PAMman

Buy a genuine Tudor dial for one of the non-chrono models and swap the shield. There are generally loads on Ebay - Watchco regularly has them and some of the weird colours sell for pence. I have 3 chrono dials, also without shields - black, blue and a white panda - if anyone wants one drop me a PM.

Those look absolutely fabulous - well done. I know how hard it is to collect all the bits. I have one franken completed, based on a gen preA1 dial / tritium hands, with gen crown & CG, Jimmy Fu case and a rep caseback together with a Soprod 6497. I also have gathered up all the bits for the next 2 - one is having a complete gen case & crystal, gen white base dial & hands, gen CG & crown, Soprod 6497-1 movement and rep caseback (only the movement and caseback are non-OEM). The other will be a PVD and have a gen B series base dial, gen crown, Jimmy Fu case & CG, DSN hands, Swiss ETA (Hamilton) 6497-2 movement and rep caseback - in other words a PAM009B. These will join my fully modded 027 and 029 and my rep 5218/201A (2nd generation FGD dail, short lug case, Palp crown, gen CG and early, thick rep 201A caseback).That should be the end of my Panerai collecting as it will give me a selection of all the best variations.

Complete with silver pinions on the hands!!! Hard to believe that this is a rep - very nice.

I need to get the camera out. I'm actually wearing my gen Moonwatch as I type this. It's on a perforated (v. small holes) leather strap and I have a MKii sitting on my desk. The MKii is waiting to get a new bracelet, which arrived on Saturday, fitted. However, of more interest to a rep forum, I have a gen Moonwatch case & 1171 bracelet here, a 321 caseback on its way from Watchco, and a 321 dial & hands, including the special pre-moon centre secs hand, coming from Ofrei. A Tissot Seastar chrono is about to lose its Lemania movement to complete the pre-moon replica / franken. The Lemania movement is the base for the Omega 321 and essentially the same thing. The whole lot may then take a trip to The Zigmeister for a movement service and assembly, possibly adding a vintage tritium relume. I'll post pics when that is completed.

The Navitimer rep is a nice watch but not 100% accurate - the case is slightly smaller than the gen and the lugs are a different shape etc. I have a 'Fighters' edition rep, with a Swiss movement and gen (non-Fighters) dial and think that it's great, especially on a gen strap. I also have a gen Aviastar, which is similar to a Navitimer, probably the same case but a different bezel / crystal. I haven't tried swapping the backs as I don't want to scratch the Aviastar and I don't see the point of estab;ishing that a gen caseback would actually fit because there is no chance of finding one anyhow. Just enjoy what you've got until someone decides to do an accurate rep - preferably of the Old Navitimer II, as a gen Swiss 7750 would drop right in there.

A really accurate Navitimer would get my vote. A true replication of the Old Navitimer II, with the A7750 movement and 'Skyland' datewheel, would be a winner for me.

Hi, whereabouts are you located? I may have a spare ETA 7750 datewheel, black numbers on white.

Yes, more than one.

Now that really is a nice watch - tell us more.

Thanks for the kind comments guys. Now I'm going to have to brush up my photography skills (and polish my watches).

Frankly I would have no sympathy for someone being ripped off by buying a rep when they thought that they were getting a stolen gen. Sounds like justice to me, except that this rep seems to be too good for people like that.

I haven't ever posted any pics of my watches on the forum because I am not a great photographer and I hadn't ever mastered the whole photohosting thing. However, I am going to give this a try. My preA1 franken has a genuine preA1 dial, genuine tritium hands, genuine crown, genuine crownguard, CdG striped Swiss ETA 6497-1, Jimmy Fu caseset, non-AR sapphire crystal and a B series caseback (a few B series watches had preA dials so this isn't totally incorrect - if DSN's casebacks were of better quality I would use one of his instead).

Sounds good - I would have to travel from Ireland unless everyone fancies a weekend of Irish hospitality via Ryanair.

