Watchmeister

Very nice find. And if I am guessing correctly very nice Ubi.

You made the right decision. 219 is a very nice piece.

Not yet. I have confirmed CNC person has received it though. I am hopeful I will get some idea from him at some point next week or early the following. Good CNC folks work with you when they are ready to work with you.

Fabulous. Wear those watches well.

Wow! Now that is a successful project.

Hey Fred- Yaba daba doo! We do have to change your name back. FGD- Needless to say - wonderful offering.

Congrats. Wear that one well. I have always preferred it to the Big Pilot. Love seeing that beautiful movement and at 42 mm you can actually wear it under a dress shirt.

Thanks. There is an even easier way. Just go to Paneristi and they have price lists going back early enough that you can price out c series. At that point hand winds were well under $3k and automatics tended to be $3-4k (special editions excepted). Heck the 63(c series) had a list of $2900. Where were we? But the other side of that is that gold was $200 back then too. Should have bought the gold.

No need at this point. The CNC person will have the case this week. I know what his prototype cost is and am waiting to hear what the per unit cost is after he has taken a good look at it. Perfect. Just remember I made sure your existing case back fit perfectly so just specify the same threading and everything will be fine. By the way I did find the member who had all the art work professionally done for a hand wind and automatic case back a couple of years back. If you still need it give me a shout via PM and I will let him know.

You got me curious and so I looked up the list prices in some of the early years. You aren't far off.

COngratulations, looks great. Wear it well.

Hey, great minds think alike. I knew I would never spend $20k for any watch and so this was the only route. The downside is it takes years. The upside is it takes years so that any one part is affordable. That way the whole thing becomes a "sunk cost".

No excuse! It is s great rep. I am the only one dumb enough to dump this kind of money into a non-gen.

Hmmm, let's see Nautilus, AP ROO, Fiddy, 28A, etc. Definitely busting through your top rung. But it is less than a million, unless you include my Patek Sky Moon. I think that was a couple million by itself. Not one of my better reps - the battery for the back side died.

I would simply report him and move on. I can tell you from my own experience that there is no retribution on ebay. It is the ultimate buyer beware. But then again you went with a guy with 2 feedback and at least you never paid him.

Finally put it on the strap I bought so long ago that although it is not historically correct I love it. Hope you do too. And the obligatory wrist shot:

I have come back to the pics several times and had even been fortunate enough to see the work in progress. But I gotta say this one came out beautifully. Ubi - congrats.

Thanks. So am I. I am happy with the prototype and I am hopeful we have a good CNC shop but make no mistake this is my first CNC project. Obviously, the front end has gone well as Rob has been working with me and a good forum friend is helping me with the CNC but now I am stepping into uncharted waters on my end. I am still waiting to see what goes wrong. We will find out in the next few weeks whether I am a genius and we have a number of happy members or I am an idiot with one very expensive prototype.

This one is going out to the CNC shop today so I will report back what the timing looks like when I hear back.

I don't worry about it. Dented or dinged bezels are the price we pay for larger watches. I don't think of them as dings or patina but just a fact of life with larger watches. And I find the dings are always in the same place on the bezel based on how I wear them. And by the way the gens "ding" just as easily as the better reps. The funny thing is that I tend to be more careful with the reps.

Great project. FGD's dials are fabulous and so is Ziggy's PVD. Wear it well. Some day I hope to do this one as well.

The project looks great. Wear it well.

At this point and based on feedback from those members who took one for the team I will wait for the ultimate version. Life is too short to worry about the "world's greatest diving watch" falling apart in the shower. Now I am concerned the more expensive version will try and cheap out on the crystal as well given its apparent thoickness. I do hope everyone returns their watches or at least complains on this version so the dealers will understand that you can't sell a fatally flawed replica of a dive watch. Not implying Dealers knew as this sandwich type crystal has been around for a long time on the Panerai cyclops crystals but it now looks like the manufacturer has pushed it too far.

Well, it ain't luck. But it ain't skill either. It's Ziggy.