I know some people have some different moral standings on homages and fakes. I think so long its dial doesn't have the brand printed on it. But if the dial has another brand its okay I guess. I have seen and owned a fair share(2 only) of replicas in Bangkok especially.
Anyhow, I am 24 this year(2013), no way can I afford a Panerai especially when 2 months of my pay is still possibly short of a few hundreds to buy the entry level pam.
So digging around forums after bonus comes in and decide to get the Getat, who in WUS forums is quite highly regarded. There are plenty of models and variants to choose from as far as Panerai homages goes, it has marina militare watches which I don't know is just not printing Panerai on its dial or what, the look wasn't working for me. I had to have something more minimalist, yet big on my wrists. So I decided to get this instead.
Product picture from the website
This watch is made to look exactly like a 1940s Panerai, except for the size being 45mm, 47mm is too big for my tiny wrists.
1940s Panerai, no logo
The watch has finally arrived!!!
When I opened an unbranded watch box, the watch was inside bubble-wrapped and the watch itself was wrapped by a plastic wrap too. The front and back glass also had a protective plastic film on it. Actual pictures of the watch.
Don't suppose black hands is used in the olden days for legibility purposes
The watch as described by my girl(who have zero interest in watch) simple and nice clean look. This goes to show that Panerai designs are just timeless.
The case is thinner than I expected and it is not helping that the strap it came with was 4.5mm thick. So essentially I have a watch that looks funny when the straps are thicker than the watch. The watch also sports a sandwich dial, meaning to say the dial has 2 layers, bottom layer is just lume paint, top later is the dial face with cut-outs of the numbers and markings.
wrists so tiny, I wear to this size
keepers eating the lugs in, sign that the strap is too big
The watch is quite comfortable and it gives the barely there feel, though on peripheral vision, the watch is just eye catching.
see through back of first hand-wound movement watch I owned
Powered by a hand-wound asian seagull movement, it seems to keep time with my phone and has a nice ticking sound. The hands somehow don't align as when the minute hand reaches 12, the hour hand has moved abit ahead pass the hour marker already.
there is a part of the casing that is not sculpted properly at the 'chapter ring' area between 6 and 7 o'clock
As far as aesthetic values goes, the watch is very nice apart from that thing in the picture above, dressy looking and the lume is just great, I didn't get a chance to check did it last through the night. But it costs me USD 103 which is approx SGD 127 give or take including shipping so what am I to complain?
from the getat's web, how the below of the sandwich dial looks
As this watch is built only after I ordered, hence custom built, I was able to select stuff like case shine level, dial colours, hand colours, hand lume colours, lume material to be used, strap colour and the strap stitching colour too. There was also option for sapphire crystal but its kinda pointless right? The build quality thus far is not bad, it has a screw down crown so that works too, I'm just afraid of destroying the threads.
buckle is in pre-V (for vendom) style
The comfort of the strap is remarkable though, have worn plenty of straps and for a thick and wide (26mm) leather strap, the only complain that it is just too bloody thick. I have to get a thinner strap to suit me later in the evening. I'm keeping this strap in-case in future I get to own a Luminor.
unbranded screw down crown
This watch is cheap and worth its money, so if the movement goes out, I'll source for another watch instead, why buy ink when the printer is cheaper?
All in all, this watch is very well made. I like the Pam style very much, homages is good for people who cannot just buy a S$5k Panerai and take train with it. It is also for working class people like me to wear the watch a while see if the style clicks before buying a Panerai from the shops.
No comments:
Post a Comment