Panerai PAM288 Radiomir Chrono

[babola]

For me this was an impulse buy. Everything just felt right and 'in place' with the PAM288 rep that I just had to have it.

Let me just say that I'm not a big fan of Rad Chronos, or anything else that's not just a simple hand-wind mov't inside a Rad case. But this one was just too good to pass.

After over 5 years in this hobby and having owned, modded, kept, sold etc over 100 Panerai reps during this time, I rarely get excited by them anymore. But when something like this Rad or A7753 powered Daylight lands in my hands it's hard not to be upbeat at least for a little while

In short, the watch is great. The level of detail, finish, sharpness and overall appearance is again a step up from the latest and greatest as well as old-school Pam reps released from GZ. It's still not a perfect rep, nor we will see that anytime soon, but they get closer and closer to gen counterparts by every new model released by both the Noob factory and the Hublot maker. It sure helps to have a genuine 'in-hand' to be able to strip it down and replicate to a fine detail.

Enough talk, off to the photos...

The case overall

Very gen-like, indeed. It's really hard to fault it.

After years of Rad reps with incorrect case shape, this one hits in on the head. I owned 5 Rad rep sin the past from '05 to '09, neither came with correctly shaped case corners. This also includes DSN Rad cases, of which I owned none. Corners on this one are sharp and very genuine looking.

The dial, lume & A/R

The dial is the best one I've seen on any Panerai rep so far, possibly on any rep full stop. 236/250 Daylight dial comes close second. The sharpness of dial print, markers and numerals are spot-on. IMO, as a replica dial it cannot be made any better. If you want better, genuine Pam is for you.

The A/R is colorless, it only shows a little blue hue under extreme angles and special lighting conditions. It's simply awesome. The lume is per genuine, it glows like a torch. Non-charged color is yellowish green, charged - alien green Perfect lume application as well.

Note on crown and pushers

Crown is well made, great definition, spring loaded. It suffers though from the same illness as the previous Rad reps. The spring inside the crown is very hard and requires a little more push-force towards the case when scr3wing-down. This was one of the main reasons the threads on crown tubes on previous Rad reps used to strip - there's simply too much force that crown places on tube threads every time you scr3w it in or out. Genuine Radiomir doesn't have this issues, the spring isn't as hard and the whole process feels a little more 'buttery'.

Thread stripping is actually very common on Rad reps, it happened to me on 3 of my Rads in the past, and to hundreds of other rep owners.

This isn't something that can be addressed easily, but you could slow and maybe totally avoid tube thread stripping by simply twisting the crown in opposite direction until you 'find' the beginning of a thread. This is common sense and logic, and has been discussed about on many rep forums before.

Many have noted that the crown doesn't seem to scr3w in completely. It's true for mine. After some examination I realised that the issue on mine is the crown stem that is simply too loong, so when the crown is completely pushed in (spring fully contracted) it doesn't 'reach' the base of the crown tube. Easy fix indeed, for most.

The chrono pushers function flawlessly, there's a little play in them and they spin/turn. Not sure if the genuine is like this but it's nothing to be concerned about, IMO.

Chrono starts and resets perfectly. Needles all align to their neutral resting position.

BTW, the crown comes with a single flat-type o-ring seal.

Movement and why this still isn't - "all parts are interchangeable with genuine parts" type rep

The inside hides a something they didn't want us to discuss or dissect too much. It's an old-style A7750 with 30-min totalizer moved to 3 o'clock to resemble a pseudo-7753. It's been around for a while, used on many Pam reps in the past with the same or similar tri-compax chrono config. The finish is rough and unfinished. The typical 7750/7753 regulator arm is still missing. The plates are sporting a standard Asian mov't finih, so best to keep it under a closed caseback. This is not to say it's unreliable, not at all.

