Watchmeister

If you are a handbag person you have to check out Sash's Birken Bags. If you can carry off a PAM you can carry off that bag. That is the one rep I have ever bought my wife. And yes, she knows it is a rep.

You're man is a lucky one. My wife never gives her jewelry or watches a thought. Now a stain on a Blahnik or Choo is a disaster.

Thanks for the update. This was inevitable as ETA is doing everything it can to work within the guidelines of its settlement with the EU about what it does not have to sell to non-brand factories. It will be a slow death. I suspect it won't be as bad as we think as some factories actually do sell their own brands and will get them that way. Make no mistake though, eventually ETA will sell only to their brands of watches never mind branded versus non-branded.

Very nice collection. You must have fingers of steel. There are quite a few handwinds.

Pug- You never cease to amaze me. Although based on your knowledge of Magic Cards, etc. that makes you either 15 or 50 (i.e. you are either recently retired from the game or one of those parents who has [censored] away god knows how much money on those damn cards).

Well when some friends come to visit maybe we should go down there and look. It's only been 7 or 8 years and the last time was I there I didn't know better reps existed. Then again maybe they didn't - anywhere.

S- The piece looks great. I am scratching my head over who the modder is.

I have never actually looked for watches there. My biggest concern has always been how you know what you are buying. Swiss or Asian movement, etc. without taking them apart. I also always liked that here you can buy first and take the risk or have someone else buy it and review it and then buy it from that same dealer. I will have to go down there some time. In the Canal Street area there is absolutely a similar live and let live attitude that prevails in the counterfeiting areas of China as well. The NYC police system is focused on reducing violent crime and bagging the occasional white collar criminal.

A price comparison to the gen is not going to be relevant to anyone who thinks that all reps are crap and as such will never spend more than $100-200. It only becomes relevant if you are paying the higher prices of "super reps" of which some are super and some are not or buying them with the intent to mod them to something closer to gen. So putting it differently, if you are not inclined to spend larger amounts on a rep the price ratio of a rep to a gen is irrelevant.

Maybe that is a "man of the people" thing.

TK- I didn't have any inbound issues because I was so excited that it finally came out that I didn't do my usual reasonably thorough comparing through pictures to the gen or the Honpo nor is there one sitting in a local AD. I would normally take a walk over to one of the local multi-brand watch stores or dedicated company watch stores which are all within 10 blocks of my office. I have great lunch hours. Chronus- I believe Finepics was trying to fit a Swiss 7750. You would need a new dial with different date window to fit the 7753. Slay- Life is never that easy. Here are my concerns without taking apart the watch. First, the more I look at the quick set date pusher the more I am convinced that the one on the Honpo although beautiful may well not be functional. If that is the case the button and inset from the second watch had better be the same size or you are doing some pretty major case drilling. Second, I can't tell if the dials are the same size as the Honpo crystal have a rim of silver around the outside so you can't tell where the dial ends and the case begins. Third, although we don't need the He valve to be functional it would once again have to fit the same size hole and be removable in the first place rather than a permanent part of the case. You won't know any of these things until the movement and spacer are out of the watch. But even after all that, I have rubbed the chrome/rhodium (??) off a couple of the numbers on the honpo bezel and have no idea how to replate them or get my hands on replacement markers or bezel.

Exactly, the Hamptons are the chic summer playground for New Yorkers and now a substantial portion of Hollywood. In"olden days" it was the summer enclave of the old guard and year round residence of many artists and literatii. As usual the "immigrants" soon followed suit when they had amassed money. Stooping to gross generalizations (but they are not far off), many years ago the towns further away from New York such as East Hampton, South Hampton, Montauk etc. were where the old guard had their family houses. The newer wealth groups quickly started developing the towns closer to New York such as West Hampton. The Hollywood migration began about 20 years ago when Steve Spielberg bought out there shortly after his initial wild success and the acquisition of a killer apartment in New York. Once Spielberg was there large numbers of Californians followed suit. On the Kobolds and Clinton, ever since he got the speech thing going and got a taste of the good life he has been a watch fanatic. Prior to that he wore simple inexpensive watches. I have seen him with two different PAM's on his wrist and he supposedly owns several of those.

That dial looks really good. Wear it well.

