Interesting Pam 183 Relume.

[Ska 11]

This week among other things I have been reluming a number of watches for Deja123.

 

He has already posted photos of the 111h relume job but next on the list was a cheapie 183 from Robert. By all accounts a classic and VERY popular rep. Many members who haven't yet added a Black Seal to their collection often ask what the difference is between the cheapie 183 and its 'Ultimate' counterpart to justify the price difference (apart from the obvious cannon pinion fix now available, swan neck and engraved versus stickered movements.)

 

During various stages of the reluming I noticed a number of quality issues with the cheapie (most easily rectifiable) and thought I'd share them with you.

 

Ok Here's the rep out of the box. The most obvious thing immediately is the yellow/green tint to the lume on the numerals and the fact that they don't match the shade of the hands. (This was also the case with the expensive version but to a far lesser extent.) To me the CP also looked very short, even compared to my 292 which in theory should have had the same movement and hands, and this was compounded by the fact that the main hands appeared to be set angled up away from the face so they would rotate freely and still clear the secs @ 9.

 

 

 

The next things which catch the eye when the case is turned over are the logo stickers on the bridge plate spelling "Officine Panerai" If these were aligned correctly they's actually look pretty good from a reasonable distance but these ones were wonky as hell.

 

 

There was a really obvious residual mark on the bridge plate left behind by the adhesive from the transfer backing when the stickers were applied. You can see it here to the lower left of the text.

 

 

Here's the 'Ultimate' for comparison you can also see how the quality of the Guilloché is better in this example:

 

 

The case itself is really great, and as good as the more expensive version in just about all visual respects. There is however a stark contrast in the quality of the threads on the case/caseback which are much harder to properly engage on the cheapie and tend to feel as though they are 'grinding' slightly whereas the 'Ultimate' version is smooth as silk!! Here's the cheapie case which you can see is still awesome.

 

 

Once I had uncased the movement and went to remove the hands it turned out I was correct and in fact the minute and hour hand had both actually been slightly bent in order to clear the smaller seconds hand. It was easy enough to rectify with patience but there was a real risk of damaging the paint as the hands were bent back straight. I also found quite a large amount of dust and debris on the outer edges of the dial (not visible when the movement is cased)

 

 

Another interesting quality issue was discovered after the hands and dial were removed from the movement itself. The sandwich dial had been glued so badly that the two halves had come apart around roughly 70% of the circumference by quite a considerable amount. When I went to separate the halves, the dial just popped off which explained why the CP had appeared so short. You can see it here:

 

 

There was almost no glue whatsoever holding this sandwich together, you can see a little in the middle of the dial's back half around the CP hole but bugger all else. I assume that the factories use some kind of template and lume-paste setup because the lume powder is both very coarse and quite smudged on this dial.

 

 

So after cleaning the dial up a little with some rodico I moved on to the relume itself. According to Deja's wishes this one got 2 layers of W@tchlume WS-WB:

 

 

Here are the hands post-relume:

 

 

And the dial:

 

 

Here's the dial after a 30 sec charge under my lamp.

 

 

After giving the whole case a thorough clean the seal was greased and the movement re-cased.

 

 

 

Here's the movement in the case with another 30 sec charge:

 

 

And now both Deja's finished 183 and 111h side-by side:

 

 

I should mention that after a large amount of swearing I managed to realign the 'Officine Panerai' text on the 183's bridge plate. It sucked and took ages but was definitely worth it.

 

Like a dick I forgot to take a photo though and packaged the two watches up for Deja before I remembered. Hopefully he'll post a quick shot once he receives them!

 

So basically, IMO the $99 cheapie Radiomirs are still great reps, especially for the price but they can have some potentially worrying issues with build-quality and finish that are simply not a problem with the more expensive version. For potentially only $70 more I know which one I'd go for (and already have) but don't be put off! Compared to just about any other $99 rep the 183 kicks serious ass!

 

Anyway Hope you enjoyed this. All the best

 

Ska

[Fiddo 0]

Interesting stuff and nice lume!

[wat44 0]

awesomeness!!!!!

[Ska 11]

Cheers mate

[DeLaForce 2]

So vibrant!! Almost looks like there led . . .

Very nice

[mulder 0]

I am impressed at the result. A top job. I am hoping Deja will take a photo of the fix sticker adhesive problems.

Congats Skathe

[Del 4,499]

What a great write-up, not to mention outstanding work - well done Ska B)

[deja123 0]

B) my man chris!

i am very glad that i did that with your´e lume job,and the cleaning service thx ;-)

the watches look compleatly different now!

...the 183 gets a nice strap from bob nubuk if its arrive and then i send new pics!

[Ska 11]

Glad you like it mate! In the post this morning. I'll send you the tracking no.

[Akira 0]

Amazing like every review or mod tutorial

[Vector 0]

Wow , fantastic result . I soooo need this doing on my 111 , 127 , and 339

[wombosi 0]

Very nice work Ska! And a very informative post! Good work!

 

The new lume gives it a whole different and much better look.

 

Do you recommend an ultimate 183 of a particular dealer? I'm still hoping for a new 183 to be released with proper lume, AR and cp out of the box...

[wat44 0]

im pretty sure the ultimate version is $225

[MikeMcNair 0]

superb work sir!!!! well done.

[graman 2]

Skills mate! Great work!