Jurgenk

Is it possible this is one of the quartz with sweeping seconds at 12? If so, it looks pretty good, numeral thickness notwithstanding

What I take away from that video is that making ETA based watches is like printing your own money once you have a printing press (CNC machine)... But designing a brand new in house movement, that's got to take at least $5M in R&D, maybe a lot more. Along with material costs, overhead and advert you've got to sell a few limited editions out for a few years to recoup that...

The 2836 GMT doesn't exist in any real PAM but the 2892/3 and 2836 take the same wheel. However, it is very unlikely thay you'll get any datewheel with the bold PAM font for these movements without bringing a gen in for servicing with a legitimate need . Your best bet is taka or the second hand market...

Dave, you don't know what youre missing. These AP ROO chronos make it hard to wear any rep that doesn't have near perfect, Swiss level fit and finish on cases and dials... Had to stop wearing my v2 avenger and v1 steelfish after picking these up... Only wearing franken and gen PAMs after the AP ROOs got into my box...

I think you'd like the breguet transatlantique chronology reps Pretty accurate except the sunken date wheel.

I found that my seconds at 12 crystal was shipped flush. As I disassembled the bezel to sand out some scuffs and dents (also present on shipping) I found that there was room to push the crystal outward further, and that combined with gentle sanding brought the crystal nearly as far out as the gen pictures. I was concerned that the screws would stick up beyond the bezel but they were more flush w the bezel after all this.

Like a lot of safari owners I have been looking for a decent replacement for the rep strap. I finally contacted HK Tan to make a strap and gave some instructions The finished strap is a little different than my specifications but the fit and finish are predictably good I had hoped for a lighter more ammo colored strap but this color is nice too I didn't have issues fitting this onto the lugs the way some have described, particularly with some other aftermarket AP straps in addition to HK Tan's. The best thing is that the plasticky fake hornback of the rep straps is gone, and so the self consciousness of wearing a too tall watch with a fantasy dial is more tolerable than wearing a silly reddish brown pleather strap. feedback appreciated

i guess that's why it was looking so good to me-- I was thinking wow i'm going to have to get me one of these black themes now i'm curious how your dial looks...

that is stunning! Simply amazing!

sweet watch even with a supposedly good DSLR (D90 with macro these days) I still need to take 10 shots for each good one...

thanks guys siesta thanks for noticing the CG. Not too much work, the CG comes nice and stock on this one. obviously i am getting bored if i am playing musical crowns, CGs, and CG screws on my PAMs just passing the time while i wait for a 7753 DW....

PAM029 (from Sead originall) + spare 2.0 mm x 0.9 stem 44 tooth crown from a T4D/PWC watch + lello DW

the AR makes the dial pop

that's better than gen possibly the best 029 i've seen ever... with a lot of good ones around here.

st4 you've picked up on the exact problem with the 7753 case that creates such a problem with the proportions of an otherwise nice rep with a great movement (aside from the tachymetre) The arc formed by the crown and chronopushers has to be continuous as seen in the gen on the left. The PWC/T4D case shown on the right has it pretty close once you put in a T48 crown at the right stem length. The 7753 case was way off in that regard and no amount of buggering with the crown or CG would fix that. Worse yet, its spacing and pushers were way off from standard dimensions and wouldn't take CGs from other cases

Got tired of waiting for some additional parts so I have proceeded to build this watch Here's how the 7753 looked as it came from GZ: Not bad, but flaws have been previously observed by me and others, extensively (wrong tachymetre, wrong depth bezel, wrong AR, wrong crown, wrong CG, wrong dial, DW-- everything but the movement) Last weekend I cased her up in a new old-school case from T4D/PWC, which accepts the 7753 with some reluctance, and requires some drilling of the movement ring to get the datepush function back online. I also added a T48 1.2mm crown, which gets very close to gen in this setting Whomever is modding the crown guards at Robert's suppliers' is doing a great job, it is really 95% there. The crownguard pin needs to be polished yet. I also like the depth, thickness, and precision of the bezel markings on Robert's watch too. This is really the best case I've seen for this project. Here are a few gens for comparison My to do list: Relume hands install gen dial install lello/leo 7753 DW polish sides of bezel, shorten bezel by 0.5 mm (it's actually too deep) polish crownguard pin single side AR on sapphire (debating, won't do unless I can get gen yellow color) Would appreciate your feedback Let me know if you want details on how to get the movement to sit right.

I like this idea You could potentially make a template from the scan of the dial fed into a die cutting printer Still would be a lot of skill in making the markings look right 3-dimensionally, you couldn't just slather the stuff on, obviously but brilliant.

tx drhulee I think that it would take an incredible amount of patience to lume the subdial at 6 numerals, but not impossible, esp. if you get a slow drying lume vehicle, and use a steady hand.

