Another purchase to fill in my box 
This time it is infamous PAM 212J with "annoying" non-real sapphire glass. But I like the design, liked Transporter 3 movie - so I jumped on it. Ordered from Joshua/Perfect-Clones and got it in less than one week despite Chinese National Days
GENS GALORE:
REP SECTION:
The movement:
The blue rotor screw - it is obviously incorrect for J-series - should be white. Although it was valid for H-series, I-series. Looks like PAMs 212 without quick lugs release buttons (new strap change system) has blue screw on the rotor.
Anyway, I will exchange the screw with the one from other automatic PAM with closed case-back
About the look of the movements gen vs rep: the gen, being modified 7750, called OP XIX, provides flyback complication. It doesn't seem to use column wheel to provide flyback, but just has clever changes applied to internal parts where button on 4 o'clock disengages rotation from seconds wheel while resetting it at the same time. Due to the required changes, some metal plates, visible on the back of the watch - look different to standard 7750 movement. Since there is an opinion that the movement will never be repped with flyback functionality, impossible and so on, I personally think it is only not profitable enough to order and buy quite a large stock of flyback 7750's by rep makers.
So, blue screw wrong, whole movement wrong albeit quite similar in first glance to the gen. Just don't show case-back to any strangers
Anyway, Asian 7750 in this watch has one of the most smooth chrono sweeping hand I ever saw in any Asian 7750, regardless origin. Chrono operations are having that nice 'click' when buttons are being pressed.
The case set:
Surprisingly well-made. Everything seems to be brushed in right direction. Surfaces are almost perfect, especially the area between lugs, which tends to be erratic / less cared on other reps. Chrono pushers are brushed the gen way, too. I could not find any difference when comparing with gen photos. CG - very nice, with correct shapes of edges, correct shape of lever tip, tight to close.
The dial:
The dial shares all the little problems of ultimate PAM 288K dial:
- too thin font of Luminor etc..
- too shallow chrono subdials
- too thin font on tachymeter scale
Otherwise very good Luminova as from H-factory. Hands without bad edges. Perfect chrono hand.
The strap:
I ordered this watch with a leather strap, after a long time of ordering only rep-rubber straps, since most of original straps were too short. I am quite surprised with the strap - it is a nice leather and probably I will stay with it because it matches the watch nicely.
The glass:
Due to the costs, the rep sports synthetic sapphire instead of sapphire crystal, according to the dealer. I don't know what dealers wanted us to understand by calling it "synthetic sapphire".
AFAIK watch crystals are made of sapphire "glass", which is (according to Wikipedia): "Sapphire 'glass' (although being crystalline) is made from pure sapphire boules by slicing off and polishing thin wafers. Sapphire glass windows are used in high pressure chambers for spectroscopy, crystals in various watches, and windows in grocery store barcode scanners since the material's exceptional hardness and toughness makes it very resistant to scratching".
In the same article I searched about above mentioned boules and I found about method of producing synthetic sapphire: "In 1902 the French chemist Auguste Verneuil developed a process for producing synthetic sapphire crystals.[27] In the Verneuil process, named for him, fine alumina powder is added to an oxyhydrogen flame, and this is directed downward against a mantle.[28] The alumina in the flame is slowly deposited, creating a teardrop shaped "boule" of sapphire material. "
That's it, to me synthetic sapphire is a sapphire produced in synthetic way. It is not cheap to cut the slice of synthetic sapphire boule and then to cut out the PAM 212 sapphire shape, no way, indeed. According to the dealer, the watch with real sapphire would be "non marketable" and I think it is right - imagine it would go for i.e. $500 with real sapphire… and everyone would call it flawed price since the movement is still wrong.
According to the dealer, in case of PAM 212J "Glass needs to be synthetically treated so that it can be machined and polished".
So maybe we are talking about "heat treated glass" ? Or like Casio's scratch resistant glass? Friends, please help me with this…
Glass distortion is almost on par with gen sapphire distortion, according to any gen photos I could find. Probably, with just a glass, it was just quite simple/cheap to replicate shape 1:1. And that's fine.
Well, "not so sapphire glass" is quite good considering Panerai sells watches with just plexi glass, i.e. PAM 372 In this case our rep PAM 212J glass seems to be quite strong, isn't it I promised myself to be rather careful with this.
PROS:
- very good case-set including CG
- Luminova on dial and hands
- "better batch" of Asian 7750 with chrono
- flawlessly working quick release button in strap change system
CONS:
- wrong movement, obviously
- not real sapphire glass
- imperfections on dial
Would be Super Rep in ALE's guide with correct movement and sapphire but now - it is SOLID First Class.
