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$11 PANERAI ??

benguin

Getting To Know The Place
1/9/07
20
0
0
The moment I'm sure you've all been waiting for!

What's inside my $11 Banana PAM???

Well, just yesterday, my crown was getting really really hard to turn to adjust the time. Almost impossible to move in either direction, almost cutting my fingers trying to budge it.

So I decided to open 'er up. Never opened a watch of any kind before. But I folllowed some tips on this forum and was able to open the caseback and remove a few parts and check it out.


A few notes and surprises:

- I used the duct tape method to remove the caseback - just a thick wad and press down and turn counterclockwise - easier than I thought.

- Maybe I was dreaming of seeing a fully decorated Swiss ETA movement, so when I looked inside ----- WTF??

- Can anybody tell me what kind of movement this is???

- When I removed the crown stem (by pressing on the tiny button), a little mysterious black object popped out. I don't have any idea what it is - at first I thought it was a dead bug.

- I played with the automatic movement a while and it seemed to be acting funny. I thought it moves just based on simple gravity. But here's what it would do sometimes - if I manually turned it a half-turn clockwise, it would spring back and turn a full turn conter-clockwise. If I did a full clockwise, it would do two times counter-clockwise. Almost like an old rotary telephone. Is this normal?

- I lifted out the entire movement and removed it from the case by just prying it out.

- I was SHOCKED when I saw the front of the dial. It was WHITE, not YELLOW??

- I looked at the crystal and sure enough, it was tinted a deep yellow.

- So the dial wasn't yellow, the crystal was?!? Anybody see this before??

- Still shocked, I put everything back together and the case back on successfully. Everything except that strange little black foamy rubbery bug-type thingy.

- My first time surgery was successful - and my crown seems to be turning a whole lot smoother now too. Also, as an added bonus - it seems that I can now turn the crown counter-clockwise and manually wind my automatic as well!


Well, I hope you enjoyed my exclusvie review of the PAM00$11 !!! :D








 

hooligan

Mythical Poster
Advisor
24/6/06
8,332
3
38
Looks like an Asian (probably Seagull) auto movement to me.

Weird bit about the crystal being yellow and the dial being white. :lol:
 

pineypl

Active Member
25/6/07
252
0
0
Looks like the seal that goes on the crown stem is that little black bit.
 

benguin

Getting To Know The Place
1/9/07
20
0
0
but where does that little black bugger fit and what does it do? help seal the case and make it water-resistant?

and why is it shaped liked that?

i guess i can't go diving with this watch :?
 

takashi

Legendary Member
4/4/06
11,500
10
0
Well... it may be the rubber gasket on caseback, I would not recommend you to take this watch near water...
 

drhydro

Active Member
23/3/06
306
0
0
I'm with pineypl- looks like it might be the crown seal, in somewhat altered (read buggered) form- should be a tiny flat gasket that seals against the crown tube, in the recess on the case side of the crown down near its base. Is that in place or not?
 

benguin

Getting To Know The Place
1/9/07
20
0
0
There is nothing where the crown seal should be. So you're probably right that it was the rubber seal that got all mangled.

But since I removed that little bugger, my crown is turning much more easily.

And by the way, even with such a cheap movement - my watch keeps EXCELLENT time!