Watchmeister

There is no ethical issue if you are not trying to sell the remainder as gen. And I know you are not. It is your watch. At the end of the day it is not that reps are reps or gens are gens. Watches are watches and some are built better than others. I have done many frankenwatches. With rare exception most "watch companies" are simply contract manufacturers of parts made elsewhere. Most legendary in-house movements are made of someone else's components and at best decorated in-house. Is a rep assembly line really that different? Let's see, the typical swiss watch house has a couple of true watchsmiths and a lot of "guest workers"...

Thanks guys. With a certain kick-ass historic cg on the way, gen handwind crown and a Jimmy case set up the question becomes what to build. Any suggestions? Logo is pretty obvious but as far as I know there is no truly great rep dial or caseback available. Okay, PAMaholics please weigh in.

I just received a set of handwind Marina hands. The hour and minute hands are black. I would swear the leaf second hand is white. Is this normal for a particular series? I never realized that I don't own any 44mm marina gen's that have Luminova hands so I couldn't answer the question myself.

M is right that you should get a big discount without box and papers. When I put on my paranoid hat I would say the following. I am always concerned when your watch has a serial number divisible by 10 or a 100. The bracelet is an odd touch as it is not that well known an option. Anyone who went to this amount of trouble should have an idea what model this is. You may be getting the "selling it for a friend story" though. And when you hear that be afraid. I call that plausible deniability. Couple that with the fact that Vanni was off-loading 010 dials and handsets recently and I would want to be sure there is not an Asian movement lurking under the hood. I buy watches under these conditions regularly to save significant money but the hoops you have to jump through can be ridiculous. Out of 5 PAM's I have pursued in the last year or so I ended up buying only two. In one situation the seller claimed he had a local jeweler inspect it. So I called the local jeweler and the only PAM he had inspected in the last year was a fake.

If you really are concerned about it than stick with one watch on the wrist. Everyone does what they are comfortable with. I always bring three with me on multi-day trips - one on the wrist and two in a nice leather carrier. In many years of travel I think I have actually had my luggage looked at briefly twice. And I received nice comments from both customs officers. It is all about presentation.

Have him take off the case back.

Actually back off is not that helpful as this one came in all forms of decoration. A large percentage of the first generation 7753's did not have any decoration. I don't remember on the Asian 7750's.

Stefane- Next time I will bring a camera with me to lunch.

I am flexible.

Can't exactly tell from the pictures. Here is a classic new case listing with a good side profile pic (too lazy to post specific pic): http://www.pc-80108.com/pn18805-panda-dayl...7753-p-262.html Yours looks like the older case/bezel though. There is much more of a sideways v on the bezel coming off the case on the old cases and although there are reflections I think that is what I am seeing on yours. I somehow remember that the new case 188's tend to have Luminor written on the edge of the caseback.

Make your life easy. Just focus on the bezel. The old case has a taller bezel with much better articulation of the case and a smaller spread on the case. And there is a weight difference.

Stefan's has the number 2 because it was #2 (from Honpo). Both the 188 and 196's I have owned over the years were from the first production run. Those were the cases that came with it. On the Panda's I had to swap cases. They both had fairly obvious numbers (400/1200 or whatever). A number of the asian versions had no serial numbers. Then there were a whole bunch with even 100 serial numbers. They vary all over the map so the number is unlikely to be a guidance on a watch unless it is an odd number or low number. Stefan- That watch has never looked so good. Stunning pictures.

The Fifty Fathoms is the watch a number of folks would kill for. The issue is that manufacturers don't gear up for dozen's of pieces - more like a thousand. On that basis the most likely candidate is the new one. It is part of the whole enlarged size generation at 45mm. If you have seen either the new automatic or chrono you know that the bezel is an absolute work of art. That is what makes the watch. I do hope they can conquer it. If you are inclined toward vintage there are plenty of homage pieces around so I would be surprised if a widely available high quality rep comes out on the vintage anytime soon.

Suffice it to say, the membership will know as soon as it is completely cooked. Admin has spent a good amount of time trying to come up with a solution which will avoid problems like this in the future. Needless to say it has required a fair amount of creativity. Frankly, I am still waiting to see what it is.

Bonjour! (That's all my French). Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride

It looks really good. What I remember about gold on PVD is that the finish is much more durable but if scratched the whole piece has to be redone. But at that price it would be worth it. Does anyone know f the PVD finish results in a deeper hue and closer color to a gen rose or yellow gold watch? That odd tinny rose gold look drives me nuts on the gold plated reps.

I am holding onto my first generation MBW just in case the final version with seconds at 12 somehow ends up with an inferior case. Funny how those things work. And no, I don't know anything. I have just seen this movie before.

Hey Jay- Did you save me one from last night's efforts. Hope everything was in good shape. And yeah, the watch is looking really good. With those parts and Ziggy there is not a lot of downside.

It is a beautiful strap. Wear it well. My only question is whether taking the strap swimming will attract sharks?

I vote for single-sided. I have only double-sided one PAM - a radiomir. The difference between it and the gen was just too obvious. And with the rapidly rising popularity of PAM's I now run into PAM gen's almost daily. Whether Chief's or K222's process the result is very noticeable. Sssurfer is absolutely right though that double makes a big optical difference.

Very nice. Wear it well. I hope your son knows what a lucky boy he is. He has the gen and you are rocking the rep.

FGD- Fabulous combos. Needless to say that gren croc combo is too cool for school.

Agreed. Are you going to rep a $2,000 watch or a $4,000 watch and charge $500.

Not that this helps but the new cases are overall lighter in weight. The bezel is the most obvious tell. Here are a couple of pics of an old case. The bezel on the old case is more articulated coming off the case (the "v" if you look sideways before it joins the decorated part of the bezel). Because the bezel is more articulated it actually sits "higher" of the case and as a result the spread over the case is not as broad as the newer case. Don't know if this helps. Couple of other pics - old case and a gen just to show how good they are:

D- No problem. -Kruz