lagae

The hands are simply pressed onto the pins. If they're not lined up properly it's a pretty simple to fix. Any watch repair person who does more than change batteries and who owns a hand pulling tool should have no problems with this. Hopefully it just a matter of a sloppy installation. If the GMT hand is always off by the same amount then resetting the hands should take care of it. However, the early 2893 based PAM029s had problems with the GMT hand dragging on the dial. If you have that problem then you should see differing errors as time goes by.

Agreed - The SNR should be right up against the regulating arm if it were to do anything. This one doesn't. I also suspect that the "screw" on the other side doesn't do anything either. You're supposed to be able to turn that screw to accurately move the regulation arm, and in every replcia I've seen there's no real screw there - it's just a non moving pin.

I suspect that Panerai would sell you just that wire lug. Even people with the gens loose those pieces. Call up an AD and find out how much they are. I suspect you'll pay a bit more than $20 for that piece... I've actually been rather lucky with these watches. I do need to check over a watch when it arrives and make sure everything is tight, but I do that with every watch I receive in the mail. I also like to put loctite on the various screws and pins - any screw can work it's way loose, rep or gen. I've found that the high end replicas are similar quality to other watches I could buy, and with a bit of care they've all served me well.

I prefer the plain Swiss ETA 6497-1 movements with "wrong" bridges and no swan's neck regulator. Given The Zigmeister's reviews of the Chinese 6497 movement I would certainly consider them if I were just starting to build my collection now. They seem like very good movements, beat faster (21,6000 bph vs. 18,000 pbh) and look almost identical to the Panerai movements. Many people wouldn't even notice that the SNR isn't there (and many people also incorrectly think swan's neck is the shape of the bridge pieces.) The modified Swiss ETA 6497 w/cosmetic SNR is actually my least favorite of the three. I really don't care that much what the back of the watch looks like, and even that movement isn't going to fool a Paneristi (although it is the closest of the three) And the SNR is just there for looks and gets in the way of regulating the watch. You end up with slightly less travel for the regulation arm. You can still regulate the watch, but it may be a bit more difficult to do so. I've been collecting these watches for over a year. At that time we only had the one movement, although there were plenty of versions of the foil engraving applied to it. I'm happy that I have a good movement in the watches and that it should last and be servicable. I don't need to spend more money to get a version that still isn't going to fool anyone, nor would I sell the watches to replace them with the less expensive Chinese versions.

The PAM212 replicas are nice because you can pick from three reasonably good versions. First realize that the authentic 212 has a flyback chronograph movement, and none of the replicas have that. It's also an automatic, so you might think an automatic is the better choice. The Swiss automatic is probably the best movement, but it's certainly the most expensive as well and will cost quite a bit to service every few years. The Asian 7750 has caused problems for some people, but others are every happy with them and don't have any problems. I think it's just the luck of the draw or faith or whatever. Either you're lucky with it or you're not. Personally, I prefer the manual movement. Fewer reported problems with that movement, very interesting to view and I actually like winding a watch every morning. There's no one obvious correct choice here. None will come close to fooling a Paneristi. It's what do you like the best and how much you're willing to spend.

Make sure that the two screws holding the crown guard in place are screwed in tightly. If that doesn't make it feel better, remove the crown guard and carefully grind a little off the crown guard where it touches the watch. This will move the lever closer to the crown and give it a tighter fit. Go slow and don't take off too much. I now use a dremel tool to do this, but it's probably safer to simply put a piece of sandpaper on the edge of your table and run the feet over that a few times.

So who wears any watch diving these days? It's probably been over ten years since I've worn a watch diving - every place I go now has dive computers. If you want to wear any watch diving, make sure it's tested first. It's not that difficult to produce a watch that will withstand normal diving depths, but if it's not tested you'll never know if your watch is good or if someone forgot to install the O-rings or something. The only leakers I own are two authentic watches, including a dive watch. No surprise really as they're about 10 years old and have never had the seals replaced. Sorta neat to see all those bubbles escaping when they're in the pressure tester.

Or you can get one with a solid titanium back to hide the movement. That should get you a few additional models.

I'm sure you'll start to see a bunch of fantastic posts about Davidsen's PVD watches in the next week. He just posted that the first batch has gone out and I'm sure there will be a number of very happy people. He's asked for our input on what we wanted, showed us various designs and work in process, certainly performed some QA on the watches (to the extent that he refused to ship out a few that had tiny scratches on the cases or other minor problems) and is selling all of his items for very fair prices. I'm sure there will be a number of very happy people next week...

It's mostly due to the fact that it's on a manual wind movement, not on an automatic. With an automatic, you perhaps unscrew it 10-20 times a years. Since they're serviced every three to five years, you use it maybe 100 times before it can get replaced. But with a manual wind movement, you unscrew it every day. It would need to last 1-2000 uses between a normal servicings. It's possible, but you need to be very, very careful. Never force it. Push in on the crown and turn it counter clockwise until you feel the threads engage and then with one motion and still pushing in turn it clockwise a few turns. If you ever feel it jam, back up and start again. Once you damage the threads the only thing you can do is replace the tube and maybe the crown. And that's not really a big deal, and watch maker should be able to replace the tube for a few dollars. I think it's actually a bit better that the tube will give before the crown, as it will be much harder to find the correct crown if those threads strip. So far I've been lucky and haven't ruined any of my manual wind watches with screw down crowns, but I personally don't like them. When mine fail, I plan on simply removing that feature all together. Plenty of watches can be water resistant to 3-5 atm without a screw down crown, and I really hate worrying about it every time I wind the watch.

