speedy1

It is an older mario paci that I put red leather die on and then used a dark furniture oil to make it look older. Unless you go in the water a ton, I think leather tends to darken with wear and not lighten, at least in my experience. I then use Shoe edge dressing/dye on the edges to die them black and also protect the leather from dings and such. If I want to the black to "run" or "fade" into the leather, I use a furniture cover up pen before I use the shoe edge dressing. This is what I did on the mario paci. On the Dirk, I used just the shoe edge dressing. I like the color contrast of the black edges with my straps. I hope this helps

I used acrylic paint to tint the lume. Since it is water based, I could thin it out as little or as much as I needed too and not have it set up while I was getting the color correct! I also found that for tinting purposes, the CHEAP (apple barrel brand) paint works the best for tinting (imho) with the FasKolor glow paint for vintage lume as it leaves a tiny amount of shading and non-uniform coloring.

I halfway finished this dial (finished the lume portion but haven't doctored the face yet) and even though it isn't authentic, I liked the way it looked as I added a good bit more orange to the lume. So I slapped it on a CN 6497 that I had lying around and placed it in a case that I have been saving for a bit. And finally added a Pal crown for that last bit of oomf! TO tell the truth I REALLY like the look of this watch. Right now it has an 001 caseback but I think I am going to sand that blank and wear the crap out of it. Here is a pic of the 202a with my first completed dial. You could see the difference in color and texture if I took pics with a better camera.

contact elliot (timeconnection.biz) and tell him you want this strap in tortora. I am not sure if he still has them in stock though.

Thanks for the compliment! The strap is a Dirk Nubuk Incursore 5218

Ok, it started with a case that was PVD'ed by Jack at IWW, one of the last rep cases done there. A lello Crown was also PVD'ed (this will be replaced with a pvd crown from Palp when they are done) Then I took a swiss 6497 movment with all the correct engravings. Next, Davidsen supplied a AR crystal, 202A dials, Cannon Wheel Fix, and hands. THANK YOU DAVIDSEN FOR YOUR GREAT PARTS!!!!!!! Whithout them this watch wouldn't be as great as I think it is. I took the dial and screwed it onto a dremel arbor between two felt pads. I then spun the dremel tool at low rpm and used a sharp file to trim down the dial until the case fit. Next the lume and dial just looked to "good and new" to me when compared to the genuine article. (Bachendorf Jewelery had a 202A on loan for display so I got to see one first hand) but since I am not a fan of againg a dial to look abused, I wanted to make it look correct for this watch model, design, and age. I spilt the dial and went to work on the lume. It needed to be a bit more grainy and aged looking without looking torn up. After much experimenting on a piece of white lexan with many different types and combinations of paint I struck upon one that I liked. I used the glow in the dark paint made for the underside of lexas rc cars. I found it is grainy texture is perfect and glows pretty well for water base. I then put two drops yellow, one drop orange, and on drop brown acrylique paint in a puddle of glow paint about the size of a quarter. It looks more orange in real life than the yellow it came out in the pictures. Next I wanted the hand painted look and texture of the dial faces of the pre a. They are a slight bit more greyish and the grain is a slight bit heavier too. I got the EXACT look I wanted by doing the following. 4 light coats of clear mat water color painting sealant followed by ONE pass of window frosting (that is right the stuff that you make windows opaque and white with) It took me a MONTH of experimenting with different combinations to find what I wanted. I screwed up with the first dial and made two passes with the frosting (because it looked good during my experiments of painting on quarters I had painted flat black) So I had to buy another dial from David and try again. I then put one drop of the brown in a puddle of water to give it just a tinge of color and painted the lume on the hands to make them go from white/green to an off-white color. I am VERY happy with the result and wish I could take some pics that would do it justice. I spent more money thatn I wanted to but am glad I did in the end. I do have one more dial that I am working on that is going to come out even better than this one because I have gotten rid of the T SWISS T but it is going to be a while before I finish this dial.

If you can't afford to loose $5 then stick to foodstamps and stay off the forums.

If I didn't have a gen arrviving tomorrow I would be really [censored] I sold it. I am glad you like it. This deal went smooth and tinkerz in a gentleman, that folks is always a pleasure in a deal. Thanks!

Sorry for the lousy pic but the phone takes REALLY lousy pics in low light. It shines bright as hell but I just can't caputre it on the phone well at ALL! After repainting and reluming the Chrono hands and dial, The Zigmeister said the main hands did not glow enough to match the dial and chronos so he lumed them all. You can see the shine off of the face behind the main hands. I am going to have to buy or borrow a decent camera to take pics. Anybody in the Dallas Fort Worth area?

