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
Seiko is no stranger to any of us here, but I recently saw a bunch of pictures and literature online regarding "King Seiko". Of course, Seiko today has their luxury line of Grand Seiko, and the ultra-luxury Credor, but I had never heard of King Seiko before.
I did a bit of digging (read: Google search) about the topic and came across this article, which turned out to be a much more interesting story of the brand's history, design, and these product lines than I had initially expected. Happy reading!
https://www.timepiecechronicle.com/features/2017/8/17/in-depth-the-history-of-grand-and-king-seiko