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
The hands are a translucent midnight blue, and pop out against the creamy white enamel dial. Roman numerals normally clutter up a dial, but these are printed so narrowly and finely that it all just works. The calendar subdial is a more unique and elegant (though less legible) way of showing the date than the usual date window. The power reserve subdial comes close to cluttering up the dial, but I think just manages not to. Highly legible overall, and beautiful even at a glance.
However, this dial reserves (no pun intended) its secrets for the close observer. Attend with me.
First, the enamel. Though it's a signature feature, the enamel dial is understated in the extreme. You can't see it from this photo, but the dial is recessed in the centre and about the calendar and power reserve subdials. Not just that, the recessed area is also textured, setting off the glossy enamel at the perimeter of the dial. You're welcome to look for flaws, like tiny bubbles in the enamel. I have. There are none.
Look closer. Tiny arabic numerals are sitting on the periphery marking the minutes. What are they doing there? It's as if somebody said to a Seiko designer, "I bet you can't make an elegant, clean looking watch with numbers on the dial for both hours and minutes", and they went, "Challenge accepted." Do the font and size of the minute numerals match up with the ones on the calendar and power reserve indicator? Of course they do.
In the time we've been examining the dial, the hands have swept on. Did you notice something about them? The hour hand just touches the inner tips of the roman numerals, the minute hand grazes the tips of the minute markers, and the seconds hand lines up with the outer edges of the roman numerals. Highly, highly satisfying.
But wait, before you go, this watch has one more trick up its sleeve. Check out the other end of the seconds hand. Looks like there's nothing there? There's actually a crescent on the end. That crescent lines up almost perfectly with the 'O' in 'SEIKO', which is why you're not really seeing it. Wait 26 seconds for that crescent to reach its nadir at the bottom of the dial, and for a split second the central pip of the calendar subdial fills up the hollow of the crescent, forming a fleeting black full moon. Call the Professor, this is Da Vinci Code level shit.
It took me weeks to notice all these tiny details, and I'm still wondering if there's more I haven't spotted. I often can't believe I paid less than a grand for this.
EDIT: In the course of discussion here, I did notice something new about this watch. The sub-seconds indices are painted in divisions of 4 per second, not 5 per second as you'd normally expect. The 6R27 movement on this is 28,800bph, or 8 beats per second. This means that every other beat of the seconds hand lines up with an individual seconds or sub-seconds marker. This is one detail where this watch is actually superior to the Omega Speedy Pro, which is frankly insane.