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HA! It was a great time and quite the experience to be sure. I sitll recall when I first set foot in the first of the markets we saw and just saw this SEA of watches in front of my eyes. It was almost as if I was dreaming, honestly. Still to this day I have to remind myself that no, it WAS real. I think we get caught up in our collecting here. One guy has 10 watches, another has 100! Some peopel have 3, they are precious little gems... but when you see hundreds of thousands of watches piled into case after case after case... it gives you a TOTALLY different perspective for sure.

If you ever get anywhere near GZ (like say Hong Kong) it really IS worth a trip to check out the markets. I'm glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the idea of POM.

>>>There is a certain mystique and allure when it comes to Panerai watches unlike any other brand on the market and it is growing. Look at all the people posting in Paneristi and other sites not to mention the several rep sites. Panerai is a mid 20th century creation and this generation, as well as future generations are going to continue to embrace the clean asthetics and simple beauty of these superb Italian watches. No, they are going to increase in popularity and in time will be a household name like Rolex. It may take time, but the bottom line is that great quality lasts and there is always a customer for that kind of product. <<<< I don't think people really understand the true "history" of Panerai and are instead falling for hype. First of all there is nothing remotely "Italian" about Panerai. They are not made in Italy or owned by an Italian company. Secondly the real history of Panerai is about 10 years old, they are NOT mid century time peices. Panerai was a supplier to the military and a small watch shop. They made things like sights for guns and other similar functional tools. During WWII the Italian Navy (which in itself was an absolute joke) commisioned them to make a couple of specific watches for them. Panerai used Rolex movements and designed cases out of pure function. Aesthetics were NOT a concern, there was no great design statement. this would be the equivilent of some tool company making a surverying level or something... it was a TOOL. So over the course of the war they made a handful of these watches, a literal handful, under 30 TOTAL. That was that... the end for decades. Sure, they made the occasional prototype this or that but in reality Panerai was NOT a watch company and did not produce watches in any numbers or on any regular basis for either the military or the public. In the eraly 90's they started to make a couple of specifically commisioned watches for Sylverster Stalone and then in 1997 were purchased by Richmont Group who owns Cartier and many luxury brands. THIS is where the REAL history of Panerai watches begins. The Richmont Group did a VERY good job at marketing these watches. In a direct reaction to the return of automatic watches and the trend towards large watches they started creating simple watches based on the look of those original few WWI pieces. More importantly they marketed them as limited editions and played up the slight connection they had with the past. Unlike many other companies that had real history panerai has a fictitious history designed to give them a marketing hook. "These are the frogmen watches from WWII" the ads claimed, giving them instant (though false) credibility. The watches shared NOTHING in common with those few tool watches from WWII other than being designe dto look a bit like them. Panerai went on to be REALLY good at creating demand for the watches by releasing them in limited numbers... a great ploy that created a lot of collectors. I love them, I buy into the whole deal but I alos know it is total B.S. By that I mean that there is no history here, there is nothing of actual historical significance or meaning. Panerai is EXACTLY like bell bottoms or any other fad. Some last a long time, some burn out very quickly. it is impossible to say if Panwerai as a company will be around in 50 years or not. But it is safe to say that for Panerai to survive as more than a niche company they will have to change as people's tatses and trends change. Thes eare not "classic" timeless designs nor are the Rolex (the only sports watch company that manages to survive and thrive without significant change). Sales ofr Panerai (gens) are actually down. This is fact. You can now actaually often see limited editions and some of the more "rare" peiced available at dealers. They are not common by any means but the day of having to wait a year for a watch are over. Panerai has probably produced too many watches at this point, they are making many more than they used to and this works against the mystique they did such a good job creating. So are they hot? Sure they are, they are popular fashion pieces that trednsetters have embraced, but like all such things be they cars or fashion or music or whatever those same trendsetters will move on and it is THEN that we see how good Panerai really is as staying relevant.

