Panerai 088 I-series.. Long awaited from H-maker, indeed. It was promised to be 1:1 copy. Well, it is great attempt and very close to the gen.
Since it is very close cousin to previously released PAM 237H (my review here), let me highlight only the key differences:
- colorless AR
- shiny seconds subdial
- the caseback
- the CG lever
@ Colorless AR:
It has no blue hue, it is much better (twice as good) than AR on PAM 237H. The difference is clearly visible when you have both watches side to side. I believe rep PAM 088 has double side AR, for two reasons:
- it is twice as effective when compared to 237H AR
- it feels different under the finger when compared to 237H crystal - when you move your finger over the 237H crystal (single sided AR) it is a smooth ride. You have a feeling of touching a piece of glass. When you do the same on PAM 088 crystal - the skin "sticks" to the surface, kind of "there must be a plastic film on the surface" feel…
I just hope it won't get scratched too easily
@ Shiny seconds subdial:
Well, it is shiny but in a bit different way. The gen is more silver, the rep tends to be more "smoky" in its behavior. The key is the light source, of course. The gen behaves almost the same BUT more silver, anyway. When the subdial reflects single, strong light source - it appears more silver-like; when you deal with multiple light sources or with well spread light (think about light box) - it gets smoky, less silver. The rep subdial simply gets smoky earlier than gen when put in the same light environment.
Does it bother me? Not too much; you have to have both gen and a rep at the same time and place to see the difference. It is more visible on photos (photos get it right) than in real life.
Other visible difference - black markings on the silver subdial are a bit thinner than on gen. A bit. When comparing directly.
@ The caseback:
The caseback is correct, the "STAINLESS STEEL", the fish etc. start and end at the right place. It was messed up on 237H. The production run engravings are deep and nice. Nothing to correct, I think.
@ CG lever:
Some say, the tip of the lever is still of wrong shape. I think it is of correct shape BUT you cannot have it as near to the case as it is near on a gen. Just about 1 mm or less and we all would be happy about it
There is an improvement over the lever as known from 237H - there is a bigger, gen-like gap between the lever hinge and the CG body. It was almost non-existing on the 237H rep.
And the lever pin is a tad longer than on 237H. Which is nice when observing from the caseback side.
Other differences, which I think we can recognize as differences between this particular rep and another particular rep:
- the movement looks cleaner on PAM 088; more shiny, more fresh… I don't know how to call it, just better.
- it works more stable than the A7750 as found on my 237H - when measured with iPhone Kello app - the PAM 088 works more stable (show almost the same amount of secs per day accuracy) than the one from PAM 237H (where readings change every several seconds during measurement).
- you can close/open the CG lever more easily than on PAM 237H
What is the same? Hands, lume, case body, datewheel, printings on the dial excluding silver subdial.
I have both reps, 237H and 088I - in general the only difference is the silver subdial or lack of it. I like them both since I have discovered that simply replacing 237 by 088 and turning the black subdial into silver one - gives enough of that "watch refreshment" you sometimes need. Turning from silver dial back to the black one - works the same few days later
237H still seems to be more elegant while 088 - more vivid one. I am happy to own both of them.
Silver dial:
The gap between hinge and CG body:
AR efficiency:
New friends:
The caseback:
Since it is very close cousin to previously released PAM 237H (my review here), let me highlight only the key differences:
- colorless AR
- shiny seconds subdial
- the caseback
- the CG lever
@ Colorless AR:
It has no blue hue, it is much better (twice as good) than AR on PAM 237H. The difference is clearly visible when you have both watches side to side. I believe rep PAM 088 has double side AR, for two reasons:
- it is twice as effective when compared to 237H AR
- it feels different under the finger when compared to 237H crystal - when you move your finger over the 237H crystal (single sided AR) it is a smooth ride. You have a feeling of touching a piece of glass. When you do the same on PAM 088 crystal - the skin "sticks" to the surface, kind of "there must be a plastic film on the surface" feel…
I just hope it won't get scratched too easily
@ Shiny seconds subdial:
Well, it is shiny but in a bit different way. The gen is more silver, the rep tends to be more "smoky" in its behavior. The key is the light source, of course. The gen behaves almost the same BUT more silver, anyway. When the subdial reflects single, strong light source - it appears more silver-like; when you deal with multiple light sources or with well spread light (think about light box) - it gets smoky, less silver. The rep subdial simply gets smoky earlier than gen when put in the same light environment.
Does it bother me? Not too much; you have to have both gen and a rep at the same time and place to see the difference. It is more visible on photos (photos get it right) than in real life.
Other visible difference - black markings on the silver subdial are a bit thinner than on gen. A bit. When comparing directly.
@ The caseback:
The caseback is correct, the "STAINLESS STEEL", the fish etc. start and end at the right place. It was messed up on 237H. The production run engravings are deep and nice. Nothing to correct, I think.
@ CG lever:
Some say, the tip of the lever is still of wrong shape. I think it is of correct shape BUT you cannot have it as near to the case as it is near on a gen. Just about 1 mm or less and we all would be happy about it
There is an improvement over the lever as known from 237H - there is a bigger, gen-like gap between the lever hinge and the CG body. It was almost non-existing on the 237H rep.
And the lever pin is a tad longer than on 237H. Which is nice when observing from the caseback side.
Other differences, which I think we can recognize as differences between this particular rep and another particular rep:
- the movement looks cleaner on PAM 088; more shiny, more fresh… I don't know how to call it, just better.
- it works more stable than the A7750 as found on my 237H - when measured with iPhone Kello app - the PAM 088 works more stable (show almost the same amount of secs per day accuracy) than the one from PAM 237H (where readings change every several seconds during measurement).
- you can close/open the CG lever more easily than on PAM 237H
What is the same? Hands, lume, case body, datewheel, printings on the dial excluding silver subdial.
I have both reps, 237H and 088I - in general the only difference is the silver subdial or lack of it. I like them both since I have discovered that simply replacing 237 by 088 and turning the black subdial into silver one - gives enough of that "watch refreshment" you sometimes need. Turning from silver dial back to the black one - works the same few days later
237H still seems to be more elegant while 088 - more vivid one. I am happy to own both of them.
Silver dial:
The gap between hinge and CG body:
AR efficiency:
New friends:
The caseback:
