- 27/10/14
- 4,787
- 130
- 63
Destro time! I used to find destro PAMs a bit odd ones. Now, when my taste of watches improved - I like them.
My unit is „pass over†watch!
The „pass over†rep watch is the one of very few initial watches the maker sends over to dealers to let them take photos / movies before first batch shipment. In this case I got this kind of watch, the very exact watch used by Perfect Clones (where I got the watch from), Trusty Time and Pure Time to take photos etc. Well, I can say - my watch had an extensive QC
Something about the gen…
PAM 217 is called „destro†version of PAM 127. Anyway, there are some significant differences.
- PAM 217 is a „destro†so it has crown on the left side (PAM 127 was regular one in this regard)
- both watches are from Limited Edition runs, PAM 217 was 1000 unit series H (year 2005) while PAM 127 was 1950 units series E (year 2002). Side note: additional out of range (OOR) production for these watches were 11 units for PAM 217 and 12 units for PAM 127.
- movement’s plates are of different finish (PAM 127 has „PANERAI PANERAI …†engraved all over the bridges while PAM 217 has never finish and single OFFICINE PANERAI engravings).
- it was mentioned many times on gen reviews that sapphire crystal was improved on PAM 217 in way to minimize distortions over PAM 127 albeit no striking advantage was achieved here.
- dial has different printings: PAM 217 has MARINA MILITARE at top and PANERAI at bottom while PAM 127 has LUMINOR PANERAI at top and 1950 at bottom. A lot of Paneristis consider historic „MARINA MILITARE†something better and closer to Panerai’s DNA disliking „1950†the same time. De gustibus non est disputandum…
Conclusions about gen PAM 217 are:
- it is even more rare than PAM 127
- some people find it even nicer than PAM 127 due to classic „MARINA MILITARE†text on dial
Now let me focus on replication done by KW/V6F
- according to some information I got - production cost of curved sapphire crystal was twice as expensive as a cost of whole caseset
- step by step our demands introduced some details of replication to the mainstream - now we have INCABLOC mod as a standard
We can clearly see the manufacturing skills are there - let’s compare details rep vs gen:
SAPPHIRE
The only true way of comparing rep vs gen in this regard is to have them BOTH at the same time AND take a photos in the same position with THE SAME optical gear / camera. Strange, I cannot do that and let’s blame politicians Here we can see some photos of gen showing sapphire distortion - all GEN!:
Now KW rep of PAM 217:
As you can observe, depending on angle and optical gears photos were taken with - distortion is visible and variable in its strength. That’s the beauty of this.
HANDS
The gen hands are different to each other not only by length (obviously) but also by width of lume stripe. To me KW repped hands look OK.
CP is polished, as per gen (I look at a lot of photos of gen - it is polished).
DIAL
Dial seems to be spot on, even printings are greatly replicated with probably the right color.
Gee… reps these days become flawless…
CASE-SET
Well… I cannot see differences between KW case-set version and gen photos. Even brushing, it’s directions etc. - look spot on.
CROWN GUARD (CG) and CROWN:
Crown on gens (the knurling) look a bit softer than on rep but maybe it is a) crown already polished by countless winding of the watch or b) out of focus photos.
REG.T.M. engraving look OK on the rep, maybe slightly suspicious shape of „R†but I am becoming too picky. Location of engravings looks correct as per some of gen photos. In fact, I found some photos of gen, where REG. T.M. was not exactly aligned or one part closer to the edge etc. just take a look at these two gens:
Maybe, just maybe - the tip of CG lever is more rounded in gen but fixing this on rep is just 10 seconds of work, right:
STRAP
Rep strap is trying to resemble black alligator strap of a gen. What is new - it is the same like with KW strap for PAM 622 - after short inspection you don’t want to trash it immediately (maybe after a week or so) so quality is better than usual On photos - some nice eBay strap.
SOFT BOTTOM OF ALL OPEN CASEBACK REPS - MOVEMENT
Well, there are some advantages on this field over reps of yesterday:
- there is INCABLOC mod already installed
- the micro-regulation screw is longer
- the screws on crown wheel, spring wheel and blocking element - are flat and polished as per gen
The rest of „tells†remain untouched:
- yellow-colored gears are not brushed (on gen you can see they are circularly brushed)
- OFFICINE PANERAI is stamp printed instead of engraved and filled with paint
- wrong shape of swan neck (both „neck†and base)
- a bit too wide polished area on teeth of crown and spring wheels (too much toward the center)
- this particular movement has „6497-1†engraved under the balance wheel, which is wrong for two reasons: 6497-1 would be 18,800vph while the rep and gen uses 6497-2 which is 21,600vph obviously. The second reason of being wrong is that I just doubt it was engraved „6497-2†plus ETA logo on a gen….
LUME TORCH!
CONCLUSIONS
Reps went long way since first attempts. Is it better than Noob version? I don’t know. How it feels on a wrist? GREAT
Small gift for you all - during collecting details for this review I got some photos of Specifications and Certificate leaflets. I remade them for fun and give them to you in PDF - so You can print them out on some ivory colored paper …and probably scaling them down.
