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General Specs What a super cool watch! This has to be one of the greatest dive watches introduced by any company. Super rugged and great looking. Keeping with the simple theme, this Panerai watch is classy and simple. The automatic movement (with sub second and date feature) makes this a great tool watch. With the patented locking crown and sleek unidirectional bezel, this watch is unmistakably PANERAI! This has the newer luminova painted black dial. The 44 mm brushed stainless steel case is large and captivating. You won't be able to take your eyes off this watch. But try to keep one eye out for sharks if you are diving. This is your next favorite watch! Gen Movement Specs Automatic mechanical exclusive Panerai OP III calibre, 13¼ lignes, 21 jewels, Côtes de Genève decoration on the bridges. PANERAI personalized oscillating weight. Glucydur® balance, 28,800 alternations/hour. Incabloc® anti-shock device. Power reserve 42 hours. Chronometer certificate (C.O.S.C.). Functions: hours, minutes, small seconds, date, calculation of immersion time. Case: diameter 44 mm, brushed steel AISI 316L. Helium valve on the left side. Bezel: brushed steel with polished edges, anti-clockwise unidirectional rotating bezel with graduated scale for calculating the time of immersion and ratchet click at minute intervals. Back: screw, brushed steel, 3 mm thick. Device protecting the crown: (protected as a Trade Mark) brushed steel. Crystal: sapphire, formed of corundum, 5.1 mm thick with magnifying lens over the date at 3 o'clock. Anti-reflective coating. Water-resistance: 1000 meters. Strap: rubber with PANERAI personalized steel buckle. Now that I have shown the Gen specs let's take a look at the two replica 243's that I have in my hand. For this review I have the 243H Factory and the 243 Noob Factory. Bezel At first glance, the Noob looks more like the gen. The reason? The Bezel is totally different from the H Factory. The H Factory bezel IMO looks like it's not part of the watch. The Noob version has a much better copy of the bezel and makes the watch look balanced like it should. Bezel Clicks The gen has a 60-click bezel. The Noob has a 60 click bezel. The H has a 120-click bezel. According to Andrew and Josh, the H Factory made the bezel 120-click for a reason. They say that a 60-click bezel will wear out in a short period of time. I personally have no comment on this since I really do not know. Crown Guards Both crown guards are good except the Noob is more refined and fits the case better. Sapphire Crystal The H Factory has a gorgeous and very clear crystal. The Noob Factory crystal in very cloudy and will have to be re-manufactured. You will see later in the pics how bad the Noob Crystal is, and how good the H crystal is. Lume H factory does have Super-luminova, and has a decent glow. The Noob factory was suppose to have Super-luminova (except on my series there is no Super-luminova and the glow is terrible). Case Back Both are engraved ok, except the H Factory has a nicer, deeper engraved back. Conclusion I am personally going to send my Noob 243 back and wait until the corrected version with Super-luminova dial and hands. I am also waiting for the crystal on the Noob Factory to get replaced. I personally am not concerned about the 60-click bezel, as I will not be using it much. Plus, I still do not understand why Josh and Andrew are saying that the Noob bezel with 60 clicks is going to wear out. Maybe they are 100% correct, I don't honestly know. The H Factory 243 has a gorgeous clear crystal, very good lume, Super-luminova dial and hands. The H Factory has also sharper engraving on the back case. To me and to asimplefarmer (who owns the H Factory version used for this interview) the H Factory bezel feels the same but looks out of place. The angles are all wrong. Before I thought about doing this review, one of our very knowledgeable members, txcollector, explained to me the differences in the dial before I even received my watch. Boy was he correct. So in conclusion, both watches have their positives and negatives. Now let’s let the actual photos tell the truth. The pics below were taken by our good friend redwatch. He has a professional photo studio that is just amazing. Thanks red for all your help, and I also want to thank asimplefarmer for bringing his Pam 243H to the photo shoot! Cheers guys, hope you enjoy the pics below...file://localhost/Users/doddsbook/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip/0/clip_image002.gif MM H-Factory PAM 243 vs Noob Factory PAM 243 (H-Factory is the one with the brown leather strap, Noob Factory with the black rubber)