Thinking about a PAM 026

[R0NiN]

So I always wear my watches on my left wrist and so a Destro PAM 026 would be perfect for me. However, I'm confused and wanted to see if you Panerai geniuses could help me out... From what I've found the original 026 had a T Swiss T dial according to Panerai Source. However, I found an original PAM 026B and it has an L Swiss L dial found at Art of Time. Now the NEW 026 has an L Swiss Made L dial. So I am totally confused. I was thinking of getting this:

http://puretimewatch.com/product/pam026/

My question is, that watch has the L Swiss L of the GEN 026 B I found, is the rest of the dial right or completely off? I know it needs a solid caseback to be more accurate, is that something I can get for it? I've done some searching around and seen other peoples 026's but I know nothing so thought I'd ask the experts.

Thanks All!

[w0lf]

Ronin,

OEM 26 'B' series falls on the transitional period so both tritium and luminova dials were available (T S T & L S L respectively). The new 26 'K' is a reissue of the original 'B' model and has a sandwich dial treated with luminova, hence it's only available with an L SWISS L insignia. Afaik, there's no good rep caseback for PAM26 for any year mfg., and DSN's new 26K isn't very accurate by and large. The best all-rep build would be utilizing the discontinued fantasy DSN destro dial for PAM22/26 with T-SWISS-T and extra yellow lume. You can then have The Zigmeister relume the dial with a nice tritium mix and have him remove the dashes in T-SWISS-T. Case it in a quality caseset like older cartel or preferably JimmyzFu and finish it off with a thick old 'B' caseback. I know it's for the /3000 millesimation Marina run but you can't find a better B caseback with proper engraving. While you have The Zigmeister work on the dial have him also do an OEM PVD coat at the Lichtenstein factory.

If you want to pull out all the stops, pm kye_lin, I remember he had an oem T SWISS T destro marina dial for sale but you're likely looking at $5K+ build if you get this dial.

[R0NiN]

Wow, thanks for the thorough response. I guess I'm about to say something sacrilegious but I'm definitely not a ginormous stickler for perfection on this. If I can get a solid caseback, like the one you mentioned where do you get one of those? (I'd take pretty much any B caseback with an OP that is from a PVD 44mm...6519, 6521, 6523, 6526, 6504, 6502, etc.), versus see through and the 26 from puretime is a pretty close approximation of a 26 luminova L s L dial (my untrained eye thought they looked pretty good) then I'd be pretty happy (and a new strap of course). Does that seem likely?

Thanks!

Edited July 2, 2010 by R0NiN

[kye_lin]

I have cased the dial.......... my completed franken PAM26A......

[R0NiN]

mmmm..very nice...what do you mean by cased the dial?

[w0lf]

PT's version has a pretty bad shiny PVD and wrong CG (it's just a flipped non-destro one.)