importr

so the dealers list the v1 as having titanium crown & pushers....are yours Ti ?

Like I said in the other thread: they've made an effort with the dial and bezel, but the hands and case components are from the old PO

Cool! Did the gen bezel fit the rep case easily?

Well to argue For gens, I've had a number of rep POs in the past, various mods, various levels of quality. Every one had at least one problem, be it inaccuracy, poor qc or just premature failure that just p*ssed me off enough to say: F*ck these reps, I want Gen. There's been times when I've worn what I thought was a dependable rep and just when it mattered, the little bastard breaks on me. Now, I can never say that about any gen that I've owned. A well frankened rep will obviously perform better, but that is not the real subject of the debate. To me, reps and modding are just a fun hobby, but I will never depend on rep in the same way as a gen.

+1 on krpsters comments. I have an eta 7750 smp chrono with gen hands (6), crown and tube, relumed dial & AR crystal. Was going to add gen bezel and dial. But I can live with the watch as is. Going too far is too easy, especially with a relatively affordable gen available

The problem is the subdial on the gen which has mins and hours combined. I don't think that will be repped in a mechanically similar way. I'd just have the quartz one for a bit of fun, even though nearly everything is wrong compared to gen

whatever the substance is, i reckon a cotton bud dipped in wd40 will easily remove it, if rodico doesn't. as for the Aquaracer Chrono - it's a great rep indeed, but when I saw it at the AD, it looked massive! It appeared to be much bigger than a PO Chrono!

I had a brief look, and although I like the idea of a Blacksteel bracelet, I know it would get scratched up in no time. And you can't polish PVD... Not having a go at Perfect Clones, since they don't actually make the watch, but looking at the video:..... This particular rep has the v3 bezel and dial.....but the crown profile looks off. Like it's too domed? I notice that the bracelet is a v3 bracelet - the link connecting to the clasp is 1 piece, gen is 3 pieces also the way that the v3 links connect is different to v2: V2 has gen style construction whilst v3 has long screws, rather like a Rolex band. I found the quality to be inferior on a v3 bracelet. Probably all minor things, but hey - you asked for our opinions. I would rather choose a v2 DLC Skyland, with v2 bracelet that gets a proper DLC treatment, bit more durable than PVD.

I could tell that it was a later case not from the case horns (well spotted, HackR) but from the colouring and printing on the slide rule. The early slide rules have a lighter, almost pearl background. The late ones are creamy. Both are wrong however, as the gen slide rule is silver, but appears white in some photos. The early rep slide rule printing is a touch thinner or finer than the late model too. Not to mention the late version being slightly off, as we know. My two v1 Navi's (i have another one lying around in need of TLC) have very slight differences in bezel milling. The franken one has slightly rounded 'teeth' whereas the other one has flatter teeth. I put this down to poor manufacturing tolerances. Early gen Navi's (Old Navitimer) had bezels with flatter teeth than the Calibre 23 & 50th Anniversary models, and the Fighter has very pronounced bezel teeth - the sharpest of the three. As for the pie pan sub dials - as far as I'm aware, all of the Navitimers up to 2005/6 had a dished centre with guilloche. Later cal.23 Navi's had flat pie pans with guilloche.....I'm not sure if Breitling have reintroduced the dished centre since? The edge between dial & subdial is very discernable here, whereas the earlier dished subdials blend into the dial. Apologies if my ramblings are rhetorical, and old news. I'm stealthily typing while supposedly working!! My old v2? Fighter rep...which had a more accurate dial than the black version: creamy dial & dished sub dials with guilloche....

Thanks Andreww For me, the worst part of the Navi rep (apart from sunken date) is the rep dial. It was terrible on the Fighters and terrible on the tricompax. What the rep dial makers need to know is that the dial should have a fine base coating of silver. To which a starburst brushing is done. Then the fine top coat of blue/black/whatever is applied, which forms the outline for the slide rule markings. The exception to this is the silver dial, which would then have black numerals printed over. This gives the dial that metallic starburst effect which is clearly evident on Pete's pics above. The same metallic sheen is present on some newer reps: blue Navi World, Abyss, bronze Legende.... but was missing on the blue Steelfish and obviously missing on the Navitimer rep - which had a flat black base coating followed by a white/silver screen print for the slide rule markings. When compared to gen, it was like night and day. Splitting hairs? Maybe, but it's the sum of such details which determine how much of a super rep a watch will be.

