Coming up for a year of ownership, the PD1667

(EDIT: I had no idea that reviews were posted a different way. Annoying. This was supposed to be my first review… I should pay more attention.)

Roughly a year ago, I was intrigued by these new-to-me homage watches. One in particular caught my eye doing the rounds on YouTube. It was similar in design and overall look, but not actually a slavish cheap copy of another watch that caught my eye when I was going through a bit of a Bond renaissance during the pandemic. I found one in my price range on eBay, got it, and immediately washed it and popped it on my wrist. I bought new straps — mesh, NomiTTD Natos.

It is the watch that reignited my interest in watches, and ultimately led to me signing up here (and drinking in a pub with some of you lot, my first time in a pub in years, and my first time with new people in even longer) and all sorts of watch related craziness that followed. Digging out my old watches. Buying a box. Fixing and cleaning loads of the things. It is my entry-to-the-field watch.

And I have polished the living daylights out of it, because I can’t stand scratches, even though all but two of them were ones I inflicted on it after my purchase. It started with dealing with those two, and ended up with me all but hand re-surfacing the thing. (And polishing between the lugs… then brushing… then changing my mind again and polishing. This is a theme. At one point I lumed the bezel myself with a Sakura glow marker, but got tired of lighting up like a Christmas tree at night, so I stripped that back. I am now considering doing it again.)

Is it any good though?

Short answer — yes. So far as I can tell, and at the price, very good.

It is proper, decent steel. It has a weight to it. It has sat next to an actual Rolex Submariner, and you definitely wouldn’t think there was about eight or nine grands worth of value difference between them in the hand. Other ways — of course. Water resistance for a start, but that’s all on the inside, sight unseen.

Except you can see it in the Pagani, because that’s a display case back. I am not sure I like those, truth be told. There is a stickiness in the hot summer that comes from having what I assume is mineral glass stuck against you. You can however see that it is indeed a Seiko NH35 in there, powering it away with a pleasantly satisfying sweep of the second hand. It keeps time to about negative 2 to 3 seconds per day on wrist, on average. Been tracking it, off and on. Oh… and top tip, use your steel bracelet in summer, and keep running your diver under the cold tap. Buys you a little personal cool-down each time. Rubber straps — or at least my orange Archer silicone one — was quite uncomfortable in summer.

My little one in particular likes watching that second hand, glowing away, at bedtime, after we use the dive bezel to time reading and videogaming. The lume is not awe inspiring (except when I lumed the bezel, but bloody hell was that too bright — my process also ever-so-slightly changed the tone of the fauxtina, until I cleaned it back to the original paint) but I can wake up a few hours after going to sleep having charged it, and still read the thing. It will still light up in the shade after twenty minutes balcony gardening in the hot sun. Lume pip on the bezel is a bit weak mind you. I think it’s the extra layer on top to seal it.

The hands in general are a big plus point. I don’t like syringe hands. I tend towards pencil hands, or sword hands. Skeletonised hands can look nice, but aren’t very visually clear, and really only make sense when you have sub-dials you need to see. These are essentially half and half. They also sum up that ‘looks a bit like an SMP but isn’t’ thing quite well. Cut-thru’s at the base, lumed from mid to tip, in that fauxtina look that some like on watches, and some don’t. I do, because it looks warm, and is part of that Bond feel. They are very clearly not those distinctive circle-and-triangle Omega hands, but they are similar enough.

It only has 100m of water resistance — I say only, but in the early fifties, that’s the same as Rolex Sub, before things got better and we started referring to them as skin-divers, because Scuba was taking off — and it’s bezel action is governed by a bit of stiff wire under there. Again, about the same tech as a fifties diver. I know this, because the bezel was fine but a little clicky at the forty point, and when I knocked it on a metal windowframe — possibly the door, or the sofa frame, there was a lot of DIY last year — I decided to take it off while I took a file and a polish cloth to some of the sharp bits of damage. (You learn a lot about a watch by accidentally nearly wrecking it I find) left behind.

The beautifully glossy sapphire Crystal and Ceramic bezel stood up to all this treatment just fine. Not, despite the wholesale lifted description some — possibly-official, possibly-not — websites that sell the watch claim ‘liquid metal’. It is jewel like when polished and cleaned. Catches the light like you are wearing Onyx embedded in silver.

