Panerai Luminor 1950 PAM00904 42mm Black Dial VS Factory Super Clone

In-Depth Review: VS Factory Panerai Luminor Due PAM00904 (Super Clone)

VS Factory's PAM00904 has been around for a while now. Finally getting around to doing a proper write-up on it.

Build Quality — No Complaints Here

The finishing on this one is genuinely solid. Radial brushing on all four sides, sandwich dial with sandwich lume — classic VS Factory stuff, nothing new there. Crazy horse leather strap feels decent, 316L steel case and caseback engravings are all crisp and well-executed.

If we're talking pure craftsmanship? This VS Factory Panerai PAM00904 is up there. Polish work, strap quality, caseback detail — all very clean.

The Size Issue. Yeah.

Here's where things go sideways. Gen PAM00904 is listed at 42mm. I measured this rep multiple times — lug to lug across the case you're getting maybe 41-point-something. Call it 42 if you're being generous. Measure just the bezel ring? Barely 40.

Now thickness. Gen spec is 10mm for the mid-case, 13.8mm at the thickest point. My caliper read about 14mm. Doesn't sound like much on paper. Put it next to a gen though and you'll see the difference immediately. We're talking roughly 40% thicker than the official 10mm figure — that's not a minor deviation. That's a problem.

The Movement: P9001 Strikes Again

Root cause of the thickness issue? The movement. VS Factory went with their trusty P9001 clone for this PAM00904 build. VS is basically the Volkswagen of rep movements at this point — they love platform sharing. Every Panerai model gets the same P9001 shoved inside regardless.

The gen 904 runs a movement developed by Minerva under the Richemont group. Different architecture entirely. The crown operation on gen works differently from the P9001 — first position, second position, the whole adjustment logic isn't the same. VS just dropped in the P9001 anyway so you're stuck with that interface. Pull the crown, clockwise for manual wind, first click for hour hand micro-adjust and date, second click for main time setting. Standard P9001 routine if you've handled any VS Panerai before.

Oh and the rotor noise. Bit loud. That's just P9001 life, nothing you can do about it.

Bottom Line — Good Watch, Wrong Model

Look. Strip the PAM00904 branding off this thing and judge it as a standalone piece? The build quality is legitimately impressive. But it IS repping a Panerai 904, and being 40% off on thickness is a dealbreaker. Even back in 2020 that would've been unacceptable. We're well past that now.

Sure, nobody's gonna spot the caseback or movement details on your wrist during a casual conversation. But thickness? That's the one thing you actually feel every time you wear it. Can't hide that.

I barely see anyone reviewing this specific ref online either. Probably tells you something about the demand. Real talk — in our business, the PAM00904 maybe moves a handful of units per year. Not exactly a hot seller.

My honest take on this VS Factory Panerai Luminor Due PAM00904: skip it.

Plenty of better options in the VS Panerai lineup. Stick around at vsfwatcheshub for more reviews — catch you next time.