This is a bit more like the old RWG - I'm glad I started this now!! Get a bit of gusto back into the sails. @TTK - Ryan built the coffin - Hamilton just banged the nails in.

Dude - no problem - I actually think the forum had become rather boring of late and this has kind of stirred things up a little. That was not my intention but it is sort of fun. However that is not to denigrate some of the very serious replies from some people regarding their personal experiences with this subject - including you. My apologies too.

Actually the evening is being put together to launch the Ferrari range in the UK so of course there will be a few hardcore Paneraisti there but also a lot of people who will just be punters with bulging pockets of cash (credit cards) being encouraged to part with some of it. I doubt people will be spending too much time looking at each others wrists. Wearing my 6152 is more likely to raise interest if they get the museum pieces out there and at least I cannot be really lambasted for that. I will certainly take my camera so if there are any photos to be had I wil certainly share them here.

Actually I took your remark - "And the United States are a bunch of assholes ...but no offense" to be a reply to one of my earlier comments (since it's almost a direct quote albeit slightly altered) - if I am wrong then please accept my apologies. I did not start this thread in order to have an international slanging match and in my opinion the only real US arseholes (as we prefer to say) are G.W. Bush and D. Rumsfeld, but that's another subject altogether. But I am [censored] off at your other remarks - I certainly do not love a good row and generally stay away from this kind of exchange - only on very rare occasions have I joined in on things like this and rarely have I started a controversial subject before which if you had read properly you would have seen that I was only raising the subject to guage other members opinions of non replica items being sold on what is principally a watch forum. To say I am the FIRST TO WINE (actually spelt WHINE) I take as a gross insult. Your datewheel will be shipped next week along with everyones elses and don't [censored]ing bother me with anything else in future - [censored] (look that quaint British expression up - actually I'll save you the bother - it's the same as [censored]).

@ jkerouac - you seem to be one of the few that actually grasped my initial point.

I have used a pinflame type torch for this. I use the flame at 90 deg to the crystal so that it is really just heating the cyclops. After a few seconds you will see the glue between the cyclops and crystal sort of pop! It's a bit like watching aerial film of a bomb blast - the shockwave radiating out from the centre!! It will be obvious and as soon as that happens use a thin blade to gently scrape the cyclops away form the crystal. I have done about 6 of these and only one of them was damaged (it cracked in half). You do not need much heat and the sapphire crsytal whilst hot was not too hot to touch.

It was not my intention with this thread to criticise anyone who buys or sells knives and of course I can see the distinction between a tool and a weapon. Speedy I never for one moment implied that US members were assholes so I'll thankyou not to misquote me, however it cannot be denied that the American attitude to weapons is very different from the UK - incidentally I used to be a registered UK handgun owner in the days before a certain individual went on a shooting spree in Hungerford and "killed" it for me. I was just curious as to what members thought and it has certainly prompted some interesting (and some plain stupid) comments/debate. As a former gun owner (and professional soldier for many years) to say that it's not the gun that kills but the person pulling the trigger is a flawed argument because guns are only designed with one purpose - to kill -the fact that they cannot operate by themselves is immaterial - if they did not exist they could not kill. Of course knives are not solely designed to kill, their widest practical use is in the kitchen, but they are a "double edged sword" literally and my initial post merely questioned their place on a forum dedicated to the love of watches - fake or not.

Mmmm - who the [censored] are you!! (that should add a little spice eh!!)

Neil - I'm not suggesting that you or any other dealer should be banned from selling knives here and I would not think for a minute that any of our members are potential homicidal maniacs - my intention was just to question their presence here at all. This is nothing to do with copyright infringement - a watch is a piece of male jewellry (in most cases - ladies forgive me) - our Jimmy Choos, an adornment, status symbol even (even though we rep owners are arguably fakes as well) - a knife is none of those. Sure I could stab someone with a Mont Blanc pen but you have to admit that the knives on sale here are not simple tools like a swiss army knife - these are macho instruments that may serve a practical purpose but nonetheless are also designed as a weapon (mind you I could kill someone with my 187 I suppose but then I'd risk losing the bloody bezel markers!).

