Hi there

I would be grateful to get some advice on two El Primero 787's for sale- i am quite a newbie so please bear with me. I am going to start separate threads for each to hopefully avoid getting myself confused. First up is being sold by a dealer with a good history. It is reported to have original hands and dial and has been recently serviced. The bracelet is apparently original (i am a tad confused by the bracelets on the 787- as far as i can glean from my reading various forums, the ladder bracelet was the main standard, however other bracelets were possible).

The condition of the dial and hands looks good. My untrained eye thinks the case has been polished quite a bit- it looks more rounded than other examples i have seen online. Or is that just the photography? Any advice would be gratefully received.

thanks

Alex

 

ah well. looks like i am gonna have to work this out myself!

 

movement looks quite ok but the rest

 

thanks Chronoboy. you think its a bit of a turkey? eager to learn in the hope of not messing up too much!

 

At least the case is messed up but I think the rest is no better ...

 

i would not touch this with a 10 foot pole. 787s and 788s are around and easy to find unpolished and perfect and quite low values. . .why bother with anything else. this case has been tortured medieval style to an inch of its life and i think then they kept going. . .

 

the NOS stock one looks. . NOS. . either the photography is wacky on the one the original poster put up, or the curves on the case look way off compared to the picture you posted and every unpolished example i've seen. if you just drew a dark silhouette around the case from the front-on view i don't think it matches your photo at all. yours has the gently sloping "hump" on the top and bottom of the case that is very hard to miss. . .on the photographs the poster put up it looks like the bump on the head of frankenstein to me. but if the poster wants to go for it. . go for it. for a sub 5k watch which is not in the most desirable range of zeniths i don't know why one would bother with anything other than perfect (which yours is)

 

Thanks guys. Much appreciated. This forum is great! I am finding my feet at the moment in terms of buying. I will ask for some different photos to see if it sheds any more light on the matter. @LouS yours looks lovely. Really nice. Also, it makes me think more that the one i posted pics of seems off- the crown sits quite far out and slightly off centre. Again could be the pics but i wonder if this is more evidence of a hard polish. There is another NOS one online at the moment- but super expensive!

 

The lighting in the photos seems harsh and thus makes the case look worse than it probably is in real life. The brushed finish looks like it is still there as do the angled edges. There are worse A787 out there than this one.

The crown has been pulled out for the photos? It also appears to be the wrong size (smaller). Hard to be sure with these photos.

 

I reject my first comments, may be the case is not as bad as I thought when looking to the pics of the OP.
Thanks @LouS for your advice.

 

thanks @chronoboy64 i will see if i can get some different images. all sage advice.

 

i tried taking picutres of my 788 in all sorts of light

i cannot make the shape look like this no matter what i do

 

Have you tried taking photo in a lightbox? As LouS says that’s probably with the original photo was taken in. The reflection on the top of the case looks like it was caused by the led strip found in lightboxes

 

Hi there. Thanks again for the replies. Took me a while to get more pics but here they are. He took them on a phone so not super quality but they show the shape much better. @chronoboy64 @LouS @sailor @jhross98

 

It's still hard to tell but looks way better than the originals and Lou s view is looking correct...

 

So i did it... bought the watch. Here are a few more pics. Sorry only from iphone

 

The shape looks fine, not unpolished but also not over polished.

 

t

thanks i am really pleased with it. Although not perfect it suits me as i want to wear it regularly rather than have a museum piece.