Review of PAM 252

[HammerTime]

Introduction

Since its announcement as a replica, I had always wanted a PAM00252 North Pole GMT to add to my collection of replica and genuine watches. However, virtually all the replica 252s suffered from glaring deficiencies, namely the dial color and the GMT hand.

Some replicas 252s, such as the ones offererd by the “cartel” dealers (Andrew of Trustytime and Josh of Perfectclones) have 252s with a black dial (the GEN is dark blue). In addition, other replica 252s have a GMT hand which is entirely too large (Compare photos below of 'Genuine' and 'Other rep').

So when I discovered a dealer selling what appeared to be an accurate replica I ordered and with great anticipation received a PAM00252 North Pole GMT.

Delivery and First Impressions

The watch arrived in good condition via UPS and looked stunning. I’m really not into the whole leather strap swapping thing (see my signature below) and believe rugged sports watches look best with bracelets so I specified the watch with a brushed metal band. However it arrived with a mixed polished and brushed band. At first I was tempted to swap the brushed band off my 087 but my girlfriends felt the brushed bezel and contrasting polished cardinal markers (they are white gold on the GEN) went well with the existing band. I agreed and retained it.

My PAM 252

PAM 252 Specific Observations

The next aspect I examined was the dial color. It is a dark cobalt blue and very close to the color of the gen dial I’ve seen in photos. Depending upon the lighting and viewing angle, the dial color may appear lighter or darker (sometimes almost black). It is a much darker blue than the blue found on replica PAM00087s and in my opinion more ‘classy’. High marks for accuracy here.

PAM 252 and PAM 087

I then turned my attention to the dreaded GMT hand. How rep manufacturers can get this so wrong on other 252 reps is beyond me. How hard is it to make an accurate hand? Fortunately the hand on this rep is much smaller and closer to GEN (compare photos of other reps and this one). I still think the hand is a tad bit larger than GEN but it is the closest to GEN I’ve yet seen. Good marks. The GMT hand is set independently of the hour and minute hands, just like the GEN.

GEN PAM 252

OTHER PAM 252 Rep

Along with the back of the new PAM00229 Firenze, the back of the 252 is the most ornate in the PAM catalog and the back on this rep is very accurate. Note how the polar ice cap is POLISHED ( it’s so shiny you can see the reflection of my weathered wooden deck) and not satin or brushed as on lesser reps. The case back has accurate makings and a faux serial number indicating “I” series or 2006. I give excellent marks for the case back.

Back

General Rep Observations

The movement in this watch is a new high beat 7750 which at first seem to keep good time. Over the course of a week however, it picked up nearly 2 minutes. My local watchmaker adjusted it to +/- 1 second per day and it has hummed along fine since. I did have some difficulty getting the GMT hand to sync with the hour hand though. It would not line up with the indices on the GMT dial when the hour hand was lined up with an hour on the dial. After monkeying around with it for a while I was able to synchronize it with the hour hand. The movement winds smoothly and with good feel.

The crown guard and lever on this sample were not the best I have seen. The main issues were the guard’s ill fit to the case and a lever that wasn’t flush with the crown guard. I was able to mitigate this deficiency with the judicious application of sandpaper and Dremel tool in the appropriate places (the photos shown are before I modded the crown guard and lever). The crown itself is thinner than found on my 087 and 202, but that is the case with the GEN versions of these watches too.

Compared to my PAM00202 and PAM00087, the bezel on the 252 is rather loose and oh-so slightly off alignment. When I asked the selling dealer about the looseness, he replied that all GEN Arktos family watches (PAM00092, PAM00186 and PAM00252) have loose bezels. As I don’t have a GEN version of these watches I cannot verify this. It certainly isn’t loose enough to rotate on its own or rattle when the watch is shaken.

The crystal is sapphire (as far as I can tell) verified by the water and tap tests and is double AR coated (I’m not sure this is accurate as many late model PAMs are just single AR coated). Furthermore, the magnifier and date font is dead on. Hopefully other automatic PAMs will utilize this Cyclops.

Lume is definitely better than standard rep lume, though I’m not sure it is up to Super Luminova standards. After a 20 second exposure to light, the dial glows brightly but only for a short time. The dealer said the dial and hands had been coated with Super Luminova but I’ll need to perform longer and more controlled tests to confirm this.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

This new PAM 252 rep is the best I have yet seen. While still suffering from some classical rep deficiencies, its faithful dial color, GMT hand and accurate case back make it the most accurate PAM 252 I’m aware of. In addition it is, in my opinion, the best-looking PAM rep in my collection, followed by the Angus 127, the 202 and the 087.

Price: $320

Shipping: $30

Regards

HammerTime

Edited January 22, 2008 by HammerTime

[kye_lin]

Hi.

Which dealer??

[Watchmeister]

Excellent review. Much thanks. As always there are elements of one step forward and one back. The loose bezel and it's alignment and mediocre crown guard is now all too common on the PAM's. The frustrating thing is the early submersible reps did have bezels which have the same level of hold and alignment of the gen - original 24A, original 187, etc. The later submersible reps I have seen have a much cheaper feeling bezel ratchet mechanism. I know this varies by manufacturer and I have no idea who makes what. The CG thing is puzzling to me as well as they have gone backwards not forwards. It is great to hear the whole date and magnification issue continues to improve. I assume they are using the same Sandwich combo for the crystal/cyclops. And the one issue I can never figure out is whether the dial is the right color and the subseconds is the right texture (concentric or not) or sheen.

Great review though.

[HammerTime]

@Kruzer,

Thanks for the kind remarks, your contributions are well respected here. I believe the GEN has no texture ( no concentric rings) on the sub-seconds dial (all the good photos of the GEN show no rings). This REP is also a textureless sub-seceonds dial.

@Kye_lin,

The dealer I used is from ioffer.com and goes by the name "shir".

- HammerTime

[tech]

Compared to my PAM00202 and PAM00087, the bezel on the 252 is rather loose and oh-so slightly off alignment. When I asked the selling dealer about the looseness, he replied that all GEN Arktos family watches (PAM00092, PAM00186 and PAM00252) have loose bezels. As I don

[turboGUATE]

Finally some serious improvement on this PAM (still with the flaws mentioned). Thanks for an excellent review!

Cheers!

[yellomen]

Thanx HammerTime!! I've been wanting a good PAM252 for a long time now and it's good to see it can you finally found one. Although there are still some issues, as always... it is quite close and i am really tempted... but broke as well, so i'll have to wait or seel something first.

Thanx for a great review