Wow I seem to have sparked a debate! Interesting that most of the members that don't have a problem with this are US based and I am not suprised (please do not take any offence at this remark). Certainly in the UK the number of violent crimes involving a knife are relatively small in terms of overall national violent crime, about 5% in the year 2005, but a very sad statistic is that 1 in 10 schoolchildren between the ages of 10-17 yrs (and that is an official figure which are always grossly underestimated) carry a knife. A lot of fatal stabbings recently having press attention have involved teenagers. I have just been doing some more research into this and have found that statistically gun offences in London equate to 6 per 10,000 population per year which means an average of about 4,500 gun related crimes in London in the year 2005!!! This figure is only 2% of all national recorded violent crime but knives are involved in 5% of all recorded national violent crime. Homicide accounts for only 1% of Gun and Knife realated crime so is a relatively small figure although the risk of serious injury is 4.5 times greater when a knife is used to assist a crime than a gun. These figures come from the UK Home Office.

Whilst I agree in principle with what you say one of the sellers is UK based and we are trying to tighten up on sales of these things because of this problem - perhaps if you liverd in London you might see it differently. I recently had to administer life saving medical aid to one of the residents on my estate who was stabbed so it is something that has touched me personally. Buying a pen or a lighter that is a copy of a famous marque is different, they are collectors items that are ridiculously overpriced for the gen so selling a rep of them here is not any different to selling the watches. I am just saddened that any form of weapon is sold here even if the members here are the least likely to ever use one in an aggressive manner - there is so much [censored] going on in the world I just think it's unecessary.

Just had a totally brill idea - I go wearing one of my reps, say my 001, and if I get called out I exclaim in horror that I paid £3000 for it thinking it was real and they will feel so sorry for me that they'll give me a gen as compensation!! - No?

Jeez Slay - you have eyes like a [censored] hawk!! Can spot a piece of [censored] from a half a mile away (as my old Sergeant Major used to say!!)

Being a Londoner, and a Brixtonian, we have a real problem at the moment with knife crime. Every week someone is stabbed to death in often motivelsss attacks and most people surveyed in a recent crime survey were more afraid of being stabbed than being shot (I know the UK does not have quite the same gun problem as the US but that is out of all proportion here as well) and I am alarmed to see some of our dealers selling knives on the forum. Maybe we should allow the sale of guns as well? I'm not having a go at those dealers selling them - I'm just not sure a replica watch site is the place to do it. Anyone share my views on this?

Don't think it would be a problem to wear my 6152 with Cortebert movt. It's obviously not designed to fool anyone into thinking it's real if it came to selling it and they might be flattered that someone has shown such an interest in the vintage pieces. I certainly would not wear one of my regular reps although I'm sure I could get away with one or two!!

Thanks for the replies - I often do check the box to copy to the sent folder but the problem is for people like me that the folders quickly fill up!! It's not a big deal but would have been useful.

These are still inprogress at the moment. Was on the phone only today and was told a week - so given that a week means a month in their language I would hope they will be done by mid November but I could be wrong.

Oh dear oh dear - cannot say I'm suprised at all - so far mine is fine but I don't wear it very often. Thanks for that Rob - as always you are a star.

Oh man - you have me wearing a 6152-1 which is not ready yet!!

Mods and admin - is there any way that the PM functions can be modified so that it shows when I have replied to a message rather than shoing that I have read it? I sometimes lose track of who I have replied to or not especially as I get a lot of PM's.

All you dudes with the older mineral glass 212's don't worry - the sapphire crystal with AR will not be long and very reasonably priced too.

No news yet - I'm hoping it was shipped out last Monday so should be here in time for the show!! Still need my dial back as well as that is the missing link - temporary dial will not do!! So it might have to be the 6152 and I would certainly not be ashamed to wear that.

Well I have a couple that I could easily get away with. My 001 with re-lume, Jimmy CG and Palp 2.0mm crown is an obvious one - don't think anyone would spot that unless they had loupes on.

I was in my local watch boutique today speaking to the manager, who sort of knows me, and he told me that very soon they are having a big Panerai day where they will fill the shop with lesser known models as a big sales drive - and guess what - they are hopefully going to bring over some of the Vintage museum pieces from Florence to put on show as well!! Holy [censored] I nearly fell over backward when he told me that!!! I think it's an invite thing for an evening and an open house the next day so I will update you when I know more details (the manager is keeping me infromed as he knows my obsession). The big question is if I have the [censored] to wear a rep or maybe I should wear one of my vintage "hommage" pieces - bit less of a [censored] take in the circumstances.