So after waiting for little over 3 weeks I finally received my PAM 127 from SEAD today.
He offered this one for sale as being Old Skool and in good running condition since it was new.
When opening the envelope with the watch in it, I was kind of nervous about how it would look like.
I got some pics from SEAD but in real life it is always different....
The first impression was that the watch looked okay but upon closer inspection there were some minor flaws of which one of the CG screws falling out was the most disappointing one.
Luckily I could retrieve the screw but I could not manage to get it back in again and having it stay in.
And if that wasn't enough, the watch suddenly stopped running all together as well, after I had already noticed that it had been steadily loosing time during the 40 minutes after I wound it 25 rotations to get it going.
This was turning out into a disaster even faster than I could say Panerai.
I decided to give my friendly neighborhood watch-smith a call and ask him to help me out with the 127.
He said that I could come over and that he would take a look at it.
After a 20 minute drive I arrived there and he started out with the CG screws.
5 minutes later both screws were back in place and secured tight.
Then he proceeded with the examination of the 127 and found rather quickly that the balance spring was not properly installed.
I made a pic and where the white arrow points it is visible what was wrong.
Also notice the excess amount of yellow paint on the word Officine.
He put the watch on the timegrapher and the result was not good.....no more than 145 degrees amplitude and loosing 46 secs a day.
He then proceeded to examine the 127 further and concluded that the movement was bone dry and needed to be lubricated, which would be logical since it had been lying around at SEAD's for quite some time as overstock.
After agreeing on the cost of this work he immediately started to dismantle the movement to clean and lubricate it.
(I was lucky that another customer got stuck in traffic for almost 2 hours which gave him time to work on my 127)
The balance wheel and spring
Work in progress.....
After putting the movement together again he put the 127 back on the timegrapher and lo and behold....it ran like a charm!
Finally there was some excess yellow paint removed at the Panerai engraving on the backside and both lug screws where shortened and polished flush.
After all that work, I returned home with my perfect running PAM 127 and 100 Euros lighter.
Finally I could take some nice pics of my latest addition even though the light was already fading fast outside.
Next to my HBB King 48 mm
Frontal view
Rear view
Wrist shot
So, what is the moral of this story?
I guess that you can safely say that any movement in any new replica should always be examined by a watch-smith, even though it may run fine after you get it.
When it is necessary to fix the watch, do not hesitate and have it fixed.
It is quicker than sending it back to the TD and not knowing what has been done to resolve the problems.
And last but not least: If you want a perfect replica there are always things that can be improved, it depends on how high you set your standards.
I want a lume job and maybe a colorless AR coating to make this one acceptable to my standards....when that happens I'll post it in this thread.
Thank you for reading this far!
He offered this one for sale as being Old Skool and in good running condition since it was new.
When opening the envelope with the watch in it, I was kind of nervous about how it would look like.
I got some pics from SEAD but in real life it is always different....
The first impression was that the watch looked okay but upon closer inspection there were some minor flaws of which one of the CG screws falling out was the most disappointing one.
Luckily I could retrieve the screw but I could not manage to get it back in again and having it stay in.
And if that wasn't enough, the watch suddenly stopped running all together as well, after I had already noticed that it had been steadily loosing time during the 40 minutes after I wound it 25 rotations to get it going.
This was turning out into a disaster even faster than I could say Panerai.
I decided to give my friendly neighborhood watch-smith a call and ask him to help me out with the 127.
He said that I could come over and that he would take a look at it.
After a 20 minute drive I arrived there and he started out with the CG screws.
5 minutes later both screws were back in place and secured tight.
Then he proceeded with the examination of the 127 and found rather quickly that the balance spring was not properly installed.
I made a pic and where the white arrow points it is visible what was wrong.
Also notice the excess amount of yellow paint on the word Officine.
He put the watch on the timegrapher and the result was not good.....no more than 145 degrees amplitude and loosing 46 secs a day.
He then proceeded to examine the 127 further and concluded that the movement was bone dry and needed to be lubricated, which would be logical since it had been lying around at SEAD's for quite some time as overstock.
After agreeing on the cost of this work he immediately started to dismantle the movement to clean and lubricate it.
(I was lucky that another customer got stuck in traffic for almost 2 hours which gave him time to work on my 127)
The balance wheel and spring
Work in progress.....
After putting the movement together again he put the 127 back on the timegrapher and lo and behold....it ran like a charm!
Finally there was some excess yellow paint removed at the Panerai engraving on the backside and both lug screws where shortened and polished flush.
After all that work, I returned home with my perfect running PAM 127 and 100 Euros lighter.
Finally I could take some nice pics of my latest addition even though the light was already fading fast outside.
Next to my HBB King 48 mm
Frontal view
Rear view
Wrist shot
So, what is the moral of this story?
I guess that you can safely say that any movement in any new replica should always be examined by a watch-smith, even though it may run fine after you get it.
When it is necessary to fix the watch, do not hesitate and have it fixed.
It is quicker than sending it back to the TD and not knowing what has been done to resolve the problems.
And last but not least: If you want a perfect replica there are always things that can be improved, it depends on how high you set your standards.
I want a lume job and maybe a colorless AR coating to make this one acceptable to my standards....when that happens I'll post it in this thread.
Thank you for reading this far!
