How many Divers actually get pushed to their 200m-300m subsurface claims? How many GMT’s are actually set to an important alternate timeline? How many chronographs are actually timing the speed of an aircraft? As I type this I am wearing a Bulova LP that cannot even tell me the date! But, I digress. This review is about homages and specifically about the Pagani Design PD1685 homage to the somehow elegant and sporty Omega Seamaster 300m. I often find myself buying homages as placeholders until I can reasonably justify buying myself an heirloom asset watch that will be mine forever.

Having tried on the Homagee (is that a word?) to the Homage, I immediately fell in deep, deep like with the PD version. At first glance it is only missing the helium valve which I do not even know the function of. I was thrilled. The gray dial’s waves wash over the date at the 6 o’clock with a tiered date window. Not just a square hole but an intricate cut to really shadow the box. AGAIN, NOT AN OUTLINE BUT A TIERED DATE WINDOW. The indices are not lazy either; being applied on, instead of colored on. As the indices pop at you, the beautiful fidget spinner that some watch snobs call a “Rotating Bezel”, has satisfying clicks to help me zone out at school or work.

To pile on, besides the Japanese, tried and true NH35 Movement, the specs on the Pagani Design PD1685 are very similar to that of its Homagee (it’s a word now) as far as size and look. The aforementioned movement can be admired via the open caseback which is a huge selling point for some of my pals in the watch game. The lume extends from the hands to the indices and beyond. That’s right, the bezel has a great blue contrast lume.

Now, the roads are not all paved with gold on the path to plagiarism. Believe it or not, there are pitfalls to mass producing a watch with a less than perfect QA/QC department. I have owned 3 different color variants of this watch and have loved them all. I noticed that the “play” on the fidget spinner bezel seems to vary and easily wears out over time. Even now, I do not believe that my dot at the zero marker, which has fallen off, has ever aligned at the 12.

As you will notice in the photos, the Pagani Design PD1685 watch plays with me a lot. I wear it weekly for hours of tennis play, days in the pool, and it was my go-to watch for day time activities during a trip to Costa Rica.

All this action on the band, which is silicone wrapped in nylon, can burn it out quickly. The entire band looks like it went up in smoke and having loved the band so much I searched low, high, far, and wide to find a replacement. Surprise! It is a strap beast but I eventually left the burnt out band on it to cement its title as my favorite tool watch in my box. I even have the new replacement band still. It’s beautiful and costs about ¼ as much as the watch. Do the math and you can see where your money goes into this watch.

Which brings me to another great thing about the Pagani Design PD1685. One day the “Rotating Bezel” became stuck and would not turn and it may have been due to all the miles, salt water, sweat, and chlorine. Sadly, this was after maybe 1 year of ownership. Way past the Amazon return window but I took to my tools and practiced my autopsy skills. After adding some new dents and scratches and probably compromising the water resistance it was spinning unidirectionally as t’was ‘fore.

In summary, I received a whole bunch of watch for a low price but you also cannot expect the Pagani Design PD1685 to last you forever or to be worth paying for the servicing. It’s loaded with specs to hold you over whether you want to be abusive or ride the line of neglect. Now, will I ever buy the Cat that got copied? Maybe if I ever get scuba certified.