Officine Panerai

You are right, we vintage Panerai collectors have nothing to talk about. Anyway, nothing you could obviously understand . But we are only talking about so-called navies that allegedly used the vintage tools. Pot calling the kettle black . I am crawling back to my cave.

Asi, proud to be Mediterranean

Asi,

I LOVE the Mediterranean.   It's a great place to paddle around on vacation and I have many fond memories of Montpellier, Monaco, Ayia Galini (Crete), Pefkos (Rhodes) and even Cittavecchia (Italy) (less we say about that place the better    

I think it is great to have intensive specialised discussion about your chosen subject  --  vintage Panerai; the more academic the better, in my view.

My point was to put forth a hypothesis that when there are only a few hundred original vintage pieces, the culture of the fan-base and modern brand owners may be one that fuels interest and demand for things that are finite in number. Thus, the variety is introduced by "what-if" topics. 

What if this campaign had been successful or that minisub battery had  not flooded? 

What if we replace this brown colour strap with that brown colour strap?

What if the watches had been in service with a bigger navy and used with real battle ordnance?

So, back to my hypothesis  --  do you think that if there were 25,000 real vintage military Panerai pieces, there would be so much of the current culture?

Regards,

MTF

I, like so few have been lucky enough to come in to posession of rare dails and parts for watches like Panerai, Rolex and Patek.  It's been my business for 15 years and I look for places outside the mainstream markets to find them.  But, not everyone has the fortune of owning a vintage Panerai.  When they were a no name, you could pick them up for next to nothing, if you could find them.  Now, a hand full of collectors own them.  So, why not allow people to create their own at an affordable price?  Does it devalue the brand?  I think not, instead, it's created a surge in price of the authentic market.  The buzz has stirred interest in Panerai to the point they can now offer tourbillions, create more elaborate pieces, build more models and qty's for collectors to enjoy.  Sure, the added help from Stalone, Arnold, etc has helped greatly but my point still stands.  If you don't think so, look at Rolex.  It is the most replicated watch and yet the market for Rolex is at a high the past 10 years!  I could think of two people in particular that probably feel elated at the success of Panerai.  That's partly due to the buzz created by all the enthusiasts of today.  Homeage is fine, just represent it that way and I'm cool.  Besides, I've got the technology at hand to slam you down if you try pawning a fake!

No dissing Asi's point either. 

Scott