Even though not totally finished yet, I have my watch back and it is bad ass. This is the old style case so it is the nicest of these reps released since these cases haven't been made for a bit now. Ok, so here is the list of goodies because that is what everyone is interested in. 1. painted chrono hands 2. ALL hands have been relumed 3. dial relumed 4. crystal AR coated 5. lello crown 6. OEM CG from our favorite fleaBay seller of OEM Panerai Parts (It has a few good dings in it that I have not had removed yet. These dings are why it was replaced in the first place. I am also posting the watch for sale soon and will have full size pics of both the rep and genuine CG's together for comparison. They are very similar but the OE is just finished better all around.) 7. The watch will be completed when I get my date wheel back from finepics. THAT willbe the icing on the cake! and make this a super clean watch. A HUGE THANKS to The Zigmeister for not only performing all of the work but also sourcing an OEM ETA datwheel so that I could get the watch back into working order. I decided to go ahead and post a CG reference pic after a bit of polishing on the gen. Visually they are pretty close. But, the inside of the gen is totally finished with no machine markings. The lever finish just a tad finer plus the action feels smoother and tighter as well. Also the shape and centering of the pin is noticably different. And lastly, all of the edges of the gen are straight and square. Sorry for not posting better pics, these were taking with my camera phone.

I have to agree. NO ONE is that un-savvy on an illeagle item such as a fake watch. THAT was on purpose.

BTW, yes I have seen this. I bought a brietling off of another member (one that I have done business with many times as well as met and drank with when he has been in town) but when it arrived in the mail, the rotor and screw top were rattling around in the case. So it can happen if it takes a harder that usual smack while in transit.

I removed any gears that could be damaged when pressing the cannon wheel in (I went by The Zigmeister's expert lay out in The Zigmeister's corner). I manufactured a die that fits onto my Panavise that would support the movement back and cushion the jewel while pressing the cannon wheel. I realized after I sat and thought about it that I forgot the piece of closed cellular foam (neoprene) I use to support the back of the movement and also cushions/supports the jewel. So the movement butted up to hard plastic and the jewel was not cushioned when I pressed the cannon wheel. So it broke because I was a dumbass and rushed through a job.

Thank you sir!

Ok, I was installing the cannon wheel upgrade on a swiss movement, and I must have applied a bit too much pressure this time (no problem on 3 other movments). I heard an crack instead of a snap! When I looked on the back I saw that the center wheel bearing was cracked. I strung along a goodly bit of swear words after seeing this. BUT, does anyone have a toasted movement for one of these. Maybe one of the gold movements from back in the day? Or has anyone replaced just a jewel?

+12345 I am not big on the super porno avatars AT ALL! BUT, we tend to cater to small groups that offended easily at porn, guns, whatever and then make a big stink about it. So as much as I don't like the avatars and believe it should be ones own good taste that prevents one from putting a hardcore porn avatar up, it still doesn't mean I have to right to NOT be offended and jrains87 stated. The greasy wheel gets the grease and some on here are squeeky as hell. There wasn't a rule on NOT having graphic avatars so you can't be [censored] about it. Simply make a rule and we will follow said rule.

It has been my experience that the ONLY crystal that will fit a JimmyFU case is a Jimmy Fu crystal. So NO other crystal I had fit the jimmy fu case. (this IS the nicest case BTW) Also the davidsen crystal only fit the davidsen case I have properly depth wise.

I think you get what you pay for is many instances, er....MOST instances. A cheap rep is usually just that, cheap!

Most of the rollie reps will fool even and AD when on the arm. But if you hand ti to them it will take them about a nano-second to realize it is fake. Especially if they have to force pics to line up. I PROMISE you that on a gen sub, everything is machined to where it falls into place, tightly falls into place but without forcing it.

Thanks for that heads up Finepics. That is a VERY good ting to know. I have since been told that bob is bit of a pain in the ass to deal with n matter such as this so I may have posted in haste

Crumpdaddy and myself are in the Plano area, give us a yell once in a while.

I agree whole heartedly. If you wear the watch ever, how much does it's worth really drop?

The thing is that people are buying these watches still. ESPECIALLY the ones with mods. It seems like a while back, if you modded your rep it didn't affect the resale value at all. Maybe that has changed a bit. Reps are only worth what people are willing to pay. So if people buy the reps for the higher prices then all we can do it [censored] about it. I liked getting a 40% discount on used reps too, it looks more like a %10 discoutn these days. The in the cases of the older Seamasters and 196/188 7753 the prices are higher because the newer vresion aren't near as nice so they are selling at a premium which makes sense to me.

I have bought an ass-load of parts from www.ofrei.com in the past for various Omegas that I have had repaired. But I never thought I would hear from the man himself. I blasted off and email on availability on a part for a 7753 ETA movemnt. I explained that my watchsmith was having a tough time finding a 3 o'clock register chrono gear. Bob Frei called me at home to tell that the 7751 movement parts are interchangable with the 7753 but it is not widely toughted as such by ETA. He also stated that one can use the the ETA 7751 OIL CHART on his website to get the proper part number for the parts one would need to order. But be aware that there is a $15 fee for him to check if he has a part is stock (if you are not ordering) So for you other watchsmiths out there, I hope this is useful information. Now THAT is what I call customer service.

If they are in the $700-$800 range I wold be very interested.