Finally managed to catch some time and write something about this beautiful and rare watch around the forums-the DSN PAM 036B. Few months ago I saw a picture of Valante's swiss DSN 036 (in AP section 
), started to read about it and slowly fell in love with it. After some beautiful pics around the internet, short chat with Valante and final confirmation by ALE that it's good enough to get (thanks man!), I decided to buy it and I'm really glad I did. First watch I received had few problems so I sent it back and other one I got was great. It has some visible flaws but it's good enough for my expectations since I know it's not in 111 Noob V3 level of rep.
Although it's similar watch to 177, it's so different when you take a better look and that's what I liked. It has beautiful tobacco dial (which is really hard to capture with camera), tritium lume, different movement decoration than usual 6497 (although it's still old good 6497 underneath) and Marina Militare inscription on the dial is just another detail that got me interested in it as there is few modern PAM with this feature. Case is classic Luminor 'Bettarini' case in 44mm diameter with open caseback allowing to see beautiful movement decoration. Since it's pretty rare watch (limited edition of 200 pieces), there is not many references about it around but I'll give my best to compare it with gen so let's start.
CASE
From the front view everything looks spot on. Case on gen is maybe a little bit sharper on pillow corners. On a side look, lug screws should be positioned a bit higher and more to the outer edges of the lugs. Other than that, shape of the case, lugs and bezel looks correct. From the back side, all of the engravings are correctly placed, OP 6513, BB code and serial number matches the genuine but it could use some improvements in term of much deeper engravings and for nitpickers letter "O" should have different shape (closer to 0) but not something that would bother me. Finish of the titanium case could have been better. Surface of the lugs isn't flat but have some unevenness and under some angles it's pretty visible. Also not something that bothers me and not visible on a quick look but it's there.
BEZEL AND CRYSTAL
Bezel seems all correct so nothing much to say about it. Side edge should maybe be a bit thicker but can't find a good angle on gen pics so can't be sure about it. Crystal has one sided (?) AR coating and also seems pretty nice but under some natural light it gives worse reflection than some of my other PAMs. However, it's still nice and per DSN's description it's sapphire but not sure about it (can someone please confirm this?).
DIAL
Dial is one of the nicest things of this watch but it has some inaccuracies. Brown/tobacco color in comparison with online gen pictures should be a bit darker but it's hard to say since it's color changes from light brown to black in different light conditions. Dial inscriptions should be a bit higher and narrower. Spaces between letters are also incorrect which is easily visible in MILITA_RE. MARINA and PANERAI inscriptions looks pretty much correct, MARINA would be correct if there wasn't big space mentioned and LUMINOR has too big spaces between letters while L and U are too close too each other. T SWISS T inscription has good position under 6 but unfortunately it's not centered and it's moved too far on the left. Not sure if it's common on all watches but on mine it's there. What I don't like on the dial is lume application on numbers and indices as they are too flat instead of "sausage" effect and edges of numbers and indices are chamfered which isn't gen like. Shape of the numbers is pretty much correct with small exception of 2 and 3 which shape should be corrected. Lume color of indices looks correct but on the hands it's too yellow (should be more white-ish). CP is maybe a bit too raised (thanks Kilowattore for pointing that out) and it should be polished and rounded (or flattened?) instead of it's conical shape. Pre-V hands looks ok, they are of correct lenght and have correct lume amount.
CROWN/CROWN GUARD
Crown width and thickness of it's edge from the side look (sorry, don't know how to say that) looks all correct. For my untrained eye, crown guard also looks correct but lever tip is shaped incorrectly. Should be a bit longer and bended a bit to the right. Another flaw to mention is inner corners of CG which should be sharp and squared rather than rounded (another thanks to Kilowattore). From the side view, lever looks to be correctly placed in crown guard. Maybe it's fraction of mm higher on the gen. CG pin is nice and almost flush with the CG but it needs some work to make it perfect. It's surface is a bit rough and could use some better finish too.
