Megamanila

Decided to keep it in the end...

The 18,000bph second hand movement is noticeably less smooth than that of a 21,600bph that I have on my PAM183. I actually have a spare 21,600 bph movement lying around somewhere, but not sure if I am skilled enough to be able to get it swapped out.

Watch looks excellent but that beat rate is a deal breaker. I don't know of a single recently (post 2000) produced Panerai that has a 18,000 bph movement. Pics to follow.

Pulled the trigger on a PAM 127E Fiddy from Toro last week. Just received it. While the watch itself looks excellent, the movement inside is running at 18,000 bph instead of 21,600 bph. My understanding is that the genuine runs as 21,600 bph. Is that correct? Emailed Toro, and she said told me that it was never advertised as "high beat" (all the traces of the model have been removed from site so no way of checking at this point) and is in fact a hybrid with KW dial and JF movements. A little disappointed by the whole thing, so wondering if anyone on here ordered one and got a 21,600 bph version?

I waterproofed my FC Diver recently (documented here: http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/166341-waterproofing-ro-fc-diver/#entry1324376 if anyone is interested). Spent a week diving with it with most dive exceeding 100ft in depth. No leaks to report. One thing you should to after diving / swimming in salt water is soak it in fresh water to avoid salt crystallizing / possible corrosion.

Just a quick update on the FC Diver waterproofing. Took it out to a couple of 100ft+ (30m) dives, each dive lasting around 1 hour. Happy to report that the watch held up superbly with no sign of any leakage. If you are planning to take yours for a swim, I would strongly recommend carrying out the same process as I did to make sure all gaskets are in place and well greased.

Diving this weekend...

So I got the diver from Andrew at Trusty Time on Tuesday. As per, the transaction was flawless, and the watch got to me a week after I placed the order. The watch looks superb and feels well made, keeps time well (though the rotor on the movement is very noisy, it seems the bearing is of poor quality and makes quite a racket). Going back to the original topic of this thread, one of the reasons I bought the watch was to use as a dive watch. I decided to have a look inside. I started by taking the 8 screws off the bottom of the case. These were not tightened very well, so lesson number one is if you are planning to taking this watch anywhere near water make sure to check that these are not loose. Once I got them out I took off the case back to find a greased rubber gasket on the case back. As a precaution I re-greased the gasket with some silicone grease that I normally use on my underwater camera and torch o-rings. Next I removed the 8 mini-nuts that hold the hexagonal bolts and the ceramic bezel and the front glass in place. Upon taking the ceramic bezel off I discovered that bezel was cracked at the nuts in at least 3 places, similar to what is described by olreon in his post here http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/158555-carbon-diver-on-trustytime/page-8. I believe this to be due partly due to the lack of rubber mini-gaskets on the bolts (gen has them), so when tightened the metal on ceramic pressure simply cracks the bezel. I believe this can be solved by the manufacturer by including these mini gaskets in. In terms of water resistance, these gaskets stop the water from getting into a space below the bezel and corroding the bolts. This would be quite relevant if you are going to expose the watch to salt water which is quite corrosive. Having said that since the movement is sealed by the front glass which has an additional rubber gasket, this issue with the bolts does not affect the water resistance of the watch. Taking the front glass off, on the underside I found a well placed rubber gasket (though this one was quite dry). I greased it with silicon, checked for dust and re-assembled the watch. Throughout the process I did not take out the movement, as there really was not need for it. Once done I greased the gaskets on both crowns, and dropped the watch into a glass of water to sit overnight. Next morning I check the watch and it seems to have passed this initial test. I will take it diving over the next couple of weeks to see how it holds up at depth over a period of 1-2 hours. Having taken the watch apart however I must say that something like a Rolex Submariner should make a more reliable dive companion, as it has far fewer potential failure points than this AP. As such I think I might splash out on a Sub (possibly even a gen). Hope you guys find this useful. Will keep you posted on further developments.

Try http://www.panatime.com/. Used them a number of times. Nice quality straps.

I will take it down on a couple of tech dives (1 hour plus with an average depth of 30m~4ATM) after I have a poke around with the internals to check that all gaskets are in place / well greased / re-grease where needed. Will bring a surface marker balloon with me in case it needs "bailing out"....

Great! Can't wait to get hold of the watch and test it out.

I just ordered the Forged Carbon Diver from Andrew at Trusty. While I really like the look of the watch, my intention is to use it as a dive watch. I have some previous experience of successfully waterproofing dive equipment (I do a lot of underwater photography). My questions to guys who own the watch and had a look inside: does it have all the necessary gaskets to make it leak tight in place? I've had experience with a couple of replicas that were sold as "water resistant" but lacked the very basic gaskets for the job? I will have a look at the watch once it comes in anyway and post an update here, but thought I'd have a quick check here ahead of time. Thanks!