Hi All, This may be an easy question to answer. But does anyone know what (approximately) mix of lume would be needed to get the same ambient light color and luminescence color as the hands in a gen 250 daylight? Much appreciated!

So I recently obtained a 7753 version of the 250 Yes I am aware of all of its flaws (more on this later). But nothing is more satisfying than looking down and seeing a huge date (even in the wrong thin font) without obstruction from the datewindow or a shadow, and being able to advance the date with the 10 o'clock pusher. The 7753 movement is like a dream, everything about this watch is silky smooth. Straight from guangzhou it is running at COSC standards (+3 sec/day) without any finagling. Makes me want to never buy an A7750 watch again. I cannot wait to make a few important changes to this watch. By the time I am done the only thing left from this watch will be the movement... Now the flaws: The watch is actually nicely finished, and looks nearly swiss quality-- That's the frustrating thing about it, it is finished well, but it has so many flaws at the same time. Looking at the watch, you would say it looks great, and I don't want to discourage anyone from buying the 7753 version of this watch, mind you, it actually is impressive to hold and wear. Some have asked me to enumerate its flaws. I will do this and list some pros too: Pros: lugs very nicely finished, brushed surfaces sanded crisply like gen PAMs, not wavy like they just came out of the stamping machine and then sloppily brushed Bezel sides polished like the gen, front brushed/sanded nicely CG is very thick, there is potential to refinish the front to the compound curve of the gen Cons: Lugs too short to accept standard bracelets, some thicker straps may rub against the case Tachymetre is wrong for this watch, font of bezel markings is too deep and too bold, front surface of bezel is too wide, bezel markings are too far from the edge of the bezel, and the sapphire on 7753 watch is smaller in diameter than a standard issue PAM Luminor case as a result bezel is not tall enough, this combined with shallow caseback make this watch less tall than gen Crown is thick but has 36 ridges, gen has 48 Caseback is also shallow like the bezel relative to the gen watch, and has a phantom case marking without serial This could also be a pro for someone with access to laser engraving Dial has no recesses for subdials Subdial hands have lume markings shaped incorrectly, shape of subdial hands is too narrow, not bulbous enough shape of case is not as asymmetric as other luminor cases (with the CG off the watch should look like the left side of the case is too big compared to the right, but then balanced with the CG. This case looks nearly symmetric withe CG removed) Datewheel has the wrong thin font. Chrono pushers are too small. They should line up perfectly with the outside edge of the crown on the gen. Sapphire is nicely domed, but has too much blue AR and too much distortion of the dial front Dial is poorly lumed as are the hands The hour chrono accumulator numerals (12 3 6 9) are not lumed on any rep, and I have yet to find any luming professional who will tackle this on the rep dial. Luckily we have a gen dial for that purpose, see below The lettering on the dial is completely off, looks completely not gen, even the 7750 is a vast improvement. Wrong font, too tall in proportion, an instant tell. And this is just for starters... I am trying to build an uber franken 250 with this, and I have a total of four different cases to work with. In a later post I will detail the pluses and negatives of each case and its components (bezel, CG, crown, crowntube, caseback, sapphire) In addition to these case options, I have a few gen parts in hand (including this below) I just need that DW (Waiting on some help from Leo at RG, but would take a Lello 7753 4 o'clock dial too). Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The v1 dial definitely has chromed numeral outlines. Some of those comparision v1 v2 pictures were shot in low light and so the chromed outline is subtle on the v1, but it is totally absent on the v2 I agree with others, the chromed outlines are an important part of this dial. I'd rather have my v1 dial than the v2 dial in that case, especially since with sun exposure the v1 dial darkens up into a nice off white color. The only thing absent really is the contrasting dials, which should be silver-white and not complete white. In a sense the v1 dial starts of with the subdials being the correct silver white color but unfortunately covers the entire dial with silver white.

I can't believe someone paid 6,600 for this

I'd be careful. The supplier on Ebay that currently sells hands claiming to original spec aren't quite I have ordered 250 and 196 style chrono hands. From the pictures it appears that the silvered chrono seconds hand doesn't match the shape of the chrono seconds on the 250 or 196, but almost looks like an AP chrono seconds sweep. I found also that the 250 subdial, hour and minute hands have a glossy rather than black matte finish (no good). The silvered subdial, hour and minute hands look quite good but I haven't tried installing them yet. J

impressive review and gen! this is an amazing design. i agree the finishing is not as good on the rep... i wonder how many sec at 12 owners have tried to improve the finish on their reps, leveling out bezel screws, resanding, repolishing, or rebrushing uneven surfaces? With the gen as a reference and some decent skills I bet you can get pretty close by picking up where GZ left off...