I'd never spend anything close to 1k on a rep, regardless mods or not. You can have a beat up 000 for 3.5k which with a bit of love and care will serve you for life, rather than something that has zero to nil lasting value ....
The reps made today are not your grandfathers rep. if serviced and also taken cared of they will last just as long. The Asian movement where not as robust as the ETA are still good enough that if properly maintained will last longer than the watch will be in your collection. As for value appreciation, if the timepiece is rare enough and built right it will hold its value and in some cases appreciate in value. Take Davidson and EL's old school watches, if not for the new noob watches, were selling and in some cases are still selling for more now than when they were introduced years ago, so yes in some cases there is lasing value.
The question on the high price, well in my case that price would only be for a Swiss ETA movement watch that would rival the gen in robustness and longevity. When I build the Swiss ETA version of my watches, 90% of the movement is ETA. I don't need to tell you how hard it is to source ETA parts and how rare they are getting, hence the higher cost.
Not to mention all the time and craftsmanship to do all the mods properly. Any one can buy a closed case watch, but for me and I am sure many others, what attracted me to Panerai was the open case back and the beauty and simplicity of the movement and now with all their new in house movements the hidden complexity of a movement that in looking though the rear crystal still looks simple.
These are no longer those cheap Canal Street replica watches that people were ashamed to wear, these are rare fine timepieces with replicated Panerai adornments to mimic the real thing at a price that most regular people can afford. Where not valued anywhere near as the real thing at a .5% cost of its genuine counterpart a good value for those of us who appreciate the hobby and how far it has come. :cheers:
