Archetypal

The resurrection of an old daily, with new Top Gun shoes. I've missed her.

Obligatory wrist shot please! Congratulations.

It is exactly this feeling why living in Shanghai and having several dealers at the end of a phone (with top end pieces mind) is a pleasure and a curse all at once. Im learning the art of patience in our hobby - the expensive way! Plus there are plenty of 24 hour drinking holes to drown my patience in...

Amazing craft driven project this. Patience, as always, is key...

Wearing my beach watch wishing I was back on the beach.

Amen.

From the historic to the modern.

Are you a tennis coach as well then? Getting the best of all the worlds.

Exactly TeeJay, but if non voucher boy knew where to get the vouchers and did his research, he would definitely be using the vouchers, and except the fact that the portions maybe slightly smaller. He will soon realise as the voucher boys already know - you can still get your fill - and then some!

One of the best H-factory jobs you have there! I loved my S/S 390 so much I got the DLC version too. DLC for day, S/S for night! Im amazed at the excuses I make for myself in order to procure further timepieces.

Torobravo has at least one 243 if you are quick.

Some gen owners (the ones actually interested in horology) carry a mix of gen and rep as it doesn't make financial sense to own 20 gens, especially to the richest folk, who can be rather tight with their dough. Those that have the passion for horology cannot be satisfied by 1 or two watches, gen or rep. If certain individuals are "full of ugly comments" about the rep industry and the community, they most likely no nothing about it at all. The fact is, if they did their research like the rest of us and knew something about the industry they would own a mix of gen and rep like a lot of our community! The type of individual to write such comments are probably so far up themselves, they have a perception that people are cheating 'status'. Status they feel they have worked so hard to earn. What they dont realise is the majority of our community couldn't give a rats ass about status, we just love timepieces, for whatever reason, and we all work hard in our respective fields. As an architect myself - the design, detail and engineering is what makes me tick. No pun intended. Finally the watch on your wrist is about yourself. I know people think they can assume a persons status by the watch as a symbol but IMO its impossible to judge someone by their timepiece and if you think you can then more fool you! Are you: A. The watch wearer as status symbol. B. The watch wearer as a student in horology. Just my penny.

I promise some more of that crystal porn next time, especially for you Whitey. Its only fair to repay you for all of those babes.

Speaking of faithful beaters...

Plus theres the classic seconds at 9 issue...

A couple more gen wristies for those sitting on the fence. Taken at the same time I might add. Talk about two-tone.

I too was excited about this. Agree - Not overly convinced with this version, as well as the chrono pushers and sleeves, crown and display case back, whats up with the bezel assembly? Could just be the photos, I guess Has / will anyone ever make a good OTB, large production run Panerai 42mm chrono 1-1 rep?!? Im with you Storm, love the idea. I've had the gen 369 on my wrist in my AD...and since then, im on a quest. A couple more comparison shots...

Welcome... Im a fellow brit from South London, now an expat living in the land where most of these reps are born! P.R.C baby!

Cheers guys - Nice flicks hike....looks like chocolate.

Just posted a colour discussion/mini review on this one...I'd be interested for you guys to have a read.

Chaps - I've attempted a mini review on this focussing on the colour issue. I could be way off the mark, or colour blind, and I welcome criticism - but this is an interesting issue or rumour that seems to of destroyed the reputation of this rep, which I feel a shame, as in person its a real beauty, military and modern paying homage to the vintage, with great wrist presence. I have the V.1.1 rep, and overall, in most lighting conditions the colour and mix is brown (Brown being a colour produced by mixing red, yellow, and black) The gen must have a similar mix in order to achieve the as advertised 'brown' composite finish. The rep has a beautiful finish in reality, in some ways like a two tone paint job. I've caught glimpses of it looking grey, charcoal, brownish, reddish or purplish. Quite often you can see several of these mixing hues at once. Thats the nature of this finish and I can understand that is not for everyone. As a side note, the model seems to be removed from Panerai's main web site - composite case cracking issues? - I may not of been looking in the right place, but I had a good dig. As a community we are used to pencil grey, charcoal or black PVD/DLC - This brown finish and colour mix is a little different from those. Ok - so potentially the rep has more red in the colour mix than genuine, but I personally think they have done a reasonable job. There seem to be few gen photographs on the web, and the gen stock photos don't tell the truth IMO - This type of product photography is always heavily photoshopped, and more obviously photographs are one lighting condition specific / static, whereas the eyes ability to pick up light is dynamic. To move this on, see photo below of a gen Clearly the lighting in the image above is picking out the red / purple hues in the colour mix. Now check the image below of gen stock (Notice the rear case edge has a red hue) but agreed the overall look is a lot more grey/brown. Also I found a you tube video from SIHH 2011 - This is not the best quality and is not conclusive, but you can see some evidence of this 'two tone' effect: The V1.1 addresses the major construction issues of the V1 (Purple crown, bezel thickness, roller ball, date font, central rotor screw etc) - all in all the V1.1 stacks up as a decent rep, even though the movement engraving (or lack thereof) is way off the mark and arguably the dial tone isn't perfect. I've noticed that Kuvarsit are offering a V2 - The jury is still out on whether this a different model to Puretimes V1.1. Judging by the other upgrades listed with their V2, I would say its the same watch. They've photographed it in detail, worth a look. http://www.kuvarsitw...roduct_id=31823 I've also been snapping some Iphone photos in different lighting conditions to try and capture some of the different hues, to help people feel closer to living with this rather uniquely finished piece. Theres a saying in the UK about a popular vegetable spread that springs to mind - This finish is like marmite! You either love it or you hate it. You decide. The Purple Comparison.

IWC - IW500114. Plenty to moan about in the detail accuracy department - Either way a nice piece / dress watch in its own right.

In complete agreement, same thing happened to me. Great in picks, visually heavy in reality. It feels way more 'bling' than the previous 42m PO - which construction and overall depth allows the watch to sit reasonably flat and more inconspicuous on the wrist.

Understanding those two models don't have seconds....and the question was best models with seconds. Couldn't resist mentioning those two power house belter reps. Apologies!

If we could talk limited run special ed base luminor models for a second...the 390 and V2 360 reps should get a mention, my Josh purchased 390 got the nod from an independant dealer, until i explained the situation. Epic out of the box (or bubble wrap) replication.