Are you sure it's that risky to BUY a rep? Selling I can see you getting in shit for, but buying they can't prove you even knew you were buying a fake. Tell them you spent $5000 on it lol

IMO there's no difference between a homage and a replica other having to avoid copyright, so you might as well get the one that is actually trying to be as close to the original as possible LUL

The idea of replacing the fake parts with genuine ones does have some appeal. Especially the sandwich dial because the cheaper PAMs have cutouts that are a bit too thick.

You need a white guy name on your parcel Hobz... no one will look at it... happy to offer my lineage for you.

Here's a nice homage pilot watch using a Seagull ST19 chrono movement.. $500 includes 2 year warranty. It should be be lubricated and regulated too

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/12...F2229_540x.jpg

I still think it would be better to go with a Seiko mecha-quartz at this range, but a fully mechanical chrono for $200 or even $500 is just :fulloffuck:

The $150 ones I got from Taobao all have "warranty" from the platform. If it breaks in a certain reasonable period and the seller refuse to take it back or fix it, you can report it to the platform and they'll essentially refund your money. I don't know about aliX return policy but Taobao is B2C and very customer first. Kind of like amazon, if anything happens, they'll shaft the seller 10x over before they side against the buyer.

The chrono works perfectly on both of mine. The only quality issue I had was the first white dial version I bought had a loose chrono hand that would wobble back and forth if I shake it hard in either direction. I returned that and got a replacement but that replacement had some excess glue on the dial from the acrylic dome glue. The third replacement was perfect. The panda dial version was flawless from day one. The return shipping for the 3 replacements were all covered by the platform too.

I hope my posts aren't come across as argumentative or negative.. I was just sharing my thoughts is all. I hope you share more pics here!

i appreciate the offer gents, but i think ill stay away from the rep world for now. I did A LOT of reading on reddit and forums and its a whole new scary world for me.

chinamenz are crazy when it comes to these super clones. so much effort into making a fake, why not just make a really good chinese watch then? id buy it.

it worked perfectly on mine too... until it didnt. It broke in 5 months. But aliexpress did give me back 90% of my money so i only spent like 30 bucks on the watch. My big mistake was trying to fix it myself. I ham fisted it and its in a million pieces now.

I suggest you not use the chrono at all. its delicate. Below was the video i sent to aliexpress as evidence.

https://youtube.com/shorts/d_uJePpxDaw?feature=share

^^^ Plenty of good watches are made in China.. Probably most of Swatch Group's lineup (except the movements)! EleGiggle

(edit: didn't write the actual main group name.. first post of the morning lol)

I walked by the Daniel Wellington (not labelled and discreet) factory in Shenzhen when I was there in 2016ish... lol

Omega's factory will be even more discreet Kappa

The crown/stem came off of my squale watch.

Do you guys have any recommendations for a local watch repair shop to fix it?

^ German Watchmaker in Yaletown. Did it just pull completely out or did the crown unscrew from the stem?

If it didn't break and just unscrewed, add the tiniest touch of threadlock on the stem and just screw the crown back on to the stem.

The crown completely pulled out. I’ll give the German watchmakers a call and ask for an estimate. Thanks!

Oh don't worry, never took it as being negative. Just sharing my experience too. I think Taobao is probably the premiere platform in terms of chinese ecom sites, they also ship overseas but it's quite difficult to get an account for overseas users.

Ya looks pretty broken haha. I'm guessing mine's on its way too, luckily I don't really use the chrono function. Good that aliexpress refunded a large portion of it though.

Someone did a comparison of the official and unofficial 1963 if anyone's interested

it kept REALLY accurate time when it was working. But then it started doing weird things like the red chrono hand moving by itself, unable to reset the chrono hand, and eventually just stopping all together. pushers didnt do anything and i borked it further by trying to "fix it"

sooo mines an offical ? and it still broke in 6 months? FeelsBadManFeelsBadMan

Just doing some lazy Saturday browsing, going through the Panerai current catalog, and thought I'd share some of the info here...

From what I can tell, the closest design of the original Rolex Ref 3646 that Panerai sold to the Italian Navy, which you can buy brand new at a dealer today is the PAM1334 Radiomir "3 day":

https://www.panerai.com/content/dam/..._image_768.png

Here's an original Rolex 3646 from the 40's, with the aluminum dial (they started with plastic but quickly switched to aluminum as the plastic would melt, presumably due to the radiation)

https://www.collectorsquare.com/imag...nerai-3646.jpg

The current Radiomir models only go up to 45mm, while the originals were 47mm

The first Rolex with a crown guard was the Rolex 6152/1 made for the Carabinieri Sommozzatori military division in 1958.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FvbxsnpakAAno88.jpg

Note that this is also when they started using integrated lugs, rather than wire lugs

This watch is #1 of the series, and sold at auction in HK for $1m HKD last year (about $125K USD).

They switched to Luminor shortly after that though. Only the first watch in this category is known to use Radiomir. The rest would be labeled "Luminor Panerai" 2 lines only. Later modified Rolexes would also have "Marina Militare". Sometimes they would have both (4 lines)

https://worldoftime.azureedge.net/wo...eb06484_44.jpg

They don't currently offer a Luminor with 2 lines of printing, so if you don't want a logo instead, 3 lines is as close as you'll get, with the PAM914 (the one I posted a replica of while ago). This has the 8 day movement, which is what the "8 Giorni" label represents.

https://www.panerai.com/content/dam/.../9/1976979.png

Here's an interesting one. What was the first non Rolex Panerai watch?

