Pagani Daytona Watch Review (PD-1644) - 99% Cheaper Than a Rolex, Is It Worth It?
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The new Pagani supercar (Imola) will cost you a cool £5 million. Even a new Rolex Daytona will cost you over £20,000.
But what if I told you that you could buy a Pagani Rolex lookalike for just £60? Well today, we’ll be taking a look at this; the infamous Pagani Daytona chronograph which promises a lot for that very low retail price.
Ok, this isn’t quite the same ‘Pagani’ as you might be familiar with, this is instead the unrelated Pagani Design watch brand I covered a few months ago. For over 99% less than the original Rolex, it’s not going to compare in terms of quality; however, I’m left wondering…do you really get only 1% of the watch?
Let’s find out.
PACKAGING
The watch arrived in the typical Pagani Design packaging, which is simple but suitable considering the cost of the watch. It comes with a couple of extras which we’ll mention later. I’ll link this watch throughout this post so you can check it out.
WATCH DIMENSIONS
This model is listed on AliExpress as the PD-1644 and it comes in with a case diameter of 40mm, excluding the crown and guards, a thickness of 11.4mm and a lug to lug of 48mm. These dimensions are pretty close to the original Rolex, it’s just a touch slimmer and has a slightly higher lug length.
On-wrist it wears slightly larger than you might expect considering the width, for a few reasons. Firstly, the large pushers and crown arrangement make the watch look wider than you might expect. More importantly, the lug to lug size feels boosted by the inflexible centre links of the bracelet, which protrude past the lugs to produce a length of 52.8mm. As such, this watch looks a little large for skinny wrists like mine and should suit those with more average to large wrists.
PERFORMANCE
I have seen this watch floating around YouTube before, however, it appears Pagani have given this watch an upgrade based on the feedback from some of those videos. The forerunner may have looked the same, but it only had a measly 30m of water resistance; rendering the watch splashproof at best. This was somewhat disappointing given the watch had a screw-down crown and pushers.
Fortunately, according to the manufacturer, this newer 2020 model boasts a much more respectable 100m of water resistance; meaning you should be able to swim in this without any concerns. Several outlets appear to still be selling the older version with the water resistance, so make sure you check the specs before pulling the trigger. This upgraded option has this higher rating printed on the rear and also features a slightly different case back; which is noticeably thicker, more heavily bevelled and features circular notches, as opposed to the square ones on its predecessor.
CASE
The upper of the stainless-steel case features a polished finish throughout, reminiscent of that on the original Daytona and the overall look this provides is also incredibly similar, at least at a glance. You get a highly-reflective and very flat side profile, with a slight curvature at the lugs. When you look closely, you can tell that the edges aren’t as precise as a true luxury watch, though this is still impressive and has a surprising heft for such a budget piece.
Pagani Design just sent me this watch out of the blue, so I had no say in terms of the colourway. What arrived was this Rose Gold version, with a coloured bezel insert and accents. Honestly, this wouldn’t be my first choice, as I think Rose Gold can often cheapen the appearance of a watch; which is certainly the case here.
The ceramic bezel, in particular, looks overly flashy, especially when combined with the matching centre links on the bracelet. I think some of the other colourways look much less cheesy. Nevertheless, as previously mentioned you get the secure screw-down chronograph buttons and crown, which aid the water performance. Each features a large amount of grip, making adjustments incredibly easy and the pushers also have a very distinct, almost 2-phase clunk to them when compressed. I suspect this has something to do with the movement, which I’ll mention in a moment.
WATCH DIAL
Before we get there, the dial is worth briefly touching on. For the most part, it’s a direct rip-off of the Rolex Daytona, but surprisingly there are a few things I prefer on this Pagani. The main one being that this model only features 3 lines of text including the logo; rather than the paragraph you get on modern Daytonas, which I think looks ridiculous.
Other than that, you get a very similar overall look, with the chapter ring and applied markers around the perimeter being a clear copy and paste job. Unlike the Rolex, this features an inked logo below the 12’oclock index and a date window at the bottom right. The date wheel sits nice and tight to the cut-out as well, meaning there is no gaping hole like we’ve seen with other watches in the past.
While the subdials look the same, they are slightly different. The second hand operates on the lower of the three, but then you have a 60-minute timer to the left, paired with a full 24-hour one to the right. The latter two subdials on the Rolex only measure around half of those durations.
You get a virtually identical handset, with a slim black line and lume adorning the main hands, alongside a chronograph second hand that bobs along when activated. Now surely for £60, this can’t be using a mechanical movement, can it?
MOVEMENT
Well, as you may have guessed, that isn’t the case. However, it’s still one of the best parts of this watch, as it is utilising a Seiko VK63 mecha-quartz movement. I’ve reviewed many of these in more expensive watches, but it’s a great choice in this budget watch as it gives the reliability and affordability of quartz, whilst providing some of the elegant sweep you get with a mechanical watch.
WATCH GLASS
Yet another nice to have addition comes in the form of the sapphire crystal over the dial. This doesn’t appear to utilise any form of anti-reflective coating, so you may struggle to read it at certain angles. Nevertheless, this is still fundamentally the same material you’ll find in the original Rolex, providing excellent scratch resistance for complete peace of mind. Very few watches in this price bracket use a piece of sapphire, so along with the movement, this is an unexpected bonus. I checked this with my tool and it is the real deal.
BRACELET
The quality of the bracelet is also surprisingly good for the money. Not only are these fully solid links, including the end links, but they also house the screw pin system – which I find a dream to adjust at home, compared to some other cheap options. You even get a mini flat-head screwdriver in the box for good measure. At first, I even thought they had managed to copy the Rolex Glidelock clasp system, as on the surface it looks very similar. Upon closer inspection though, it appears to be a copy of the Easylink system, which you can click in and out of place to compensate for your wrist as it expands and contracts throughout the day due to temperature.
While the system works quite well and certainly leaves a very sleek looking outer, it is a pain to set up initially; so be prepared to do some fiddling the first time you test out the watch. Other than that, it’s one of the more comfortable clasp systems I’ve tried and overall the bracelet is far superior to most rival offerings. My only real complaint is that I’m not sure the tone of the brushed silver links is the best match to the tone of the polished case, as they appear to have a different hue to them. I imagine this could vary with other colourways.
FINAL THOUGHTS
So, that’s what we get for 99% less than a Rolex. I think most people would agree that it is far more than 1% of the watch. For those of you accustomed to luxury watches, I’m sure you’ll be able to tell pretty quickly that this is no high-end piece. The finishing isn’t as nice as in the renderings and you’ll notice the odd minor QC issue when you look closely.
It’s difficult for me to comment on the design as other than the logo, it just looks like a Rolex Daytona. That is the sticking point with this watch. If you simply want a wristwatch with the Daytona aesthetics but you can’t afford the real thing; this is a great, highly-affordable alternative which gives you that look for less. You’d also feel much better wearing this than an illegal replica. However, if you’re more generally after an attractive, quality chronograph, this provides nothing in the way of originality.
The specifications are excellent and Pagani Design has once again impressed me with the quality but there are certainly more unique watches out there. This brand does have some more unique designs, like the one I looked at a while back, so I’d be interested to see some more of them but this homage is linked below if you want to grab one.
