Watchmeister

Kai- Very nicely done. Then again, having seen some of your collection I would expect no less.

Pho- Just go pick up a cat-o-nine-tails and start your self-flagellation. And if you are really lucky you too can start receiving personal threats. What did happen to Victoria? Is she on another holiday, surfing around the other forums or simply moved on to things other than watches? Someone will know as I know there are some folks who developed nice friendships with her.

Not a lot of "Goodwill" going on here. And the other question is if it goes for a lot of money and the buyer finds out it is a fake is he really going to sue Goodwill?

Freddy- Thanks for posting. IMHO, it is one of those watches which is a classic example of "Why did they build it? - To prove that they could" I think it looks like I would expect a Lange to look - Teutonic Minimalism on the front with all the decoration on the inside. In truth, the requirement of a winding key completely ruins it for me. It is nothing more than a desk clock on a strap. Are you going to travel with that thing or base your travel plans on when the movement needs to be re-wound. Then again if you can afford the watch you can afford the watch butler to follow you around carrying the key prepared to rewind on a moment's notice.

I don't think there would be many takers due to the cost. In terms of getting the cases made up that would actually be not that difficult. Any gold caster can make a mold of the case and cast the case. The difficulty comes in the crown and the non-gold portion of the mechanism, the CG and potentially the threaded strap holders as I am not sure they can be cast to that level of accuracy. Finally, I am under the impression (but I don't own one so I don't know) that his dials are good but not that good. If you are going to sick $5,000 into a Franken it better be 99.999%. It would be cool as hell to have a solid gold Luminor though.

Looks great - very Darth Vaderish. I do hope they rep it.

We do have awesome reps but not of an Angelus 8 day movement.

I say rep but can't say for sure. Certainly not one I would buy though. Funny how the hour hand covers the first A. Crown appears further than the norm of the case, Officine Panerai looks too big on movement, etc. Can anyone see whether that dagger is a dagger? Could be a first gen CDG swiss movement.

R- Always the gentleman. Virg - Take him up on it.

No he is not a scammer. His descriptions are accurate - he is just a profiteer. Or a guy that may be accumulating inventory for the next few months.

The seller is legit and I have had good transactions with him in the past. But his price isn't. He seems to have taken the tact of marking his items way up and waiting until he gets close to his price. Don't know if I have the heart to tell him that the jacket he is asking $1450 for is the same one I bought for less than $150 a couple of weeks ago.

RR actually bought one so he should know.

Do I really need to show you a picture? I suspect you can guess. The next pics will be when the project is completed. I am still waiting on a couple of other parts before sending off for assembly.

Looks great. Wear it well.

Congrats on the find. Can't wait to see the resultant project. VDB does really nice work so it should be great.

Fabulous review.

Out of curiousity, what is lumed on the rep?

I am jealous. My bike has not made it out of the garage this year (I suspect it has more to do with getting old than lack of time) and that is a great use. By the way, don't forget to put a watch on each wrist. That way you can take twice as many watches.

Wow, sounds like a great GTG with great people and watches. Very sorry to miss this one as I am playing host to family this weekend but I can't wait to see the pics.

The listing evaporated in less than 5 minutes. Something about an "error in the listing"... FGD- Yeah it was a lucky find. But wait until you see the rest of the watch.

Than I suspect it is going to remain a concept - at least in my mind.

FrankT- You can never know 100% that something is genuine. I am fairly confident for a number of reasons. I own gens, frankens and other original dials so I am fairly aware of what a gen PAM dial looks like and its construction (both the top and underlying sandwich). Also this particular dial is substantially heavier than either of the EL or Davidsen dial and the vagaries of the number cut-outs are not even close to reproduced in the rep dials. This is not something you can see in my picttures but when you overlay them you do see the subtle differences. Finally, several other members agree as they have gone out and bought all but one of his others. Olreon- You are absolutely right. The dial is from a watch that had its dial replaced. And that is the beauty of it. I am very aware of the different generations of the Fiddy dial and this one is either first or second generation. I am 99% sure it is first generation. As you mentioned you can tell from the Panerai font color and thickness and more importantly the differences in the dial number cutouts. I was also told that the color of the under dial is a good clue as I believe they refined it after the first generation. Supposedly the first generation which had a more primitive top coat on the underdial. Your AD would call it vintage color and we would call it early modern Rustoleum. Fortunately the top dial is in perfect shape other than dirt and grease which cleans right off. The bottom dial will require a relume but at least I have the original color for Ziggy to match up. MilSub- You are right that no one needs a gen dial. But I really wanted one and yes the price was surprisingly good. Finally, I have to say that both Davidsen's and the fourth generation are excellent copies. At least relative to this particular dial I am partial to the EL as the font is just too gray on the Davidsen but everything else is basically the same. And Davidsen's comes with superlume while the original EL did not.

The funny thing is I tried to get RA to make me one and in the end he concluded he didn't have the time and simply sold me his. I didn't know at the time that it might be a first and a last. I have displayed this watch previously when it came back with the movement swap and relume. I just wanted to come around full circle with the final mod.

You ready to laugh - Ebay! You gotta love the bay.

Can't take credit for the insert. RA went to the trouble to source some vintage wood, cut it down to size and reapply the ship.