Panerai 5218-201A - almost there......?

[fishgodeep]

2nd out of the box back from Ziggy - my 5218 201a.

This started life as one of Davidsen's latest pieces but has had the following "cosmetic surgery"

Swiss ETA 6497- unmodified

Ziggy has re-painted and lumed the dial - slightly aged finish and toned down aged tritium lume with non-matching hands

Thick Palp crown fitted

Non AR crystal fitted

Case and CG - scuffed a bit for 15 years+ wear and tear

Case back scruffed a bit and removed the paint filling the 018 serial number

Now the strap has also had some serious attention -

Started as a Toscana vintage military calf 26mm

V has spent some serious time condtioning the leather and re-creating 15 years of wear.

V also cut the strap down to 24mm - leaving some nice looking rough and "old edges"

Finally V fitted a rep buckle from a strap I purchased from Rolli- IMHO a damn good looking pre-vendome logo buckle.

There's one last thing I want to do to this to try and improve the look of the dial - it was too risk to try and widen the indices and close the gaps on the loops on 6 and 9.

I found this old article on paneristi which has a table showing the different process / materials used by Panerai when luming pre-vendome and Pre-A dials.

http://www.paneristi.com/archives/PreA_Pan..._A_Panerai.html

Reading this article it would seem the key to achieving a fat tritium lume look is down to the painting of the vertical edges and a finish with varnish ....Has anyone had good results varnishing a 5218 201a dial or similar

Ziggy ....is this within your scope ?

Thanks to all the members who assisted on this piece.

Enjoy

[VDBroucke]

very nice i wont to

[earlgrey-erfurt]

very nice work, and seems you have good contact to people in rwg

helmut

[Cucumber_Jones]

Mine on the left and gen on the right.

Edited July 24, 2007 by Cucumber_Jones

[V]

Beautiful watch Simon.. I believe that the strap with this buckle is a great combo with this watch

Enjoy it

[swdivad]

Here's a great guide for you:

http://www.paneristi.com/archives/PreA_Pan..._A_Panerai.html

[V]

Here's a great guide for you:

http://www.paneristi.com/archives/PreA_Pan..._A_Panerai.html

Simon had this link in his original post... I think this is a webpage most of the serious collectors have learned by heart now

[fishgodeep]

Mine on the left and gen on the right.

...Mr CJ ...is that a oldskool DSN dial or something else......?

Have you done any widening of indices , varnish etc ..?

Appreciate feeback when you get chance.

FGD

[Cucumber_Jones]

Gen one Davidsen dial with enzo filled indexes. The case is Gen two davidsen. It is AWESOME!