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PolonusTM

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Everything posted by PolonusTM

  1. Quality is just amazing. Just some quick unaltered photos:
  2. Some of You may remember my review on H-factory’s PAM 089e. What I always liked was anthracite dial but I felt some kind of impression that the potential of this dial was “wasted” with dull titanium body. I liked the idea of anthracite dial in polished/brushed case, as i.e. PAM 091 as known from “After The Sunset” movie with Pierce Brosnan. Pierce’s one was titanium but I wanted it in SS for greater bling So, there was the idea to somehow put movement/dial of PAM 089e into SS case.The only case replicated lately was case for PAM 297 (the same GMT movement = the same stem position). Insides from this: into this: ..so I made “concept art”: …and asked Joshua/PC to ask H-factory for such a mashup. He liked the idea and got back to me with answer “they will do it ” so I ordered and got this beauty: The CP seems protruding but I will correct this when servicing so no problem. Small video to see the beauty of this mix: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZy9km3DwJQ
  3. Well... Just connected idea: I ordered special mashup from Joshua.. Should be in few days
  4. Warming up old topic.... I just got black version with really badly scratched AR on both sides of sapphire. So two questions: does this rep accept gen sapphire? 2nd: who would do decent AR job in EU for me?
  5. So it looks manufacturer knows about it since the watch You got actually was set at -30 secs/day
  6. ZF factory PAM 389 I wasn’t in hurry to order this watch, especially since Joshua told me the watch is also “in making” in Kuvarsit factory. I read the whole Angus’ thread on RG referring to release of this rep. When it was available from Joshua, I pulled the trigger. Delivery was very slow due to the Christmas time and so on but I got it few days ago Angus stated the maker (ZF - the final assembly stage owner, I suppose) has the gen. What I think is they had a gen for a while, disassembled it and then had to give it back so some parts were made against maybe photos of gen or measurements taken while the gen was in their possession. I will mention references to this concept several times during this review. The genuine PAM 389 was the second amagnetic watch from Panerai; the first one was PAM 92, limited edition, and was worn by explorer Mike Horn during one of his Artic expeditions. Basic principle when making any mechanic watch antimagnetic one is to put it’s movement in a kind of Faraday cage, made of soft iron. Soft iron vs hard iron is rather a term describing their magnetic properties. In hard iron, the domains will not shift back to their starting points when the magnetic field is taken away. In soft iron, the domains return to being randomly aligned when the field is removed. So, You cannot magnetize soft iron. Hint #1 - maker has an access to the gen: The internals of the watch case is a “cage in a cage” construction. The movement is covered in a soft iron cage, together with snap-on cap on the back and soft iron plate under the dial. The cage is mounted within watch case by rubber bars. There is a groove on internal walls of watch case, corresponding to the groove on the external wall of Faraday cage; rubbers bars are to be put between these two grooves so the soft iron cage is being kept inside watch case, being pressed towards sapphire side the same time. Rubber bars are providing some kind of “G-shock”-like protection to the watch, against bumps from the side of the watch. This is quite difficult to find detailed description of how it was made in gen 389, that’s why I think the maker had an access to the gen since the rep is made the same way (I am not sure they put soft iron plate under the dial in the rep…. probably not). While having it more shock resistant is fine thing - we need to know that the whole movement ‘swims’ inside the watch case and there is no way to i.e. rotate the movement to align the dial better since there are no metal mounting plates secured by screws. You can rotate the movement quite easy but the moment you snap the crown to the standard position - the whole movement moves to that stress-free position and Your correction is lost in the same moment. It is by design so it is so important to have crown tube at the correct position on the case. Hint #2 - maker has an access to the gen: The bezel construction was somehow shown on the photos Angus posted in his thread on RG. The bezel mechanism looks quite complicated and I believe maker tried to replicate gen idea since there are probably easier ways to do unidirectional bezel than this: How does it function in our rep? Well, it feels cheap. There is a lot of play between steps, like 1/2 of minute (on 60 steps bezel). When You rotating it, the force needed to turn changes, it is not smooth - on my watch it “hangs” at about 6 o’clock and you need to use more force to continue rotating of the bezel. I put some oil into the mechanism but it did not help much… Anyway, on my rep the “natural position” of the bezel is a half a minute past 12… exactly like on gen photo on Panerai’s site Hint #3 - maker has lost his access to the gen: The bezel ring has manufacturing problems - the carbs on the edge are different that on the gen. Polished metal pins were too long (were sticking too high above surface of ceramic inlay) but were corrected before final production stage. These things are just obvious when comparing with a gen in the hand - that’s why I think the maker was not having the gen anymore at that stage of manufacturing. The same goes to the dial - according to Angus he was asked to confirm the dial printing - why on Earth anyone would need anybody to confirm such a thing while having the gen? So they were without a gen at that time, too. The question: is the bezel made of titanium? The problem of titanium is to use titanium grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) to be able to polish it (according to Panerai’s explanation of use of materials). It is polished on the rep but not especially mirror-like. So, maybe it is titanium of a lower grade or polishing was just so-so… The dial shifted printing story Half of dials have all printing shifted approx. 