Thinking of buying an 1950 fiddy

[totalwise]

Hi

Got seduced by the fiddy.

I've seen many high quality fiddies being sold in rwg around $700 price range. way out of my budget.

Saw the davidsen is selling them for $460 a pop, high modded and got a lot of work done.

Seems like they're as good as the $700 ones sold by members.

Do the davidsen fiddies have much work more mods or work done to them? as far as I know they've been pressure tested at 3ATM, superlumed, genuine swiss movement etc.

[PeteM]

DSN is a very nice Fiddy mate but doesnt really compare with the EL Fiddy when appropriately modded. But as you are on a budget then yes the DSN is a great chance to own and wear a very nice rep of the Fiddy.

I am not sure which ones you are referring too but yes I agree that some I have seen are over priced not by much but defintely too much, however the ones you have seen may come with straps that would add a large amount potentially.

If you cant tell the differences and they dont bother you then get the DSN and enjoy it...

Good luck mate

[babola]

Seems like they're as good as the $700 ones sold by members.

Sorry mate, but this statement couldn't be further from the truth

...

Ditto what Pete said. PAM127 reps these days are luck of a draw with many 'issues', some smaller than others. Unfortunately DSN ones aren't an exception and there's no easy fix to it, depending on how close to the real thing you'd like your Fiddy to be.

Most noticeable are incorrect case corners and lack of sharpness (rounded instead of pointy corners), unfinished area around the lugs, wrong dial txt color and substandard crystal with "coke-bottle-bottom" effect making the numerals and markers looking smaller and squashed towards the dial center.

Honpo/EL/River Fiddy from the past is another story altogether. I always firmly believed the factory that made the Fiddy that Honpo and EL used to distribute from must have had a genuine for a sample. The level of finish and closeness to the genuine was hardly ever matched with any Panerai rep that followed.

Sadly these were gone from the market in late 2007, and good ones (upgraded mov't to E-series, A/R removed, case re-brushed, CG refinished, hands upgraded to DSN ones, dial relumed) would have cost you a pretty penny these days, as you said $600-700 could source you a nice one, like the one Kool_Watch sold last week in RWG sale section.

Have fun and good luck :-)

Edited April 14, 2010 by babola