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 :)

A couple of straps I made

So as some of you may have read in my earlier post, I have recently developed a keen interest in strap making and my first attempt made me realise quite a few things, including getting better leather. I searched online and managed to source some Italian leather in tan/mustard colour. Here are a couple of straps I made with it.

1) 24mm, double layered with saddle stitching all around the edges. This one has a single floating keeper. I wear my PAM005 on it :)

2) 20mm, single layer with minimalistic double loop stitching at the ends and a tiny bit of saddle stitching at the end of the long strap. For this one, I made two keepers, one fixed and one floating.

My try at strap making and some lessons learnt

So as some of you may know, I bought a Panerai PAM005 recently and with it came the obsession of straps. I started going through a lot of forums and watch strap websites trying hard not to spend all my money. I liked the look of the handmade straps and started learning more about how they're made. I'm pretty sure I must have watched almost all the videos on this subject on YouTube. I was hooked and I just had to give it a go.

My first hurdle was a limited number of tools I could call from online websites in India. Most of the tools that I required for leather craft were either not available here or were way too overpriced. I managed to find a hole punching tool, a rubber mallet, a cutting mat and knife here. The rest had to be ordered from international sellers which took quite a while to arrive (some still haven't reached after more than a month).

I had most of the tools I needs to start working on a watch strap, except for leather. My first plan was to try my luck online, but no dice. I then realised that Mumbai has a very popular area for leather goods called Dharavi - which is also famous for being one of the largest slums in the world. I took a cab and headed there the other day and as it turned out, I didn't have a great experience. As soon as I reached all the sales guys outside the shops started calling me to have have a look inside. I politely ignored and went to a place I had been to years ago. The guy inside seemed a bit perplexed when I said I was looking for some leather hide. He couldn't figure out why, so I had to tell him and this was a mistake. He found it so funny that someone would try making watch straps at home rather than getting it made from one of them. He kept on joking with his staff and when he saw I was losing my patience, finally said he could get me what I wanted, but I had to buy the whole hide at one go. This  was a problem as I didn't require so much to start with and I had no place in my apartment to store it. So then he said he's got some bits and pieces lying around in his shop and showed it to me. There was one black and one dark brown patch of hide. Both were small enough to be carried in a bag and he wanted Rs.500 ($7.5) for them. Knowing nothing about the price of leather, I agreed and asked him if this leather was suitable for making a watch strap, to which he said, of course! I then went to another couple of places but neither of them had raw hide readily available and instead tried their best to sell me finished products - and yes, they too found this whole strap making thing very amusing.

Fast forward to my place. I had all my tools laid out and couldn't wait to start! As soon as I got the leather out of the bag, I knew something wasn't right. The leather was really thin, almost like cloth. It needed to be thicker if I had to make a strap out of it. I decided to cut more layers of leather and glue them together. So in the end I had 4 layers of leather making a combined thickness of about 3mm.

Hear are some shots I took while working on the strap...

steel tubes for Panerai style screw in straps

There is a process known as edge slicking or burnishing which is done to preserve the edge of leather goods. You wet the edges with water (or some special solution), take a wooden / or bone burnisher and rub it along the edges. Seems pretty easy, but I was having a real hard time doing this. I then realised that the leather was way too soft for this and I ended up fraying the edges instead (had to cut them off later).

the wooden edged burnisher

ready to start stitching

one down, one to go

My end results seems not too bad if I say so myself. I tried the 'saddle stitch' and it came out better than I expected. Here is the finished strap.

Ta-da!

Here is what I learned:

• Know your leather and buy it from a good source - I saw multiple videos on this and I wished I had seen them before. Turns out the stuff I bought was chrome tanned leather and not suitable for strap making. I need to get vegetable tanned leather. I think I have identified another source who seems to have leather of much higher quality.
• Buy or make a 'pony' - a pony is like a clamp to hold the leather project while you have your hands free to stitch. I thought I could easily do without one, but I was wrong. There was no easy way to hold the strap (I tried holding it between my knees) and I ended up with a slight back ache.
• An awl is a wonderful tool to have - very useful!
• Even though the leather sewing needles aren't sharp, they'll still prick you if you're not careful.

It was a great learning experience for me and I look forward to improving my skills. Today I tried the saddle stitch on a piece of a cheap belt and I can already see the improvement :)

Now back to reading the latest Harry Potter book!

Expelliarmus!