Testing The Water Resistance Of My Watch

Back after perhaps the best vacation I've ever had - a week at the beautiful island of Maui, Hawaii. All credit goes to my wonderful fiancé who made this happen, including a stay at the Four Seasons Resort (exceptional service received). 'But, what has this got to do with watches' is probably what you all must be thinking. Well it so happened that the trip to Maui had quite a bit of activities that involved water. This included swimming, snorkelling, getting knocked about by surprising powerful waves at the beach and jumping into the water from rocks about 20ft high. It's the last one that I was a bit worried about doing with a watch on.

In order to learn more about this, I went on to one of the watch forums and asked if it was ok to wear a watch and jump into the water from a height. I got the usual sarcastic comments about worrying unnecessarily when it comes to getting a watch wet, but that's not what I was looking for. I wanted specially to know if it's ok to jump from a height into the water. I did get some pretty good and reassuring responses as well, so I decided to go for it. If you're still thinking I'm worrying too much, it's because the watch in question was my Panerai PAM005, not what you would call a cheap watch.

Enjoying the view from the pool

I chose the PAM because it came with a rubber strap, and something I could wear at a nice place as well (like the Four Seasons). I didn't want to carry more than one watch on the trip. The other option I had was the Submariner, but I have worn that on quite a few trips and wanted to give the Panerai some wrist time.

So, how did it do? Well, it passed with flying colours! Absolutely no issues whatsoever. There was no condensation, no spring bar coming lose (which was my biggest concern) after multiple jumps including somersaults, and even on a cloudy day it was very easy to tell the time underwater. All I had to remember to do was to rinse the watch with freshwater after taking a swim in the sea, so as to the wash the salt off.

time check underwater while snorkelling

Cheers!

Review: Panerai PAM005 - one year on

It's almost a year since I bought the PAM005 and I think it's a good time for a proper review. I've been wearing it very often over the past year and under various conditions, so let's see how it's been doing so far.

Before I begin, here are some quick specs for people who are still new to this watch:

Case: Polished Steel
Caseback: Solid
Crystal: 3.5mm Sapphire
Diameter: 44mm
Lug Width: 24mm
Thickness: 14.5mm

The PAM005 is a Luminor Marina, which means it has the famous Panerai crown guard and the small seconds indicator. This watch also comes with the OP (Officine Panerai) logo on the dial, which is something I quite like personally, while some may tend to disagree.

What I've liked:

Build Quality - really nice and feels tough. The polished stainless still case has picked up minor scratches that can be expected from normal wear, but the sapphire crystal is still scratch-less.

The Crown Guard - What? The crown guard? Yes, the way it opens and locks is so nice that I find myself fidgeting with it all the time.

Looks - Although a 44mm would seem pretty big for some people, it actually sits really well on the wrist, thanks to it's curved lugs. It really hugs the wrist and makes it very comfortable to wear. I have a 7 inch wrist and it seems to fit perfectly on it. I have also received a lot of compliments for it, which is always nice, since people generally don't notice a watch.

Timekeeping - The PAM005's movement is COSC certified, which means it should ideally maintain an accuracy within -4/+6 seconds a day. From my personal tests, it has been been keeping time well within those specs.

Lume - Bright, very easy to read at night and just looks awesome!

Versatility with Straps - Well, if you read about Panerai, you will surely come across the obsessions of straps that people develop soon after buying one. I can personally tell you it's very true. In fact, in one of my earlier posts, I've even mentioned that this was the very reason I started making straps. The PAM005, like most other Panerai watches look great in a wide variety of straps. The watch even comes with a small screwdriver which makes changing straps really easy (different Panerai models may have a different technique to change straps).

What I didn't like: Honestly, I don't have anything bad to say about it, so I will have to nitpick here:

Polished Case - Looks great, but scratches quite easily.

Setting The Time - Not something that bothers me, but may bother others, so I am mentioning it. If you want to be accurate, you will have to wait for when the minutes is in multiples of five, like 5, 10, fifteen. This is because it has no individual minute markers. Also the movement doesn't allow for the seconds hand to be hacked (stopped) when you pull the crown out.

Also a tip when you set the time: I was a bit unsure as to how to push the crown back after setting the time. I constantly found myself accidentally rotating the crown a bit while pushing it in, which in turn would move the minute hand slightly and I would have to wait again for another 5 minutes to set the time (only if you are picky bout setting the time accurately). I then wondered if I could just use the crown guard to push the crown down while locking it. It worked great, but some fellow Panerai owners told me it could lead to unnecessary pressure on the crown. So I went straight to the source - I contacted Panerai regarding this. To my surprise, they actually got back to me within a day and told me the right way to do it - do not use the crown guard to push the crown back in. Instead use two fingers on either side of the crown guard to gently push the crown in. This takes a bit of practice but it works like a charm and the minute hand doesn't move when done correctly.

Overall I'm really loving the watch. It pairs really well with whatever you may wear, especially with the ease of changing the strap. I have not got the chance to take it swimming yet, but I plan to do so very soon on an upcoming trip. I have got it wet in the rain though and of course it had no issues whatsoever. For those looking to buy the PAM005, it definitely gets a thumbs up from me, although since Panerai has discontinued this particular model, it may be a little hard to find.

Some straps I made and a trip to Hong Kong

My strap making journey continues and I have since my last post, worked on a few more :

I soon realised that I was out of leather and needed to up my game, basically needed to get some better quality tools. Thankfully I had a work trip to Hong Kong and there are quite a few nice leather craft shops I could find there. Here are the tools I picked up:

I also picked up some more leather, a couple of straps for the PAM and a buckle. Bio too picked up leather nato for his Omega and a strap changing tool (since the regular one doesn't work on the Seamaster).  We also came across a LOT of watch stores for new and pre-owned watches. HK seriously is an amazing place for watch lovers.

Nato wrist shot

Wrists hot from the hotel

Nato love for the Omega and Panerai

straps

more straps!

 

some watch browsing

never seen so many PAMs together

Here are two more straps I made after I came back. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out :)

Some lume shots from the PAM005

Finally managed to take a couple of lume shots while on a short vacation. Both these shots have been taken from a phone camera (my girlfriend's Nexus 6P) and thankfully came out pretty neat :)

I tried to colour correct this one to match the actual lume colour

Incoming - The Panerai PAM005

Finally!! After an extremely long dry spell, 5 years to be exact (and in time for my birthday), I have a new timepiece to add to my collection, the gorgeous PAM005. For people who have read my blog in the past, you'll probably know that the Panerai Luminor Marina was on my wish list. Originally it was the PAM111, but my taste in watches has evolved, I now prefer a solid case back on my diver / tool watches, plus that OP logo is to die for!

The PAM005, like the 000 has been discontinued so I knew it would be a challenge to find it.  The newer models for the 005 and the 000 are the 630 and the 632, but they both come with a snap on case back (reducing the WR to 100) and non screw strap bars, so they didn't excite me too much. Thankfully, I managed to source one through Irfan at Art Of Time in Bandra, Mumbai. It did take over a month to arrive, but the wait was completely worth it! As soon as I heard it had reached the AD, I took my brother (Bio) with me and rushed to store.

Some quick specs:
Model number: PAM00005
Case material: Stainless steel
Case size: 44mm
Case back: Screw down

So far, the watch looks great on my wrist (at least I think so) and the calf skin strap feels soft and very comfortable. I haven't gotten time to test the lume our properly, but will post a pic soon.