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
This is a sub-US$1,000 pilot-style watch from Eddie Platts, one of the better internet watchmakers.
This thing looks unassuming, but its spec-sheet is nothing to shake a stick at:
- ETA 2893-2
- Antimagnetic to 80,000A/m, or 1,000 gauss (Hello, Milgauss) with soft iron inner case and black iron dial
-Water Resistant to 100m AND negative pressure resistant to 0.4ATM
-Double-domed sapphire crystal with inner AR coating
-Contrasting lume (green hands, blue markers)
-Frosted hour and minute hands
-Curved minute and second hands
-Ridiculously comfortable 5-link bracelet
-Well laid-out dial (not easy to do with arabic numerals)
I only have a handful of minor gripes (most of which can be fixed at the next service):
-Lume isn't the brightest, and the big triangle at 12 isn't lumed
-GMT and hour hands don't quite hit their markers at the top of the hour
-Date switches over at 40 past midnight
-Crown threads starting to strip
If you haven't heard of Eddie Platts or his watches, I highly recommend at least browsing his wares:
http://www.timefactors.com/