PAM049 in Sales

[Spy]

Hi All,

T4D has posted a very, very reasonably priced 049. I am not a particular expert in PAMs although I do own a swiss 111.

I quite like the white 049 and the fact itr is 40mm is particularly attractive as sometimes I feel the 11 looks a little too big on my wrist.

Can the PAM experts outline the key flaws with this one.

I am under no impression that this is going to be 1:1 at $99 but would like to know the differences to gen so I can assess for myself if the particular flaws will bother me or not.

Thanks guys

 

[hooligan]

Sunken date wheel, bad date font, crown is not good. Not sure if the case should be brushed, but I believe it should be.

 

[swissaddict]

I could pick it apart, but basically.. nothing "premium" about it. Bad asian version. Pretty much what you'd expect in a sub-$100 rep (probably sub-$30 in the GZ market).

 

[babola]

Stay away...the dial is very wrong, simply due to 21J mov't being used instead of 7750.
On 21J Auto mov't the second hand subdial is positioned further away from the centre, closer to the bezel. To offset this, rep makers have created smaller subdial and "pushed" it towards the edge of the dial, making the whole 049 look very odd.

Also, the hands are too long and are borrowed from the 44mm Marina reps, they should be shorter on this 40mm model, especialy the hour hand. :roll:
This plus the things others have mentioned above already...

Save yourself pennies for something nicer, IMO.

cheers,
babola

 

[swissaddict]

I should note that my comments - which echo babola's and hooligan's - are from a picky watch nerd's point of view. I wouldn't be happy with this rep because it's not very accurate, but maybe the wives and girlfriends would feel differently.

I showed my girlfriend pictures of Hont's asian 21J 40mm PAM (appears to be a better version than T4D's, btw... see Hont's pics here: http://s242.photobucket.com/albums/ff194/hontwatch/Panerai/pam049 asia automatic 21J 40mm/.. note the caseback and winding crown, for example) and explained about improper subdial size/spacing, bad date font, date mag, mineral crystal, slow beat movement, blah blah blah... and she still thought it was "pretty". So I ordered it from Hont. As a bonus, Hont has a bunch of different strap colors if you want to order extras. I got her an extra light pink one...

 

[Spy]

Thanks guys, useful info, I knew the experts were around here somewhere :wink: