Hi all. Wanted to give everyone a backstage look at a project we’ve been working on for a while and maybe explain myself to some of the purists out there haha. I first got into reps around 2005 after a trip to China. After that, I got into gens, but I pissed off enough ex-girlfriends with my expenditures that I finally came back to reps about two years ago. This site has been a wealth of information for me and helped me get back in the saddle with incredible resources, great people, and a lot of late night reading – Thanks for all that you do!
After amassing about 20 pieces, a thought occurred to me about what creates value, brand identity and what a watch actually says about an individual. High quality, low production items always carry a premium, but the step beyond that is aftermarket customization. Sometimes I think people get overly obsessed with accurate versus inaccurate – and while that is an important part of this hobby (and has dramatically improved the production in recent years), sometimes we get a little too eagle-eyed IMHO and sweat the small stuff a tad too much. Now with something as elegant as a watch, customization can’t be a 5 foot high spoiler or ground effects or even twenty more jets in your shower. It has to be subtle yet have a purpose, but still catch the eye.
As these ideas were swimming in my head, I came across a German company called Blaken – website here: https://www.blaken.com/en/home -- this is more popular on the Rolex side, but there isn’t too much on the PAM side although I’m sure some if not most are familiar with it. The idea seemed simple enough – bespoke watches based on their DLC technology with personalized input from their customers. If other people are doing this with gens, why can’t we do it on reps?? But their focus was on Rollies, and I frankly have never been too impressed with the watches or the brand image.
Conspicuously placed in that assortment of pieces are a couple of Luminors. Be still my heart! A little more digging, and I found a couple of articles about custom builds:
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2012/05/29/blaken-panerai-verarena/#slide-4
http://www.totalwatchreviews.com/2013/12/30/blaken-panerai-luminor-base-pam112/
Along with some other examples:
Customization is a dangerous thing – not everyone likes the same cup of tea and you’re bound to turn someone off with a design cue – and you’ll never get your money out of it. But that’s not the point. Its about having something that is “yours†and offset from the mainstream, if only just a tad. I’m not sure if I would ever have the balls to do this on a gen, but a rep screams for some bespoke love.
The white dial really started to appeal to me as all but one of my PAMs are black or tobacco dials and the white makes color pop off of the face. Still more digging, I found some inspiration:
With more pics and article here: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2012/08/21/blaken-panerai-luminor-marina-tricolor/
Red, white and blue – hold the phone! July 4th is by far my favorite holiday and I am always on the lookout to start an enthused “U.S.A!†chant. Obnoxiously American, but we need that every once in a while haha. And where better to plant a flag than an Italian inspired timepiece?
The only problem with the above design, is that I have plenty of DLC/Ceramic/PVD watches and plenty of steel ones. What about Titanium? What about a white dialed titanium? Good luck – not much out there to choose from. But when the extreme reduction on the 8 Day Luminors happened in October 2014, inspiration struck again and with a cheap price tag.
The idea was to take the white dial of the 563, put it into the 564 case and repaint the hands and indices to make this idea a reality. I contacted Vac and explained the project. I’m sure he furrowed his brow more than once, but he was awesome.
I went through Vac’s page on here and noticed he had just come out with a new titanium case finish called “stone washed:â€
I tried to add it (rather, Vac did all the heavy lifting) and he found out that the quality of the titanium was different than on previous models – something to keep in mind I guess with some of the new titanium offerings.
After a few months of waiting, arrived in my email photos from Vac of the finished product and I was not disappointed:
I dub thee, "the 'Merica Panerai."
Now for the strap – that has been pretty difficult for me to decide. I like skins like croc, gator, shark, ostrich & snake and shy away from ammo or plain leather. The colors on this could run the gamut – dark cocoa brown, golden honey brown, black, white, grey, multiple shades of blue or red – the possibilities are endless and run in multiple directions. Let’s see some shoes on this bad boy:
Mounted on Man’s Area pigskin strap:
On Kane Heritage shark:
On grey Panatime toad:
On red lizard:
My friends, I think we have a winner:
I guess the moral of this story is that we sometimes obsess over the “tells†on reps and design flaws, craftsmanship flaws and over the top “what were you thinking?†mistakes from the factories. More importantly, there is an option with these watches to make something shine despite the mistakes we accept as being part of the rep game. I can’t say enough about Vac and the quality of his work – anyone who has worked with him will you tell you the same and I’m incredibly appreciative of his attention to detail.
