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One more grail finished - Panerai PAM40Bt w/ FGD PreA T-S-T marina dial


w0lf

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Hi Guys,

One more project put away, and this time it's my grail titanium watch :wub: If I could only have one gen titanium PAM it would be this one. I'm very grateful to FGD for making the Marina PreA dial and to our own resident wizard The Zigmeister for putting this one together. :clapping: I know there's only about 5 or 6 of these accounted for in the wild, and most likely the 'Risti know all the owners and millesimations by heart. But I just had to have this one. Special thanks to Kbiz for the EL buckle, it's pretty much as good as the gen Ti buckle. :drinks:

This is the watch I was trying to recreate - reference mill.#083/200

Parts/mods list:

- FGD v1 PreA marina t-s-t dial, this one needs no introduction - it's a masterpiece, plain and simple.

- 2006 PAM176 caseset with gen-like small and squished strap notch and elongated lugs

- Oldschool Ti CG, lever tightened, pin flattened and beveled per ref., fitted to case snugly.

(I went through 3 or 4 casesets before I found this CG, I don't know who made this one but it's the best I've seen)

- OEM PAM Ti crown for 1.2mm tap

- Custom crown tube mfg. by The Zigmeister

- DSN's latest and very impressive 3.5mm thick A/R-less sapphire

- DSN's latest Marina handset, really the best rep handset out there, masterfully re-lumed by The Zigmeister per ref.

- ETA6497-1 w/ polished H3 CP

- OEM Black semimat alligator, period correct

- 2006 EL Ti buckle

post-11419-127456841466_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127456841585_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127456841724_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127456841842_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127456841958_thumb.jpg

post-11419-127465122336_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127465195329_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127465195442_thumb.jpgpost-11419-127465122444_thumb.jpg

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One word mate - impressive!

That crown guard really is out of ordinary when it comes to rep Ti CGs. The whole look and feel screams - GEN! :good:

On the case note, it's actually an early EL-type case with stumpy lugs (at least that's what the picture above projects) ...if it were S/S it would have been perfect for pre-V proj. I have it in S/S currently hosting my 001B-L, still sitting on the fence weather to use it for 201/A proj or wait for one of Kruzer's :g:

cheers and enjoy!

b

Edited by babola
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Thanks guys, your seal of approval is icing on the cake :victory:

B, I'll take another picture of the case with lug profile showing level with the camera. It's a strange case, at first I thought it was EL too, the lugs are not as shapely and straight as JF or Gen for sure. However, while being too curvy, they're actually longer than lugs of my EL SS cases. I was scratching my head too but I doubt I'll be able to find a better case for this project short of going to a gen case set. I had 4 cases to pick from an this one is 90% there.

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Thanks guys, your seal of approval is icing on the cake :victory:

B, I'll take another picture of the case with lug profile showing level with the camera. It's a strange case, at first I thought it was EL too, the lugs are not as shapely and straight as JF or Gen for sure. However, while being too curvy, they're actually longer than lugs of my EL SS cases. I was scratching my head too but I doubt I'll be able to find a better case for this project short of going to a gen case set. I had 4 cases to pick from an this one is 90% there.

It almost looks like the original 036 case Joshua sold

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Thanks guys, a few more pics added to show the lug shape and lume. I can't take this thing off my wrist now :)

P.S. Rolli, I think you were the first one with the PAM40 on the forums, after I saw your watch about two years ago I knew right then and there I had to build one too :drinks:

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Well, never say never, right :) But I'd like to enjoy it a bit. I pondered varnish coating the dial but from my past experiences it rarely is a worthwhile endeavor and The Zigmeister concurred when I asked him about it. The dial may acquire excess texture or change colors from rich black to charcoal grey or worse - dark brown. So I think I'm going to leave it stock especially since it looks like this in direct sun :thumbsupsmileyanim: -

pam40.jpg

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Thanks very much for this super-generous offer, S! :bounce: It would be interesting to compare next to each other.

P.S. I find that this page on Panerai Carpe Diem is the best page to showcase PreA dial texture. It's actually meant to show close ups of hands but as a welcome side effect you can observe dials close up.

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I pondered varnish coating the dial but from my past experiences it rarely is a worthwhile endeavor and The Zigmeister concurred when I asked him about it. The dial may acquire excess texture or change colors from rich black to charcoal grey or worse - dark brown. So I think I'm going to leave it stock especially since it looks like this in direct sun :thumbsupsmileyanim: -

+1

Having been there and done that with my FGD Pre-A 001 dial, I can only concur. My intention was to apply a double coat of matte varnish to increase depth of the black color of the dial, instead the result was completely opposite. The dial lost the color sharpness, and at most angles projected as dark gray, even brownish.

I wasn't happy with the result so I removed the varnish with white spirit, as Simon suggested. The result is much better, very very close to gen pre-A dial texture.

These are the only two photos of my unfinished pre-A 001 that I have, as like many others I'm patiently awaiting Simon's pre-V/pre-A hands to materialize :)

The dial has all the varnish removed and is mainly flat black, under extreme angle becomes slightly gray and textured.

Sorry for bad photos...

P1060845.jpg

P1060844.jpg

Compared to a gen pre-A 002:

IMGP8746.jpg

w0lf, as you could learn from my mistake I'd forgo the varnish in this situation, if I were you...but up to you bud!

Or at least don't overdo it as I did, one swipe in single direction than another in opposite direction should be more than enough.

cheers!

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