lfovco

Great Review!!! It was pleasure reading it. So from what I'm seeing the new updated gold model uses updated SW200-1. I imagine the SS with blue face as well as other models should follow with SW200-1 soon. Does anyone have any info as far as that? I'm looking forward to getting the SS Blue face version. Thanks!

1+ to that.

Reading everyone posts above I must agree with the A.Lange recommendation http://www.yourtrustytime.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18&products_id=6399

Very nice. Where is your Slytech from?

For the price, they are actually not bad. They are not going to be too close to the Gen but it may not matter in that case as with some much more popular models. Note that both have synthetic sapphire glass that scratches easily unlike real sapphire glass in more expensive rep, so you would have to be extra carefull. Also the movement in the IWC is going to be more reliable then in the JLC rep. In the end all reps have flaws and are not truly accurate to Gen, even the ones you would pay $300 - $400+ range. For a starter, these are elegant watches but don't expect great, long lasting quality. If you like JLC you may want to look at this one - http://www.yourtrustytime.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=31&products_id=1573 It has sapphire glass and Swiss 2824-2 movement that once serviced it will last your for a very long time. in general none of the JLC reps are accurate to Gen's like some other brands and IWC has very few models that are, and those are in a different price range.

Really bad fantasy rep... not a rep, a fake.

3717 or any IWC for that matter is really age agnostic so you should not really worry about it. I have a rep of Ingy Auto that I got back in 2006 with Swiss movt. and it is still running well. this is a great rep and I would recommend it assuming they are still made that well.

Very nice, you can tell right away that this is a Gen.

That sucks.

The cool thing about this version is that the crown is actually thicker then the Gen which actually looks better then a Gen!!! (in my opinion) And it is more pleasant to wind that versions from other factories. It's cool that you went with this one versus H or N factory ones that everyone else is getting. This is how my old 111 is.

I hear that version V1.375, an update to V1.3 is going to have the correct case color. :clap2: :clap2: :clap2: :clap2:

A buckle on my 390 has the same problem. Not well made. I actually ordered mine with rubber strap just out of curiosity. That thing smells like it was in a middle of oil tank explosion = trash can.

http://jimmyfu.com/panny.html I wonder what is he up to these days.

First of all... WHOA!!!! Very Impressive!!! That some amazing stuff and Rep History. I have a Jimmy Fu story that goes back to 2005. I bought CG and Lever set from him. I'm sure you remember how good his sets were. The rubber gasket that went around the pin is still holding up like a Gen after 7 years on my 111. So I ordered one from him, they were not assembled. And of course I messed it up and broke the pin due to lack of skills and tools. So Jimmy offers to give me another set for free!!! And since he was about to go on a trip to US from Asia and actually stay close to where I work, he offered to meet up and with me and give me the spare CG.... WHAT a NICE GUY!!!. He stopped by my work, gave me the CG and we talked for a while, he was wearing an awesome Gen PVD.... That's my story.

That 111 is a rep of an F series and the font design matches the Gen, same thing with the CG and lever, the levers used to touch the case, looked much nicer then some newer Panerais lever designs where the lever sicks out. Interestingly the 390 font shape and how it is raised is exactly like my 111 rep. The lume is of course different. I don't know much about lume process so I cannot comment on it.

Hopefully they do. I'm pointing that that build quality of crown and lever purposely since I have not seen anyone talking about that. Every rep I touched that some of my friends got has the same issue. And it's not only about lever being less or more loose sometimes, it is about the materials being used. Not sure what it is but feels nothing like Gen while the case and everything else is really nice. There are other reps that are built really well, for instance I have a IWC Ingenieur rep, bought it back in 2006. That thing is solid as a tank, cannot complain about it at all, it has been running really well and the case, or crown does not feel cheap or fake at all.

Here are some better shots. I don't have a proper lights setup to shoot at night at home, so this is not color accurate, but you get to see the details. I also shot it again with 2005 Eddie Lee 111. http://s1173.photobucket.com/albums/r598/lfovco/

I don't think it would be 100% the same but it is so super close. I honestly cannot tell the difference when I look at shots taken in neutral light, it really looks like the pics of the gen under the link I posted above. This rep is really close to Gen. Yes we can pick high res shots all day long and find that the lume is 5% off, but once you wear it or even stare at it in your hand without a Gen to compare you really cannot tell. The only issue I would point out are the fact the CP is not flat, but that also takes some staring to really see in real life versus high res shots. Even the shape of the lever is super close to gen, you can really only see that is a bit different in high res shots. That's it. I cannot really complain about how it looks but rather how some parts are still made cheap. Crown and lever are still way behind the Gen's as far as materials and build quality, they feel really fake. Crown Guard is pretty nice. Case is super nice, even screws are well made. So really the only negative thing is quality of the materials used for the crown and lever.

That's a rep world, nothing is ever perfect... wait a minute, that's how the world is.... Bummer though, even with the QA things will slip as they are not paying the same attention to details during QA as we are when we look for things.

My picture does not show it well due to bad desk light but in person the Rep looks just like that Gen, plus/minus how light affects the color. 390 Rep is definitely done well as far as colors accuracy.

Cool, glad to hear that. I should actually do pictorial review of this one one day cause it is a vintage rep. Early 2005 model, F series, Swiss 6497 that has been running as accurately as Gen, super nice chunky crown. Funny thing is that that crown actually feels better in your fingers while you wind the watch then the Gen 111's. I am not kidding. and the really nice J.Fu crown guard that feels and works exactly like gen, even has a rubber gasket around the pin. Now, it is not super accurate to the gen but it is an awesome vintage rep ;-) Now, you cannot kill those old Eddie Lee movements, I even have 2 extra spare ones from him that have been laying around for years. The cases were really good too and you cannot source them anymore. Still 390 is a quite different watch, I try not to compare them really. I only did shoot 390 next to it to show the difference in the color of the dial.

Yes it is definitely nice lighter brown color. It looks really nice. You could never tell that from dealers pics, my picture sucks due to the setup but the light brown with that lume color truly looks nice.

Haha, Vintage Eddie Lee. They go for $4000 these days.

Sweet, thank you!!

Yes, even in the Gen you can still wind it, although it would require more force of course. Panerai actually measures how hard the lever crown presses the crown and it's the same for all the models, there is a number that I cannot remember. The replicas are usually far from that and the lever does not press the crown as hard as the Genuine ones. It also different from rep to rep some are better some are not, it's pretty much a lottery.