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
Why is the buckle a Pryngeps buckle? Do you separately swap out bands and buckles?! I recently discovered that there are buckle fanatics. And tang fanatics. In other words, there are guys who choose a strap, a buckle, and the buckle tang all separately. How much does a Damascus steel tang cost? I'll leave that as homework. You can browse around this guy's website:
http://finewatchbuckles.com/Impressions.html
Who the heck would even notice that someone's watch strap buckle tang is cool?
Added:
Various handmade tangs (scroll down):
http://finewatchbuckles.com/Prices.html
You can buy a mid-range Timex for the price of some of these tangs.