Watchmeister

Here are three treasured vintage pieces. They are a WM 3646, 45mm Rad modded by Ubiquitous and the first Ziggy PAM Vintage. In honor of halloween: First up - old school WM 3646. Other than a polishing it is as it came. With the help of another forum member who I am hoping to see over Christmas it may well see its well-deserved Cortebert. A solid caseback and appropriate soder on the lug awaits thereafter: Next - Ubi's 45mm Vintage. Ubi was good enough to trade for a WM 45mm and well worth it: Finally- the infamous first Ziggy vintageization (is that a word?) of a davidsen deco bezel vintage: And thus my weekend photographs are done.

Late to the thread and I may have missed something but has anyone found a case which works with the original movement spacer and doesn't have the side button to adjust the date? I would live with having to "manually" set the date to get rid of the button. If it exists I would contribute a couple of datewheels to the Lello project. I tried one case but it didn't work in terms of movement spacer or proper height with the the case tube.

Chief- I hope so to.

Oops, missed the vote part. Everyone who owns a rep and not a gen should, if they have the opportunity to, walk by a watch store window with PAM's in it and take a look. It is eye opening. Having said that, I would guess 99% of first time gen buyers in the last year would never notice the difference. When most people wear gens (who don't collect reps) they don't bother scrutinizing what is on your wrist.

The 111h looks very nice. Wear it well. But make no mistake a rep is never a gen. Forget the A issue on the dial which is the case on most reps. On any series later than a C the level of consistency and quality on the parts improved dramatically. Vendome finally got the supply chain under control. The crown and CG pin are always instant giveaways after the C's. Further, as an H no one has ever made a properly proportioned crown guard. As good as a Palp crown is it is not close either in proportion or finish to a gen. This is not to say that a gen is necessarily worth it. You are paying a lot more. It is better finished though. For all those reasons the majority of PAM reps I keep and mod are C or earlier. With the lack of consistency in the earlier series (PAM constantly changed suppliers) a rep is going to be more realistic. And for that same reason I have always bought D and later gens - not that I have the money for the 3646 I recently saw. And yes, 005 is absolutely gen.

Thanks for the kind thoughts. Great feeling to have them done. By next year I hope to have the PR's done. Chieftang- All the 2892/3's were individually numbered when the first runs originally came out so if you have an engraved movement version you would expect to have a different caseback #. I have never understood why all manufacturers don't do it. It costs them nothing. I bought these two from Honpo as part of their original 75 piece run. It has only taken me two years to finish them.

Cornerstone - Exactly! Back to the topic at hand. Reps or gens? It presupposes people can afford both otherwise it is a silly question. And on a sillier note, if you can afford gens and you are posting on this forum you likely have both and if you do than you like both. So here's my question: How many people actually have Reps and gens of the same brand? For those who answer yes I would be curious to know what your opinion is? I will go first. I do and I appreciate both. What reps have made me do is focus on gens of my favorite brands that are not or cannot be properly replicated. They also have resulted in my buying gens after starting with a rep so the gen manufacturers can thank RWG.

I haven't posted pics in a while and am hanging around home for the weekend so thought I would add my collection of of finally completed B Series to the mix. The mods are endless but these watches are finally "done". The Boxed Set - 29 and 63 - Finally complete. Relume, datewheels, cyclops, gen crowns and hands (on one) and Jimmy CG: And as PAManiacs know - the strap makes the watch : And last but not least, one of the limited gen dial, hands, crown and Jimmy Case and CG 003's:

Wear it well.

Looks great wear it well.

I assume it is some one other than Honpo. In any case your first question is whether they will ship outside of Japan.

Wait a minute, whats wrong with Flock of Seagulls? My HBB does not get a lot of wrist time but I do admire it for what it is. Then again I relumed and transplanted Swiss movement.

If you can get it up to gen spec I'm in. The usual issues include bezel height, movement and dial height versus gens and gens reputedly having cyclops drilled into the crystal to achieve the same magnification. Your other issues will include different models (of gen) having different diameter and magnification depending on model as well as some recent subs and other reps resorting to sapphire/mineral sandwich dial in which case you have to pry apart the mineral glass from the sapphire and then fit the new cyclops in the same hole. Not trying to discourage you. Just want to alert you to the limitations.

Looking very good. Wear it well.

Well, if you are worried about more people buying the same reps such that you are more easily outed pick a few and change them up. Put in a new datewheel, correct that dial flaw, relume or whatever. I am indifferent as to more members. But much more interested in paying ones. After all, it ensures the survivability of our forum.

Based on what I have heard I am counting myself lucky on my 2006 CD and taking a pass on 2007 CD. Will have to wait and see on the Slevin.

The quality of the inner bezel mechanism is not uniformly bad. My 2006 has an excellent mechanism but it is out of line. In fact as far as I know all are out of alignment relative to the gen. It relates to the underlying "cog" and the number and placement of the teeth. The gen mechanism has different teeth count and placement of them. The rep manufacturers preferred to play with the layout of the inner bezel rather than making a more precise mechanism. Since it is the same manufacturer as the 2007 I would not expect it to change. I do hope the Slevin, when it comes out is better. I am happy with my 2006 but only after having mods done including movement swap, datewheels and relume. On the 2007 I am wondering if the right super lume orange is readily available or whether it has to be mixed. By the time I got done with mods though on the 2006 I am into it for close to $700 for a $6,000 watch. Oh well, I am enjoying it though. And on the whole issue of "super reps", the best ones will be the simplest ones. As reps are made of more complex watches it becomes ever more difficult to make them "super". IMHO, original movement reps are the only super reps. And those are going the way of the dinosaurs other than the simplest ETA 28xx.

The most obvious flaw on most 99% reps is the dial. BCE is no different. Even if the markings are accurate you still have the whole finish.

Doc is right that this post should not be here. There is no judgement issue. You were soundly scammed as others before. That is why he is banned. There are modders who know their limitations (both in terms of timing and skill). This is not the case here. You waited six months to get something which still needs corrective work. Telling you to sell the T-39 seems ridiculous. I do hope $645 includes the watch. Ziggy did mine for a fraction of that. You do have to wait with him but when you are scheduled you are promptly taken care of. RepAustria does excellent work as well when he is available.

Yes but it is still with Ziggy. If no one has answered the call for pics by the time I get mine back I will post pics.

Unfortunately, I think Josh has had it on his site for quite a while. We are all hopeful that it will come out towards the end of the month though.

Just PM him.

Well, you could have lead with a line like "I like a man with a big "watch"". On the other hand it is possible he didn't speak any English.

Well I change my straps a lot and in spite of an occasional scratch I have done far more damage to watches with push pins than screws. Now if the strap system came with a very specific tool to make push pin popping a no-brainer it might be fine. On most push pin strap changing systems I have long stopped changing straps and as a result the amount of time they get on my wrist. On the bracelets the reps folks will just rep the rep pins. IWC bracelets are a good example. In any case, this will keep the rep manufacturers busy for a while. Certainly, the in-house movements on the new models have raised the bar. IMHO, that 7750 with 8 day bridges just does not cut it.

Oh great, another crown guard. And now they have added a ball bearing.