Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Firstly I'd like to give a big thanks to the members here on the Panerai forum in DWC, after lurking for quite awhile and reading about the brand, I took a plunge and purchased my first Pam last year in FEB and it has been a roller coaster relationship with it.
But first a pic to warm things up,
When I first saw a Panerai, I had no idea what the brand was about and in fact, I found it quite ugly, with its bulkiness and odd looking C shape thingy at the 3 O clock position, but that was 4 years ago when I first saw my vocational college lecturer's PAM 104. I'm not sure if some had the same experience as I did but I only started to like it after awhile when I saw other friends wear it. At this point in time I had 2 Balls... The watches I mean, the organic ones are still intact And the tritium lume spoiled me for good, so I wanted something with torch like lume, and after reading about PAMs the decision to purchase one came after I got accepted to a university in the UK.
I wanted a GMT watch and I preferred the 12 hour format over the 24 hour format. Up for consideration at this time was a Rolex Submariner or an Omega PO with the 9300 caliber. I eventually zoomed in on the PAM 320 for its 3 day reserve and because finding straps for it was really easy and allowed me to change the look.
Here's the part where I hated the watch after buying it. 2 weeks after purchase, when I was setting the time, the second hand hacked, but did not jump back to the 12 o clock position, then eventually the entire watch jammed for about 1 day and then suddenly started running, happened 2 times and I finally sent it in to PSC. The service was great but I was horrified when I got my watch back 3 weeks later. My P9001 movement was scratched and the brushed case had more scratches than it had when I sent it in. BUT above all that, after taking it home to set the time, the movement jammed again. So back to PSC and this time the staff did some wonderful service recovery and 6 weeks later, my watch came back with a brand new movement plate, brushed sides of the watch redone to look brand new. So all in all there was a 7 week wait before I could fully enjoy my watch with confidence, and since then it's been my travel companion and a daily beater ever since... Hell my Seiko's are in near mint because they mostly sit on the winder while my PAM takes most of the beatings, I simply enjoy wearing it even 1 year on.
Of all the straps that I've had so far, honestly, I'd like to praise strap works for their really comfy padded straps that soften up in less than a day, I bought the golden caramel calf strap with the 24/22 width and 125/80 dimensions, it turns out that they are from Hong Kong and for a fraction of the OEM calf strap, I really couldn't complain! I've been using this strap daily for nearly 4-5 months now and it's currently on for this trip to Hong Kong with the GF.
I hope the short write up on my experience will be useful for those looking to buy into PAMs or for this model specifically.
Leon
But first a pic to warm things up,
When I first saw a Panerai, I had no idea what the brand was about and in fact, I found it quite ugly, with its bulkiness and odd looking C shape thingy at the 3 O clock position, but that was 4 years ago when I first saw my vocational college lecturer's PAM 104. I'm not sure if some had the same experience as I did but I only started to like it after awhile when I saw other friends wear it. At this point in time I had 2 Balls... The watches I mean, the organic ones are still intact And the tritium lume spoiled me for good, so I wanted something with torch like lume, and after reading about PAMs the decision to purchase one came after I got accepted to a university in the UK.
I wanted a GMT watch and I preferred the 12 hour format over the 24 hour format. Up for consideration at this time was a Rolex Submariner or an Omega PO with the 9300 caliber. I eventually zoomed in on the PAM 320 for its 3 day reserve and because finding straps for it was really easy and allowed me to change the look.
Here's the part where I hated the watch after buying it. 2 weeks after purchase, when I was setting the time, the second hand hacked, but did not jump back to the 12 o clock position, then eventually the entire watch jammed for about 1 day and then suddenly started running, happened 2 times and I finally sent it in to PSC. The service was great but I was horrified when I got my watch back 3 weeks later. My P9001 movement was scratched and the brushed case had more scratches than it had when I sent it in. BUT above all that, after taking it home to set the time, the movement jammed again. So back to PSC and this time the staff did some wonderful service recovery and 6 weeks later, my watch came back with a brand new movement plate, brushed sides of the watch redone to look brand new. So all in all there was a 7 week wait before I could fully enjoy my watch with confidence, and since then it's been my travel companion and a daily beater ever since... Hell my Seiko's are in near mint because they mostly sit on the winder while my PAM takes most of the beatings, I simply enjoy wearing it even 1 year on.
Of all the straps that I've had so far, honestly, I'd like to praise strap works for their really comfy padded straps that soften up in less than a day, I bought the golden caramel calf strap with the 24/22 width and 125/80 dimensions, it turns out that they are from Hong Kong and for a fraction of the OEM calf strap, I really couldn't complain! I've been using this strap daily for nearly 4-5 months now and it's currently on for this trip to Hong Kong with the GF.
I hope the short write up on my experience will be useful for those looking to buy into PAMs or for this model specifically.
Leon
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Good write up, and welcome to DWC. The 320 is a great, do-everything PAM.
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Nice write up.
I must agree with you that when I first saw the brand, restricted to online viewing as there was and is no local AD, I thought they looked very silly. I too warmed up to them having owned 5 variations over the years.
I must agree with you that when I first saw the brand, restricted to online viewing as there was and is no local AD, I thought they looked very silly. I too warmed up to them having owned 5 variations over the years.
cheers,
Keith
Keith
- mattcantwin
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Welcome, Leon, a great post deserves a great welcome.
Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
He said "balls"...
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Welcome Leon and nice Panerai...
Mike
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Welcome Leon and nice Panerai...
Mike
Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Welcome and congrats on a lovely Pam
Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Nice post! I too initially thought they were ugly, they grew on me now to the point where I'm planning on grabbing the next 243 that comes up!
- jeckyll
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Welcome
We all have the same enemy. The enemy is the tyranny of the dull mind. - - Tom Robbins
Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Darin's gonna be jealous.
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
love the watch. impressive you were able to work through a crappy service job.
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Welcome bud.
"I prefer the tumult of liberty to the quiet of servitude."
Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
The 243 is such a masculine piece specially once the T dial turns and grows a patina, just came back from Hong Kong and one of the countless watch shops dealing with second hand watches had a 243 J series but I didn't dare take a pic for the fear of being at which is pretty common lolPGERRITY wrote:Nice post! I too initially thought they were ugly, they grew on me now to the point where I'm planning on grabbing the next 243 that comes up!
Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Can't agree more, love it more by the day, the service recovery was good for a couple of reasons, they were at least apologetic and the boutique has great chocolates from Italy, like this one hereYOHOHO wrote:love the watch. impressive you were able to work through a crappy service job.
I like Ball watches for what they make, but when my Ball EM Diver World Timer stem broke after winding 30 ish times after the PR went dead, the engineer came out of the office to give a few sarcastic remarks about how I did it wrongly etc etc...
That was my first ever Swiss watch and I took real good care of it, sucked to hear that from the repair centre, on that note, PSC did a better job heh
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Re: Loved it, hated it, now loving it, my first Pam!
Inspiring welcome theremattcantwin wrote:Welcome, Leon, a great post deserves a great welcome.
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