Although I love PAMs and own a gen as well as many fakes I actually doubt they will be long term watches (meaning continuing to be popular in 5-10 years). They have every halmark of a passing fad. Now again, don't get me wrong, I really like tham and I think they WILL be around for a while longer (and the brand will live on for a long time, just not be as popular), but think about how trends change. 20 years ago THIN was the big deal in watches. the thinner it was the better, a Rolex day date was considered HUGE and THICK. As things change people react against whatever starts to feel old so the largr watch ttrend began to emerge. Finally in the mid 90's the first PAM size watches started to appear and that trend has continued to build to this day. Suddenly watches cannot be too big, you have ludicrous sizes liek 47mm or even 50mml, watches that are literally bigger than the wirsts of their owners! Well as things move forward a reaction to these large sizes will occur and watches will again change. Maybe they will be smaller or differently shaped or whatever, but they WILL change. PAMS will likely become somehting liek Movados. A watch that was once VERY popular and still has some loyal fans, but whose heyday is behind it. Very few watches manage to just live on in a timeless manner. Most notably you have Rolex because they have built a name and simply never change and Patek which has a well earned reputation and builds (mostly) very classic and conservative watches. Any company that builds classic watches does not have to worry abotu change, but Panerai is more of a trend watch (even though it helped set that trend) than anything classic. So to answer your question, YES, they are still "hot" but the clock is sstrating to tick and I bet in 5 years they will not be as popular as they are now.. or maybe they will change into something totally new to keep up.

When you say "normal" you mean relative to what? Normal for a gen? Of course not. Normal for a fake? Well I have seen bezels simply fall off so you are perhaps ahead of the curve a bit. The YM does NOT sound or feel anything like a sub bezel, and no, obviously it should NOT rattle... but it's fake so you might just learn to live with it.

WOW, what horriblu guly watches... here is a gold Acutron from what I would guess the mid 70's. These sell for about 2K.

Doesn't look like we have a lot of desigfners among us huh? Lets see the good stuff! This is an interesting competition, I hope someone can really knock it out of the park instead of a single.

Rolex made gen Mickey Mouse watches some years ago (not subs, date justs I think) and they sold for many thousands jst as you would expect. I think the point is that MOST people don't put any meaning behind what watch they see peopel wearing. Someone here might think that they are making a statement with a watch (fake or gen) when in reality the only statement is being made to themselves, other peopel just don't care. There are also certain segments of the population who may get a kick out of wearing such an expensive watch with a cartoon character on it. To them it says they do not take life seriously, yet they still can aford the best. To a lesser extent you see this a lot with the type of tie guys wear. Lots of very succesful people wear joke ties with Mickey Mouse or whatever on them... just to say that they have a sense of humor. I must admit, there is something about a gen watch with a cartoon on it that kind of appeals to me. A FAKE watch with a cartoon makes no sense to me though. You see the gen states that you could buy anything you want but you CHOSE to buy this goofy thing and not be caught up in what people think of you. A fake with a cartoon just says that you are PRETENDING not to care, and that to me is even worse than pretending you do care.

I agree 100% , he needs to stock what sells and makes him money. But I don't think this watch will sell, especially where his store is located (Colorado which is very outdoorsy and rugged, not the type of place where people want watches of this style). Years ago I told him to buy panerai (about 6 years back BEFORE the trend hit full force) and he chose not to. Today he is kicking himself as he can no longer get them for the store (plus if he would have carried them it means I could of purchased them at cost damn it!).

I generally rotate my daily watch between a gen SS submariner, a gen Tag Monico and a gen PAM 24. I do not wear these watches to the beach or while buulding somehting or anything liek that. for that I generally just use a cheapo Nike watch or something liek that (I have several). I generally reserve wearing fake watches for times that I particularly feel they will work well with what I am wearing etc.... but never for anything tough.

>>>And who are these people who live in constant fear of suddenly going swimming, such that they can't possibly plan around it? "I'm worried that I will be wearing my rep and spontaneously a group swim will break out,<<<< Very funny and very true, thanks for the laugh! I own a gen Sub and other than one time when I was faced with either wearing it while diving or leaving it unsupervised on a boat full of strangers I NEVER wear it whiel swimming, showering etc. nor do I wear ANY of my gens (save for specific modern dive watches). Wearing a watch in the shower is just plain idiotic regardless of if it is fake or not and I do not happen to like wearing a watch while swimming, it is cumbersome and awkward. And since we are on the topic who has friends that monitor your action so closely as to even notice if you have your watch on or not? If this mythical spontaneous group swim does happen to break out my guess is that everyoen is so estaticly happy and giddy with delight (I mean what else would cause a spur of the moment group swim anyway) that they will not even notice you slip your fake watch off.