0.5 mm to the right. Of course Angus took the responsibility by admitting he confirmed wrongly printed dials as correct ones because they were presented to him without hour indexes. OK…. maybe. The real problem is that I have carefully checked all available photos of the rep and the dial has its printings all over the place, to the left, to the right and most of time - at correct position. Regardless the time the rep was delivered. So to me, it is purely quality control thing, or the lack of it…. On my 389 it looks like this: OK, down to the details of the replication: - case - good workmanship, good finish of the area between lugs, correct caseback, overall it is great. - bezel ceramic part - good ceramic inlay replication, good polished SS studs, good 12 pearl albeit the shape of luminova insert is not as per gen. Be careful when QC this rep due to crooked 15,30 and 45 studs. - bezel ring - poor working, cheap feel when rotating, noticeable loose and with random resistance to be felt while rotating. Carbs on the bezel’s edge are too shallow - and thus of a bit wrong shape. It is not a big issue, just for my “one look is enough to recognize it as a rep” - crystal - very good with colorless AR on the inside - dial - good dial with nicely pronounced subdial, QC fails for position of printings, superluminova - hands - nice ones but somehow not flat - they look like they were polished using electropolishing hence overall ‘roundness’. Nice luminova, with usual “there are luminova on edges, too” mistake - movement - A7750 with decoration as “P.9000”. I suppose they have a lot of these P.9000-like movements and they sorted nicer ones for watches with display caseback while movements with poor QC of decorative plates installation are to be put in closed caseback watches like PAM 389. Poor printings, crooked decoration plate over balance wheel - just enough to make You hate it when visible. Overoiled movement, there were oil fingerprints visible on the date wheel, even through date window (!) . After regulation it keeps +1 sec/day, and KEEPS it like that Due to rubber bars movement holding method - the dial is crooked a bit and there is nothing to do with that. Anyway, it doesn’t bother. - rubber strap - soft and nice, better than the one from PAM 243. Really like this one. Bottom line: it looks like ZF maker uses the same subcontractors like Noob. Maybe it is a kind of successor to Noob, who knows… Anyway, one missing thing is Quality Control during assembly. “What quality control?!” - I may even ask… Even Angus mentioned that he had to return great deal of them back to the maker due to lack of quality. General conclusion is to be very picky during QC process and do not hesitate to reject when You see something wrong. Am I happy with this rep? Yes, I am. It is truly awesome piece, even with all these replication problems. Great wrist presence, feels light on a wrist, screams “this is tool watch” all the way. Another question: will I repurchase this rep when it will get released by Kuvarsit? The answer is: 95% for YES. The design of the watch is worth it to have it as immaculate as possible.
  7. not flat CP.... I will pick my KW 351 this afternoon. Not flat CP, too
  8. another gen photo showing concentric circles on subdial (visible stroke of light):
  9. I just got this watch from Joshua / Perfect Clones. Since I already have H-factory's PAM 299N, I expected this model to be the same in terms of case set, bracelet and sapphire and I was mostly right. The only difference are caseback engravings - quite deep while production number (O xxx/600) is VERY deeply engraved, as per gen photos. But I suspect the production number font is not correct … ? All I know is that font/size is variable on this watch between series so maybe it is correct anyway. If you are curious about the case set and bracelet, You can always take a look at video I took for 299N: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VwC7dVircY The CG inner corners aren't so sharp as on Noob version. Sapphire is very good, without any white halo around the cyclop - just perfect. Hands - perfect, as known from previous H-factory Pam GMT models. Cannon pin is semi polished,not flat mirror like - but rather less shiny than chrome effect. Like per gen: or It is easy for the rep to catch the right light angle to get both hand and CP surfaces to mirror light the same way. Something which got me interested is the dial: - the lume application is almost flat with dial surface, not beveled, not sunken - just flat - the black color of dial is a bit different to that known from 299N - a bit more shiny…? But it resembles gen behavior since it is easy to see the rep dial looking like this gen one: - the rep subdial has concentric circles albeit less visible than on PAM 299N. It is almost the same story as with "299N subdial drama" where gen has subtle concentric circles, too. Most of gen photos of 297 don't show these circles and subdial appears flat. Anyway, when looking hard for lucky photo I found this picture of gen PAM 297O series, with characteristic shimmering on subdial - the proof it has concentric circles: Anyway, this H-factory PAM 297O probably has these concentric circles too visible (maybe too thin paint layer of too low viscosity of a paint). Now photos of some rep aspects: My personals thoughts: - I cannot compare it with Noob PAM 297 since I don't have both watches at the same time. It is expected that H-factory has better sapphire with better cyclop and AR. - I wish H-factory would deal with these pesky inner rounded corners of their CGs. Now I will have to 'mod' it with a diamond file. - in my opinion, this watch looks better than 299 since bigger skeleton hands match better this heavy SS construction.
  10. That's Mario's newest Python (nubuck, wood color)
  11. Hell no! That's my non-hairy arm by a nature iPad/Tapatalk HD
  12. Mine, from Joshua, too - still on my wrist for almost a week now. Here, on Orloff's python strap. I hope no one will find my wrist too puny to wear this monster
  13. custom elephant skin... this is 2nd time I see 089 on such strap and it looks great!
  14. You can actually move the dial up a tiny bit: I have just checked it on mine - after releasing clams holding movement against case you can move it a bit. I have easily make my watch into looking like Yours - with L SWISS MADE L being undercut a bit. So, open the watch, loose the screws a bit and move the movement up
  15. noisy 7750 rotors are more noticeable in titanium cases - so, it is normal
  16. I have already asked Joshua for possibility to make correct G-series case backs for this watch. Now I know it is possible but I need to know at least on serial / BB pair for them to make it right. Maybe Doug will let me know it via private message?
  17. OK... then it is another hit the GEN CG on your G-series is the same as on H-factory E-series 089... The same about high-profile lugs. So... REP 089 from H-factory would be almost PERFECT when issued as G-series instead of E-series. Interesting news.
  18. Hmm... I thought the watch was only available up to F-series? Sent from an iPad / Tapatalk HD
  19. The strap is a rep. It is bundled together with the watch. Of course I can recommend the watch! Flaws are very minimal and for nitpickers Sent from an iPad / Tapatalk HD
  20. Yes, it is the new one. Sent from an iPad / Tapatalk HD
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