There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
That said, I'm very happy with my Yanko pair. The leather is nice and takes a shine very well (as can be seen in the photo). I also absolutely love this last - it has a narrow waist that looks great, even though I say so myself. :)
I think skolyx.se and Patine.pl (which are the only two online store fronts I know of that stock Yanko currently ... *hint* *hint* *wink* *wink* @IanAnderson) are doing a good job but I feel that their clientele is mostly limited to StyleForum members. I know that skolyx was started by a StyleForum member (Emil).
@RonRider was also supposed to carry Yanko at one point: "We'll see what happens ... may be Fall of next year before there is a broad selection here, but I am putting my name and door knocking efforts behind them, as well as stocking a selection of shoes." ... but I'm not sure what transpired eventually.
Yanko's own customer service is pretty lacking, from my experience - I never got replies to my queries. Skolyx was great and prompt with all my queries though (we exchanged more than 100 emails, literally. I'm a nightmare customer). Andres Sendra was very good with answering my questions as well.