Watchmeister

B- I have 7.25-.50" wrist. The strap and buckle are huge relative to the normal offshore set-up. On the length my strap is regular length (but it is gen) and it is set on the second to tightest hole. ROO's do actually wear larger than most PAM's due to the extended lug/strap section, the extended cg's housing the pushers and the height resulting from what is a module chrono movement on the gen. It does look big but in reality it actually sits fairly nicely on my wrist with the lugs wrapping around the wrist. Here is another one on the same wrist with a standard AP bands strap.

Very nicely done. I am a fan of the no-dates as well.

I say rep. CG lever looks too thin and too far off the case. Date pusher doesn't look octagonal enough to me. That was the situation with the true 7753's. On the A7753 the octagonal portion of the pusher is too prevalent. Finally, crown looks too close to the case and in my heart of hearts the A's look a tad low on the dial. It is really hard to tell especially from the pics. I would pass on it.

No you sell it to build the next one.

I think it would look fine with the Orchard road. The Orchard Road comes with a rubber strap from the AD (plus a hornback). The diver strap is the same design as the Offshore - just fatter. The only thing to bear in mind is that the diver buckle is brushed ss. I know the gen has a tantalum case and deployant. I have never seen the rep but I am guessing it uses a ti case and deployant? The diver buckle is huge so you may care how well it matches with the case.

My White themes went back to the spa to add a couple of parts and the diver rubber strap and buckle. The buckle and strap feel massive compared to the regular Offshore straps.

Pete- Far and away the best 217 (other than gen) I have seen. Congrats on that piece. I can o nly imagine how much effort it took to get all those parts together. BY the way the LH movement looks great. That is one heck of a franken.

Hasn't everyone drooled over that dial on the bay? The question is who is going to buy it and wait. As most vets know there has not been a rep made out of the correct metal (ti) in years. The SS rep which is more commonly available weighs, wears and looks very different from the gen. Honpo made it in ti in very limited amounts (less than 100) when they were in their prime but it was after non-Japanese speakers lost access to them. I know of at least one person who actually got them and they will never let them go. So the question is....will anyone ever to make one out of ti again.

Absolutely stunning piece. Nice to see a correctly oriented movement. Please tell us what the components are.

Thanks again for an informative post. It all makes sense when you lay it out but otherwise I would have been oblivious (at least until the entire watch was destroyed).

Even if the rehaut is 20-30% to large that is still an impressive call from so far away.

Welcome to the forum and to the "dar side". It is a lot more fun over here.

For $150 your package should have been delivered by a concierge.

Absolutely right. I didn't see the marker bezels.

I don't know what is right on the 5513 but I have an untouched 5512 from 1966 and it has the 700 crown (or at least there are no dots or underscore below the cross.

Absolutely stock low-end low beat. You can buy far better quality for $100 on the bay.

Panerai is unbelievable. At least it is returning to its pre-vendome heritage - randomly putting together watches with whatever is laying around. But at least back then there was an excuse - they were broke. Now they are just abusing their clientele.

Congrats on your purchase. Wear it well. It is a great rep.

Thanks Ken. Completely missed the point. So the only friction would be the paypal fees and in theory folks can resort to the usual paypal/cc remedies. So basically it is two folks selling to one another at the same time. Seems harmless to me other than the fees and I suppose it might inspire someone to trade with someone they might not otherwise be comfortable trading with. Although if I was trading/selling to someone I had no prior experience with I probably would stagger my transactions anyhow.

Yes. The movement and dial have to sit at a certain level in the case for proper rehaut and the crown and pushers then have to line up with the case as well.

I don't think it is a workable idea. As was suggested no one in their right mind is going to want to be the arbiter. Even more problematic is the additional shipping charges for two rounds of additional shipping to that arbiter and then buyer for a rep or even a franken? Whose fault is it if the watch gets damaged enroute to or from the arbitor? And what if you disagree with the arbiter's conclusion?

I blew it off even with a $300 gen dial and Yuki case for $125. Add in the movement for $1200, a decent bracelet, gen hands, insert and crystal and the required work and I was still into it for well over 50% of gen. It may work for you if you can find a busted movement for cheap and you are doing your own work. Although I thought a Phong case was closer to $800-1000.

Well, I must confess that it isn't an accident I waited this long. I never went beyond the Pre-A because the parts just weren't there to build one that I would actually wear. IMHO, a Jimmy or early Eddie Lee just never cut it for a Pre-V for me. Now the timing has never been better - with the help of friends of course.

A sense of budget will help give folks give you constructive suggestions. You can go from stock to DW to Yuki to Phong and the pricing changes accordingly.

Unfortunately I suspect you will find the 1680 gen movement project is equally uneconomic. I went down that path and quickly found myself at too much money given that you can find a reasonable 1680 in the $4k range and the parts got me well over 50% of gen even with some good prices on various parts.