The Cheap Panerai Replica, inspired by a vintage watch used by the Italian navy, features the brand’s P.9001 in-house movement.Scroll down for the full report, accompanied by Nik Schölzel’s stunning original photos.
Caliber family P.9000, which debuted in 2009, is the second line of in-house movements developed by Panerai. Though their power reserve is shorter, these offer the convenience of automatic winding at significantly less expense than their predecessors in the P.2000 family. Panerai Replica Watches, in fact, holds a full 10 days’ worth of power, but the watch that it powers, the Panerai Luminor 1950 10 Days GMT, is nearly twice as expensive as the one we test here, the Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT.
Despite its lower price tag, the 3 Days GMT provides almost everything the 10 Days offers: a second time zone, a power-reserve display and a return-to-zero mechanism for the seconds hand, which is triggered when you extract the crown into the hand-setting position. Along with Caliber P.9001, which powers the Panerai Replica in this test, the family includes the basic P.9000 and the P.9002.
Typical characteristics of this Swiss-made, Italian-designed brand include a satin-finished and pillow-shaped case with a polished bezel, a protective stirrup with a lever used to press the crown firmly into the case, and a distinctively styled dial with large Arabic numerals and hour indices. The 3 Days GMT watch is a faithful interpretation of the original Panerai Replica UK model, which debuted in 1950 as a watch for Italian Navy divers. but it isn’t essentially different from other Panerai watches. The unmistakable family resemblance of its products is both a strength and a weakness of this brand: if you aren’t fond of this one’s design, you probably won’t find any other Panerai model to suit you. On the other hand, every Panerai watch is immediately recognizable to the brand’s many fans. And judging by the staying power of Panerai’s retro design, the Luminor 3 Days will probably be just as appealing to collectors 10 years from now – which cannot be said about every contemporary watch.
Careful scrutiny uncovered a few specks of dust on the hands, which were stamped from rather thin stock, which causes them to bend toward the polished eyelet at the center of the dial. There’s also an obvious break in the satin finishing above the lugs, which accept the crosspiece that holds the strap.
In all other respects, however, the case is excellently crafted. It also scores points for its quick-change system for the strap lugs. A special tool, delivered with the Cheap Panerai Replica, can be used to press a button on the underside of each lug, making it easy to push out the crosspiece, remove the leather strap and install the alternate rubber one that is also included.
Manufacturer: Officine Panerai, Rue de la Balance 4, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Reference Number: PAM 00320
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds, date, second time zone; power-reserve display on the back; zero-return function for the seconds hand
Movement: P.9001, automatic; 28,800 vph; 29 jewels; Incabloc shock absorption; Glucydur balance; fine adjustment via weight screws on the balance; 72-hour power reserve;
diameter = 31.8 mm; height = 7.9 mm
Case: Stainless steel, nonreflective 2.6-mm-thick sapphire crystal, fully threaded caseback with transparent pane of sapphire, water-resistant to 300 meters
Strap and clasp: Crocodile-skin strap, pronged stainless-steel buckle