Watchmeister

If you are asking the question whether the crystal should distort the numbers - the answer is yes.

If truly unmodded (and frankly without your dial) that is a fairly outrageous price. So the one you are being offered does not have a polished bezel, proper date font or magnification. If this is the case than it is ridiculous. I don't think you will get it as cheap as CC did but it certainly shouldn't be more than $400-450 including a rarity premium. And on the 25, I don't think I would put a gen dial in a case which is entirely the wrong material.

Blacksteel with relume dial, hands and bezel pearl and repainted chrono hands from Ziggy:

Congratulations on a beautiful watch. Fiddy is one of my favorites and the case and movement make that watch.

There are a number of ways to do this. First, is to actually repaint the hands in a closer color. As a for instance, the blued hands on older Mullers can be much better colored with a very specific metal paint (I believe it is an automotive color - and no I don't remember what it is). Here is an example: The hands above are a dead ringer for the gen hands but painted not blued. Second, bluing hands is not a particularly difficult process if you know what you are doing (I don't of course). The color of the blue will be dependant on the heat you use. You literally can pull out a small blow torch and play around with the hands (assuming they are steel). The level of heat and length of time will dictate what color you end up with. I will give you a hint though - if you end up with grey rather than blue you overdid it. By the way I have definitely detected a trend among manufacturers to swap blued hand for enameled ones (Muller on some of its lower end watches, PAM on some of their chrono's, etc.).

Buy it immediately. The bezel action is every bit as good as the gen. A must have if you have the gen dial and it can ultimately be the best of the frankens that will come out of those dials.

I whacked mine against a wall and took a chunk out of the wall and whacked it against a painted metal door frame. Had to scrape the paint off but no scratches. And yes it is not scratch proof. But then again nothing is. It has held up better than sapphire crystals I have had though. IMHO, it is an excellent finish.

Happy Anniversary! And many more.....

I wondered who bought them all. I thought about them all as well and here is what I concluded - PAM 87 - Horrible crown on rep. Even if you can shorten the actual stem of the crown the CG lever is then too short. Bezel is mediocre. Also difficult to get a gen crystal (ultimate 199 crystal doesn't fit) and date font is not great PAM 25 - No ti sub rep currently made. Are you really going to put a gen dial in a SS case PAM24 - You still can buy sub without hashmarks on bezel (will need to be polished though). I can't remember whether it comes with the ultimate crystal but if it doesn't ask dealer for a spare crystal. I also seem to remember that there may have been an Ultimate version coming (or it already has) which would theoretically have better date font and magnification. All of Dluddy's mods are exactly right. I have turned down multiple offers on all these dials except the 24A. IMHO, that is the only one to build. And want to know how I know: I've tried most of them. Here is 24A with rep dial versus another gen sub. This one has the rep dial so yours can be better. In fact mine has gone to a friend who had a gen dial for exactly that reason.

Great prices. But remember they are quartz.

Fabulous tutorial. That bezel looks significantly better. The other issue on the DSSD v2 is the lack of height that the crystal sits above the bezel insert. I was curious as to whether you ever thought about removing the bezel insert, taking off some interior metal to lower the insert so that the crystal "sits" higher. I know it has been done on some earlier MBW SD's way back when.

Steph- Congrats on a beautiful watch. I miss RepAustria as well. The one fond rememberance of his work in my collection is the gen wood insert he made for my 2006 Cousteau. He was always a very generous person when he was around.

I am sure it has been covered dozens of times before but as long as it has been raised in the topic - what are some of the alternative/better photobucket sites?

I always enjoy a nice pictorial.

Great story and welcome.

Because of the rarity of sales and what has happened in the last year economically all you can do is guess. But if the peak was $188k I would guess it has declined to $100-120k. That guess is based on 3646's which peaked somewhere north of $100k and the last one at auction not clearing the $80k reserve. The 203's (contemporary) which peaked at $150k are now readily available at right around $100k. On a smaller scale, Fiddy's which regularly cleared in the $26k now sell at $17k and 217's which peaked at around $22k have now sold as low as $14k. In fact three Fiddy's in the last 3 weeks have sold between $17 and $17.5. As the economy has gotten worse and people are forced to sell we now see a lot more "best offer" situations on rare watches on ebay and watches coming up at auction which you can get the results for. In truth, prices have never been more transparent for most watches.

Take a quick picture if you have a moment. I too am curious as to whether it was the numbers or dot version. Now, can we get your boss to join the forum? He could have saved himself a lot of money.

I passed up on it at the time but now regret it.

Here is the link: http://www.rwg.cc/members/Genuine-Audemar-...amp;hl=concepta I was dying to buy it but as I said couldn't find the case and dial to put it in. Pity, just finishing a dial swap on my franken ROO and it would have been quite the pair. How often do you find a rep which is larger than the gen.

I will go with 23GMT. The GMT is one of my favorite complications (albeit not very complicated) and I love the oversized explorer bezel:

Welcome! Great review and excellent pics. Has me thinking about this one. Keep up the good work. Reviews are the lifeblood of a forum and an excellent review with revealing pics is always very much appreciated.

P- Stunning collection. Wear them well. Can't wait to see the 1655.

I love that watch as well. It is very frustrating as Concepta was offering a gen movement recently for that watch but with the wrong size case and dial it was a no go.

To the best of my knowledge, no more than one or two people on the forums own them. The last person I am aware of is Chronus who hasn't been around in some time.

VDB- Those are absolutely stunning pieces. Truly one-of-a-kind pieces that any collector would be proud to own. ATB- Kruz