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
▶ Are there certain features that make most sense for you? I'm very fond of panel loaders. I wish someone made an affordable lightweight external frame panel loader- on some trips I take my old external frame Kelty (over 40 years old) and it's comfortable and performs well- particularly when the temp is high I appreciate the ventilation and the way it carries. Super-ultra-lightweight isn't as important as function to me- I don't want to haul around 7 pounds of pack, but since I'm not skinny a pound on the back doesn't make or break things. ▶ What companies/brands do you think make the best products? To my knowledge, most packs are now made in Asia by factories contracted by brands- few of the brands we're all familiar with actually manufacture anything themselves. The domestic, high quality manufacturers are pretty small scale and cater to higher end buyers. For this reason, I don't associate many large brands with particularly high quality anymore.