I'm in UK also and haven't ever had any customs issues with normal postal packages via Royal Mail. However, EMS is a different story altogether. According to the tracking these packages have always been routed through customs and about half of them have been opened and charges levied. The charges seem to have no credible basis related to either percieved or declared value - just think of a number. For example, within a few weeks of each other I bought a secondhand ETA 6497-2 watch movement on Ebay, from Canada, and was charged

Also, don't forget that 'preA dials' appeared in small numbers of B series watches in addition to the preA series. All preA watches had T-SWISS-T dials, all A series had T SWISS T dials and then the B series started off by using up the remaining T SWISS T dials, the remaining T-SWISS-T dials (only very limited numbers of these) and then on to the L SWISS L dials. So, if you don't find a preA caseback, then a B series is not necessarily incorrect, just very rare. Check out the archived article on Paneristi: http://www.paneristi.com/archives/PreA_Panerai/Pre_A_Panerai.html

Does the old rep (the non-red-font rep) have red or orange sub secs hands and which is correct for that generation of watch?

Lovely watch. Just use a little black paint to touch up the 'stubbies' to the outside of the 5 min markers for the real gen look. BTW, I have a gen caseback if you are interested.

I am assuming that your gen 6497 will be a standard ETA movement, rather than a genuine Panerai version. If I am correct, then one of the closed back models is what you want. Personally, if this is your first Panny I would go for either a 002 or 000 for 2 reasons; a) the base (no sub-secs) is the quintessential Panerai, the true classic in other words, and, the main dial inaccuracy is the

Your PAM001 should have a solid caseback so the actual appearance of the movement shouldn't be a critical issue. Therefore your best option will be to buy a standard (undecorated) Swiss ETA 6497-1 from a watch material house, such as Cousins in UK. The genuine PAM001 used the ETA 6497-2, which is the higher frequency version of the same movement, and simply had it decorated to give a higher standard of finish, but the genuine ETA 6497-1 will give a lifetime's service if looked after properly.

Just a heads up for anyone contemplating buying a gen - seems like good value considering current prices. Not mine and no connection with the seller, but generally a good tight forum with a good bunch of guys. See link below: http://www.tz-uk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=88106

You may end up with a 'Pussydoodle' in your house.

My Toshiba laptop is about 4 years old and has had 4 new hard-drives during that time - the first one at 11 months, under warranty, and 3 more since then. Because of all the trouble I had been using a 500Gb external drive, so for the latest HD I went for a 64mb solid state and I hope that that's the end of the bother. At the same time I bought a used Macbook (white, 2GHz processor, 160Gb HD, 4Gb RAM) just to see if I could make the change. I really like the Macbook and I am getting used to it without any bother. Despite the fact that the Toshiba is now operating better than ever the Mac is getting more use and is likely to be the favourite. However, I must recommend the SSHD as an excellent concept for a portable machine which is liable to get jolted about during use.

It depends what type of gen crown on which model watch. The current gen, handwind crowns will fit Jimmy Fu's case tubes - I have one on my franken preA1 which has a JF case & tube and it fits and operates perfectly.

I bought an original Unitas (not the later ETA) 6497 which has significantly taller hour wheel & cannon pinions - the increased height is at least as great as the H1 to H3 step. This set up should give you the height that you need. Possibly you may be able to find something similar. If not drop me a PM and I may sell the complete movement if you're interested.

I don't think that the genuine movement will fit as it's based on the ETA 2892, which is thinner. The crown & stem sit lower in the rep than the gen - that's why the CG's are different, as the gen crown sits up against the base of the bezel without any space for the case to extend through between the crown and bezel. The rep case resembles the genuine GMT in this respect, due to the 2824 / 2836 movement being closer in thickness to the gen 2893 based GMT movement. You could probably mod the rep into an accurate GMT more easily. These are excellent watches - I have had 3 and sold the last (best) one fairly recently. Sadly missed I must say.