Notice the laser etching on the rotor that goes over the CDG ridges at the edges:

And now for the 'issue'...and my only grief with this rep. Since the mov't isn't what most of us expected, based on the latest A7753 but simply modified A7750 - the overall movement is thicker. This is due to the fact there is an extra gear needed to transfer the 30-min chrono totalizer from 12 to 3 o'clock. If the case, bezel, rehaut, and dial are of the same dimensions as the gen, something else had to be done to accomodate thicker mov't inside the case. The result is crown and chrono pushers that are now positioned about 1 mm lower on the case profile. If they went with the A7753 mov't, this wouldn't be a problem, and the mov't would be interchangeble with the genuine ETA7753 or gen Panerai OP XIX mov't. In this config - it isn't.

So the statement "all parts interchangeable with genuine" simply doesn't stick, in other words it's a load of bull fed to the dealers by the rep makers.

Check the red arrows pointing at the lowered position of chrono pushers:

Caseback, lug wires, strap, deployment etc..

The caseback is work of art, perfect engraving that is head above anything else I've seen so far. The serial number is also random as well as production number. Nice touch, as far as I know this is the first rep that comes like this. Most of the others come with incremental production numbers, while the serial is the same. The serial and production numbers aren't in sequence like on the genuine, though. Not that it matters at all. I don't really care anymore if the serial is 'fixed' or production number is 0117/1000 type...I've done with that sort of nit-picking.

Caseback is very heavy and sports 'swiss made' laser etched text on the inside.

Lug wires are also much better than I've seen before on Rad reps. The wires now have a flat ending where they join at the mid-tube:

There's alo much more defined indentation for a screw, so not much lug wire play is expected on well tighten lugs.

Lug screws are also slightly different from old-school ones:

The strap, although calf-croc is phenomenal. This is a new generation Pam rep strap, correct thickness, correct hump in the middle, perfect replication of crock pattern. It looks and feels very much like the real thing. Lining on the inside is made from soft napa leather, rarely seen on Pam rep straps. However, if you have the means...the gen crock option could be an option, they actually replicated this one very well.

The second strap keeper is a pain to remove. The only way to do this is by cutting it or force-squeezing it over the fixed keeper like I did...see below:

Voila!

Deployment clasp

Another work of art, and I don't simply say so. The cut and finish is close to perfect. The butterfly clasps engage and disengage effortlessly, for nice silky buttery operation. The engraving is nice although most of the clasps I've seen so far have text Panerai engraved too close to the edge. Not a biggie, only the most an@l amongst us would find this distracting anyway.

Closed clasp, with floating keeper removed is shown below. My wrists are 6.75" and are considered to be 'standard' by Panerai norms. The clasp sits in the middle hole (4th hole). Many will however find the strap to be a hole shorter than standard straps that come on 44mm Luminor cases.

Beware of the little screw that secures the bar on short strap piece. This came with almost stripped threads altogether. Keep it easy guys, don't over tighten, there's no need for that since that bar won't go anywhere:

Overall fit and wear

Well, you be the judge...the "thing" wears a little larger than your usual manual-wind Rad but smaller than a Daylight chrono, for example.

I actually like how it fits my wrist and hugs it in a right sort of way.

Check that domed xtal...it's beautiful

There you have it guys. These write-ups always seem to take longer than originally anticipated. I hope this review provided a little more insight into this beautiful Rad rep, and that final 'nudge' towards pulling a trigger for many. At the price point it's currently offered you'd be mad not to

The watch is one of a kind indeed, it's the type you won't have an issue taking to an AD (if that's your thing) or a GTGs with other gen owners and 'risti bozos.

Get it, strap it and enjoy it!

cheers,

babola

[asf]

dude! thanks for the awesome review

[aheeeee]

Great review!! Thanks very much!!

[redwatch]

dude! thanks for the awesome review

That should make your decision a little easier/tougher all at the same time, huh K?

Babola - exceptional review! Thanks for sharing!! It's a beauty.

[StormTooper4]

Great review of a top notch rep, thanks for putting this up

[Watchmeister]

Great review. These reps are too good.

