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
I bought a pair of Timex Retrograde Chronograph Premium Collection watches back when my son was young - like around 9yrs old. This was his very first watch, we were both proud. I had our names engraved on the case backs in hopes that he would always remember the moment.
The watch looked so big on his little wrist back then, now this 45mm case looks small on his near 20yrs old arm….ha! I remember paying about $100 each for these watches at Target, at the time there were the coolest looking Timex watches on the market with it’s fancy sub-dials and black, white and orange accents.
My son’s watch (the T2M428 model) had a layer of orange colored latex sandwiched in between the two layers of the black genuine leather strap. A year or two later he turned out to be allergic to latex so I had to swap-out the leather band for a nato style strap. My version (the T2M430 model) shipped with a stainless steel bracelet but I fell in love with the black & orange leather strap - so I hunted down and after market strap online, bought it and put the bracelet on the shelf. As he has gotten older he less allergic to latex so he’s now able to ware the original black & orange strap for short periods of time perhaps 1-2 day stretches.
Movement: Japanese Quartz Chronograph Movement
Complications: Day, Date, and 24hr GMT Sub-dials
Case: 45mm Polished Stainless Steel
Crystal: Scratch Resistant Mineral
Bezel: Fixed Coin-Edge External
Bezel: Tri-Color 60min Internal
Band: 22mm Stainless Steel Bracelet
WR: 100-meter