I can only imagine what Omega SMPs must actually be like, if this what an homage does. (I am unlikely to ever quite manage to fund one. Probably for the best, I live in London and like to wear watches outside.) This doesn’t quite copy any one SMP though. It’s poorly marketed at the western market as an NTTD watch, but that’s all in the colouring. It doesn’t have any red, mind you, and it is black rather than brown throughout. It is glossy, with the ceramic rather than aluminium on the bezel, and the steel rather than titanium (though there is now the new steel Bond one too) making it much closer to other Omegas. But, steel is steel. The dial is textured quite nicely, and while I glad it has a date, I do wish the window maybe had a silver frame to match the applied indices. It has the un-joined minutes/second track, more reminiscent of older SMPs — in fact, it most reminds me of the glossy enamelled SMPs of 2017 or so, but in a more faux-vintage Bond inspired colour scheme. They don’t make those anymore do they? Shame. I quite like those. It doesn’t have any replication of the helium escape valve. I understand that is likely a big plus for some. I certainly wouldn’t want one in this case. That mix-and-match homage approach (a technique beloved of things like Dan Henry watches, different homage watches with the same things below the surface — NH35’s for a start) continues with the bracelet. I understand they changed that, over and over, because of customer feedback, and because people wanted it to more closely resemble the Omega out of the box. (I wish people wouldn’t do that.) This is the second version, with the odd slice in the end links. It’s very much a Planet Ocean tribute bracelet, with divers extension, brushed top (which was better and straighter, and finer, before I went at it) and polished sides. Removable links and half links, no micro-adjust, push-pins — pretty standard but also pretty good. Comfortable enough for me too, at any rate.

So why don’t I wear it so often any more? (There are plenty more photos in my gallery if you want to see it before I polished it up, or on different straps) Since it really is a very good watch, and it cost me less than triple figures. (Second hand from a nice chap in Scotland.)

Well, there are two, maybe three reasons.

Firstly, my wife bought me my Orient for Christmas. Really nice watch bought by lady I love trumps any other nice watch. It glows better too. I didn’t used to like numbers on dials, but it gives me nice Planet Ocean vibes (you may notice I quite like Omega designs) and it’s 200m rather than 100m, which gives a psychological security value when doing the washing up etc. Sentimentality as well as good looks though. It’s a better watch perhaps, in many ways, but this isn’t a review of it. I will do that another time.

Secondly — this PD1667 was my daily for much of last year. Which was a difficult one, so moving on feels logical. It is a great watch, easily comparable to other ‘better’ watches. You could go back in time fifty years, and it would probably outperform the luxury ones. Which… isn’t saying much. But is a thought that crosses my mind when looking at the blend of fifties and nineties styling on the thing. It’s like two or three Bond watches in one really. But, I have a new watch. New watches are cool.

Thirdly, some opinions about homage watches in general, and Pagani in particular, mostly on YouTube, have made me feel a bit… rubbish when I wear it. I don’t much worry about peoples opinions much of the time, when it comes to fashion. I’m an ex-goth ex-punk ex-Edwardian type. Homage watches are the least of my crimes against taste. And even though I know they are often basically talking out of their hat ( not every homage, nor every Pagani, is a slavish copy; if you are worried about QC or customer service, but through Amazon, of course it’s not that easy buying from half the world away and across ideological boundaries — and everything is made in bloody China these days anyway) a few of the more balanced ‘wear what you like’ types have gone in on that lately. It’s left me with a bad taste, watching that, wearing the watch. It shouldn’t bother me, but after a while it’s like a splinter, it just does. The whole ‘what does that say about the person wearing it’ discourse that has carried over from the obviously different world of fake watches. One of the things it says is that we don’t have thousands of pounds we can afford to decorate our wrists with mate, or a jewellers for a friend who is kind/crazy enough to loan them out so we can look good on social media. (Not everyone is like that, thank goodness for WatchCrunch)

Even though you’ve read me defend homages here time and time again, it’s left me… bothered.

Inversely, I do wish the Pagani people would stop using what is definitely ripped off advertising (assuming it’s not a reseller doing it) because it does no favours. The watch is great without pretending to be something it really isn’t, and they do a good job not just ripping designs off a lot of the time. But, people don’t buy those as often, or complain on Reddit that something is ‘wrong’. It’s not wrong it is different.

Which is a shame, because this Pagani Design watch was my full-ticket into the hobby. And is a very good watch, with only a few things letting it down. (The lume basically. And even then, just the bezel pip. Oh, and I may apply a gasket under the bezel, I don’t think it has one, and made the bezel action much looser than it was originally from the factory.) It is undoubtedly a very good looking watch too, which does have an identity of its own, if you are paying attention. Which most people who are into watches do. Otherwise, there’s little to no difference between the looks of so many watches, the whole thing gets pointless.

If you fancy an affordable ‘dive’ (but not divers by todays standards) watch, and like vintage looks, or more organic curved shapes on your watches (like Omega) or maybe don’t want four-figures of anxiety on your wrist when you’re down town, maybe try one of these.