Watchmeister

I guess $3,000+ for that ebay piece. Too rich for my blood. I have watched these movements go from $350-$800-$1500-$2000+ and it is always the same four guys and they are all here (actually I haven't seen D for a while). Best of luck to everyone. More importantly, VDB - that is a beautiful watch. Wear it well.

Ubi- Great to see it finished. Wear it well.

Picked up one of the special edition Mille Miglia Chrono's from another forum member with all the trimmings (Ziggy relume, serviced movement, etc.). It is an excellent rep but I got tired of the rubber strap and decided to dress it up with an HKtan hornback I picked up. What do you think?

They should work with the Oracle strap and a gen though.

I do not condone this sort of thing but I would make the following comments. Anyone who watches South Park and is protesting any cartoon offensive to any group of people that cannot defend itself is a complete hypocrite (no I don't watch it but my kids do). Second there is always a fine line between comedy and tragedy. And finally my take away from Lanikai's objection is that we should not be poking fun at those who can't defend themselves. You can agree or disagree. However if this loop becomes any nastier it will come to an end. When it becomes personal insults please take it off-line.

Someone please tell me what blackened steel is and then we can figure out whether they are selling a watch with the same coating. One of my peeves is having a different coating. If you ever do run into someone with a gen on you look pretty damn silly. And I have run into this watch twice since it came out.

You can either walk into an AD or they do come up. A black croc came up recently for a reasonable price. May still be available. I believe it was either on TZ or Watchnet.

All I know is I just bought a conversion kit from Oracle from another member who was using it on his MBW so it should work,

No silver overlays produced around here. A good amount of time was spent playing around with brushing various silver overlays but the result was always worse than plain white.

Wow, who would have thoughtsome one could charge thousands of dollars for a watch with a bastardized movement in it. Sounds like the only way to do this is buy the movement and parts yourself (and then send to Ziggy ). The Cartel has never looked better.

I would still go with the Daylight then. You don't know how the AR is going to interact with your cyclops and glue. I suspect Chief can tell you though.

I am at risk for the same thing. My wife is threatening me with Salsa and I see no way out.

Very nice group of projects. If you are going to use a double AR crystal on any PAM (since the gen are all single-sided) I would put it on the daylight. I don't think the 63 had AR as it is a C series but someone can correct me if I am wrong.

I would separate the two decisions. If you are tired of the Omega and it won't get wrist time than sell it. If it would get wrist time I would keep it. On reps you have the risk factor of getting a watch which is beautiful but has or will develop problems and it is harder to get it fixed. Of course, the funny thing is that at the moment it seems that reps hold their value reasonably for a brief period of time.

Very nice work. Wear that one well. The funny thing about vintage rolexes is that half the gens have long since had parts replaced and so they are frankens.

I m with Kye. Pictures are good. Auction was most likely a scam.

I have had 2 with bracelets from the original run of MBW's (one with seconds at 9 and the other from the franken seconds at 12) and had no problems with the bracelets or clasps. They felt very solid and do wear like the gen (IMHO). You do need to re-brush it though if you are really trying to match it up to the gen bracelet.

The basic answer is yes. It is not so much that it is underground. The whole replica industry is fragmented (not surprising since it is illegal). So not everything is advertised and certainly not on a generally read 15,000 member forum. There certainly are solid gold reps but usually they are one-off projects by specific dealers/manufacturers who are dealing directly with their customers or distributors. I also suspect that you would find that some of the dealers here do specific one-off projects for those who want to pay for it. With solid gold reps now selling in excess of $2,000 there will not be a deep market on a general forum. On the movements, there certainly are clone movements made for specific dealers and projects. I believe Phong is the Vietnamese high end Rolex-oriented "franken" parts and watch maker but someone else can correct me if I have it wrong. And it is not that the reps are necessarily better than a super rep. They generally take an existing rep and improve on it. It is one thing to make a better Rolex or Panerai. It is another thing to actually produce an entirely different watch. Without the potential volumes of "super reps" watches like the C1 or HBB's would never be made. And no I don't want any PM's about where to get a solid gold daytona. If you have to ask you're not supposed to know.

Shows what I know. I thought the 177 had white lettering.

D- Fabulous looking watch. Wear it well.

I guess you would think of it as a second cartel. Seriously, as Chino said they are working together but different dealers.

Gen 203 says "I have money". Beautiful vintage Angelus says "I have taste".

And on the one hand, it only takes one. On the other hand you will never know what it actually trades for. The rarer and more expensive the watch the less efficient the market. But yes, they certainly have appreciated dramatically irrespective of any price declines.

And remember that the bigger they are, they harder they fall. Or the higher they start the further they can fall. Prices have already started coming down on many more expensive watches and Panerai is no exception. Fiddy's no longer clear the market in the $20's. We are now talking teens. On the extreme vintage end prices have also come down substantially. THe last 3646 that came up for auction with a range of $70,00 - $100,000 did not sell. Double Red Rolexes appear to have come down 20-30% (based on nothing other than my eyeballing results so take it for what it is worth). The ask on the 203A was as high as $140,000. But even Risti can run out of money. If I were a betting man it will go under $50k.