That black Navi is really nice too, the dial looks like perfect condition. Do you still have the watch? Is it mounted in a Fighters case?

Yay - it's twin brother ! I see yours is a later model case....did you need to trim the dial?

You could pickup a used tricompax as a donor for these parts?

Thanks. Just read it. There were hints....but if it's only in the planning stages it could be at least summer 2012 before it is released

Maybe, just maybe we'll get a decent Breitling soon. Fingers crossed. I for one am tired of seeing so many PAMs released one after the other. First, I was happy they updated them, but now it's just getting soooooooo boring!

Now that would be a revelation! Who did you hear that from? I wonder how many versions it'll take to get right.....

The dw is meant for a window @ 6, which is why the alignment isn't quite right - I had to tweak the time to straighten it for the pics. The movt fitted straight into the spacer ring, and also into the case. I even reused the stem. No issues at all. Regards to height: due to the '53 being a fraction slimmer, but the gen dial a fraction thicker, it just about finishes midway between top and bottom of slide rule machined edge. Case back is unaffected, screws back on nicely without fouling the rotor 21k hands fit straight onto 7753, no broaching needed. Whether the Asian 7753 will be this easy, who knows, but it would be interesting to find out. I'm in no doubt that a raised dw mod to a normal 7750 coupled with rep dial will work just fine.

Thanks guys You know what Red, I was itching to offload the watch asap due to the sunken date and the crappy 21k ......but now I think: It's still flawed, but it's been on a journey with me right through my whole 'collecting career'.... and you are completely right. It is a keeper.

Hi all, just thought I'd share with you, the progress of my old faithful Navitimer rep. It is around 5 yrs old now, and has just reached a point in its life that it finally deserves! It started off as a v1, bought from an internet dealer in GZ. It had a dull black baton dial. Nice slide rule, but the crystal was completely devoid of AR. Yuk. This served me well for a while but the unreliable 21k a7750 stopped working. It was left to sit in a dark watchbox for a number of months while I contemplated its future. A number of months later in 2007, our trusty source of franken material (fleabay) came up a not too shabby gen dial. Blue with arabics, calibre 23. This was duly bought, trimmed (essential for this example) and fitted. Amazingly, I got the mov't working again by performing a rudimentary 'amateur service'. Shown here with a rep croco strap... As time would have it, the dirty old low beat gave up again, and I finally sent it off to Domi for servicing in early 2011. While this was happening, I sent the to crystal to Takashi for AR treatment. Needless to say, both items came back perfect and exactly as I wanted. Unfortunately, the clear crystal now revealed the sunken date even more (if that's possible), and also the slightly outboard date window on the gen dial!! This was bugging me more than the non-AR so I knew I had to do something. A raised date wheel was not the answer. It had to be a 7753... Today that moment came about... I've ordered the correct ETA datewheel, so there will be better alignment, aswell as orientation (no, not a Breitling datewheel unfortunately) By the way, the black gen dial (top right) is NOT for sale! Cobbled together with a gen calf deployant, a broken Nikon D50, and some ad-hoc lighting......I hope you enjoy the pics EDIT: A few daylight shots

Oh I notice you have the Navi bracelet on one of the pics..... the tritium Old Navi had the old Pilot-style bracelet...just in case it matters?

Excellent job! Well done to Domi and yourself for the perseverance!

The reppers tend to only rep the high end models of the luxury brands. The lower end models tend to get a lower end rep.....if you know what i mean?

A beautiful piece, congrats. I havent seen one around for quite a while. Are these still available to buy new? does anyone know?

Why put a better dial into that POS silix PO (pictured at the top)? the bezel is wrong, the date font is off, inferior bracelet, no AR - I wouldn't even give it a 2nd thought to be honest and if it was meant to be the new 2011 model: then the case, hands, dial, HeV, crown, bezel, insert etc (in fact everything) is wrong.

I don't think you'll see either gen dial for sale anytime soon. They're simply too new to be out for spares. Unless a gen owner happened to break his crystal and damage the dial, these babies aren't going anywhere outside of the factory? Besides, the LE dial and new 2011 PO dial are different beasts. The LE has ZrO2 on it