Watchmeister

Think of it this way... take a standard $3,000 watch, slap on $200 coat of dlc or ceramic, call it limited edition, sell it for $10,000. And yes I love the black watches as well.

Been through a couple of them. Here is my most recent one which was transformed into the only 7753 Honpo in existence (compliments of Ziggy). As we speak it sits with another forum member who is thinking about buying it. I may regret that though. And here are some comparison pics of the Honpo versus the stock 7753 187 which is IMHO far inferior:

Never had an issue using a rep datewheel in an ETA 7750 movement. A thin piece of brass with some paint on it is a thin piece of brass with some paint on it.

Absolutely stunning watch. Wear that one well.

Great Pics. Here are a couple of additional pics of the gen to help folks' evaluation:

Yes.

All the 63's that came out of Honpo were individually numbered. The 63 was actually the first 2893 released and they started with the wrong caseback out of the box.

So much for the"Baby Eigizano". It it a lot easier to buy an Angelus alarm clock and simply add strap lugs. At least then you have the real thing.

Couldn't agree more. What is funny is that you intuitively knew this all along. You like many others (myself included) have already spent a multiple of the cost of any gen(s) we would likely buy on frankens and modded reps. Now with prices on gens so low it is tough to turn away from gen. In truth you did the right thing. It is tough to rationalize putting any substantial amount of new money into anything but gens. So try this recipe - sell some of your older frankens (which aren't getting a lot of wrist time) to fund new ones and take any new money you have and put into gens. With smart buying and patience some of those gens will likely turn in to appreciating assets.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. My conclusion based on everyone's input is the following. Since I already have one which works perfectly with the Asian movement (as you will recall the primary mission is to avoid dealing with shipping back to China) I should build the Swiss version. If I can't get my money out of the Swiss version I just sell the perfectly good Asian and keep the Swiss since the Blacksteel is worthy of a Swiss movement. If the Swiss does sell I just keep the perfectly good Asian one.

Gotta love that baby Egizano.

When that watch first came out I actually sat across the table wearing my rep with a friend who had the gen in gold. I knew he would be wearing his so I couldn't resist. The funny thing is the roulette mechanism on our $100 rep gets more rotations from a push than the gen.

You can always save up your pennies and pick-up the 2009 Pam 341. Seems like a contemporary and wearable (albeit unaffordable) homage.

The ones that are properly serviced. Seriously, for the kind of money they sell for you should seriously consider a service.

You do know that is a rep of a 177 sandwich dial historic and the dial is black. On the 036 the general feeling is that the original Josh 036 from 3-4 years ago is the best. You should be aware of the whole t versus l issues. The best reps have an L dial and there were all of five made of the gen. The funny thing is that two of them are owned by forum member. The vast majority were t dials. davidsen makes a t dial but I am told (haven't seen it) that it is the wrong shade of brown.

Gen dial should work fine. But you will probably have to play with the gen hands to get them to fit on the A7750 gmt. IMHO, the ultimate 88 dial is fabulous as well but I always try and pick-up gen dials so go for it. By the way if you take a pass I would be interested. But don't take a pass unless the person is trying to get $1,000 for it - in which case I would take a pass too. Congrats though. A great franken always starts with a gen dial and you are on your way. Just bear in mind that the gen is trading anywhere from $3500 to $4500 - none of this $5500 crap anymore.

D- Thanks for the info. Interesting that their next generation movements are 13 ligne, two-barrel, 72 hour power reserve. I will be curious to see how these are priced - in-between their 8 day versions and ETA's or similar to the 8 days. We are already seeing the 8 days with $13,000 plus list prices selling in the secondary market for $8-9k. They are also clearly doubling down on the mini-fiddy 212/253 type case. And also the predominance of ti. For better or worse Panerai is growing up. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of new watches which will be properly rep'able given the preponderance of clear casebacks. But I suspect those ETA based special editions will be out in no time. Can you believe they are redoing the 28?

I would definitely take a pass on that model. I own an older 36mm date (two tone though) and it gets no wrist time. With $7k you can do a lot better with any number of brands. As people have said, the JLC and Chopard's are trading at huge discounts and they have in-house movements. I even think you are getting close to the IWC Ingy with the big movement in it as they are plummeting. If you are inclined toward Big Bangs they are headed there as well. There are too many things good out there and I still believe waiting is the prudent thing to do irrespective of having the money today. I am a believer that we are in a deflationary environment for at least a ouple of quarters. Many folks who own the higher end watches are unfortunately looking at selling the watch to pay the mortgage. I also would be looking for limited editions of whatever you buy for better upside on the upswing.

If you do offer it you should research what they have sold for recently. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Pardon my ignorance but did you post pics anywhere. I tried your photobucket but got lost.

Thanks for the tour. I do hope they rep that Deep 2 (among others).

Ziggy- Great post and helpful as I know many folks have been wanting to swap dials and now we know - no inner bezel, no dice. I am trying to remember whether the rehaut on the first generation ti Chrono Avenger was better. We did try that once years ago and can't remember the result.

Still interested to hear thoughts. The dealer is doing the right thing and offering me a credit on my next purchase so the price of the watch comes down and on the movement my cost is a fraction of the current cost of 7750's as I bought a dozen movements years ago. I would still have to pay for installing and relume though. So this one can go for well under $1,000 or as I think of it more like 20% of current secondary market gen but not $700. NOt particularly a money maker but way to avoid the China re-ship. Does this make sense?

I got a busted movement Blacksteel v2 the other day and am debating what to do with it. Aesthetically it is great. I can either send it back or pop in an older true Swiss 17j 7750 movement and relume it. Let's just say "trying to make lemons into lemonade". Any idea what it is worth? Bear in mind, I am not soliciting bids as it would take time but rather trying to decide whether to fix it and get my money back the hard way or ship it back to China (which I hate).

Most of the dealers have various vintage PAM's of one form or another. The problem is typically that they don't look vintage and don't have vintage movements. I would politely suggest that vintage is probably not the way to go on a budget unless you are looking to buy a homage to the vintage where the basic shape and look is roughly correct but you are not pretending like the watch is vintage.