Specification.pdf
Certificate.pdf
My unit is „pass over†watch!
The „pass over†rep watch is the one of very few initial watches the maker sends over to dealers to let them take photos / movies before first batch shipment. In this case I got this kind of watch, the very exact watch used by Perfect Clones (where I got the watch from), Trusty Time and Pure Time to take photos etc. Well, I can say - my watch had an extensive QC
Something about the gen…
PAM 217 is called „destro†version of PAM 127. Anyway, there are some significant differences.
- PAM 217 is a „destro†so it has crown on the left side (PAM 127 was regular one in this regard)
- both watches are from Limited Edition runs, PAM 217 was 1000 unit series H (year 2005) while PAM 127 was 1950 units series E (year 2002). Side note: additional out of range (OOR) production for these watches were 11 units for PAM 217 and 12 units for PAM 127.
- movement’s plates are of different finish (PAM 127 has „PANERAI PANERAI …†engraved all over the bridges while PAM 217 has never finish and single OFFICINE PANERAI engravings).
- it was mentioned many times on gen reviews that sapphire crystal was improved on PAM 217 in way to minimize distortions over PAM 127 albeit no striking advantage was achieved here.
- dial has different printings: PAM 217 has MARINA MILITARE at top and PANERAI at bottom while PAM 127 has LUMINOR PANERAI at top and 1950 at bottom. A lot of Paneristis consider historic „MARINA MILITARE†something better and closer to Panerai’s DNA disliking „1950†the same time. De gustibus non est disputandum…
Conclusions about gen PAM 217 are:
- it is even more rare than PAM 127
- some people find it even nicer than PAM 127 due to classic „MARINA MILITARE†text on dial
Now let me focus on replication done by KW/V6F
- according to some information I got - production cost of curved sapphire crystal was twice as expensive as a cost of whole caseset
- step by step our demands introduced some details of replication to the mainstream - now we have INCABLOC mod as a standard
We can clearly see the manufacturing skills are there - let’s compare details rep vs gen:
SAPPHIRE
The only true way of comparing rep vs gen in this regard is to have them BOTH at the same time AND take a photos in the same position with THE SAME optical gear / camera. Strange, I cannot do that and let’s blame politicians
Here we can see some photos of gen showing sapphire distortion - all GEN!:
Now KW rep of PAM 217:
As you can observe, depending on angle and optical gears photos were taken with - distortion is visible and variable in its strength. That’s the beauty of this.
HANDS
The gen hands are different to each other not only by length (obviously) but also by width of lume stripe. To me KW repped hands look OK.
CP is polished, as per gen (I look at a lot of photos of gen - it is polished).
DIAL
Dial seems to be spot on, even printings are greatly replicated with probably the right color.
Gee… reps these days become flawless…
CASE-SET
Well… I cannot see differences between KW case-set version and gen photos. Even brushing, it’s directions etc. - look spot on.
CROWN GUARD (CG) and CROWN:
Crown on gens (the knurling) look a bit softer than on rep but maybe it is a) crown already polished by countless winding of the watch or b) out of focus photos.
REG.T.M. engraving look OK on the rep, maybe slightly suspicious shape of „R†but I am becoming too picky. Location of engravings looks correct as per some of gen photos. In fact, I found some photos of gen, where REG. T.M. was not exactly aligned or one part closer to the edge etc. just take a look at these two gens:
Maybe, just maybe - the tip of CG lever is more rounded in gen but fixing this on rep is just 10 seconds of work, right:
STRAP
Rep strap is trying to resemble black alligator strap of a gen. What is new - it is the same like with KW strap for PAM 622 - after short inspection you don’t want to trash it immediately (maybe after a week or so) so quality is better than usual
On photos - some nice eBay strap.SOFT BOTTOM OF ALL OPEN CASEBACK REPS - MOVEMENT
Well, there are some advantages on this field over reps of yesterday:
- there is INCABLOC mod already installed
- the micro-regulation screw is longer
- the screws on crown wheel, spring wheel and blocking element - are flat and polished as per gen
The rest of „tells†remain untouched:
- yellow-colored gears are not brushed (on gen you can see they are circularly brushed)
- OFFICINE PANERAI is stamp printed instead of engraved and filled with paint
- wrong shape of swan neck (both „neck†and base)
- a bit too wide polished area on teeth of crown and spring wheels (too much toward the center)
- this particular movement has „6497-1†engraved under the balance wheel, which is wrong for two reasons: 6497-1 would be 18,800vph while the rep and gen uses 6497-2 which is 21,600vph obviously. The second reason of being wrong is that I just doubt it was engraved „6497-2†plus ETA logo on a gen….
LUME TORCH!
CONCLUSIONS
Reps went long way since first attempts. Is it better than Noob version? I don’t know. How it feels on a wrist? GREAT
Small gift for you all - during collecting details for this review I got some photos of Specifications and Certificate leaflets. I remade them for fun and give them to you in PDF - so You can print them out on some ivory colored paper
…and probably scaling them down.Specification.pdf
Certificate.pdf
