hooky

Greg Stevens sells very very nice Ti buckles. with or without 'GSD' (greg stevens design).

Hi Dan,

you should check out these pages. They will tell you all you need to know concerning size.

http://www.vintagerstraps.com/zpopup/6.0-6.5.html

http://www.vintagerstraps.com/zhomehtml/faq.html

And there are many many people who can make them in the size you want. from cheap to expensive. Peter Gunny straps, Greg straps, Ted Su, Farquer (serkan from repgeek makes very nice once and quite cheap for around 60usd, he custom made me 2 awesome straps last month...), HKTAN, etc etc.

check Ted Su his site. I bet he can make it custom made. Great leather.

I think the guy in the picture up here, had to order custom made suits and shirts, with the left sleeves around 5cm shorter. haha.

Looks like a mini submarine (mini U-boat)

Very impressive skills and creativity you have there VDB!! Many many hours of work..

very well done indeed. Great post! thanks.

Awesome collection Kye! Great taste... which one of them gets the most comments when you wear them?

Looks great. Subscribed for the 2nd batch on the hommageforum.

Thanks Okabum!

What Drulee said. It is the ST-19. legal Lemania copy. The Chinese bought the tools, machines and blueprints back in the day, when the Swiss sold it and the Russians did not need it.

maybe Sead tried to modd the pin themself, and removing too much of the metal...

In your picture, can't really tell, not sharp enough a picture. Try with daylight and then with macro settings. Making a cg pin flush and polished is quite a job to be patience and take the time with to make it absolutely perfect. Sometimes I use a small wet stone to make it straight. and use a cape cloth to polish.

I would ask for another crown guard and let them find a correct long pin. To them a cg is not much money, but I am sure after you have repaired everything and when all is perfect, the recessed pin on the back will be bugging you.

And this is what the hobby is all about, unlike what T said that we have to live with inferior quality because we cannot afford reps. That is not completely true. Many people here have genuines besides replica's.

Making a rep better, from a basic standard rep to the one we want, that journey is what it is all about and makes you really have a bond with the watch after spending so much waiting, trying, modding, etc etc, something which you will never have with a genuine...

Nothing like a good modder like The Zigmeister or Vacccum. Besides my own watch smith I only trust them to do modding work.

maybe you can also get Sead to replace the crown guard. You still need to modd the crown guard anyway with making the pin polished, flush and have the cg brushed...

Maybe ask DSN. I have heard rumours on Repgeek that he will be making 24a.

There is not so much difference in quality between a Swiss ETA 6497-2 or an Asian swanneck 6497-2. The Asian is very good, and when serviced and lubricated, according to The Zigmeister, a very very good movement that is not worse than the Swiss at all. So I would get the Asian, and have it serviced after some time that you have it. Or used the save money to get a good strap, because besides from the rubber straps, all repstraps suck and the buckles are even worse.

And I would definately get a superlumed dial. There is so much difference you can't just start to imagine. Once u are used to that, you never want to have rep lumed watch again, believe me.

Something else, the sandwich dial of the 111 and 177 are not very 1:1. Do a search using the search button. You could also think about a 177 with sausage dial. Sausage dials also give more light when lumed, because thicker lume.

And often the waterproofing is more than 3atm, but they just say 3, because they won't be held responsible if the watch will be not very waterproof. 3bar is not suited for swimming, just for raindrops. If the caseback is closed properly (check) and if all rubber o rings are slightly greased very lightly!!, and if the crown is close to the case pressed firmly by the lever, it should be at least 5-6bar. But if you want to take it for swim always have your repwatch tested by a watch smith.

thanks - really helpful. I thought Sead had had some fairly bad press recently? Been looking at these from DSN:

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e230/watchmmx/TITANIUM%20WATCHES/PAM%20177H%20UP%20GRADE%20VERSION/?action=view&current=DSCF3151.jpg

http://s40.photobucket.com/albums/e230/watchmmx/PAM%20177H/?action=view&current=DSCF2888.jpg

and i can't really tell the difference. He says there is an "ultimate 177h" for $460 in his photo bucket but I can't find one called ultimate anywhere on there. he sent me these but they are a bit low-fi. does the pin on the cg look off?

Also been looking at this one for $348 from Trusty Time:

http://www.trustywatchguy.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_49&products_id=1023

I would be really grateful if any of you pros could give me some analysis of which is best.

both claim sapphire crystals, swiss 6497 with swan neck and DSN's is superlumed dial and hands, water resistant to 3atm (really?) and has a fixed canon pinion.

Really appreciate your advice guys.

Many thanks

G

the 50/50 might be right, but it should be looked at how often seizes happen. PT had 0 seizes he told me. I only had 1 in 3 years importing around 300 watches and that 1 time was my own fault...

Master!

Those 2 guys are very lucky. And Kruzer is for sure a great guy to deal with!

great, will try that on one of my watches. Made a small scratch on it last week which has been bugging me.

Wow, a gen crystal for a pam253? The 253 was my first rep and is still my first love. Had to sell it because of the bad crystal.

I think the bracelet is good and could use an oil treatment, altough I never did that. But the deployment is still rep quality. Probably not as smooth as a gen.

And you can always sell the rep bracelet back here on the forum if it doesn't suit your taste..

Nice ones! the 026 looks great, too bad it is destro

Good question, I always used them interchangeably....

I think Panerai themselves call it 'Paris hobnails' but I have absolutely no clue where the name originates from..

Looks suberb!

Wow: amazing. Congrats!

Sure, bring it to the AD. They will ship it to Breitling for service. And say bye bye to your watch.

You can still contact him, explain your doubts shorty and ask about current lead time and shipping method. when shipped with registered and tracked mail chances for loosing parcels are less.

you can also check out the watch boys.

http://cgi.ebay.com/FOR-IWC-Alligator-straps-18mm-19mm-20mm-21mm-22mm_W0QQitemZ350302659130QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item518faa623a