There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
PointTec (http://www.pointtec.de/) is the company that owns the Graf Zeppelin brand, as well as Junkers and at least one other German watch brand. As you noted, they don't seem to get a lot of coverage in the English-speaking world. There's a glowing review of one of the Zeppelin automatics on Worn & Wound (http://wornandwound.com/review/graf-zeppelin-hindenburg-lz129-ref-7060/) and a pretty positive review of a different Ronda quartz model on Watches You Can Afford (https://watchesyoucanafford.com/graf-zeppelin-dual-time-7640-1-review/), but I didn't see either of those until well after I owned this watch. They seem to use exclusively Swiss quartz movements (Ronda and ETA), and Japanese (Miyota) automatics.
I received my Zep as a gift, but I did help to pick it out. I knew nothing about watches at the time. I'm a little older now (couple years) and a little more educated about watches (though still pretty much a neophyte). If I were picking out a watch today, I don't know that I'd go for something with this many complications, or for a quartz piece. And that's insane, because I adore this watch! Not just for sentimental reasons, either. It's stunning, and classy, and endlessly interesting to look at without being flashy or clownish.
I've never seen one of these go on sale either, but if it's any consolation, they're worth the asking price. Long Island Watch (http://www.longislandwatch.com/), a US store which carries a great selection of affordable, high-quality watches, has both Junkers and Graf Zeppelin for good prices with free shipping.