atomic_doug

If you want the Hublot rotor, then I'm guessing you want an actual Hublot movement. This is effectively impossible. Hublot sells them, but you have to buy the rest of the watch too. They will not just sell movements. If you want to use the rotor that your Chinese movement came with and have it installed on a Swiss-made 2824, a watchmaker can do this. Bring him a movement and the watch and he'll make the swap. (Though you wouldn't want to, because it looks nothing like the gen rotor, which is skeletonized, made of tungsten, and is very distinctive-looking.) However, and this is the most important part: For the rep of the Classic Fusion, it is not worth the trouble Firstly, the base movement of the gen Classic Fusion is a Sellita SW300, not an ETA 2824. Secondly, look at the position of the date window between the gen and the rep. Hublot have modified the SW300 to move the date closer to the edge of the dial. On the rep, the date is always too close to the center. This cannot be corrected at all without a considerable expenditure of effort and money, at which point you'd be able to afford the gen. Putting a different movement in it would not do anything to make it more reliable since the Chinese clone of the 2824 is as reliable as the Swiss-made one...and even the "Swiss-made" ones are largely made in China these days; nor would it do anything to make it appear closer to gen, since that date window cannot be moved.

Wow. I had no idea. Last Panerai-movement rep news I'd heard of was "Fight Days"

Rep movement? They're making their own P.9000?

I don't know. I think you were lucky to not win that. I don't quite trust it at a grand. I don't trust that seller either.

I don't think this is a coating, it does look like compression-molded plastic. (Whether or not it's actual carbon fiber reinforced plastic is another thing entirely, but it certainly looking good.) It may well be worth it, but anything over 500 is always steep for me for a rep. (I'm new to the AP rep game, though. In Panerai-ville, things are usually much cheaper. )

Looks like many of our prayers have been answered. It's awfully expensive, but I am seriously tempted to buy now rather than wait for the inevitable V2. http://puretime.co/product/pre-order-royal-oak-offshore-diver-forged-carbon-11-best-edition-on-rubber-strap-a2824/

The Zero (the gen) is the most versatile, I think. That's the one I wear the most. The 201/A comes a close second, because, well...it's awesome, if I don't say so myself...except for the cack hands. I think it's my favorite, because I did all the work on it myself and for all its flaws, it's fatti con le mani in all the best hack-job traditions of the real (Florentine) Panerai. I can see this 292 getting a lot of wrist time. It's very comfortable. I've got an Asso strap on order from Toro for it, so I can switch up. I think every Panerai stable needs at least one Radiomir, if not just for the historical value. The 292 has that, but also the forward-looking ceramic case, as opposed to the 232 (which I used to have) or most of the other stainless steel Rads which are, I think, a little boring. The Rad chronos are cool, but too thick for my slender wrists.

Great review/pictorial on a model and dial color that doesn't get nearly enough praise. I didn't know that Panerai changed the lug shape on their own things in between model years. They must have changed who they sub-contracted the case construction out to.

I thought I would post a picture of my collection of PAMs since it just grew by one today: a Noob 292J. I like it a lot. The lume is very bright. The quality is typical Noob, which is to say, excellent. The strap is, naturally, garbage but I can get a gen black calf easily enough. (I like the black on black look.) The crown winds nicely and smoothly. It screws in with a minimum of fuss. The pig on the dial is actually a lot more subtle in the flesh than hi-res photos would suggest. It's really a neat thing to find on the dial rather than being a gimmicky centerpiece of the dial. The lume is quite strong. Initially very bright, but dims quickly then sticks around at a readable level for another hour and a half to two hours. I always liked the Radiomir shape, because it's very comfortable, but never liked the boring designs they tended to come in. I had a gen 232 a few years ago and sold it because its size was its only feature. The dial was a great big empty. The 292 has far more features and details to give depth to an otherwise huge, blank, black canvas. The others in the lineup are a gen 000, a Noob 29M, and my never-ending tinker-project 5218-201/A...which needs a set of FGD hands...and a Dirk strap...maybe a shark strap. The 29 is for sale, since I don't wear it and I actually use a G-Shock for my GMT watch needs. (It also attracts less attention when I'm on travel, which is always a good thing.) I think maybe my next project will be a PAM 40 or a 36. Those are nice rare ones.

Sure. PC has it. It's not really anything to write home about, though. (The rep, I mean. I really like the gen. It just hasn't been effectively repped yet.)

I think that gen owners hate rep owners because the rep owners have something that the gen owners can possibly never have. I have had the opportunity to compare my rep Panerai 5218-201/A to a gen 'in the metal'. The results were very good. There were minor differences, but nothing gruesomely out of tolerance (and pre-V Panerai is pretty notorious about its level of consistency anyway). The gen's owner was impressed with my work, content that his was gen. Another friend of mine who was there at the time and is an adamant rep-hater was not so pleased until we realized he was upset because he was envious. He would never own a gen pre-V Panerai and felt that I somehow got around that because mine looked so close and had the exact same movement as the gen. Instead of just pining away for something we can never have, the rep community asks "why not?" and gets to work fabricating parts.

