Hello people!
After reading and educating myself through a full month and many trips to the AD to try on the gens I have said I learnt this:
Even though my wrist is 6.5 inches:
1. 40mm Pams (i.e 048) are way too small, even for me.
2. 42mm Radiomir cases look good (337 an 338) but are not that much on the Panerai spirit because the wire lugs and lack of CG make it look smaller than a 42mm Luminor case with full case lugs and the big CG.
**A special mention is for the 42mm Radiomir Pam 512, being manual and not automatic makes it thinner, flusher on the wrist, has non-wire lugs thus wear a tad bigger than the 337/338. Only "issue" for me is I rather have the greener lume than the "golden" one this one has.
3. 45mm cases definitively not only look too big on me (I could grow used to their looks) BUT they also are not comfortable to wear in the long term because their bigger base doesn't rest flush with the wrist skin and thus are moving around and hurting the wrist bone.
4. A black ceramic 45mm case like the Pam 384 can wear pretty good! and not massive at all on my wrist because of the black color.
5. Any 44mm WHITE luminor Marina would wear a lot bigger because of the color.
**Any non white 44mm Luminor like the Pam 000 are still wearable functionally (they don't hurt wrist) but one with a 6.5 inch wrist will have to slowly get used to it's looks. 45 and up are NOT functional/aesthetic looking for me.
6. The best size for a 6.5 (IMHO) is a 42mm case Luminor, because the lugs and CG move it towards the 44mm territory and thus appears to me to wear ideally aesthetically and functionally wise. They keep the Panerai shock factor on the size, and they don't look laughable and don't hurt the wrist.
7. The only good rep on this size and case I have found so far is Pam 392 and 535, and this last one being WAY above in quality. After reading on all forums, guides, reviews, I concluded the ZF (even better than the KW/V6F) is the better rep nowadays, it has the flush cannon pinion, the more correct spacing in the logo and the more correct color in the lume. The case appears to come in imitation titanium which is wrong (thus its brushed SS) but I hope they correct this in future releases.
Mysterio did a mini review here, and in the end it seemed no one knew were this rep came from (factory - wise):
https://forum.replica-watch.info/vb...T-Automatic-%96-42MM-quot?highlight=pam%20535
After going through the pictures and looking online I can say its NOT from KW/V6F but from ZF! the logo, brushed (wrong) SS case, color and CP are identical, even the strap!
http://www.puretime.watch/product/p...-gray-asso-strap-p9001-free-brown-asso-strap/
So next step for me will be buying this from Ryan and asking if he can source me the polished case version for this same model. If Ryan can't get the polished SS case for the ZF 5353 I will get the brushed case and have it polished in a local Machining shop. THEN I will post a non-expert review =D
I hope I can help someone with this information.
After reading and educating myself through a full month and many trips to the AD to try on the gens I have said I learnt this:
Even though my wrist is 6.5 inches:
1. 40mm Pams (i.e 048) are way too small, even for me.
2. 42mm Radiomir cases look good (337 an 338) but are not that much on the Panerai spirit because the wire lugs and lack of CG make it look smaller than a 42mm Luminor case with full case lugs and the big CG.
**A special mention is for the 42mm Radiomir Pam 512, being manual and not automatic makes it thinner, flusher on the wrist, has non-wire lugs thus wear a tad bigger than the 337/338. Only "issue" for me is I rather have the greener lume than the "golden" one this one has.
3. 45mm cases definitively not only look too big on me (I could grow used to their looks) BUT they also are not comfortable to wear in the long term because their bigger base doesn't rest flush with the wrist skin and thus are moving around and hurting the wrist bone.
4. A black ceramic 45mm case like the Pam 384 can wear pretty good! and not massive at all on my wrist because of the black color.
5. Any 44mm WHITE luminor Marina would wear a lot bigger because of the color.
**Any non white 44mm Luminor like the Pam 000 are still wearable functionally (they don't hurt wrist) but one with a 6.5 inch wrist will have to slowly get used to it's looks. 45 and up are NOT functional/aesthetic looking for me.
6. The best size for a 6.5 (IMHO) is a 42mm case Luminor, because the lugs and CG move it towards the 44mm territory and thus appears to me to wear ideally aesthetically and functionally wise. They keep the Panerai shock factor on the size, and they don't look laughable and don't hurt the wrist.
7. The only good rep on this size and case I have found so far is Pam 392 and 535, and this last one being WAY above in quality. After reading on all forums, guides, reviews, I concluded the ZF (even better than the KW/V6F) is the better rep nowadays, it has the flush cannon pinion, the more correct spacing in the logo and the more correct color in the lume. The case appears to come in imitation titanium which is wrong (thus its brushed SS) but I hope they correct this in future releases.
Mysterio did a mini review here, and in the end it seemed no one knew were this rep came from (factory - wise):
https://forum.replica-watch.info/vb...T-Automatic-%96-42MM-quot?highlight=pam%20535
After going through the pictures and looking online I can say its NOT from KW/V6F but from ZF! the logo, brushed (wrong) SS case, color and CP are identical, even the strap!
http://www.puretime.watch/product/p...-gray-asso-strap-p9001-free-brown-asso-strap/
So next step for me will be buying this from Ryan and asking if he can source me the polished case version for this same model. If Ryan can't get the polished SS case for the ZF 5353 I will get the brushed case and have it polished in a local Machining shop. THEN I will post a non-expert review =D
I hope I can help someone with this information.
