It is a long time for me not to post such a long review here, today is Christmas Day, happy you all Merry Christmas, you guys must have prepared a sweet gift for your girlfriend. Tonight, I will talk about the PAM 604, which is now made by two different factories, I have reviewed another similar watch PAM 672 before, now this is a comparison review of PAM 604 from two factories S and Z.
As an art work, PAM 604 is the most beautiful Panerai watch in my heart. The following two PAM 604, left is from ZF, right is SF version.
If you have ever seen a person wearing this watch, then he must be wearing a replica, because Panerai only released several pieces of PAM 604.
Most of you can not see or feel the actual watch before placing an order, so the most important thing in doing a review is to tell you friends how were the details of the watch made, the difference between each version, so you will decide which one to buy after reading the details. The same watch manufactured by different factories actually has similar quality, so when I give a review on this PAM 604, I will do in an objective attitude, not going to tell you which one is better.
I have both watches for almost one week, after test for one week, both all give me a good wearing comfort, have a considerable weight, arc-shaped crystal is round and smooth.
When holding two watches for the first time, the dial of SF 604 is more clear than ZF, after checking, I found the sapphire crystal of ZF 604 is a little yellowish, so the dial is not as transparent as SF’s. The left is ZF, right one is SF.
In the following, I used a tool to test the crystal hardness.
ZF version, the front and back crystal all have a 8 strength hardness, they all use sapphire crystal.
The front crystal of SF 604 also features a 8-level hardness, while its back crystal is 6.
About the engraving on buckle, you can only find such feature on replica PAM 604. The first buckle is from ZF, the second and three are from SF. It seems that ZF version has a more refined finishing, SF added a logo on the pin. The back side of the buckle has laser engravings.
Look at the first photo, the ZF buckle has a more three-dimensional engraving.
It comes to the lume test. Here I brought the iconic PAM 111 to do a lume test with them. PAM 604 adopts sandwiched dial design, the lume effect is good. The photo below shows the lume brightness of the three watches, from left to right, it is ZF604, SF 604, Noob 111. Absolutely PAM 111 has the strongest lume, SF 604 is the next.
This test was done in the same light condition.
10 minutes later, the lume effect of ZF 604 is still the weakest. 111 is the best.
The watch weight. ZF 604 is 128g, SF is 133g.
The watch diameter and thickness. ZF 604 is 50.4mm in diameter, case thickness is 16.6mm. While SF 604 is 50.9mm in diameter and 16.3mm thick. The measurement includes the crown.
Sapphire crystal comparison. The left 604 is ZF made, right one is made by SF. Please see the number “6” at an angle, the SF’s is distorted because the factory made the edge of the crystal too rounded.
I do not want to compare the dial of the two versions, you know, the dial is the most complicated place to replicate because there are too many letters.
The depth of the lettering is different on both PAM 604, the hand length is also not the same, both watches have a large gap in dial details when being compared with genuine.
The front case engraving, ZF did better, it is more beautiful. While the engraving appearance on SF is closer to genuine.
About the engraving on left case, SF’s engraving is closer to genuine in appearance and proportion. However, in delicateness, ZF did better.
Please see the Lily icon on the center, both watches are too different from the genuine.
The crown engraving, it is hard to tell, ZF uses polishing, while SF’s is matte finished.
Finally, the movement, The left is from ZF, right one is SF. Whether the movement plates shape or polishing, both watches are very similar. In my opinion, they are the best-looking Panerai clone movement. The power reserve can last for 5-6 days.
Conclusion:
About dial details, ZF makes better, the back uses sapphire crystal. While the crystal on SF is more transparent, the case engraving is closer to genuine and dial lume is stronger. Actually two PAM 604 are all good quality ones, after reading this review, I hope you can find the best one that suits yourself.
