Logan

Singapore has more watches than you can possibly imagine.. Stores selling every prestige brand you can ever imagine are everywhere, especially along Orchard road area. Its WIS heaven. Prices are very good by world wide standards but it pays to shop around. I must have seen fifty Rolex dealers, many stocking the whole range in every possible dial colour and combination. To give you an example I looked at a higher priced platinum Lange model in one store and asked how it would look with a different dial colour. The salesman promptly opened up a drawer.. and there was the same watch 15 times over, in every dial colour possible. There is a great shop on the second floor of Sim Lim Square which stocks a good range of limited editions and used high end models. I can't remember the shop's name sorry. There are no reps anywhere, they probably exist if you ask about, but be careful, Singapore is not know for its tolerance of criminal activities.

Someone here a while back recomended some kind of a compound used to mark the writing on gun parts. It comes as a stick and you rub it into the text then wipe off the excess and it sets. I can't remember who.. I think it was whoever PVD'd a 196 case if that helps.

@lovepanerai I'm pretty sure that the real one only havsthe case itself in titanium, not the bezel or crown guard. Check out some pics of the real ones and it sure looks like that to me anyway. Anyone else know for sure?? I can e-mail some pics if you need them

On the bright side its the better grade of fake movement, its swiss, or is that "swiss" but either way its not the lower grade chinese one.

Be careful with super glue, the vapours can leave a white residue near where it was used. Epoxy would be better.

It looks like its the older version Asian 7750 copy with the transfer gears to make it a 7753 hybrid Loads of the 7750 movements on ebay are the Asian copies so be careful who you buy from

Swapping the whole balance would be a disaster.. the gearing would be all wrong, if it would even fit. What you "might" be able to do its remove the older style incabloc shock protector and adjuster from the asian movement and fit it into the plate from the swiss one which has the newer novodiac shock protector (also made by Incabloc so presumable the same size??). You will need some specialist watch makers tools to do that job though. Specifically a seitz press with incabloc tips. The regulator part is really just a collar rotates around the main body of the anti shock. so should swap over, again assuming diameters are consistant. Also you would need to disconnect the Asian hair spring from the regulator and re attach the hair spring from the swiss. Even with all that the real Panerai anti shock is very slightly different again so you still wouldn't be perfect in the strict sense so it all seems like a lot of work for nothing to me Oh and does anyone know which dealers are reliably supplying watches with the swiss g series movement above?? I want to track one down but most "swiss" 6497's advertised are clearly the asian variety.

Guys the difference in finish is nothing to do with polishing. Its because TAG have used a finer grit wheel when applying the brushed finish. Imagine the difference between fine and course sand paper and you've got it. Also when you polish a watch the black stuff isn't dirt, its the metal of the watch being removed and it goes black on the cloth. You can polish the cleanest stainless item and you still get black on the cloth.

This is still my favourite Omega watch, Its just a shame the real one has been dogged with movement problems to the extent that I couldn't dare buy one at this stage. It would be great to see a decent rep, it would never be accurate given the rattrapante and sub dial layout, but it should be possible to do something pretty convincing.

But anyone who knows what a Rattrapante is will also notice the lack of the additional second hand!! Whilst its less accurate you are probably less likely to get called out with "Chronograph" and a single second hand.

When I looked the one in the pictures was definitly an Asian movement. However Watchonpo has the same watch with a real 7753 so its does exist. I guess anyone who orders needs to make sure Andrew/Josh can tell teh difference before its sent.

Canal street.. nothing good to see though.. loads the nastiest reps you've ever seen. Street vendors are all the same too..

Of course to have an entirely accurate movement you need the older style Incabloc anti shock device, not the newer Novodiac. The swiss based rep movement (needle type) has the Novodiac, the Chinese one (dagger type) has a replica (one presumes) of the old Incabloc. The genuine Panerai movements use the older Incabloc type although it is slightly different to the stock ones. Heres a link in case none of the above made any sense... http://www.tztoolshop.com/page94.html

Perhaps with one of those rotary shoe polishers and a brush?? I don't really think you can though, I have an old genuine Panerai Aligator strap that is worn right thru the shiny coating in some areas.. but its still very glossy in other parts even though the strap has been well used. You might be better selling it and buying another. Watchboys (ebay or Paneristi) do a nice matt black gator.

Levers are a good idea.. trickier to use than presto removers but much more controlled and actually less likely to send parts flying if used gently. With all hand removers you need to protect the dial, use a small sheet of plastic or paper with cut outs for the hands. I use fine telfon sheet as it is the least likely to mark a dial, even the very soft textured ones

There are acid solutions to disolve the broken stem from inside what ever it broke off in.. but you need to work out what material each part is and use the appropriate acid. It only works if both parts are differerent metals though. I'm pretty sure Ofrei's stock them. Alternatly you could try to file a tiny slot into the end of the broken stem to allow a screw driver to grip. With a very fine cut off wheel in a dremel you might just be able to cut deep enough. Use the WD40 or similar first to loosen it.

I can't aee any real difficulty in doing it. After all the people who would do so are the same people who make all the movements we currently use includung the 7750 copies and the new ETA copies. So no factories need to be built.. they already have them and are pretty efficient at copying movements. The Rolex 3xxx series is actually very simple and is designed for ease of production and servicing. The reason it hadn't happened is far more likely to be economic, even if you do have the factory it would still cost a fair bit or R and D time to get right and whilst it would sell like hot cakes here, the average replice buyer probably couldn't care less. My personal view though is that its only a matter of time until it happens. With ETA movement getting scarce that could well be the motivation.

Never under estimate our chinese friends.. Only a couple of years back people scoffed at the idea of a 7750 copy and look where we are now. I would not be at all surprised to see a proper 7753 copy appear anytime or even a 2894 within the next year or so.

@lovepanerai Quite right.. theres a good reason I'm hanging on to my 7753 based 196 from the original batch.

Actually that same japanese site also has a new run of Panerai 251's with the 7753 as well. So maybe the 7753 based 187 isn't quite the fantasy model we're thinking.

@The Zigmeister Sorry what I meant was that Panerai fit the date change pusher to the case, I'm aware that the movement comes with the function fitted. I probably wasn't clear enough in my post. @Others The 7753 Cartier is on the Japanese site of a dealer who used to be know as watchonpo. I don't know what he's called now. Heres a link: http://shopping.e-conveni.net/item_info.ht..._id=973520& Its worth asking some of the other dealers if they can get this one. I know River often gets the same watches as the japanese dealers so he might be a good place to start.

Looks like the threads just got missed and the assembler used the bad case anyway.. perils of back room hand made production I guess..

The 7753 does have one major problem.. it has no quick set date, hance the reason that Panerai fit the date change pusher on the 196 and 187 models. Other brands like Breitling ask you to cycle from 8pm to 2am and back to "rapidly" change the date. Incedently one of the dealers was showing a Cartier santos 100 chrono with a 7753 movement recently so there must be a few 7753 movements around still.

Its probably dirt or a badly cut tooth on the tilting pinion. A clean will usually help.

Yes the screw covers the crown release.