First of all I agree, why the hell are you lieing to your friends? What the hell kind of "friendships" do you maintain where decpetion is a central part of it... THAT makes me scratch my head. But all that aside for a second peopel are making a common mistake here and one that a lot of people have a hard time overcoming with fake watches; Unlike the legit retail world when it comes to fakes COST DOES NOT EQUATE TO QUALITY! People are asking is a $25 Timex can be water proof then why not a $300 fake sub, the answer is that the fake sub is not as good of a value, is make to decieve people (notably the buyers who often think they are getting a deal on a genuine) and cost whatever a dealer feels he can get away with charging... it is NOT based on how much the watch cost to produce or it's quality (or lack thereof). Timex produces millions of watches macking a reasonable profit on each watch, a fake watch dealer sells a watch for whatever the helkl he can get away with. Some crappy scam dealers wil sell you the same non waterproof sub for $1000, others will sell that same watch for $180, it is the EXACT SAME item, agfain, cost does not equate to quality. Finally that same sub costs in the area of $15-$20 to produce in China, you are paying more because you want the name "Rolex" on the dial, NOT because it is a well made time piece (which most of the time it simply is not). So not to be that guy but if you want to swim with a watch buy a gen (even a cheap one) and go at it... if you want to lie to your friends buy a fake and come up with some excuse to stay dry.

Well first of all MOST delaers do not make the watches, have anything to do with making the watches or even stock the watches... they simply act as middle men and the watches are drop shipped. So then the question is why don't the manufacturers make them waterproof, and of course the answer is money. Same reason they don't use good lume or make good bands. A few people may be willing to pay extra for these higher quality features but the MASS majority of fake watches are not sold to people like us picking them apart on message boards. The market for these watches will have no way of checking if they are waterproof or not and by the time they realize that they are not, well it will be FAR too late to do anything about it. Why spend the money if it brings you ZERO on return? Fake watches are made to LOOK real, not act that way.

I have always HATED the Philipe Sein watches, they are just aweful. A family memebr owns a jewelry store and repeatedly asks me if I think he should carry this line... NO!!!!!! I keep telling him and yet I think he might go for it... sad.

This has been a common (and valid) question of the various boards for YEARS. The thing is I do not believe that anyone has actually ever found a real answer to it. It is a coomnoly heald midbeliefe that gold ones are from China (though still ETA) and therefore "crappier" but I have yet to see anyone actually prove this. The Zigmeister and other people who really know about movements seem to refute this, say there is no quality difference and in fact that new ones are GOLD, not silver. So I think AT BEST there might be some general feeling that the gold ones are new movements from a Chinese ETA facility while the silver ones MAY come from some other ETA factory... but again, it is all pure guess work. The truth is that one is NOT "better" than the other and you should not pay more simply because of the color of the movement. MOST ETA based fakes will have gold colored movements while NO high end genuine has them, that may be one reason people prefer the silver. In the case of your sub it sounds like the more expensive fake was in fact better because of the bezel and other features, THAT is probably why you paid more.

I find ALL the themes incredinly annoying, useless and meaningless... so THANK YOU for allowing us the option of shutting the damn thinsg off!

I agree, that is one butt ugly shirt.

I've had a PS3 since launch day in the U.S., paid retail of $600. It is a very good system with pretty much no good games right now. the real battle is NEXT Christmas. They are so behind in making them that they will only have 400K or so in the U.S. this year, that is NOTHING. It is about 1/20th of what they need. So the real battle is next Christmas when the PS3 should have some games that simply cannot be done on any other console. However MOST games will not be significantly better on the PS3 and compared to X-Box 360, not because they can't be better but rather because it makes no sense for developers to spend the money to make them better. They spend millions to develop a game and they don't want to then spend even more to improve it for the PS3. It will be similar to what we see with PS2 and original X Box. the X Box is much more powerful than PS2 and yet games are almost identical. Anyway, the bottom line is DO NOT pay over retail for PS3, just get it next year once good games are available.

