Watchmeister

The question I have for Ziggy is can you usually use the lever from one CG i (say on a cheap 21j) in another? Actually I was always curious whether the lever from a standard rep cg would fit in a Jimmy as at some point Jimmy was selling his remaining CG parts. Anyhow, needless to say big thanks to Ziggy for trying this. We will see what fits and what demand is. And on Palp's crowns everyone please honor their orders. I just honored mine. This one came out of the blue and it was too good not to at least give it a try.

To me you can call them whatever you want. It is all about the relative value. Assuming a rep is 85-90% accurate and I currently have the money I look at the cost of the gen. A "super rep" at even $1,000 is not ridiculous if I really like the watch, it really is 90%, the movement functions correctly and it is a rep of a $6,000+ watch. On the other hand investing $700 to make the perfect Breitling which you can buy for $1,500 makes no sense. I have yet to see either the Aquatimer or the HBB so I will reserve judgement on those particular watches.

I won't know about the 6497 until someone tries one. Does anyone have a 6497 with Ziggy currently? I have a spare sitting there and we could try it. So far, excluding manual winds for now (as I don't know whether they will fit) it looks like we have somewhere between 30 and 40.

Just to add fuel to the fire, in addition to SS there is PVD (I have two PVD's and one matches up perfectly to the gen 28 PVD and the other is inexplicably lighter almost like the crown on the slob). On titanium I will have to ask but I don't think so. I will take pictures of the PVD's I already have over the weekend and post them. I am traveling at the moment. My objective is to figure out what level of interest there is by Monday. In terms of what fits what, I am not guaranteeing anything. This is not my business. It is just too cool not to give it a try. What I know is that Ziggy has fit one on my 2893 and has a spare of mine as well. In general it should fit most automatic cases. I do not have a hand wind with Ziggy to try one on. V has a handwind on the way to Ziggy but it has not arrived yet and I don't know if he has the same crown. Does anyone have a manual with Ziggy currently? PM me and maybe we can figure something out. But at this point I can't tell you that they work on hand winds and these are not inexpensive items.

It would be helpful if people could indicate whether they are interested in 1 or 2 or 10 bearing in mind a price of approximately $75.00. I am not guaranteeing what they fit. I am comfortable that they fit the automatics. I don't know whether anyone has tried a hand wind.

I will let other experts chime in. But some of the tell tale signs are the turnings on the crown stem, the triple o-ring system as well as the very deep recess of the contact surface on the crown versus the outer edge.

UPDATE Good news for those who were concerned. I did speak with the seller and he still has 20 pieces or so left and so I will plan on sorting out all the requests over the weekend. I will ask for prompt payment as soon as I receive the crowns and if there is enough remaining interest will order one more round. Folks will get confirmatory emails or PM's on Monday and I will have to wait a day or two until I get the crowns to make sure they are all fine. The reason I am holding off confirming orders now and taking payment is that I have gotten a couple of crowns recently which were missing the spring loaded nipple and I am concerned that as we get to the end of the seller's stock problems may increase. Apologies to the one member who got the one that I didn't notice. A replacement will be sent out over the weekend. All the best, Kruz ________________________________________________________________________________ ORIGINAL POST As a buyer of a number of the genuine PAM crowns offered by the seller on Ebay I have been approached by him as to whether I would like to buy out a substantial portion or all of his entire remaining crowns. Apparently he has lost interest or patience in selling them one at a time. My general question is whether there is enough interest on the forum to warrant pursuing this. I want to stress that I am not doing this to make money. If there is no interest I will simply buy what I need. I am proposing this to pick up a modest discount on what I am buying and to offer it to other members at the same price. To give you some sense he is asking approximately $65 each for 50 or more. So if I factor in shipping it can easily be $75.00. If there is interest I would go back and try and negotiate a better deal but I have no idea at this point whether it is achievable. Back to the crowns, they most likely date back to right around the beginning of the Vendome era (1998-2001). They are very well made and do have triple o-ring protection. At this point I have only had one mounted and that was on my 2893. You will judge from the pics below on the aesthetics. I do think that it does improve the water resistance with the 3 gaskets over the standard rep crown. I would also guess (and it is a guess) that it will fit on most PAM automatics. I have no idea on the hand winds. Not looking for PM's at this point. Looking for preliminary levels of interest.

