Building a Beater Collection Pt 2

MrPsionic

Hey, for those recoiling in disgust at my Pagani, wait for later parts of this series so you can feel a little vindicated and you'll see me also discuss "real" watches I've gathered.

But back to my Beater Collection journey:

So, after getting the "sensible" Weekender, I decided I wanted something with a bit more style. So I thought about watches, what I thought of when it came to watches, and of course, for my generation that means Bond.

Which leads to Connery or Craig? Not touching that with a ten foot pole, but I didn't have to choose. Connery will be Part 3, but Part 2 is Craig.

After watching dozens of reviews, I decided that while no, the Pagani isn't a patch on the Omega, I knew what I was getting with the specs and could always return it if I didn't like it.

So I ordered the Pagani Design 007 PD1667-G. 42mm SS case sapphire crystal, NH35A movement, and as many reviews warned, a truly terrible lume. Pretty dim, lasts about 15 minutes.

All that said, I kinda love it. It looks great, works well, keeps good time, doesn't have any real slack in the bezel. The only real niggle I have is the pip on the bezel triangle isn't perfectly centered:

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I can live with that.

From 3 feet away it looks more like an Omega than I will ever look like Daniel Craig, so glass houses. And it wasn't like my choice came down to this or the Omega - that was never gonna happen.

Now, this watch came with a very shiny Milanese strap with a not-too-secure-but-it-works clasp. It doesn't look at all as nice as the titanium Milanese the Omega comes with, but reality is what it is.

The watch also came with a really cheap "modern Bond" nato that was too short and didn't come with springbars, so useless out of the box.

So I did a minor "Nato" search:

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Up top is an esprit-nato.com Connery RAF strap intended for Watch #3 - stay tuned for that. It's just barely long enough for my wrist, but it works.

Next is a Strapsco Bond nato - too short to tuck, just long enough to have an annoying little flap. I used it for a while but the fabric began to fray at the holes.

I have the watch on a BluShark Bond, and it’s just long enough to tuck the excess a bit, but I wish it was an inch longer. No fraying at the holes so far - been over a week.

On the bottom is the shiny Milanese. I may stick it on something else but odds are it will just be a shiny thing in the back of the drawer.

Anyway, I was happy with my Craig homage, so next time we'll see how the Connery clone went...

Previous:

https://www.watchcrunch.com/MrPsionic/posts/building-a-beater-collection-pt-1-28569

Next:

https://www.watchcrunch.com/MrPsionic/posts/building-a-beater-collection-pt-3-28750

#pagani #beaters #collecting #review #bond
Reply
JaimeMadeira
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Nice job tracking down a decent Connery Nato.

I found the lume on mine mostly fine (it’s always a bit silly anyway, lume is supposed to drink the sun all day and then be visible in the black beneath the ocean — not zapped by a Chinese uv bulb then videoed) and can usually still tell the time a good three or four hours after going to bed. (Even Connery holds a lighter up to his Rolex.) Saying that, mine was an earlier model maybe, as it came on the PO style bracelet.

I did briefly lume the bezel on mine using a Sakura pen, but didn’t like the very faint tint it left, so took it all off again. (After spending a week making sure every engraving was filled. I am also considering doing it again…) That made up for the one truly weak bit of lume on the pip.

WSC on eBay do a good NomiTimeToDie NATO by the way. I did a small post on Bond straps a couple of weeks ago guest starring the Pagani too.

ckim4watches
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The Chinese brands that comes closest I've found is called Octopus. Some digging made me think that they are the source factory for some Omega watches. And in fact the quality was close to 80% of the dive master. I'm not kidding, I wish I was. The bezel alignment is dead on. It uses a clone ETA 2824. It made me rethink buying what is for me a grail watch.