This series of articles will be a regular update that chronicles the trends and direction of the replica watch market. If you have any suggestions or additions that you'd like to see made, please email
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The replica watch market for 2006 so far has mirrored the tail-end of 2005: heavy on Panerai counterfeits. High-quality copies of Officine Panerai watches have flooded the market in the past six months. Replica makers in China and other Asian countries have tooled up to create cases and dials of most of the Panerai line.
As with most counterfeit goods there is a large range of quality in these pieces. Some manufacturers are continuing to use older less-accurate cases, which I assume are remaining stock from some earlier replicas. But since a number of the new Panerai replicas are based on genuine models that were not available earlier they are using new designs that are fairly accurate.
The movements used in the new Panerai replicas also vary. The ETA (Unitas) 6497 is still very popular in the base Historical line. When moving up to models with date wheels or GMT functions other ETA movements are used. In the less expensive chronograph replicas Asian-made copies of the ETA 7750 movement prevail. These movements are unreliable and prone to breaking.
A new trend has been the modification of the ETA 6497 by replacing the OEM bridge with a copy of the swan-neck bridge used by Panerai. This used to be an easy way to spot a fake Panerai. Below are to pictures of the movement used in a Panerai PAM-127, or "1950". The first movement is a sample replica using a normal 6497 with a metal plate glued to the movement to simulate Panerai's engraving. The second example is a replica that takes this movement and adds the modified bridge, making the movement closer in appearance to the original.
Recently there have been Chinese copies of the Unitas movement that actually are built with this modification. Ziggy has provided a review of this movement see (Ziggy's review of the Chinese Panerai movement). This trend of making replica movements will likely continue seeing that ETA may stop producing base movements in the next few years.
Replicas Panerai have also branched into more expensive models. Recent clones of the PAM-196 "Daylight" have replaced the semi-reliable Asian copy of the ETA 7750 with a rock-solid genuine ETA 7753 movement. This movement is more accurate than the 7750 for the simple reason that it has the sub dials in the proper position. Replica makers had to use an ingenious set of gears in order to position the 3 o'clock sub dial. This forced the date wheel to be more recessed than the genuine watch, making for a good method of spotting fake 196s.
New replicas that use the 7753 don't have to use this gearing since the movement has the sub dial in the proper position. This eliminates the flaw, as well as making the watch more reliable and a better time piece.
Speaking of flaws, the major flaw for all Panerai replicas continues to be the short cannon pinion (see Ziggy's Short Cannon Pinion article). Also poor crown guards and crowns plague replica Panerai. Dial luminescence is also poor across most replicas, as is the way they simulate Panerai's anti-reflective coating on the crystal.
Also in the news is the recent cloning of the Panerai submersible line. These are very popular Panerai dive watches. Recently the case for these models has been replicated and we're starting to see examples of these models in replica form. Their biggest flaw seems to be an incorrect date wheel. They seem to be using a Rolex date font on their date wheels. This may be corrected in later examples.
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