Rob1

Looks lovely. Would it be possible to add the "missing" 3 o'clock marker be adding lume where it should be?

Is it possible to relume the pearl on a new whiteface Steelfish? The lume in the pearl is weak compared to the dial and the hands, and this will become even more pronounced if I get the dial & hands relumed.

I was given an EMS tracking number 5 days ago by a dealer, but the EMS website is till not showing any information for this package. From what I can remember it has not taken this long for tracking info to be available when I've made previous purchases. The tracking info has not appeared on my local ParcelForce website either, and normally this picks up the info from EMS very promptly (and is often much better for tracking info). Is there a problem with EMS at the moment, or is this delay in providing tracking info not unusual?

Anyone know if it's possible to buy a genuine Ferrari Scuderia leather strap for the Chronograph rep I've just bought? The strap, although nice, does not seem to be up to the same high standard as the watch. Would a Paneria/Ferrari dealer sell me just the leather strap, or would they refuse assuming that I had a rep rather than gen watch? I think that every Scuderia comes wth both the leather and the rubber strap as standard, so in theory there should be no particular reason to sell the leather strap? I'm based in the UK - anyone recommend an AD I could try?

How fussy would an AD be about serial numbers of the watch, etc? Is there a Panerai AD in London that's recommended?

Is it possible to get a genuine leather strap for this, if the rep one is poor quality?

Mine has light AR, but I agree with you: better no AR than poor AR!

Yes, that's rather lovely! I think I could happily wear the 46mm version. Based on an eta 2824, with no tricky pearls to get wrong and a fairly straightforward dial (unlike a lot of Breitlings!) this one should be easy to rep?

I'm pretty certain that my Ferrari chrono has light AR on it. I get a faint blue halo on the reflection from light bulbs if I hold the watch at the correct angle. It's only a single halo (double halo on my Steelfish) so I assume light single-coated AR.

Thanks, glad that there's no glaring error

Is that the Chopard that Angus has been previewing for a little while? I'd like to get a white dial version but was expecting a white date wheel rather than black as shown in these photos. Does the gen white dial also have a black date wheel?

I bought mine (a chrono) from Puretime - it's a fraction over 17mm thick as TTK has shown.

That's disappointing

I almost went for one at $450 recently because I very keen to add this watch to my collection. The price on Josh's version is much better than I was prepared to pay, but the lack of an HE valve is a big disappointment.

Quick comparison with the Breitling website shows that the rep does not have an HEV valve, whereas the gen does. It fairly obvious omission I think?

I see that Joshua has just added the Titanium Seawolf with ETA 2836 movement to his list of available reps. It comes with either black or grey dials, but sadly not yellow. I really like this watch and was wondering how good this rep is? A quick glance at Josh's photos shows what looks to me like an awful pearl but other than that no glaring problems. Anyone with a better eye for these things care to comment?

Yes, in my limited experience. I got one a blue face Steelfish fairly soon after it was released and the 'lumpiness' was very noticeable to me (so bad I decided to get it relumed). Last week I received a white face version and the lume is considerably better. It's not quite up to the standard of the relume job done by The Zigmeister on my blue face, but I'm happy with it. On a related note, the difference in brightness between the gen Superluminova applied by The Zigmeister and the lume which comes on the Steelfish (regarded by many as excellent) is very striking. The gen lume is waayy brighter! I'll do a comparison photo today if I have time (if not it will have to wait until next week).

Does the second hand of a quartz movement always 'tick' or can they also be made to 'sweep'? At a glance and from a distance it's easy to tell my mechanical reps from my quartz rep (Tag Golf, which is a quartz gen). If my Steelfish ticked rather than swept it would be an obvious 'tell' no matter how well replicated the case was.

Being a big Breitling fan I've bought two of the Steelfish reps, a blue face on ss bracelet and a white face on brown leather strap. I've just noticed that the tiny Breitling "B" which is engraved on the side of the bezel is absent on one of the watches. I bought the blueface first (soon after the watches hit the market) and this has the engraved "B" and had it relumed because the lume was very 'lumpy'. The whiteface arrived a couple of days ago and does not have the "B" engraved on the bezel although the quality of lume application is much better. Watches were bought from different dealers. It's not a problem for me, so this is just an observation of what I assume is a QC quirk.

Got me, for a fraction of a second Nice!

Got an email back, shipping to the UK is $110.

I've emailed him to ask for a quote to ship one of those things to me in the UK. No reply yet, buy I hope the shipping won't be too expensive.

A quick tutorial on removing and refitting a crystal would be much appreciated. How much is the tooling (a crystal press?)?

Yes I think so. The one thing which I have learned from this situation is the value of a good watchsmith for those replicas that you really care about. Without The Zigmeister's expertise I think that I would have just been frustrated by this watch is it would have continued to keep very poor time and probably would have had a relatively short life before grinding to a halt.

Just to bring this thread up to date I can now report on the outcome of discussion with the dealer. After replacing the mainspring barrel and giving the movement a full service, The Zigmeister reported that the watch was running well so I'm happy for him to return it to me and I hope that it will run well for some time to come. I bought this watch from Puretime and when The Zigmeister told about the problem I emailed Angus to explain the situation. He apologised and said that the problem was out of his control as it was not possible for him to inspect each watch he sells (in this case it was only by disassembling the movement that it became clear it was previously used). I agree with Angus, and I think this situation is part of the deal when you buy reps. Angus offered to exchange the watch if I wanted to send it back to him, but I declined this as I had already paid for The Zigmeister to relume it. I have therefore agreed with Angus that he makes a contribution to the cost of the servicing of the movement, and will use that credit to offset the cost of the next watch I buy. Overall I'm happy with the outcome, although it has opened my eyes a little it more to the world of replica watches.