It works fine - just do a neat job making the 1 mm notch on each side. If you put a Radiomir styled 26/22 strap on you can still use your buckle, but you can also consider using one of the Fiddy styled 26/26 straps along with one of the larger 26 mm buckles. It looks nice. I've also seen authentic straps that are noticed like that, so you're not the first one to do that.

They're out there. I've seen good dials (correct sized numbers and no flag on the 12) on both the Chinese 6497 and the ETA 6497 versions. Have yet to see the correct, thick crown guard and AR color however. Taking the dial from one of the 112H replicas and putting it into a replica "PVD" case gives you this:

You did wind it, right?

Is your friend able to wind a manual watch? If so, one of the manual wind 6497 based ones might work as is. The 009, 112, 114 and 210 are "base" models that don't have a second sub dial. I have seen a good sandwich dial in a PAM112H (no flag on the '1' and correct sized numbers), and that dial should be available with both the ETA 6497 as well as the Chinese 6497 movements. The 44 mm Luminors might be a little easier to wind as you only need to pull out the lever before winding it, although the crown guard may get in the way. The Radiomirs have screw down crowns, so that might be a bit difficult. However, I'm sure you could have it modified to do away with the screw down feature. I have known people who weren't disabled who couldn't keep an automatic watch wound, so an automatic may not work for your friend. I'm sure you could find a watch maker to install a quartz movement into a PAM replica, especially a two hand base model. It's true that the 6497 is a huge movement, but it's much easier to put a small movement into a large case than trying to put a huge movement into a tiny case ;-) Some sort of spacer ring would need to be made, but that shouldn't be that difficult. I suspect it might be a little difficult to find hands you like that are long enough to fit the quartz movement, but I'm sure something could be found. Besides Panerai, you might also consider some watches from Zeno or Glycine. Both companies make a number of larger watches - up to 52 mm for Glycine and 55 mm for Zeno if I'm not mistaken. They make the PAMs look rather tiny. And not only are the diameters of the cases large, but the dials themselves are very large. A huge watch with a bezel surrounding a tiny dial is no easier to read than a small dial in a small case. I believe than Zeno makes a number of watches that use a quartz movement, although I don't think I've ever seen any of their simplier designs with a quartz movement - contact the company and perhaps they can suggest something. I have seen one Glycine Incursore with a quartz movement that would be very easy to see, the Glycine Incursore Service (about the price of a PAM replica) Both companies make a large number of large, very easy to read manual wind watches.

I think it's great that a dealer would try to find better versions. If Eddie's previous Arktos had the incorrect silver hands and a polished case, then those would be obvious problems to have corrected. I'm glad he's going back and having that corrected on his watches. Of course, other dealers may already have versions with the correct black hands and brushed cases. Those have been available for a couple of months. Other dealers may never have seen those problems before. There are many good dealers on this board and we have a huge selection of great watches here. However, I will tend to read someone's ad to learn about what they're selling, not to to learn what anyone else has or doesn't have. I figure the seller knows his product the best but may not always know everything that the other guy has.

45 mm Omega Planet Ocean should look good. 47 mm PAM127 Fiddy of course and the 187 when it becomes available. Cartier Santos 100 might work. There's also a replica of a 52 mm Glycine Airman 7 and a number of larger Breitlings of varying qualities.

Because everyone wants to be seen wearing probably the most common watch on the planet I love the idea. I wasn't really interested in watches when my son was born, but I'm certainly making up for lost time now. In my case I know he's going to get a number of 6497/8 based watches. He currently loves pulling my arm to see what's on it and then putting the watch to his ear to hear it tick. My first suggestion is to get something that you will actually wear, not something that's going to sit in a watch box or safe deposit box for 18 years. If you can wear the same watch every day for 18 years so much the better, but just wear it enough so he associates the watch with you, not just as some investment to pawn. That would be the only reason I might not pick a Glycine Airman 7 - I rarely need to keep track of four seperate time zones. Perhaps some of the other Airman models might be a better choice. Any I do think that a Glycine is a fantastic watch company. They've been around for years and have produced a number of watches that are unique to them. There are also many vintage Glycines available that are very reasonably priced. I'll admit that I first discovered then because they have a nice collection of larger watches, and I'm very happy that I did. BTW, have a talk with your wife about wanting to run out and purchase a watch the minute your child is born. After you return from the ER, let us know what she thinks of that idea.

You're right, many dealers drop ship the watches without ever seeing them. You'll also see many people using the exact same photos which do probably originate from the manufacturer. But not all dealers do that. Some will actually have the watches in hand, take their own pictures, inspect them and even put then in a Bergeon pressure tester.

I'd be happy to bank your money on that. While I will sometimes adjust the lever or crown guard to give the lever a better fit, I'm not about to bother putting on a new crown. That's exactly how the watch came, water tight crown and all. And yes, an ETA 6497-1 is an old, old movement, one that's used in many very nice authentic watches. For my personal watches, that's the movement I prefer. I don't need the Panerai styled bridges and a cosmetic swan's neck regulator, nor do I need to save a few dollars by getting the Chinese copy 6497. All three movements are actually very good and we should be happy that there are so many choices available. BTW, the "thicker crowned" PAMs most likely came from a different manufacturer than most of the other 44 mm 6497 based Luminor PAMs. On every other PAM the backs were interchangable. These have a slightly different case and I can't put a solid back on it - the size is slightly different. I also can't move the guards around as the screw size and spacing is different.