Review of the Pagani Design 1644

Now, I bought this one because I was looking to practice a little modding with the VK63. Looking at individual dials, cases and movements, it became clear, that it may be more expensive to order these parts individually. Pagani Design had a similar watch on sale, and for less than $40 delivered it came in slightly under the cost of ordering parts. (And I wouldn't have to cut the watch stem.)

I knew that most of these watches with this specific type of chrono dial had alignment issues with their markers. This one was no exception, with only one being noticeably off. The watch was nicely packaged, with some kind of tag, a blank warranty card, and a tiny instruction manual that may require 5x magnification. There was also a microfiber cloth and a small screwdriver.

The screwdriver blade had quite an angle to it (see above), so I didn't use it.

Looking at the watch I noticed that there was a gasket riding on the crown tube when I set the time. It moved back and forth with the crown, and finally settled in a spot. I'm not sure whether that was by design. The pushers can be screwed in, but seem to have a tendency to unscrew through the movement of my hand.

The case is polished all around, with relatively soft edges on the transitions. The dial is clean, and the alignment of the chrono hand and the subdial-hands is beyond reproach. Functionally the watch is performing as it should.

Sizing the bracelet was a mixed bag. Some screws were easy to unscrew, some fought back with a vengeance. I tried the microadjustments on the clasp, only to realize it was a decoy. (The setup was a little bit suspect to begin with.)

Since I didn't care for the bracelet with the polished center-links that much, I put it aside. The sad thing is that milled parts were used for something that is marginally functional.

Other than that the watch did very much what it was intended to do. I have little room to argue at this price, as it is less than the sum of its (retail) parts. I will see what dials and hand sets are out there.