where to begin

[lilhomer]

Im new and have been reading up on a PAM for my 4th rep. I have read a few hundred post on it by now and have narrowed it down to maybe a 104, 312 or 88. maybe a power reserve, but those don't seem to get much love.

i stumbled upon this in the flame free zone when looking for something else and i gotta say it is the most useful information i have found for a noob like me when trying to figure out where to begin. I thought i would repost it in the pam section where other noobs will have a better chance to find it.

my thanks to the origional posters.

Google these. They're a nice cross section of the most common Pams

Newer style Pams. Best out there currently you can get easy are the H factory reps your hearing about. The letter at the end is the vintage. M is the current letter with a roller ball on the crown lever. *

Panerai 111 (basic average Pam you see everywhere, sandwich dial: layered)
Panerai 177 (same as 111 but titanium)
Panerai 112 (same as 111 but no second hand. My favorite Pam of all time BTW)
Panerai 000 (same as 112 but sausage dial: single layer dial, lume on top)
Panerai 005 (same as 000 but with second hand)

Newest Pams with in-house movements: the reps are very good but the movement is of course a dead tell.

Panerai 312 (same as 111 but new style case and date window)
Panerai 320 (same as 312 but with a GMT hand)
Panerai 359 (same as 312 but with all numbers instead of markers)

Oldest Pams ie. "pre A and pre V". DSN is a good choice here without blowing the bank. A good one of these will run you up close to a grand. $300 for a DSN is a steal IMO.

I'm not going to list em all. Take a look at DSNs section. They're all there.

The letter doesn't refer to a factory, but rather the year of production. The recent trend of identifying rep factories with letter designations can confuse the issue.

(Below data copied/pasted)
L: 2009
K: 2008
J: 2007
I: 2006
H: 2005
G: 2004
F: 2003
E: 2002
D: 2001
C: 2000
B: 1999
A: 1998
No letter designation: 1997