I'm not sure why the U.S. Treasury feels the need to keep money so traditional either, but they have made MASSIVE leaps in the past 10 years. The money today, while the same size, actually IS printed on different colored paper, the mid to larger sizes are not even predominatley green any more but rather a mix of other colors and (from what they claim) there are more advanced anti counterfiet features in these bills than any other currancy in the world. The problem is that these advanced features are NOT known by the general public. Any Secret Service person can spot them in a mili second and probably prevent large scale counterfieting, but the guy on the street is still screwed.

Everyone has thier own criteria... I have MANY fakes with HUGE imperfections on the back (like the totally wrong movement seen through a case back), but again, those were NOT sold as "exact copy 1:1". Also, when viewed in isolation, apart from comparing to the gen these watches still look quite nice and seem to be of a good quality. The Bell and Ross on the other hand, when seen from the back, looks cheap regardless of wether one is familiar with the gen or not. I can't imagine ANYONE thinking that fake stamped screws with a little arrow telling you how big they are IF they wer eonly real looks good. But you are correct, few if any will see the back and if it does not nug you then fantastic, I hope you enjoy it.

I saw Casino Royale last Saturday and I happened to catch Die Another Day on TV last night. Now when Die Another Day came out I recall thinking it was OK but it was one of the few Bond films I just did not care much about (along with the other Brosnan films other than Goldeneye). Anyway, after seeing Casino Royale I cannot tell you how bad Die Another Day seems. it is UNWATCHABLY bad... just HORRIBLE. There are scenes in Die Another Day that are similar so those in Casino Royale (Bond being tortured, Bond with no shirt, Bond in tense momments with M, of course variius fights and stunts) and they all look so weak, dull, forced and poorly acted compared to Craig in CR. In fact CR has re-writen Bond so effectively that I am afraid I will not be able to go back to the previous films, they really pale in comparison. The original Bond films with Connery are still very good but are just TOTALLY different types of movies. It is unfair to compare CR to 40 year old movies. The Connery Bond films were novel at the time, they have now been copied and spoofed so many times that they almost seem like camp or comidies. I still LOVE them (and Connery has a coolness about him missing in Craig) but viewed today, with no nostalgia, Casino Royale is just clearly the best of the Bond films pretty much every way you cut it. As for the plot, yes, it is convoluted and has some leaps of logic but when you really think it through the pieces DO fit. There are no glaring loose ends, just a few gaps you need to fill in. I read a review in which they said Craig was the first Bond since Connery who does not look like a girl when he runs... I agree 100%. He also looks like a guy who CAN do what he does in the film and is still human and faillible, it is not just a great Bond movie, it is a great MOVIE... period.

I don't think people mean to question your judgement, rather we are just trying to figure out what happened so others can avoid it. My questions to you concerning the many anti counterfiet features of the newer U.S. bills was not intended to say you were foolish in missing them but rather to point out to others things they could look for (and because I honestly wanted to know how good fake bills have become). For the record I don't think counterfiet bills have either real watermarks of microfilm stripes... rather they have come up with convincing ways to fake these. They actually print watermark like images on the paper (rather than having them IN the paper), same goes with the micro film stripe. It is hard to know what is real unless you really examine them super closely. One easier thing to look at is the color shifting ink. As far as I know the counterfieters have not been able to replicate that at all. If you look at the number 100 on the bill, several of them will shift color as you tilt the bill. They go from green to black much like some color shifting car paints do. I had no idea that those pens could be fooled. I am not sure how they work actually but if they test the paper somehow then it is possible that your bills were printed on REAL U.S. currency paper (bleached $1 bills) so that may explain it. Sucks no matter what, thanks for the info.

You probably have a dead watch, just liek about 1 out of every 20 or so fakes... contact the dealer and send it back... do NOT get it repaored as once they are bad they often remain that way.

How about all the the many anti-conyerfeit measures that $100 bills have? The watermark, the micro stripe?, the color shifting ink? The "hologram"? Did the bills haver all of those?

Again, I am glad people have enjoyed this (long) post... thanks for the kind words. It is easy to write about such a fun and off beat time... very other worldly for sure!