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
Edit: I'm pretty impressed with Barton as a fully conceived and executed business. They have a full product line. And they have made some good design choices. For example, their silicone bands are available in a range of tasteful colors, not the usual black and a half dozen tacky, fully saturated colors. Orange is popular, so what did they do? Offer two shades of orange. Brilliant! Orange watch faces differ. Orient has two or three different shades in their line. The green, blue and red are shades (dark colors, "mixed with black"}, and the turquoise, blue, and yellow are tints (light colors, "mixed with white"). Other than the oranges, which are special cases in the dive watch world, all the colors are tastefully not over-saturated. The canvases are similarly tasteful. Color is a perennial weak point with engineer-led companies (e.g., Aragon).
And despite a drawer full of spring bar tools, I may just order theirs. It's really cleanly machined, with a sharp centimeter ruler on it, and screw-in tips, including two extra tips that are different sizes. I have some Japanese watches with bracelets that have access holes that are just too small for all but one of the spring bar tools that I have. This Barton tool looks like it covers the whole range. I haven't seen that even in Swiss tools.