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
The Watch that started its life from Bulova's Research and Development contract for the US Navy to produce a divers watch for their Underwater Demolition Team (aka: UDT) in 1957 1933 Buy-American act prohibited the U.S. Navy from purchasing Swiss-made watches, so in 1957 BULOVA started working to produce a dive watch which incorporates a NO RADIATION & MOISTURE / WATER INTRUSION indicator to a MILSPEC dive watch. BULOVA produced a handful of test watches , but decided not to pursue the USN contract and backed out. Allen V. Tornek was a New York importer of Blancpain at the time and won the bid to take over the BULOVA contract along with all research material Bulova had, Blancpain now had access to all the material which they refined and incorporated in their 1957 model, now back to the 1933 “Buy-American Act” and Allen V. Tornek, He rebranded the 1957 BLANCPAIN with the ' MOISTURE / WATER INTRUSION indicator ' as the " TORNEK - RAYVILLE US " to get around the 1933 act and sell the rebranded Blancpain pieces to the U.S. government. There were two batches ordered, one in 1964 and another in 1966, for a total of 1,000 units. Due to the radiation markings on the dial, the government reportedly destroyed many, and some say less than 50 survived.