ravishingrick

Welcome to rwg. Both excellent pieces, the PreV is probably one of most exclusive frankens ever to be built.

I think 27x22 straps look more elegant on Radiomir's. If you are looking for elagent strap to wear with a suit go with the 27X22, not the beefy 26x26 straps. The watch boys sell some lovely 27X22 gator straps for Rads.

Great post. I agree allot about what you wrote about reps, but don't forget there are also some downsides regarding owning and wearing genuine watches:

Genuine watches:

- A basic servicing of a genuine watch by the manufacturer will set you back at least 400$

- The turnover time of genuine watch servicing can take months.

- If something happens to a genuine watch (theft, loss, serious damage) the losses can be very high.

- Most genuine watches do not appreciate in value.

I would advise you to keep a couple of reps for daily wearing and wear the genuine's on special occasions.

I am seriously drooling over the posted pics All very beautiful pieces...

To kick of the show one of my favorite watches of my small collection...

Surprises me that the discussion about the price of Panerai's arises so frequently. People claim that the price of a Panerai using the ETA 6497-2 movements is too expensive. Basicly an ETA 6497-2 costs more the a ETA-775x or ETA 2892-A2. A tremendous amount of high end watch munufacturers use these same movements and price the watch similarly or more expenseive. What about the IWC chrono's, Hublots, Breitlings, Chopards, Mont Blancs, etc, etc the list is endless...

Finepics did a terrific job luming and assembling this piece. Looks like he lso took the trouble to remove the A.R. Also look like the older sausage dial with the slightly sunken numerals and indexes was used, they don't make dials like yours anymore..

There are probably only a handful of PAM40 reps and even less with a convincing T-SWISS-T dial, possibly your have the only T-Dial PAM40 rep ever made..

Lovely piece, wear it well...

I am also in for a PAM2 Dial with matching high quality tritium look lumed hands.

Man I would love a BP 5004 with correct big date and power reserver dail spacing...

Amazing job!

Congradulations to the lucky owner...

Hi,

Repaustria did this real wood insert mod found here: Repaustria Calypso Mod

Apparently he used a tool to generate suction on the crystal and it popped off quite easily with that. It appears to be press-fit...similar to a Swatch or other water resistant watch lacking a screw-on caseback.

Thanks for the link & tip. I thought this would be one of two possibilities, the second possibility that came to mind would be to use some very strong stick/adhesive tape and stick it to the crystal and try to yank it off.

Still curious about the suction tool, never seen a suction apparatus that could be used for watchmaking?

If you are completely sure that it is plexiglass, and not mineral cristal or saphire...are you?

Then you need this tool:

http://cgi.ebay.es/New-Watch-Crystal-Remov...1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for the tip... I am positive it is transparent plastic (plexiglass), not sapphire or mineral crystal. I don't think the tool shall work because the plexiglass has been installed completely flush with the caseback, with 10th of a millimeters gap between the plexiglass crystall and the caseback bezel. So I highly doubt the plexiglass can be grasped with the tool you proposed.

Loving my 2006 IWC Costeau divers after it was cleaned up by The Zigmeister. Cuddo's to The Zigmeister for the excellent work!

There is just one think I would like to upgrade on CD and that is to replace that horrible looking wood sticker behind the plexiglass window in the caseback.

Does anyone know how to remove the caseback plexiglass without damaging it?

Don't challenge me.. because I have bigger guns.. PAV138

Holly smokes... look who has the connections...

Must be a dial...

crown...

well that was bloody fast

Left: palp (auto), Middel (MX000L9B B Panerai OEM, handwind) Right: Turkish eBay seller crown.. (auto) OEM?

Two can play at this game... So guess what this is then...

Wow gr8 purchase, hope you can find all other parts needed to complete your project..

So ehhh are you going to spill the beans on what you've got cooking?

Radiomir Lugwires?

Ooh, that looks very nice. Is that from his recent new hides? I heard there might be a Crazy Horse II in the offing.

Checkout his blog, you can access it via the risti strap page. I think he shall be doing another run soon. The straps look worth a 4/5 week wait...

This is the CH black stitch I mean.

$1,000 for a PAV strap? I thought I was nuts paying $300 a couple of years ago. On second thought I am a genius. But seriously I think that color in general looks really good with PVD.

PAV straps are discontinued for some time now. I read a post a few days a go about some risti shedding tears that due the astronomical prices the hobby was no fun any more. The poor guy had almost a complete set of PAV straps, just missing one, but he was crying that at the going rate of ~1000$ for a PAV strap his dream of a complete collection of PAV straps would never come to fruition.

Poor guy, life is so unfair...

Lovely piece. Your watch sure is worth a PAV strap, but since they now cost like a 1000$, I would say go for a Greg Stevens Crazy Horse Black Stitch..

I don't believe they will manage to produce an accurate Big Ingenieur or Big Pilot with functioning Big date and Power reserve movement.

The best tip I ever picked up on this board about selling items online and using Paypal. Never ever leave an amount of more then 50$ on you Paypal account. After you have receive funds from a buyer always immediately transfer the funds to you back account.

Richard Lawton a beautiful PAM 57c I often dream off...