Gen manual case shape, excluding lugs

[Drulee]

How has the PAM manual wind case changed throughout the years?

Excluding the lugs, our rep cases vary quite a bit, as you can see by the pics I've included below. One of the major differences between rep cases, besides the lug shapes, is the overall bezel height and shape. As many gen pics are taken using Macro mode, their pics can be distorted, not showing an accurate representation of the shape of the bezel/case.

So what I'd like to know, is whether the older (Pre-H) manual cases and bezels where like the modern ones, or if they had steeper, or even flatter bezels on them. How else did they differ? Any pics (undistorted by Macro mode) would be nice

[Drulee]

To further show what I'm asking about, here are two pics of gens. The first, a 195, appears to have a flatter and wider bezel than the second, an 061. The 061 bezel appears to be steeper in height and not as wide as the one on the 195. Is this merely the effect of the lens used when taking the pics?

[w0lf]

Doc,

Technically every OP XXXX number signifies a different case. I've thought about this very same thing many times before and I pretty much quit and resigned to the following schema with building manual reps: JF or gen case for everything non PreV. EL/old cartel case for everything PreV. If you can't get JF or gen case - the next best thing is previous gen cartel case ('08-'09). Best Ti case is the '08 "best version" 177F with the engraved movement followed by the EL/old cartel 177/176.

I started using this logic because it's my belief that realistically it's nearly impossible to quantify all the minutiae differences in OEM cases if you're using a broad criteria like prod-year. Even if you drill down to differences between same year OP # it's not crystal clear. Just think about the distribution of production run #s in a specific millesimation range for say OP 6502 case, and how simple parts availability affects the situation. Bear in mind that Panerai subcontracted case production so there's no granular in house QC but rather per-batch QC during assembly. Quick example - OP6502 is supposed to span two production years: A and B, and cover 6 distinct models (01,02,03,04,09 & 10 including transitional PreA's with up to BB971700 production run #) all models produced in different quantities. In theory this case should be the same as OP 6510, OP 6518, OP 6518, 6519, 6520 & 6521 that also came out for manually wound watches in 'B' prod year but the cases all have subtle differences in bezel height, midcase height, degree of "drooping" shoulders, etc.. So you understand now why I stopped.

[Drulee]

I'm not really trying to match cases to the right model/series. I was just wondering what the gen manual cases (pre-H) are actually shaped like. The only gen ones I get to see up here (Toronto), are the later series.

I do however have two types of rep case sets, that are very different in look. Let's call them Type A and Type B. Each has the following unique characteristics:

Type A:

Bezel is usually lower profile, but much wider.

The above results in what seems to be a wider case.

Type B:

Bezel is not as wide, but is much higher.

This case gives a more 'cone like' appearance.

At first, I believed that all cases were like Type A, and those that looked like Type B in pictures had been shot in Macro mode....

Type A would be more like the 3rd case in this pic, Type B more like the 2nd.

I guess I should dig out the callipers and double-check to see if there is actually a difference in size between the two types.