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Pagani Design Parnis

Pepsi GMT Homage Review: Pagani Design vs Parnis

Pepsi GMT-Master is a very popular model from Rolex, a lot of people like this watch, and there are some small watch companies in China that copy the designs of this GMT-Master and make homages, among them, there are quality homages and cheap homages, today, I will introduce two good versions among these cheap homages, the two watches come from Pagani Design and Parnis, the homage watch they make is a Pepsi GMT-Master with Jubilee Bracelet. For Pagani Design and Parnis, it is interesting to make a comparison review about their watch, because Parnis is a very old brand created in China and has been in this industry for many years, while Pagani Design is a new homage brand and seems to be more popular. Well, today, let’s check this Pepsi GMT homage and see which one you love most.

Box and Accessories:

Pagani Design Box with Screwdriver
Pagani Design Blue Cloth
Parnis Orange Plastic Box
Parnis GMT Watch in Box
Parnis GMT with Nylon Band

The pictures above show the boxes and accessories of Pagani Design and Parnis. Pagani Design has a small hard box for the watch, with one screwdriver and blue cloth. The Parnis comes with a watch, screwdrivers and one extra nylon band in the box. The Parnis box is orange and made with plastic, just like the black plastic box of the Steeldive SD1953, which I introduced in the review of black Submariner homage.

Box watches do not have warranty card and user manual book, that’s strange. Well, I think the orange plastic box of Parnis gives a better protection for the watch.

Case:

Pagani Design GMT in Box
Pagani Design GMT-Master Pepsi Homage
Pagani Design GMT-Master Blue Red
Pagani Design GMT Crown
Pagani Design GMT Case
Pagani Design GMT Case Diameter
Pagani Design GMT Case Thickness
Pagani Design GMT Weight

The pictures above show the Pepsi GMT watch from Pagani Design. The case is made with stainless steel, the brand does not tell us if it is 316L. On Pagani Design official store, they say the watch has a case diameter of 40mm, but I measured the case several times, the diameter is not 40mm, it is always 41mm or more than 41mm. The case thickness is about 13.6mm. The entire watch is 145.8 grams.

Next, let us see the specification of the case on the Parnis. About the case material, Parnis claims it is 316L stainless steel on their official website. The case was supposed to be 40mm in diameter and 13mm in thickness, but I measured it to be 40.5mm in diameter and 13.4mm in thickness. The entire watch has a weight of 149.9 grams.

Conclusion: Both the Pagani Design and Parnis do not have a correct case size if you compare them with Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi, but the Parnis is closer to the case size of Rolex Pepsi GMT. Well, the most important thing for our watch fans lies in the case finish. I indeed compared the case finish on both watches. Any way, when I received the two watches, the Pagani Design impressed me a lot and I though it also has a better finish. However, the truth is both watches have a very similar case finish. I held two watches in hand and found the lug shape is more correct on the Parnis watch, the end links also fit the case head better on the Parnis, while the gap between the end link and lug on the Pagani Design is noticeable(you can find this flaw on the bezel comparison below).

Parnis Blue Red GMT
Parnis Blue Red Pepsi
Parnis GMT Case
Parnis GMT Crown
Parnis GMT Case Diameter
Parnis Pepsi Case Thickness
Parnis GMT Weight

Bezel:

Both watches have blue and red bezel, not ceramic made but is aluminum. Actually you can ask them to replace a ceramic bezel if you like ceramic better. The aluminum bezel is ok, and I asked them, they do not offer ceramic option for the red bezel. If taking the Rolex GMT-Master as a reference, the bezel shape looks more correct on the Parnis, the edge around the bezel tooth is slightly slope and looks more natural, while the bezel just stands straightforward on the case of the Pagani Design.

Conclusion: abouthe bezel, I like the Parnis watch better.

Pagani Design Pepsi GMT Homage
Pagani Design GMT Bezel
Parnis GMT Black Dial
Parnis GMT Bezel

Lume:

Pagani Design Pepsi Lume
Parnis GMT Lume

About the lume, the first picture is from the Pagani Design, the second is lume from the Parnis. Which one do you like?