Yuki has a dial and handset for the 16610 and he typically has good quality stuff.

Don't worry, it'll show up eventually. Being a Panerai designer is the easiest job in Switzerland. Take a model that was made more than 20 years ago and: - If it's steel, make a black one, or a titanium one. - If it's 44mm, make a 47mm one. - If it's got sapphire, make one with plexi. - If it doesn't have a logo, add one. - If it's got white lume, give it brown lume. Tell the 'Risti it's a limited edition so you don't have to make too many of them, then repeat

With my Panerai 5218-201/A, enjoying some rare sunny weather.

I use a 1910 Ever-ready lather catcher. I have a bunch of other old-fashioned single-edge razors (for the historical value) but that's the one I use the most because it's about the closest shave I've ever had. Other than that, it's a traditional wet-shave. (Shaving soap and a nice brush to create a good, thick lather. Multiple passes.) And with the blade...

I've been holding out hope for one of these forever, either vintage or modern. Not to be a Debby Downer, but I don't think they can be replicated in a cost-effective manner. The gen piece has so many subtle details that the rep would cost more than a good APROO and still have tells for miles.

I'm with Trooper on this. The 372 is nice, but I just can get more of a 'meh' from myself out of it. It's not like Panerai has been milking their WW2 and 50's era models for the last fifteen years. My biggest beef with it is its paltry depth rating. Panerai supposedly made dive watches, right? If that's the company's thing, they should make the depth ratings 1000m just on principle. With a case that thick and that wide, it should be trivial. They can and do make more interesting models.

The main reason that it's an elusive rep is the movement. The gen's "Caliber 12" is just an ETA 2892 with a chrono module bolted on top, a Dubuis-Depraz module. (That module puts the subseconds at '3'.) Basically all automatic chrono reps use an A7750, which is far too thick for use in the relatively slim Monaco case. Until the rep makers can engineer a good copy of the chrono module for their surprisingly good A2892, no good Monacos will ever be seen.

Rep or Gen, I would keep the 217. It has more Panerai DNA. The 217 says "Panerai fan". The 'Bronzo' says "I was told this is cool". The bronze case thing has always struck me as a fad. Anonimo did it for years, then Panerai decided to try one and dug deep in their archives to find some bronze prototype they toyed with. They found one and claimed "Hey, we invented this too." Now every boutique dive watch maker has a bronze-cased version of what they make and everyone loses their brains over the patina as if oxidized copper is anything genuine as yellowed tritium or warmly-worn plexi or a radium burn or the weathered wabi of a steel case. Getting a patinated steel watch means years of wearing it in hard-man environments. Patinating a bronze watch means buying some liver of sulphur and waiting a few minutes. A friend of mine has a bronze Helson that he wears while SCUBA diving. Naturally, the case has a lot of tarnish...er...oxidization...er...patina (yeah, that's the ticket) but he mentions that everyone who sees the watch just assumes it's fake gold and incredibly dirty.

It's a Yuki Matte 5513 dial. It's one of his more accurate offerings, IMO. The 6's look "a little" bit odd, but remember, they're only about a millimeter tall in real life. The lume color and puffiness does look good in natural light, not grossly orange as in the picture. Well worth the money. There are both ETA-fitting versions and ones for gen movements.

Thanks Freddy, Those Phong cases are pretty pricey. I assume the NDT cases cost about the same?

Hi All, I'm putting together an ambitious (for me, at least) project of a franken 5513. I already have a peach gen 1520 movement from an old, beat-up Air King, gen crown, tube, crystal, bracelet, tritium hands and an Ingod dial re-lumed to match the hands. So what I need is a case that will fit a gen movement. I know the Yuki case will, but he never seems to have anything in stock ever. I have heard good and bad things about the Ingod case, but no one has mentioned whether it will fit a gen movement. Are there any other cases I should be looking at? I'm not afraid of doing a little case reshaping if there's an otherwise great case that just needs to have the CGs re-done. Any thoughts?

@matt That's the quintessential DJ, right there. Silver face, stick dial, SS/WG, Jubilee. I had a boss many years ago who wore one just like that constantly since he'd purchased it in the early 70's. He subjected it to abuse that I would balk at putting a G-Shock through and it just looked tougher for it. Marine Recon in Vietnam. He was an avid rock climber into his sixties. That watch was like a really well-dressed old man with tanned, leathery skin and a giant scar on his neck partially hidden by his collar: well-dressed and old, but you'd have to bring a lot of friends if you ever wanted to mess with him....wait, that was my boss. The watch was totally like that too, though.

Beautiful pictures. Well done. For me, the OEM Asso is the nicest. When I got my first gen PAM, I went strap crazy for a while, then eventually realized that after all the swapping, shuffling, and gouging up the lugs, the only straps I ever wore were the OEM rubber strap and the first plain old brown Micah strap I bought. So I sold off my strap collection and the only thing that noticed was my bank account, certainly not my wrist. The Micah strap eventually wore out, I replaced it with an Asso, and now that's the only strap I use along with the rubber. The strap-thing is a neat part of PAM collecting,

If it's powered by the A2892, then that's not a bad movement, either. (ST18, if I remember correctly)