Officine Panerai

For those who don't know me, let me give you a background history of myself and how I became interested in Panerai watches.

After I graduated from college, I worked my a$$ off (sorry for the language but that really is how hard I worked at that time) and went through hell to earn my 1st paycheck.  Let me just say that I ate pasta w/ Ragu sauce everyday for lunch for half a year   I wanted to buy myself a "nice" watch, so I bought myself a Tag Heuer 2000 quartz chronograph   I always liked watches when I was in college but couldn't afford one.  (And yes, I have to admit that I did buy several Canal St. Tag Heuer fakes because I didn't have any money to buy the real thing.)  When I saved up my money, I decided to buy my 2nd watch which was a white gold Rolex Daytona.

I then stumbled into a Tourneau shop in late 1999 or early 2000 with my wife's brother.  He was there window shopping for a watch himself, and we both saw these unusual watches in the window display.  It said Panerai on the watch stand, and I never heard of this brand before.  I said to brother-in-law, "Wow.  That watch looks awesome!  You should buy one of these!"  What'd you know, he bought a Breitling instead :P  Either way, I was still fascinated at these interesting looking watches called Panerai.

Looked up Panerai on the web and stumbled up on Paneristi.com.  Perused for a couple weeks, and instantly fell in love with the design of the Luminors.  There was just something about the simplicity of the dial and the crown protector which caused me to be hooked on Panerai like a drug addict on cocaine.  Shortly after, I decided to buy my 1st Panerai which was the 40mm PAM52 chronograph on Ti/Steel bracelet.  After that, it went downhill from there and I found there was no point in trying to resist the Panerai bug.

When Paneristi.com founder Guy Verbist gave Thomas the site to manage, Thomas asked me if I wanted to help moderate on Paneristi because at that time, I was an active participant on both Paneristi and ThePuristS.  I said sure why not, and I'll help out in whatever way I can.  There I was a moderator for around a year and a half and then followed Thomas over to ThePuristS when Thomas handed Paneristi.com over to its 3 current owners - Jay, Paddy, and Paul.  I felt honored to join ThePuristS team as everyone on the team was a watch guru and well-respected among the online watch communities.  And a few years later, here I am today as the General Manager of PuristSPro and now the moderator of our new Panerai forum.

Wow that was a lot longer than I had intended to write but oh well :P.

Anyways, my main point of this thread is to find out what everyone here loves about Panerai.  Was it the attraction to the watches itself?  The Panerai community?  Or you just happened to stumble upon this brand after collecting other brands?

For me, what first attracted me to the Panerai brand were the watches itself.  The awesome shape of the Luminor case, the curves of the Radiomir case, and the clean simple layout of the dials - all these reasons made these sporty rugged watches fit well my everyday casual dress.  Obviously, the community has grown 1000x fold since my own Day 1, so community wasn't really a factor for me at the start.  However, the close knit Panerai community today helps me keep my passion alive and pumping, and I've made many friends and met many great people along the way.

One of my dream watches is a 44mm Luminor minute repeater, and I hope Panerai will make this watch someday so I can be in Panerai nirvana  

How did you guys stumble upon Panerai?  Please share with us whatever you feel comfortable sharing about yourself online so we can get to know each other better!

Cheers,
Anthony 

And Guy and a few of the early posters on Paneristi were a lot of fun. I still wear a Panerai a few times a week and it's runaway popularity has not turned me off. However, the prices increases have rocked me a bit....I still like the early models the best.

Wish the dollar would climb back up so we get less price hikes but unfortunately, the dollar is so weak it costs an arm and a leg everytime we go to Europe.  Heck, even the Canadian dollar is worth more that the greenback

Cheers,
Anthony

panerai.  Always been very intrigued by the simplicity of the flow of the lines. 

Moreover, I love their early concepts of adopting vintage movements with interesting complication for the one-off special edition.   That's a true reflection of AB's horological ambitions which we can clearly see from their recent achievements of in-house movement w/ various complications.

Now that we've seen the tourbillon and perpetual calendar, I can't rule out the possibility of a minute repeater.   It would be interesting to see if OP would indeed execute on luminor case while trying to adhere to its heritage as a  diver watch!

I fell head-over-heals when I first set eyes on Panerai only two years ago.  The evil person who will remain nameless but I will tell you his initials are AT and he is not far from this post played his magic flute and like a little dazed rat I jumped in.  I am embarrassed to say how many Panerai watches are now in my collection.

The falling in love part with the look, history and sex appeal is easy for most and they stop there.  Myself being a hardcore business guy I was pushed over the edge into the abyss never to return when I found the market practice among and AD's.  No discounts!  Maybe a strap or some symbolic gesture rang very true and loud to me.  I said to myself  "hey you mean I don't have to worry about the next guy getting a huge discount and making me look like a twat when I paid full fare".  This is like being on the plane and finding out your neighbor paid $200 for his seat when you just paid $2000.  Sure you booked two weeks in advance and he just booked his flight yesterday.  Hey wait a minute he should pay 2k, I committed two weeks ago.

Oh well enough dribble.  Great look, great retail practice, a match made in heaven as far as I am concerned.  Now if only the auction place(s) which will remain un-named would stop pushing some of the classic beauties out of reach of mortal I would be a happy man.  Now I am really venting.

Don't get me wrong here I am a fan of a couple of other brands for other reasons but these are my reasons for loving Panerai.

Warning to anyone who crosses my path I will infect you whether you like it or not. 

Thanks AT again....

