The "Rarely-seen" PAM 170 Submersible.

[Shade]

To start off, I never even heard of this watch. I was not a submersible fan, but as of late, I am eying myself to add a submersible to my collection. I was heavily considering the pam 305, but found the size a little too large for my taste, while the other 1950 case sub I hated because of the 12-6 number that IMHO doesn't seem to match with the case.

So I took a look at a PAM 024 last week, and immediately liked it, but the condition wasn't as good as I hoped for, so I decided I should just wait for another one to come up.

These submersible line up is pretty "cheap" compared to other models, I am not sure exactly why technically, but I guess it's supply and demand rule, as no one likes submersibles too much. Each to their own I guess.

Fast forwarding, two days ago a friend used a picture of a submersible PAM as his Blackberry profile picture, and sets a "for sale" status. I took a peek, and I was like "huh?", what reference is this thing? I am not an avid Panerai collector, so I don't remember their references or models by heart, but I honestly never expected to see such a model, it was "wierd", in a good way.



So I chatted with him, and he told me about this "wierd" submersible, a PAM 170. I immediately arranged a meeting, and it took place yesterday. Whilst waiting for the meeting time, I asked the forum here, and seems like no one have seen it in person, I googled, and ended up with nothing as well. Just a few pictures, no exact review or anything. Most of my friends never even heard of it too, like me.

Yesterday came, and I took a look at the watch physically, and man, I was stunned. It's much much much more beautiful than it looked in pictures. The dial is so "alive", and the combination between the polished steel bezel against the dark matte titanium casing is awesome. Not to add the fact that it's a tritium dial, with a nicely aged patina lume on it! What more could I ask for? It has a seconds and date function too to top it off.



It does come with a bracelet, and I personally think PAMs are never to go with bracelets. It's nice, but not for me. The first thing I did was to change it to a strap. :D

To go a bit further into the detail, I think the ANTHRACITE dial is one of the most beautiful dial I have ever seen. It's gray-blue-silver-ish metal like plate... (maybe it IS metal??). It really plays in the light, it shines bright silver to a very dark muted gray from time to time, and the brushed finish makes it an even more elegant dial.

Sure the dial makes it "less" submersible like, since I personally think such an elegant dial should instead be incorporated to a radiomir, a more dressy counterpart of the line up. I bet it would have looked amazing. But, me, liking things unique, this dial totally stole the show. It is also one of the most difficult dial to take a picture of to show it's real beauty. It is perhaps the second best dial I like - first being meteorite dials, and MoP comes third. It makes me wonder why Panerai stopped making dials like this (good thing for me though, as this becomes a "rare" piece).



The lume is a non matching, as the lume on the hand is less aged compared with the number and dot indices, no biggy, but I really really LOVE real aged patina, as compared to the newer "faux patina" dial that Panerai is creating. It screams "fake" to me - sorry no offense to those who owns these faux patina coloured dials. I now would've liked a Pam 002B with a T-dial just to top it off, as I now know what a real patina lume would look like on a Panerai, I'm hooked.

There's a also a sub-seconds dial which I like, since I like to see my watch "tick". Then there's a cyclops date on the right side at 3 o'clock, which I think really balances the dial very well. It is to note that the date plate is black, rather than gray ... I don't know why Panerai didn't make it in anthracite as well just to make it look cool. But I'll take black any day rather than white on this particular dial. The cyclop on the date also looks a little (maybe it's just me) smaller than the newer versions.



The titanium case with the steel polished bezel feels very light. And probably one of these "interesting" comboes I have never seen again in Panerai, since usually they don't combine these two metals together. The crown-guard is also a combination of steel guard with titanium flip lever (which is cool). I feel Panerai has given a lot of attention to the design of this watch.

Bezel is also very well made, it's smooth, and rotates very fine, and what I like best on the bezel is that the 15 minutes markers are etched without any painting on it (the ones on 025 and 024 is painted/inlaid with black paint). I personally like it, unpainted. It is also BI-DIRECTIONAL, funny, I never thought they made a BI-DIRECTIONAL submersible bezel before... I also personally (judging by pictures only, and perhaps biased) like the polished bezel version rather than the previous brushed bezel version. From what I know Panerai only made 4 years run of these models, the first two years are 300 and 300 production with brushed steel bezel, and the last two are also 300 and 300 with polished bezel. Mine is an earlier F series of the final two years of production.



The crystal is very very very slightly domed in the center to go flush with the rounded bezel, and is coated in very pronounced blue-sih purple coating. I understand that the newer versions of Panerai watches have no coating (or none that is visible to my eye), and I really liked the coating as it glints off.

One final thing I noticed, is that the ticking is VERY loud, I am not exactly sure how to explain it, but it sounds like the tick "resonates" within the dial and creates a ding ding ding sound!! So perhaps the dial is INDEED METAL? I did check the movement as we met at one of my dealer's store and he checked it out and everything was fine. So I assume that's one of the metal dial thing? How loud? Quite loud, in a quite place, say in my room, I could hear the ding ding from about 25cm away.



Last words? It's a keeper for sure, with a run of only 600 pcs all this time, totalling 1200 if you include the brushed bezel version, this is a rare piece with all the nice gimmicks at a very friendly price. I purchased it for 5000 USD and have no regrets as it came in mint condition, full bracelet, triple box and papers. For those interested, good luck in finding one, and if you DO find it, buy it. :)

Thanks for reading!

[Milgauss J]

Nice report! Congrats! Looks great!!!

[andrew79]

enjoy mate !

[Shade]

Thanks guys! Just got some new strap for it!

[HDHNTER]

Cool choice, congrats!

[Cru Jones]

Great post and an even better watch. Dig that strap on it. Well done! Enjoy.

[Shade]

Thanks for the compliments guys, just met up with another friend last night and he really liked it too.

[ocwatching]

nice catch..congrats Norm!

[red1108nyc]

Wonderful analysis buddy! I dig titanium subs... and they are indeed great pieces.

[bcacncnc]

Nice score and great report.

[Shade]

Thanks guys, its a joy to have, a friend is already offering me a profit to let it go lol.. I wonder if Im tempted enough haha..

[beaglehusky]

Very nice, and it sounds like you got an awesome deal on a rare piece. Congrats!

[Tommysol]

"It is also BI-DIRECTIONAL, funny, I never thought they made a BI-DIRECTIONAL submersible bezel before.."

They do not make one on the Submersibles...something on yours is amiss.

[HL65]

Very nice Norman!!

[mfer]

Great review m8. Might get that bezel checked out. Bi directional doesn't sound right.

[Shade]

Yeah, but o well, the bezel is fine with me...

[Psmith]

Congrats Norman - great review and pics

[Shade]

Thanks Clive! I havent been able to take it off my wrist these past few days!

[grew]

Nice pickup. I have been looking for one and the ones that I have seen sold have all gone for around $6,000.

[TSW]

Cool!

[nishant]

very different..very cool !

[Shade]

You know, my friend made an offer I couldn't refuse. So I sold it, and I got another different sub... will post pics and reviews soon! :D

[jvo300]

Very cool watch! Congrats and thanks for the write-up!

[GeoffIsringhausenJr.]

Very cool! Looks like a PAM 24 A

[GeoffIsringhausenJr.]

Bezel is slightly different though..