I know. Having collected and modded virtually all of the original movement PAM automatics this was supposed to be the holy grail. Unfortunately it turned out to be a $500 movement in a $100 Asian 21j case. As most people know I am not a negative person and the purpose of this post is not to rag on anyone. This one is to warn off all the members I have PM'ed back and forth praying for this one over the years. The other thing I have concluded and I have always known but was too lazy to ask. When buying an expensive rep we should be asking what other reps this factory has made. I can guess what other reps this factory has made.

Just received the 7753 187. I will start by saying the dealer on this one provided fabulous communication per usual, I felt the price was reasonable given the 7753 movement (which it is) and they had the item on my doorstep in less than a week. HOWEVER: I was disappointed. For other folks impartial views I am superimposing my original 7750 Watchonpo versus the new 7753 and finally adding the gen at the end of each comparison. I suspect you can guess what is what. And yes, I know the crown guard is on backwards on the Honpo. Front View: The gen: Markers are shallower, 12 o'clock marker has a ding and the crown is too small. Comparison of side view - valve side: The gen: The bezel is very different from gen or honpo. Crown guard, Pushers and caseback The gen: On functionality, movement is as advertised. Bezel however has flimsy 60 click movement reminiscent of the Asian 21j subs. It moves with the slightest touch so you will find the bezel in odd postions. The Honpo and Gen both clank around like tanks. In fairness to the dealer pictures were accurate and there is nothing wrong in the description. Well it is now the next day since the original post and I have concluded the movement will not be transportable and with the loose bezel it keeps flopping around so I have decided to return it.

The obvious move is to swap movement, dial and hands into the Honpo. My concerns are that the quickset date adjuster on the Honpo either does not function or line up and/or the dial and movement spacer may not fit. This is not a clear cut swap at all. I now see why Honpo was not so quick to do this. If they ever did I would guess it would have a $1500 price tag.

BBB- It never will be again. There was a reason why we paid what we did the last time beyond stupidity. You will see shortly. If I can't swap parts the movement will go into one of my old school Pandas.

I will do a careful review of this one versus the Honpo and the gen over the weekend. I suspect people will be disappointed. I would not buy this one without looking at the upcoming pics.

How you can have time to pick up all this knowledge and make 9,000 posts is still a mystery to me. Unless you have an evil twin.

If you have gone to this much trouble and it is in the budget I would swap out the movement if it is in the budget (or from a solid case back PAM if you have one) and definitely put in the proper longer canon pinion. That cap is really weird. The top of the pinion should be polished and rounded. Watch does look really good though.

Back to the question at hand. What is the relevant price comparison. It turns out to be more complex for me. I start with do I like the watch. Then I look for the quality from an aesthetic and movement perspective relative to the gen. And yes, I know they are never as good...blah...blah...blah. Now overlay that against the cost of a gen and against the cost of other reps of similar quality I like (i.e. is there another rep for all the reasons above I would like to own?). And then I decide as I can't afford to buy every watch (rep or gen) that I want. But my initial cut after I have decided I like a watch is still how close is the cost of the gen to the particular rep. It is a little hard to argue to buy and mod a rep with a genuine part or two (if so inclined) for $500-600 knowing you could buy the gen for $1500. It is nice having a warranty.

Looks good but please make sure inner bezel is in correct position relative to the dial when "clicked" into position. Also that "10" and "15" on inner bezel have their digits more compressed and line-up correctly with the inner hour markers. From pictures the "15" looks very off. These are the principal flaws on the Aquatimer so I hope they can be corrected on this one.

How funny would it be if RWG actually became a sought after brand. The initials aren;t that far off from RGM.

I have noticed 6-7 new PAM's on people's wrists in my office building. This is not meant to imply there is a major trend or anything but I was curious what spawned this. And being the loquacious (read as chatty) person that I am I have been asking people how they heard about them and decided to buy them. In 3 out of the 7 cases they all had run into other people wearing them in the Hamptons thought they were cool and followed suit. They were all mid-30's or less. I suspect those "people" they are "running into" may be folks like Ralph Lauren. In another 2 or 3 cases the wives who were out there for the Summer had bought them for their men. Very generous - I wonder what they bought themselves. So it looks like PAM's are increasingly becoming the "summer" watch. There still is no stock in the local AD's other than the Ferraris so people are going to great lengths to get these watches. By the way with the number of Ferraris I am seeing at the AD's I am wondering if they were a bust.