A Short (plagerized) History
Panerai was founded in 1860 in Florence by Giovanni Panerai (1825–1897). It later became the official supplier to the Royal Italian Navy and expanded to building precision instruments. The company is famous for its Radiomir and Luminor watches, notable for their use by Italian commando frogmen.
The Florence-based watchmaker produced wrist worn diving instruments and about 300 watches, all for the Italian Marina Militare, between 1938 and 1993. By that time, the company ceased to provide watches to the Marina Militare, as they were no longer cost-effective nor did they meet the naval specifications. It then moved to launch its products to the civilian market, but remained relatively obscure until the actor Sylvester Stallone spotted and bought a Panerai Luminor in a jewelry store in Rome in 1995 to wear during shooting of the film Daylight. Stallone ordered a small batch of such watches with his signature on the case back, called Slytech. He offered them as gifts to friends, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. The watch gained rapid popularity, and Officine Panerai was eventually taken over by Richemont in 1997.
Panerai's success with large watches has also led other companies to introduce larger watches, including Audemars Piguet, IWC and Swatch.
Panerai has four major lines of watches, Historic, Contemporary, Manifattura and Special Editions. Panerai issues Special Editions every year. In 2006 it issued the 1936 California Dial Radiomir special edition, a reissue of the first Panerai model ever presented to the Italian Marina Militare. This model was limited to a run of 1936 units.
Aficionados of Panerai are known as "Paneristi", a term coined along the lines of "Ferraristi". I guess we are "Replicaristi"? hehe but not a funny joke in the gen world none the less...
Panerai watches are amongst the most scarce in the world. In fact, the watch manufacturer can lay claim to being the most elusive watch brand globally, regularly producing fewer watches than the market demands. I guess thats a good way of keeping their prices rediculously high, while manufacturing simple designs powered by very comon swiss ETA movements mainly the simple manual wind 6497 to the more complex 7753 in the Luminor Daylight chronograph that I am showing here today.
The watch
Now that i have all the plagerized part of the review typed out, and all you guys all think I'm some sort
"Panerai GURU"... Heres my Pam196... finally. And no its not 100% correct and doesnt have the newest fanciest $200 crown guard from "buddy" or a gen crown from "the modder guy" but I'm absolutely HAPPY with this watch and its perfect for me just the way it is.. Double AR is a must and a ETA7753 will get swapped in after this engine dies, whenever that may happen but i think i have a couple years to source it so its no rush.
I remember years ago when i first started learning about the higher end reps.. MBW submariners, A7750 powered breitlings. This was a very exciting time for me becuase most of the stuff i was able to find on the internet was either a $400 piece of junk or an $850 ETA Submariner that was on sale reg $1200 or something hahaha. Yeah we've all been there and regret what we used to pay for watches.. Anyways after i discovered RWI and RWG forums, I learned that there was a whole new side to replica items... there wasnt only the "canal street" junk, but all high end, almost 1:1 reps that were very well made!!
Suddenly my interests turned from Submariners to Breitlings and Pams and Hublots. The reason i was into Submariners mostly was because you could modify them and file them down, swap inserts and crown and make them better and more accurate. And now suddenly i've discovered a whole new world of high end accurate reps. One of the first watches i wanted to order was of course the Panerai 00196 Daylight...
Well here i am, uhhhmmm about 4 years later and after building almost every other watch under the sun, I've FINALLY got my Pam196 Daylight to a wearable stage.
I originally got the watch from a friend of mine for free because it was missing the crown guard and the screws. Other than that the watch worked fine and had the huge ss bracelet on it. After searching forever for a CG, i finally bought a complete pam196 with a dead movement from a member over at Repgeek. Now I had all the parts i needed to get movin'...
Heres what i started with
I tore both watches down (except the movememnts) and sat there looking at a big pile of parts. I knew i had a lot of research to do. I began reading everything i could find on the best pam196 reps.. date pusher placement, bezels, crown guards etc etc. What i have here is an "old case" 196 with correct caseback, proper thickness bezel AND the date pusher is in the proper position so it will accept a gen valjoux ETA7753 transplant. Im not going to get too excited about that yet, but i am looking for a good ETA7753 movement and proper datewheel if anyone has one laying around
Both dials were identical and i tossed the stainless bracelelts in my parts trays. So i took the old case with best bezel and pushers, best caseback, mounted the CG and got it all fitting nicely. The original movement to me to be in very good condition. I had it serviced by my watchmaker and he says it will last for years no problem. The chrono time perfectly and reset dead on to zero everytime.I gave the case a light refinishing... I didnt want it to look brand new but i wanted it to look like it had 5 or so years of daily wear around the house and yard.
The one thing that isnt modded yet is the crystal. I am going to send the crystal out of the other donar case out to Cheiftain for some Double AR... BUT is the gen single or double? I think if the gen only has single AR then i will probably do double AR anyways. This is such a BEAUTIFUL dial and it needs to be shown off!!!
Heres a pic with the head all back together and working
Caseback
This is the date adjustment pusher, not a HEV like some people first think. This is one of the ONLY cases that has the pusher in the exact spot as the gen case. This allows you to swap in a gen ETA7753 and have the date pusher fully functional. I will get the 7753 swap done and double AR at the same time. Hopefully i can get Ziggy to do this one for me and some lume also. Ziggy worked on a couple watches for me including my franken Rolex 1665 Sea-dweller and he is the MASTER when it comes to movements and lume!
Gotta have the right shoes on this bad boy!
Ive had a few straps made by my friend Peter Gunny and they are all absolutely amazing! He does such fantastic work it just blows me away everytime and look at them and feel them. My original plan was to get Peter to make me a NASTY looking black Hornback gator strap for this pam196 but its taking a long time to find the right material with the right horn texture im looking for. I might just have to spend the $200+ and get one pre-owned. I've seen a few really nice ones but i missed the sales. So my idea strap would be a 24/24 black SUPER aggressive looking hornback alligator strap, but until then i had to get something else made up.
I love the vintage straps that Gunny makes and i got him to make this one up custom for me with extra X-stitching and size stamped right into the leather on the outside. He did a great job. This strap will live on the 196 for now, but will eventually end up on a Graham PVD diver and then my crazy-hornback-gator strap will go on this 196.
Heres the strap from Gunny... no 'name' for it yet, but we'll be dealing with that soon, maybe in the form of a FREE raffle sponsored by Peter, myself and RWI! - More news on that in the coming weeks
And finally, heres my pride and joy.. MY ultimate Pam... the 196 Daylight.
Well thats it so far.. I think its a nice representation of a gen pam196 Daylight. Double AR is on the way. Thats all it really needs to be visually complete. If anyone has a nasty aggressive 24/24 hornback gater strap they would want to sell please send me a PM. Must be black or brown and in decent shape. Thanks for looking and i hope you enjoyed my pictures!
Special thanks to Peter Gunny for dealing with me and my 700 emails i sent him while he was making this strap for me
Heres a quick link to his dealer section here at RWI
http://forum.replica-watch.info/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=184
And no it was not free.. I pay the same price everyone else pays. Im just glad to do a nice little review for a great guy and a wicked strap maker! When i find a dealer that treats me this well, i stay with them.. I've got my main watch guy and now i've got a great strap guy! Also thanks to everyone i got parts from and everyone who provided info along the way. It wasnt a big project by any means, but I always do TONES of research beforehand and i had a lot of help from members here at RWI and also RWG.
Cheers everyone!
dizzzzzzy
