SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY PAGANI!
The word "design" in the name Pagani Design is a bit of a misnomer. Established in 2012, Pagani Design is located in Guangzhou off the coast of China facing the South China Sea. Their value proposition stems from photocopying all of the marketing material of Rolex, Tag Heuer, and Omega among other luxury brands, and offering their customers spec monsters at a fraction of the price.
The Pagani Design PD-1667 is a homage to the No Time to Die Omega Diver 300M- Co-Axial Master Chronometer 42 MM Ref Number 210.90.42.20.01.001. And the similarities are fairly obvious. A little peak at the images placed below should be a giveaway. The recommended retail price of Omega in Australia is roughly $AU14,000 on the mesh bracelet. I feel this is an important point that should be noted, given that almost all other seamasters can be purchased for <$AU8000
Housed in a full 316L stainless steel construction with sapphire glass with a screw-down crown (giving it a rating of 100m of water resistance), transparent case back, the price tag of ~$170 is really stretched thin across all of these features that are packed into this monster of a watch. There is a tad bit of joy associated with just holding your watch and rotating it in your hands and having a look at all parts of the movement. And at this price point, it is a great feature of the watch.
The minute and the hour hand follow the skeleton design of the Omega with a lollipop seconds hand. The dial is black but it has a rough texture to it. All the text on the dial is printed on including the Pagani Design logo, Automatic, the water resistance rating, and the fact that its heart is a Japanese movement (Japan Movt at the 6'o clock marker). It has the single batons at 6 and 9 o'clock positions with a double baton for the 12'o clock marker. All of this is topped off by the very classy, elegant, and simple date window. This date window starts transitioning into the next day at around 10:30pm and over a period of 90 minutes ticks over to the next day. The polished finishing of the case and the sides of the bezel make this watch a real head-turner.
The lume is fairly impressive. The minute markers and the hands stay lit up for close to 15 minutes after I come back home from my daily walks. That is fairly impressive as watches that are an order of magnitude dearer does not have lume that lasts this long.
1-year warranty means nothing. If the watch took 6 weeks to get here, I cannot imagine going through the pain of exercising my rights that a warranty affords me given the current climate. If anything does go wrong, you are better off just getting a new NH35A movement into the watch or getting yourself new spring bars and fitting it in yourself or at your local watch repair store (Mr. Mint for my fellow Aussies).
There is one thing that would highly recommend everyone to avoid. If you got this beauty of a watch with the fitted rubber strap, the pillows in a low-cost watch box (like the one I have) is not the ideal place to store your Pagani Seamaster. I tried to force the issue and the photo below depicts the fruits of my misguided labor. I do have a toolkit and 25 minutes later, I was able to put the spring bars back into place and resuscitate my purchase.
The packaging is decent (placed below). It included an instruction manual, a warranty card (throw it away! It is of no use), a rectangular "pillow" and a wiping cloth. I was nervous when I initially saw the size of the packaging. I do not trust any handlers to treat packages with any level of care (especially when they have a fragile sticker on them). A single layer of bubble wrap in the box was all that was protecting the watch from death. I guess mine has survived (for now) and I couldn't be happier.
This one set me back $AU172 including multiple coupons from Aliexpress and import taxes. But it was very much one of those buy and forget sort of deals. Do not expect overnight or even a 72-hour delivery window. I ordered this on 1st January 2021 and it arrived on the 12th of February. I wanted to not think about it, but that was nearly impossible. I am a watch nerd and I checked tracking almost every day hoping for progress. But if you can put up with the long delivery times, it is well worth the wait.
Would I recommend it to a friend? In a heartbeat! I already have and 2 of them are about to purchase a couple of them! Where is my commission, Pagani?
