porschespeedster

don't use a rep in the water, brother. use a $30 Seiko. Maybe go swimming with the Rollie in a hotel pool or something... I wouldn't take a gen Rollie or Pam (especially not a Pam...no screwdown crown!!) in the water.

oh man, lots of serious pics in this one.

1. is that vintage speedy gen???? its a killer.

2. i'm assuming that panda daytona vintage is the standard cartel version? if so i need to cop one...

hope you don't get called out.

....ahhhh, meaning he drank a coffee, then sanded with 2000 grit... :)  i was like what, you sanded with coffee grounds or something?

i actually have seen guys aging handsets by letting em swim in some coffee...

i've heard of staining dials and handsets with coffee, but wet sanding with it?

i'm not so sure i understand what you mean...

you wetted the dial, and scrubbed it with coffee grounds?

i ask because your watches, both of em, look really good! cheers to that

really dig seeing projects like this

this is going to be rad!

man, i want to do one of these 36mm builds...i actually love the size.

did you cannibalize the feet of the gen dial to fit the ETA in? thats the only thing keeping me from doing the build...

maybe i can use one of the newfangled ''clone'' AZN movements...there's no way i'm wrecking a gen dial for a $150 ETA movt...

@ ASCIwhite Niiiiice patek jumbo! does yours have a glass back or solid back?

^ Jesus, what a watch! I assume it has been extensively modded? the incabloc looks good, screw looks good, engravings are deep etc.

Get some flat SN regulator screws (and an ETA-stamped baseplate ) and it's 100%

I would suggest a solid caseback. $20/ 15UKP

i'm down for a few, if this ever happens.

yeah, why downgrade the rep to make it more gen???

this has been mentioned before, so mods feel free to delete, but i just now saw this + thought it deserved it's own topic...

Panerai evidently made some limited edition watches with low grade unfinished standard ETA movements.

Yes, the same ones in many low grade reps.

This was news to me, and further makes me believe in buying reps...

Gotta love the gen forum guys ''calling out'' owners of these timepieces as rocking fakes...when the real Rep Maker is Panerai! :)

the real question is, when can we get a 100% 1:1 Super Rep N00B Quality AAA+++ V3 rep of this model

why has no one said this...

buy the rep. the PO.

take the $1500.

travel to London?

or maybe instead, rent a limo to take you and your GF to a fancy hotel room for a night? champagne on ice?

or spend $100 on driving say an Aston Martin around a racetrack?

either way, you'll feel more like James Bond doing any of those things with a rep on your wrist than being broke + rocking a gen Omega.

I promise you, after a bottle of champagne in your room at the Ritz (or the W, the Four Seasons, whatever) your GF won't be scrutinizing the rehaut space on the rep.

Also, what I meant but didn't get across I guess in my original post is that if you've ever seen the level of finishing in a gen movement, a rep movement looks crappy in comparison.

It doesn't make a rep movement 'less cool'-- all watch movements to me are interesting. However anyone who's ever seen the back of a Patek knows a painted Asian Seagull movement looks nothing like it.

there are some exceptions to this rule: the newest Panerai reps come pretty damn close, especially with the recent changes to the swan neck regulator and baseplate finishing.

some gens have rather pedestrian movements (or the same movement!) and can therefore be repped easier.

If you know even a little bit about cars from a mechanic's perspective...

and you popped open the hood of this

and saw this

you'd be like 'wait, what?'

not knocking the Chevy 350 v8, its a great engine...but I would know instantly that it was a Chevy v8, not a Ferrari v8

Then there are those that say a Ferrari with a V8 isn't a gen Ferrari :) :)

Wher did you hear that from??????????????????????

Didn't hear it from anyone, i'm just a hobbyist who fiddles around with metals and jewelry.

Taken apart many reps and only the tips of the screws are done with paint.

Real bluing is down with chemicals and or heat, sometimes both.

Check out this at-home bluing kit for guns:

http://www.cabelas.com/solvents-lubes-bluing-blue-gun-bluing-kit.shtml

Some bluing is done by 'baking' the metal in salts over a hot burner.

Some is done solely with fire.

Check out this FAQ for a short bit about the types of bluing:

http://www.ehow.com/list_6745649_types-gun-bluing.html

If you've seen this finish a bunch you can tell if it's good or not.

Those Swiss, always getting ideas from us...

^yep it can be done with heating as well, check youtube vids of people using 'heating salts' and gas burners to do home-bluing of gun parts.

i meant it can be done with cold-bluing using many types of solutions in the same manner.

You are right, the refinishing of movements is getting better, we are a long ways away from the PANERAIPANERAIPANERAI stickers of just a few years ago :0

Funny if you look at some of the rarest 'Pre-A' PAMs used undecorated movements you can buy from Otto Frei for a couple hundred bucks ;/

hate to break it to you guys, but pretty much every watch with a display back and 'blued' screws looks like (insert your favorite word that refers to excrement.)

Any real watch with blued screws---the process is done with acid and its a very deep dark even color.

Reps use paint, it's very light, and looks bad.

Stickers with cote de geneve 'waves' or whatever look nothing like the real highly finished movements.

now...of course no one's going to see it unless you let em etc so its not like you'll be 'called out' if you should even care (you shouldnt)

but all this talk of 1:1 reps and 100 PERCENT INTERCHANGEABLE stuff lately reminds me of the old AAAA+++ vs AAA stuff

Interesting discussion, and one i've never heard of on an internet forum, only in person with others.

Of course grey market watches exist and are sold as gens, they are gens using gen parts.

People doing this are sinking hundreds of thousands of $$$$ into mainly the Hublots, APs etc. and selling them on the grey market as real/gen because they are.

This is why so many 'super reps' blah blah blah of the Ice Bang Blu Bang AP Royal Super Mega Offwhore etc whatever exist...

the toolings/moulds for the cases/dials etc are re-used in many instances after the sources of the actual gen movements etc dry up.

that upper echelon of new gen watches (10k up to 100k or whatever) is full of a lot of markup.

people with money are exploiting that markup and making DIY versions of these gens for 5k or so.

not even really news.

I love my rep H Steve bag, great for a laptop and very nondescript.

I know the stitching is off as well as the stamping and the shoulderstrap clasp (have a couple real H items and have seen tons in the flesh)...but im a guy, who's gonna call me out?

If a 1:1 Steve existed, I would buy it in a second.

@ASCIWhite I think #2 is rep, #3 is gen. I'm in the market for a new one, what vendor did you use?

Before the Secret Service chrono he wore a TAGHeuer 1500 quartz diver on brown leather strap daily for maybe 15 years

He was given the watch by members of his Secret Service detail. His (unlike the ones for sale) has the Secret Service logo on the dial.

In the states (as opposed to the EU) our politicians try and avoid flashy stuff...both Clinton and GW Bush wore Casio G-Shock watches and Timex dress watches.

wow, what's the origin of that Glashutte?