[maxman]

This Is without a doubt the best "detailed" review of the 288 to date,will be hard to top. Thanks for your time and commitment to this board,very well done The rep Rad may not be perfect but dam It's close. I happen to love this model and It will be my next rep purchase for sure,thanks again for the fantastic review.

[coolfire]

Wow. You've got me sold, babola! Absolutely wonderful review! Now to find money... lol

[Defender110]

thank you for the write up!

After contemplating this latest I began to think of the movement... And you answered my question with this review!

Did they use the LATEST and GREATEST A7753 or the old hacked/modified incorrect height A7750 with moved totalisers

i would have loved to make a ETA7753 powered frank it they used the A7753 instead of the hacked A7750 that is the wrong thickness necessitating an incorrect case thickness and pusher location.

[kbh]

thank you for the write up!

After contemplating this latest I began to think of the movement... And you answered my question with this review!

Did they use the LATEST and GREATEST A7753 or the old hacked/modified incorrect height A7750 with moved totalisers

i would have loved to make a ETA7753 powered frank it they used the A7753 instead of the hacked A7750 that is the wrong thickness necessitating an incorrect case thickness and pusher location.

Your reading comprehension is a little slow this morning Defender. I quote from the OP:

And now for the 'issue'...and my only grief with this rep. Since the mov't isn't what most of us expected, based on the latest A7753 but simply modified A7750 - the overall movement is thicker. This is due to the fact there is an extra gear needed to transfer the 30-min chrono totalizer from 12 to 3 o'clock. If the case, bezel, rehaut, and dial are of the same dimensions as the gen, something else had to be done to accomodate thicker mov't inside the case. The result is crown and chrono pushers that are now positioned about 1 mm lower on the case profile. If they went with the A7753 mov't, this wouldn't be a problem, and the mov't would be interchangeble with the genuine ETA7753 or gen Panerai OP XIX mov't. In this config - it isn't.

So the statement "all parts interchangeable with genuine" simply doesn't stick, in other words it's a load of bull fed to the dealers by the rep makers.

Edit: Seems I misread Defender's original statement and apologize for the misunderstanding. He was only pointing our what was in the original thread.

Edited November 29, 2010 by kbh

[Eton]

Wow, thanks for the review and your pictures are fantastic!!!

Most will bite the bullet after reading your review

[dluddy]

Nicely done mate.

Kind of hard to argue with the quality.

Wonder if they will sell the deployants seperately

[kuli]

Ok. I am sold on this since it won't be needing any mods, all I have to do is just unpack and wear.

[robertk]

Terrific review of a great watch. A lot of time and effort that is really appreciated by this forum.

Thank you!

[babola]

Thanks for your kind words, guys

Really loving this one, it also fits under the shirt cuffs slightly better than the Daylight thanks to its rounded case and polished surface.

cheers,

b

[pizzanooo]

Nice write up. Just received mine and totally agree, one of the best.

[maxman]

Nice write up. Just received mine and totally agree, one of the best.

Congratulations

[Shortagear]

Great review. Is that the fake croc, or the gen croc option?

[ticoss]

DAmn...it's my first post here, and i'm going to open my wallet once more today...

[kurtz]

Great job!

[Dani]

Thanks for the great review.

what photo gear are you using in this review?

Cheers

[babola]

Thanks for the great review.

what photo gear are you using in this review?

Cheers

Thanks bud! Nothing too expensive, just a Lumix LX3, awesome macro capabilities and very fast lenses. Got fed up with my wife's point-and-shoot.

But I'm an amateur when it comes to photography.

cheers,

b

[brahmabull]

amazing review. Thank you for taking the time to share. Convinced me to move this to the top of the priority list. Will source this out to purchase.

[automatics]

That's about as detailed a review as one can hope for.

Thank you, again as everybody has so far - for the good effort.

The 288 rep is truly a thing of beauty.

[paneristi_man]

Fantastic review. Mods, can this be pinned in this forum?