MOVEMENT
Since gen uses OP II movement, it wasn't quite possible to replicate it (or it was but no one bothered) so here is used classic 6497 movement. There are swiss and asian available from DSN and I've choosen the latter from obvious reasons. However, decoration on the movement is pretty much correct for what it is. Biggest tell looks to be PANERAI PANERAI inscription which is in too small font hence there is word PANERAI written more times than it should have been. There is also OP FIRENZE engraving in gold color which has bigger non-engraved area around than it should and engravings should be smaller and deeper. Jewels surrounding should also be in gold color instead of ss. Blue screws are correct but should be flat instead of rounded. Bridge (plate) on balance wheel is correctly shaped but there is engraved area where it shouldn't be and there is of course no Y-incablock. Other bridges (plates) are also shaped correctly and nicely and IMO replicates genuine movement pretty well. No comments on fingerprints on the movement though.
Side note for anyone interested in this watch: Movement plates were misplaced on my first watch and you can see that here too but it's much better and somewhat acceptable. If that is the case, jewels won't have nice surroundings and there will be 6497 visible underneath. Seems like a common issue so check it out on your QC pics.
CASEBACK
Caseback ring should be a bit thicker but caseback is nice overall. Engraving is nice but titanium inscription should be a bit thicker and fish should be a bit bigger.
STRAP/BUCKLE
Strap that came with it is nowhere near any gen Panerai strap, no engravings and no similar look. Buckle should be thumbnail and made of titanium but it was Pre-V and brushed. However thanks to Dirk (thanks Grimlocktime for advice), it didn't bothered me at all. Dirk's PAV91 is perfect combo for this watch (or any Ti PAM) but I have something else on mind so we'll see which one will be better combo for this beauty.
Here are some more pics taken with iPhone:
For the end, I have to say I'm impressed with this watch and can easily see it on my wrist more often than my 111 or even 243 which has quite a lot ot wrist time. Anyone interested in this, don't be afraid to order it but, as I already mentioned above, check the movement decoration on QC pics as both times they weren't that good, but second time acceptable. I think it's so underrated watch because no factories make this one but it shouldn't be because IMO Davidsen did pretty good job on this one. It can be seen here: http://forum.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php?t=121553
This is my first attempt in watch review so please be gentle with me and feel free to add anything you think I missed or correct anything I wrote wrong. I'll be glad to correct it and improve this review for anyone who may be interested in this watch. More better pics to follow when I catch some time to play with lightning.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
), started to read about it and slowly fell in love with it. After some beautiful pics around the internet, short chat with Valante and final confirmation by ALE that it's good enough to get (thanks man!), I decided to buy it and I'm really glad I did. First watch I received had few problems so I sent it back and other one I got was great. It has some visible flaws but it's good enough for my expectations since I know it's not in 111 Noob V3 level of rep. Although it's similar watch to 177, it's so different when you take a better look and that's what I liked. It has beautiful tobacco dial (which is really hard to capture with camera), tritium lume, different movement decoration than usual 6497 (although it's still old good 6497 underneath) and Marina Militare inscription on the dial is just another detail that got me interested in it as there is few modern PAM with this feature. Case is classic Luminor 'Bettarini' case in 44mm diameter with open caseback allowing to see beautiful movement decoration. Since it's pretty rare watch (limited edition of 200 pieces), there is not many references about it around but I'll give my best to compare it with gen so let's start.
CASE
From the front view everything looks spot on. Case on gen is maybe a little bit sharper on pillow corners. On a side look, lug screws should be positioned a bit higher and more to the outer edges of the lugs. Other than that, shape of the case, lugs and bezel looks correct. From the back side, all of the engravings are correctly placed, OP 6513, BB code and serial number matches the genuine but it could use some improvements in term of much deeper engravings and for nitpickers letter "O" should have different shape (closer to 0) but not something that would bother me. Finish of the titanium case could have been better. Surface of the lugs isn't flat but have some unevenness and under some angles it's pretty visible. Also not something that bothers me and not visible on a quick look but it's there.
BEZEL AND CRYSTAL
Bezel seems all correct so nothing much to say about it. Side edge should maybe be a bit thicker but can't find a good angle on gen pics so can't be sure about it. Crystal has one sided (?) AR coating and also seems pretty nice but under some natural light it gives worse reflection than some of my other PAMs. However, it's still nice and per DSN's description it's sapphire but not sure about it (can someone please confirm this?).