I'd been fascinated by watches since I was a kid, but didn't get around to making my first purchase of a "real" watch until two years ago. I had it in my head that I wanted an IWC and went to a dealer a friend of mine told me carried IWC. Turned out they didn't carry IWC--go figure--but they did carry Tutima, RD, VC, Hoblot, UN, and PSM. In fact, Peter Speake-Marin was in the shop the day I walked in. But I digress. I fixated on a UN Maxi Marine Chrono and took about 3 hours to make up my mind over getting the white dial or the black dial version. While I was deliberating, the sales guy went off and came back with a Paneria. It was the first time I'd laid eyes on one and it held zero appeal to me. I bought the UN with a black dial and croc strap.

Fast forward about a year. The font used for the 12, 3, 6, and 9 on the Luminor and Radiomir bases had started to grow on me. But I like a watch that lets you know it's running (via a second hand), so when I caught sight of a  PAM183 I started entertaining the idea of owning Panerai. I'm partial to the Radiomir case's curves, so I finally pulled the trigger on a Black Seal a few months ago. It's on my wrist at least 3 days a week. Sometimes more. I love it.

At some point, I'd like to add a Rad 1936 California to my small but growing brood. Ah, so little time, so many watches

Cheers,
Dom

Like many of us, my first 'nice' watch was a rolex...in this case a two tone datejust given to me for my graduation from college.  I thought rolex was all there was out there (little did I know!)...I traded that DJ for a sub, and later for another sub, and then one day stumbled onto this strange looking watch in my local shop.  it looked unlike anything else out there, with the thick 'tuna can' case, and unique crown protector.  I wanted one...but the size gave me pause.  I am one of those 'skinny wristed' guys and thought it would look ridiculous on me.  I thought the rollie sub was big enough as it was...  Despite trying it on (many times!), I just couldn't justify buying one...(oh....what I could have bought that 2A for....)

fast forward a few years and I still couldn't get the luminor out of my mind.  then I discovered the radiomir!  wow...the same, simple dials found on the luminor but in a thinner, slightly smaller case.  It seemed much more accessible to me.  So, I grabbed my first PAM, a 141 (42mm rad auto) and it was all downhill from there...  one I strapped that to my wrist, a 44mm lum didn't seem so big afterall.  within two weeks, I had bought my second, a 27C, and a few weeks later, the 141 was traded in for a 190...soon I had four or five PAM's in my drawer...

Now, several years later, 42mm seems TINY, and the rolexes just sit in the safe...and yes, I feel perfectly comfortable wearing my 47mm fiddy...to hell if anyone thinks it's too big for me!!  bring on the egyptian!!  (well, ok, maybe that one is a bit too large for me....)

Saw the picture of marina luminor in a local business magazine in 1999  and instantly fell in love with the design of the watch. When I called up the AD in Malaysia, they told me the new shipment has just arrived. Drove 350KM to Kuala Lumpur to check out the watch and purchased my first PAM on the spot ...a Destro PAM22 ( told my wife it would be kept  for my new born baby boy ). 

Pre-V Base is my favorite and will not hesistate if OP releases Fiddy Base in the near future.

 

 

I have a weakness for brands that show great coherence throughout their collection. Don't know why. I guess there's no rational - perhaps I applaude them for taking the courage to stick with a certain concept. Panerai is an example, another brand being Jaquet Droz: you can recognize a watch from a mile away as a Panerai or JD..

Regards

Mark

Hope this will be another exciting place to talk about PAMs.

What attracted me to Panerai in Year 2003 were, the unique numbers 3, 6, 9, 12 on its simple dial, the sub-seconds dial, the Crown Guard and then the history.  Then what made me stayed on till today is the Paneristi passionate Community,, one of a kind..

Cheers,

I started with Lange and moved on to pateks and AP ROOs without thinking much of Panerai . Sure I've seen the occasional Pam on someone's wrist but I dismissed them as another faddish big watch ,and after all I've already got my offshores rite ?  Until this craze got bigger that I took the time to read up on PAM history to find out whats the fuss . Indeed I took a immediate liking and interest and bought one of each case within a month (190 n 233 ) . They are fun and easy to wear for casual days and certainly take up alot of my  wrist time . Another reason is the straps . Change a strap and its like a new watch you are wearing ! ........although late to the game ,but better late than never !

 

George

I saw an ad for the watch, the one with the diver coming out of the water, in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Back then, Panerai was promoting the catch phrase "formerly a military secret". (Not any more though as far as I see.) Being a watch collector, and an Italian-American, the ad sparked my interest. But what attracted me to the watch was the simplicity of the design, the ease of reading it, the size, and the history of the brand.

and its getting better with all the in-house movement...

I first fell in love with the crown guard, that was the 1st thing that drawed me to the watch...

and later it became an addiction... LOL!

one just became two..... and....

ed

Since I just purchased my first Panerai last week, the brand's attraction is fresh in my mind. 

Too many watches today are flat out impossible to read.  Their dials are so cluttered, it's a wonder you can tell the time.  I look at some of these Frank Muller and Richard Mille timepieces and shake my head.  You'd need a magnifying glass to read the subdials.  And the main hands aren't any easier.

So, I'm attracted to watches that are unencumbered by useless decoration.  I just like a clean watch that tells time, while making a strong design statement at the same time.  That's the Panerai.  It's terrific legible dial is complemented by a big, blocky, masculine case. 

Funny thing is I never used to like Pams.  Thought they were a faddish attraction.  When i saw my first Pam, in the steel, so to speak, I quickly changed my mind.  This is definitely a watch that has to be worn to be appreciated.

best,

bill