Bracelet:

Pagani Design GMT Buckle
The bracelet and clasp of the Pagani Design
Parnis GMT Bracelet
Parnis GMT Clasp
The bracelet and clasp of the Parnis

Actually no difference on the bracelet and clasp, the finish on the bracelet is very similar on both watches. Each watch has a Jubilee bracelet, the spacing between each link on the bracelet of the Parnis looks a little larger than that on the bracelet of the Pagani Design, but not very noticeable. The bracelet is a big longer on the Parnis. However, the use experience when you opening and closing the clasp feels better on the Pagani Design. I think the closure on the clasp of the Parnis is a little loose.

Movement:

Pagani Design GMT Movement

The picture above shows the movement of the Pagani Design, which uses a NH34 automatic movement. The NH34 is a very practical movement that offers the watch hours, minutes, seconds, gmt and date functions, the movement beats 21,600BPH and has 41 hours power reserve and 24 jewels, it also has the important hacking feature.

About the movement inside the Parnis, I am not very sure, it is said to be a Mingzhu DG5833 automatic movement, which is made in China, the movement beats 21,600BPH, it has 22 jewels, 40-hour power reserve and hacking mechanism.

Conclusion: in my opinion, the NH34 movement in the Pagani Design is better than the Chinese movement in the Parnis.

Buying advice:

Both are good choices for people who are looking for Pepsi GMT homage watch that is around $100 but less than $120.

The Pagani Design Pepsi GMT has a more durable and reliable movement from Japan, it also has a see-through crystal back, compared with the solid case back, more watch fans like the crystal back nowadays. The Pagani Design Pepsi GMT is sold at $119, not very expensive but still higher than the Parnis. I suggest you choose the Pagani Design watch, which is more durable and will have fewer issues because of its Japan movement. If you do not want this Pepsi GMT, Pagani Design also offers Batman and Sprite GMT on their website.

The Parnis GMT watch looks great, it not only has a closer outlook and bezel design to the Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi, but is also sold at a much cheaper price, which is only $86, besides, this Parnis watch comes with a better protection box, it has a longer bracelet, which is more convenient for people who have a large wrist. For guys who do not want to spend more than $100 on a Chinese homage watch, please buy this Parnis.

Here come the videos of the two watches:

Categories
Hruodland

Hruodland Adventurer GMT Vintage Watch

Hruodland Adventurer

Hruodland, a weird name, as a watch brand, does this name have a special meaning? I do not even know how to read this word. The watches made by this custom brand are most homages, just like the watches made by Sugess, San Martin, Proxima and other micro brands from China. I introduced one Hruodland watch on my blog before, it is a TV-shaped quartz watch that looks very nice, on the website of Hruodland, I saw homages of different brands, many of them are Submariner homages and Pilot styles, today, the watch I am going to show you guys is a vintage gmt watch that has some similarity to Rolex Explorer, but check the printings on the dial, there is a word ADVENTURER, you can think this is the series name of the watch.

Hruodland Adventurer Crown
Hruodland Adventurer Case
Hruodland Adventurer Case Back

The watch is made with solid 316L stainless steel, it has a case diameter of 39mm, the thickness is about 11.8mm. The entire watch is brushed, but the edge of the round bezel is polished, which echoes with the drawing finish on the edge of each lug. The bezel has 24 hour markers engraving that are being filled with black oil coating. The crown has an anchor logo, this is one part of reasons to push me to buy this watch although I already have one vintage Pagani Design Explorer Homage watch. By the way, both the crown and case back are screwed down.

Hruodland GMT Hand

The dial is under protection of a domed sapphire crystal, the matte black dial has all hour markers being applied with lume material that looks a little yellow, there is a strong lume light emitting from the dial in dark conditions. The GMT hand has a big arrowhead in bright orange color, even in a weak light condition, it can grab your attention easily. The bubble crystal face, dial color and the design of hour markers, these things make the watch have a strong vintage flavor.

Hruodland Adventurer Dial Lume

The watch is equipped with a NH34 automatic movement, another good movement from Seiko, like NH35, it is widely used by a lot of homage watches made in China. By the way, this watch also looks very nice on a nylon band, check the last picture below.

Hruodland Adventurer Wrist Shot
Hruodland Explorer with Nylon Band