If you include prototypes, that would be the Mare Nostrum chronograph, using an Angelus 215 movement. This 52mm prototype was made in 1955, although Panerai claimed it was 1944 when they started making homages of it, for some reason.

https://watchengines.files.wordpress...strum_2005.jpg

They have released homages to this, but currently there are none listed

The first non prototype "actually Panerai" was made a year later, for the Egyptian Navy, the GPF 2/56. It carries a lot of the design elements familiar with current models in both the dial (with the seconds hand at 9 and the "8 day patented" logo at 3) as well as the rotating bezel. To compete with automatic watches of the 50's, they started using an Angelus table clock movement which could provide 8 days of service. That's the "8 days patented".

Also note this is actually where the crown guard first showed up.

https://www.9maiali.com/images/blog/...7GPF256_02.jpg

Again, they don't make anything too similar to this one, but any Submersible will have some familiar design elements. They are much smaller, topping out at 47mm while the original was 60mm.

If there's a "quintessential Panerai" look, it would actually be a Submersible with a Radiomir style dial. The cushion case we know and love is a Rolex design. That's why I joke that Panerai is just a Rolex homage company Kappa

https://www.panerai.com/content/dam/..._image_768.png

After that, they stopped selling Rolex in the 60's, Giuseppe died in the 70's, and the company kind of sat around in a stagnant state in terms of watches (they still made military components, but with the end of the Soviet union, this was dying as well) until they popped up again in 1992 and started making homages of their old Rolex designs (and even some homages of the GPF prototypes mentioned above), except in a more modest 44mm size.

The first of these was the Panerai Logo Ref 5218-201/A, using an ETA 6497 movement. This is the watch Stallone "discovered". He sold one of them at auction, saying it's the one he randomly found in Rome. Actually he got 5 of them from Panerai, 4 of them to wear during the filming of Daylight. Those ones were going to be branded "Slytech" but apparently they couldn't switch the dials in time for filming.

https://watchbox-cdn.imgix.net/poste...01A-339744.jpg

Note that it's not a "sandwich dial"

The Richemont version of Panerai has brought out the "Base Logo" model a few times, with and without a sandwich dial. The current one is PAM1086, for $8200 MSRP (original was $1300 in 1993)

https://www.panerai.com/content/dam/..._image_768.png

Sylvester Stallone "discovered" them shortly after. Actually it was a rep for Richemont (which was a secret at the time) who pitched the watch to Bruce Willis, Arnie and Stallone, and it caught on with the latter. He never did become an actual rep for the company, even though he basically put them on the map. This was their cost though - They developed these watches for him at a time where they could barely afford it. When it came to do an actual launch, he ghosted them. That led to them being very popular, but very broke, and forced to sell to Richemont. His relationship with Richemont seems to have gotten even worse, and you'll rarely if ever see him wearing one anymore (he still wears great watches though, he's often seen with a vintage Daytona)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/wp...PLASH-2022.jpg

PS I started this post saying that the closest you can get to the original Rolex today is the PAM1334, but Richemont attempted to get even closer in 1997 with the PAM21. They used movements similar to the original Rolex/Cortebert caliber 618, and on the outside looks like the original Rolex 3646:

https://cdn10.bigcommerce.com/s-5vlu....1280.1280.jpg

They came up with a story that they came across 60 pieces of New Old Stock of these Rolex movements, which upon closer inspection turned out to be false. They are indeed NOS, but they are Cortebert movements made for 1930's pocket watches, not Rolex. Still close as you'll get without buying a 70 year old radioactive watch, but yet another lie from this shitty company who actually have an amazing history. They just choose not to tell it.

*note I am just sort of blurting out stuff from my mind, and this is just a forum post and not a fully researched article!

Had a dream once that I had found a vintage pre-vendome Panerai at a thrift store junk watch bag or garage sale lol

That actually happened to a guy in Sarajevo! Pre-pre-Vendome actually... It was one of the anonymous Rolex Error Proof dials made during the Nazi occupation. He got it for cheap, posted it on Facebook, and when people found out what it was they all tried to buy it from him. It was eventually picked up by this guy for a fair price and partly restored

https://watchengines.files.wordpress...-in-bosnia.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fve8UmgaQAA4QFQ.jpg

Great writeup, really enjoyed reading about that and want to dig in more.

Interesting timing too, I have had a tab open on a browser window to a Panerai for months now that I keep going and looking at... really enjoy clicking over and taking it in every now and then even though I'm unlikely to ever buy it lol

This is the model I like with the subtle bit of blue:
https://cdn2.jomashop.com/media/cata...546&height=546

That's nice with the touch of blue

They make absolutely beautiful watches, but I don't want to give those goons my money lol

A 40th bday watch is now off the table due to finances but I was after a longines big eye chrono... specifically this one on marketplace, https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...41072004906885

His bottomline is 2k and this was a month ago so you might be able to get him down some more if anyone is interested. Cheapest I've seen it for retail is $2500+ taxes

Love the big eye. I went over this before, but that's a perfect Chrono layout if you want the most legible minutes possible (except a big minutes hand of course, there's a few out there)

Is that seller reputable? Seems risky buying on Facebook of all places

Apparently there is a receipt from Time & Gold along with original box and papers

Matched his photos along current known reps of the watch and it looks authentic. Of course, you can always meet him at Time & Gold or a watch maker that does authentication