DIAL
Dial is one of the nicest things of this watch but it has some inaccuracies. Brown/tobacco color in comparison with online gen pictures should be a bit darker but it's hard to say since it's color changes from light brown to black in different light conditions. Dial inscriptions should be a bit higher and narrower. Spaces between letters are also incorrect which is easily visible in MILITA_RE. MARINA and PANERAI inscriptions looks pretty much correct, MARINA would be correct if there wasn't big space mentioned and LUMINOR has too big spaces between letters while L and U are too close too each other. T SWISS T inscription has good position under 6 but unfortunately it's not centered and it's moved too far on the left. Not sure if it's common on all watches but on mine it's there. What I don't like on the dial is lume application on numbers and indices as they are too flat instead of "sausage" effect and edges of numbers and indices are chamfered which isn't gen like. Shape of the numbers is pretty much correct with small exception of 2 and 3 which shape should be corrected. Lume color of indices looks correct but on the hands it's too yellow (should be more white-ish). CP is maybe a bit too raised (thanks Kilowattore for pointing that out) and it should be polished and rounded (or flattened?) instead of it's conical shape. Pre-V hands looks ok, they are of correct lenght and have correct lume amount.
CROWN/CROWN GUARD
Crown width and thickness of it's edge from the side look (sorry, don't know how to say that
) looks all correct. For my untrained eye, crown guard also looks correct but lever tip is shaped incorrectly. Should be a bit longer and bended a bit to the right. Another flaw to mention is inner corners of CG which should be sharp and squared rather than rounded (another thanks to Kilowattore). From the side view, lever looks to be correctly placed in crown guard. Maybe it's fraction of mm higher on the gen. CG pin is nice and almost flush with the CG but it needs some work to make it perfect. It's surface is a bit rough and could use some better finish too.
MOVEMENT
Since gen uses OP II movement, it wasn't quite possible to replicate it (or it was but no one bothered
) so here is used classic 6497 movement. There are swiss and asian available from DSN and I've choosen the latter from obvious reasons. However, decoration on the movement is pretty much correct for what it is. Biggest tell looks to be PANERAI PANERAI inscription which is in too small font hence there is word PANERAI written more times than it should have been. There is also OP FIRENZE engraving in gold color which has bigger non-engraved area around than it should and engravings should be smaller and deeper. Jewels surrounding should also be in gold color instead of ss. Blue screws are correct but should be flat instead of rounded. Bridge (plate) on balance wheel is correctly shaped but there is engraved area where it shouldn't be and there is of course no Y-incablock. Other bridges (plates) are also shaped correctly and nicely and IMO replicates genuine movement pretty well. No comments on fingerprints on the movement though. Side note for anyone interested in this watch: Movement plates were misplaced on my first watch and you can see that here too but it's much better and somewhat acceptable. If that is the case, jewels won't have nice surroundings and there will be 6497 visible underneath. Seems like a common issue so check it out on your QC pics.
CASEBACK
Caseback ring should be a bit thicker but caseback is nice overall. Engraving is nice but titanium inscription should be a bit thicker and fish should be a bit bigger.
STRAP/BUCKLE
Strap that came with it is nowhere near any gen Panerai strap, no engravings and no similar look. Buckle should be thumbnail and made of titanium but it was Pre-V and brushed. However thanks to Dirk (thanks Grimlocktime for advice), it didn't bothered me at all. Dirk's PAV91 is perfect combo for this watch (or any Ti PAM) but I have something else on mind so we'll see which one will be better combo for this beauty.
Here are some more pics taken with iPhone:
For the end, I have to say I'm impressed with this watch and can easily see it on my wrist more often than my 111 or even 243 which has quite a lot ot wrist time. Anyone interested in this, don't be afraid to order it but, as I already mentioned above, check the movement decoration on QC pics as both times they weren't that good, but second time acceptable. I think it's so underrated watch because no factories make this one but it shouldn't be because IMO Davidsen did pretty good job on this one. It can be seen here: http://forum.replica-watch.info/vb/showthread.php?t=121553
This is my first attempt in watch review so please be gentle with me and feel free to add anything you think I missed or correct anything I wrote wrong. I'll be glad to correct it and improve this review for anyone who may be interested in this watch. More better pics to follow when I catch some time to play with lightning.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
