In recent weeks, I have introduced several Panerai watches that are made of forged carbon, they are PAM 979 and PAM 1616, both have received a lot of attention due to their forged carbon material and unique prints on the case. Panerai has published a lot of Luminor Submersible models, the most popular one should be PAM 382 that is made with bronze material. However, in all new models Panerai published in 2019, the most are those made of forged carbon. It seems like the hot period of Panerai has passed away, now people’s attention was attracted by other brands such as Hublot, Richard Mille and IWC.
In our market, the replica PAM 616 was published by KW factory two years ago, today, this watch I am going to review is the V2 edition VS factory just released several days ago, now VS factory made some improvement on its previous version. The biggest updation on this latest PAM 616 lies in its movement, which has set the balance wheel in right 7:00 position, like PAM 441 and PAM 438, these hot PAMS made by VS factory are now all equipped with this Super Clone P.9000 movement.
Like PAM 1616 I just reviewed, PAM 616 is also made of forged carbon, the case and bezel look really big but they do not have a heavy weight like those stainless steel or ceramic PAMs, actually compared with Rolex Submariner or those full stainless steel models, I more like to choose a forged carbon Panerai as my diver’s watch, because it will have a more comfortable wearing feeling, especially when you in deep sea.
Different from PAM 1616, PAM 616 has a black dial with white dotted markers, there are a small second hand running at 9:00 subdial, the small hand works very smoothly, no ticking or jumping issues. Look at the last photo in the article, the dial lume light is very strong. The bezel pearl, hour markers and hands will emit the same green lume light in dark conditions.
This watch uses a black rubber band with classic Panerai OP Logo signature. In my memory, Panerai has used three types of bands in their Luminor Submersible models, brown leather straps for PAM 382, green nylon and this black rubber strap. The wide and thick brown leather strap is specially designed for PAM 382 Bronzo, while the black rubber strap is also a very ideal choice for PAM 616. This type of rubber band uses the natural rubber material imported from Malaysia, it is soft and has a strong stretching.
PAM 382 is one of the best-selling Panerai watches, I think PAM 616 is also pursued by a lot of watch fans, if not, VS factory would not continuously improve it and publish its V2 edition.