Hi guys,
I figured I'd post a thread because I recently pulled the trigger on my first rep in years after the A6497 in my 005 stopped, and there are no local watchsmiths who are rep friendly so I had to replace either the movement or just the whole watch. I decided to go a slightly different route and instead of getting another 005, got a 318. The reason for this is that because the genuine 318 has the distinction of being the only PAM to carry an off the shelf ETA movement inside it, I could eventually replace the movement with the Swiss gen movement and it would allow me to get it serviced locally at an independant without worrying about it, since while there are minor tells, there is nothing anyone but a Panerai AD would pick up on, I feel.
In researching the 318, I found that there have been three versions. Noob, H Maker, and a H Maker V2. I thought the H Maker V2 had by far the best caseback and otherwise they were all pretty much the same, so I went for that one. Supposedly the Noob case and CG are better but I couldn't really tell the difference, although if anyone knows a comparison, that'd be cool. The cannon pinion has been polished almost flat but is not completely flat like gen, and the hands are Pre-V I think, which I think is wrong but I'll replace them if so. The caseback is great, it's a little inconsistent in some details compared to gen but in person there is nothing wrong with it visually, it's just ever so slightly different in design. I was surprised there weren't too many decent pictures of the V2 H Maker back anywhere when I was trying to decide, so this picture hopefully might help someone one day. Here's mine:
The strap is a rep OEM Assolutamente which is quite old and has taken on a pretty cool patina.
Here is Noob, note less detailed and engravings less sharp:
And finally here is gen, note very sharp, lots more fine details than the H Maker V2.
I figured I'd post a thread because I recently pulled the trigger on my first rep in years after the A6497 in my 005 stopped, and there are no local watchsmiths who are rep friendly so I had to replace either the movement or just the whole watch. I decided to go a slightly different route and instead of getting another 005, got a 318. The reason for this is that because the genuine 318 has the distinction of being the only PAM to carry an off the shelf ETA movement inside it, I could eventually replace the movement with the Swiss gen movement and it would allow me to get it serviced locally at an independant without worrying about it, since while there are minor tells, there is nothing anyone but a Panerai AD would pick up on, I feel.
In researching the 318, I found that there have been three versions. Noob, H Maker, and a H Maker V2. I thought the H Maker V2 had by far the best caseback and otherwise they were all pretty much the same, so I went for that one. Supposedly the Noob case and CG are better but I couldn't really tell the difference, although if anyone knows a comparison, that'd be cool. The cannon pinion has been polished almost flat but is not completely flat like gen, and the hands are Pre-V I think, which I think is wrong but I'll replace them if so. The caseback is great, it's a little inconsistent in some details compared to gen but in person there is nothing wrong with it visually, it's just ever so slightly different in design. I was surprised there weren't too many decent pictures of the V2 H Maker back anywhere when I was trying to decide, so this picture hopefully might help someone one day. Here's mine:
The strap is a rep OEM Assolutamente which is quite old and has taken on a pretty cool patina.
Here is Noob, note less detailed and engravings less sharp:
And finally here is gen, note very sharp, lots more fine details than the H Maker V2.