PAM212J - YouTube
This time it is infamous PAM 212J with "annoying" non-real sapphire glass. But I like the design, liked Transporter 3 movie - so I jumped on it. Ordered from Joshua/Perfect-Clones and got it in less than one week despite Chinese National Days
GENS GALORE:
REP SECTION:
The movement:
The blue rotor screw - it is obviously incorrect for J-series - should be white. Although it was valid for H-series, I-series. Looks like PAMs 212 without quick lugs release buttons (new strap change system) has blue screw on the rotor.
Anyway, I will exchange the screw with the one from other automatic PAM with closed case-back
About the look of the movements gen vs rep: the gen, being modified 7750, called OP XIX, provides flyback complication. It doesn't seem to use column wheel to provide flyback, but just has clever changes applied to internal parts where button on 4 o'clock disengages rotation from seconds wheel while resetting it at the same time. Due to the required changes, some metal plates, visible on the back of the watch - look different to standard 7750 movement. Since there is an opinion that the movement will never be repped with flyback functionality, impossible and so on, I personally think it is only not profitable enough to order and buy quite a large stock of flyback 7750's by rep makers.
So, blue screw wrong, whole movement wrong albeit quite similar in first glance to the gen. Just don't show case-back to any strangers
Anyway, Asian 7750 in this watch has one of the most smooth chrono sweeping hand I ever saw in any Asian 7750, regardless origin. Chrono operations are having that nice 'click' when buttons are being pressed.
The case set:
Surprisingly well-made. Everything seems to be brushed in right direction. Surfaces are almost perfect, especially the area between lugs, which tends to be erratic / less cared on other reps. Chrono pushers are brushed the gen way, too. I could not find any difference when comparing with gen photos. CG - very nice, with correct shapes of edges, correct shape of lever tip, tight to close.
The dial:
The dial shares all the little problems of ultimate PAM 288K dial:
- too thin font of Luminor etc..
- too shallow chrono subdials
- too thin font on tachymeter scale
Otherwise very good Luminova as from H-factory. Hands without bad edges. Perfect chrono hand.
The strap:
I ordered this watch with a leather strap, after a long time of ordering only rep-rubber straps, since most of original straps were too short. I am quite surprised with the strap - it is a nice leather and probably I will stay with it because it matches the watch nicely.
The glass:
Due to the costs, the rep sports synthetic sapphire instead of sapphire crystal, according to the dealer. I don't know what dealers wanted us to understand by calling it "synthetic sapphire".
AFAIK watch crystals are made of sapphire "glass", which is (according to Wikipedia): "Sapphire 'glass' (although being crystalline) is made from pure sapphire boules by slicing off and polishing thin wafers. Sapphire glass windows are used in high pressure chambers for spectroscopy, crystals in various watches, and windows in grocery store barcode scanners since the material's exceptional hardness and toughness makes it very resistant to scratching".
In the same article I searched about above mentioned boules and I found about method of producing synthetic sapphire: "In 1902 the French chemist Auguste Verneuil developed a process for producing synthetic sapphire crystals.[27] In the Verneuil process, named for him, fine alumina powder is added to an oxyhydrogen flame, and this is directed downward against a mantle.[28] The alumina in the flame is slowly deposited, creating a teardrop shaped "boule" of sapphire material. "
That's it, to me synthetic sapphire is a sapphire produced in synthetic way. It is not cheap to cut the slice of synthetic sapphire boule and then to cut out the PAM 212 sapphire shape, no way, indeed. According to the dealer, the watch with real sapphire would be "non marketable" and I think it is right - imagine it would go for i.e. $500 with real sapphire… and everyone would call it flawed price since the movement is still wrong.
According to the dealer, in case of PAM 212J "Glass needs to be synthetically treated so that it can be machined and polished".
So maybe we are talking about "heat treated glass" ? Or like Casio's scratch resistant glass? Friends, please help me with this…
Glass distortion is almost on par with gen sapphire distortion, according to any gen photos I could find. Probably, with just a glass, it was just quite simple/cheap to replicate shape 1:1. And that's fine.
Well, "not so sapphire glass" is quite good considering Panerai sells watches with just plexi glass, i.e. PAM 372
In this case our rep PAM 212J glass seems to be quite strong, isn't it I promised myself to be rather careful with this.
PROS:
- very good case-set including CG
- Luminova on dial and hands
- "better batch" of Asian 7750 with chrono
- flawlessly working quick release button in strap change system
CONS:
- wrong movement, obviously
- not real sapphire glass
- imperfections on dial
Would be Super Rep in ALE's guide with correct movement and sapphire but now - it is SOLID First Class.
PAM212J - YouTube