Funny, mine was approximately $5,000. If you can't afford the box...

You sew too. It is cool looking. I would prefer it on vintage as well though.

Yes but you are an educated consumer. The money is in the new models. Actually the real money is in selling the $20 reps for $700.

Yes. Perhaps 2 or 3 times on this forum. We did a group buy on this one about 2 years ago.

I would add the old school 196 7753 to the mix. The Chrono Avenger is also one of my favorites. The acquatimer may join that elite group after I see it.

Looks really good. I had been wondering when they would get the dial right. And yes it is a 7753. You know it by the date adjustment button on the side of the case and the correctly sized and placed date window.

Avitt- Fabulous tutorial. Wear that watch well. It looks great. Of course, you now have me staring at mine with a more discerning eye. Prior to your post I was just glad mine was keeping COSC level time.

You know him too well. But I would be in for one of those too.

Actually the gens sell well around here. Standard weekend wear for the 7 figure bankers. Get in the porsche with your chick and aquanaut and head out to the Hamptons. I didn't know an MBW existed. I may have to find one. I prefer this one to the Nautilus. It actually was one of the first watches to continue the textured dial onto the strap. Could necessitate a call-out to George. Presumably an ETA 28__ in it?

You are right. Still have to see that ship though.

Uh oh, we may all be playing wall ball for a while then. Mez- My numbers are accurate only because I found cheap older Swiss movements and bought a bunch. In fact a number of other members have loaded up on them as well. When you buy them in quantities of 3 or more the price falls into the $150 per range. And they typically are in excellent shape. So far none have needed anything (not even regulation). For me I was willing to go with the older 17j movements knowing that the Swiss had not found Asia yet.

Yeah, what he said. Jyst remember there is no company founder named Hugh Blot.

Unfortunately, it hasn't really slowed down my buying pattern just accelerated the emptying of my wallet. But seriously, the real question is whether you want to own novelty items or serious reproductions. The serious reproductions have been around for a while and were always more expensive. DW's and MBW's have been around for quite awhile. The original Honpo Panerai's came out a couple of years ago. All of these watches start at $400+ before you start modding. Today there is a lot less modding required. And yes, MBW's have swiss movements but they are inexpensive ones. In truth, no two MBW's are exactly the same. On the DW's getting one with a working movement is a rarity. Factories have now tooled up to make better (aesthetically speaking) and far more varied reps. If you are satisfied with $100 reps they still abound. The better reps are now made in larger quantities to justify the set-up expense and the truth is that it appears that they are rare enough that the makers can justify higher prices. It will be interesting to see what happens with them. After selling out that first run of a 1,000 will the factories make more and sell them for less? I am waiting to see whether they have gotten smarter and prefer to move on to the next blockbuster. I know in my heart of hearts I need to rethink my buying patterns. Just haven't done it yet.

If you put together a half a dozen Ziggy relumes next to your bedside you no longer need a night light.

No. Some may be but there are clearly "better" days than others.

Teejay- Here is the gen: http://www.lacotedesmontres.com/Hublot-Big...res-No_5661.htm It is 41mm so it is made for women.

Yellomen- Fabulous looking. Can't wait for mine. RR- No need to remove or replace posts. Cost for 99% and true Swiss movement (none of this Chinese ebauche stuff): Watch $350 (or so - different people get different prices ) Movement 200-250 (movement and swap) ETA Day/date wheels 30 Relume 50-100 don't know if required or possible as I haven't received it yet though All in $630 - 730 (and it ain't $730 ) And that is with relume, true Swiss movement and no date misalignment. As to the beat, I have no idea. I was not under the impression the beat changed from the 17 to 27 jewel. The other added bonus of doing it yourself is that if the Asian comes with decorated rotor or screws you can mix and match. Factory typically sells Swiss version as undecorated. It doesn't always make sense though if the screws or rotor are crap and affect functionality. That will make a big difference on, say, a transplanted HBB.

Try "(h)yuuuublow". No, seriously. There is a white HBB. You don't have any pics of what you are looking at though so we can't comment. You could also consider the white ceramic Chanel J12.