I hope this inspires people to take off their critical glasses in the world of reps and create something that speaks to them for their own personality and enjoyment. The sky is the limit with these and I think it makes just as big of a statement as what watch you decide to wear today.
Here she is with the rest of the PAMily:
Thanks for reading!
After amassing about 20 pieces, a thought occurred to me about what creates value, brand identity and what a watch actually says about an individual. High quality, low production items always carry a premium, but the step beyond that is aftermarket customization. Sometimes I think people get overly obsessed with accurate versus inaccurate – and while that is an important part of this hobby (and has dramatically improved the production in recent years), sometimes we get a little too eagle-eyed IMHO and sweat the small stuff a tad too much. Now with something as elegant as a watch, customization can’t be a 5 foot high spoiler or ground effects or even twenty more jets in your shower. It has to be subtle yet have a purpose, but still catch the eye.
As these ideas were swimming in my head, I came across a German company called Blaken – website here: https://www.blaken.com/en/home -- this is more popular on the Rolex side, but there isn’t too much on the PAM side although I’m sure some if not most are familiar with it. The idea seemed simple enough – bespoke watches based on their DLC technology with personalized input from their customers. If other people are doing this with gens, why can’t we do it on reps?? But their focus was on Rollies, and I frankly have never been too impressed with the watches or the brand image.
Conspicuously placed in that assortment of pieces are a couple of Luminors. Be still my heart! A little more digging, and I found a couple of articles about custom builds:
http://www.highsnobiety.com/2012/05/29/blaken-panerai-verarena/#slide-4
http://www.totalwatchreviews.com/2013/12/30/blaken-panerai-luminor-base-pam112/
Along with some other examples:
Customization is a dangerous thing – not everyone likes the same cup of tea and you’re bound to turn someone off with a design cue – and you’ll never get your money out of it. But that’s not the point. Its about having something that is “yours†and offset from the mainstream, if only just a tad. I’m not sure if I would ever have the balls to do this on a gen, but a rep screams for some bespoke love.
The white dial really started to appeal to me as all but one of my PAMs are black or tobacco dials and the white makes color pop off of the face. Still more digging, I found some inspiration:
With more pics and article here: http://www.highsnobiety.com/2012/08/21/blaken-panerai-luminor-marina-tricolor/
Red, white and blue – hold the phone! July 4th is by far my favorite holiday and I am always on the lookout to start an enthused “U.S.A!†chant. Obnoxiously American, but we need that every once in a while haha. And where better to plant a flag than an Italian inspired timepiece?
The only problem with the above design, is that I have plenty of DLC/Ceramic/PVD watches and plenty of steel ones. What about Titanium? What about a white dialed titanium? Good luck – not much out there to choose from. But when the extreme reduction on the 8 Day Luminors happened in October 2014, inspiration struck again and with a cheap price tag.
The idea was to take the white dial of the 563, put it into the 564 case and repaint the hands and indices to make this idea a reality. I contacted Vac and explained the project. I’m sure he furrowed his brow more than once, but he was awesome.
I went through Vac’s page on here and noticed he had just come out with a new titanium case finish called “stone washed:â€
I tried to add it (rather, Vac did all the heavy lifting) and he found out that the quality of the titanium was different than on previous models – something to keep in mind I guess with some of the new titanium offerings.
After a few months of waiting, arrived in my email photos from Vac of the finished product and I was not disappointed:
I dub thee, "the 'Merica Panerai."
Now for the strap – that has been pretty difficult for me to decide. I like skins like croc, gator, shark, ostrich & snake and shy away from ammo or plain leather. The colors on this could run the gamut – dark cocoa brown, golden honey brown, black, white, grey, multiple shades of blue or red – the possibilities are endless and run in multiple directions. Let’s see some shoes on this bad boy:
Mounted on Man’s Area pigskin strap:
On Kane Heritage shark:
On grey Panatime toad:
On red lizard:
My friends, I think we have a winner:
I guess the moral of this story is that we sometimes obsess over the “tells†on reps and design flaws, craftsmanship flaws and over the top “what were you thinking?†mistakes from the factories. More importantly, there is an option with these watches to make something shine despite the mistakes we accept as being part of the rep game. I can’t say enough about Vac and the quality of his work – anyone who has worked with him will you tell you the same and I’m incredibly appreciative of his attention to detail.
I hope this inspires people to take off their critical glasses in the world of reps and create something that speaks to them for their own personality and enjoyment. The sky is the limit with these and I think it makes just as big of a statement as what watch you decide to wear today.
Here she is with the rest of the PAMily:
Thanks for reading!
