What’s your thought on Panerai watches?

For me, most Rolex look like all other Rolex...

I used to be in the "I don't get it camp" and honestly could not fathom what some of my collector friends saw in this brand - I couldn't ever imagine wearing one of these. Then one of my friends from across the country in Vancouver who is a big fan was selling his PAM 210, and he asked if I was interested. He even went so far as to ship me the watch to try for as long as I wanted, so I took him up on the offer. But that was when I considered 40 mm to be a large watch and this was a 45 mm watch, and I also couldn't begin to justify spending $3k (what he was asking at the time) for a watch with such a simple movement that cost about $150 on the open market at the time.

I passed on it and it's one of my few watch regrets. As I started servicing more and more Panerai watches, I started to appreciate the build quality, the ease of service, and the simplicity of design. I was servicing a PAM 104 for a collector, and when he mentioned that he was going to sell it, that sparked a conversation that ended up with me sending him some money and me never sending the watch back.







Of all the watches I own, this is the only one that will get random positive comments from non-watch people. In the end though, I don't really care about that - I like it and that's all the justification I need.

By the way, I went through a very similar process on the Speedmaster. I could not fathom what people saw in such a boring watch, and the whole space connection thing doesn't resonate with me*. But when I started to service them, I came to appreciate the functionality, legibility, and overall design, so again I bought one from a customer that I was servicing it for, and that one I eventually gave to a friend and bought a vintage version.

I know with Panerai there is a segment of collectors who hold them to blame for the large watch shift (I won't call it a fad, because it's clearly not a fad) and who will likely never "forgive" the brand for that. But for those who are willing to give it a try, you might be surprised at how much you like them - I was. Certainly the brand has changed in the last few years, and there have been a lot of criticisms of the direction they have taken, and a lot of that from the most loyal fan base (you won't find more dedicated guys than the Panerai guys in my experience). But I tired one on earlier this year at the airport just outside Seoul on my way through, and nearly bought it, but I hadn't researched it ahead of time to see if the pricing was good enough or not for it to be a deal.

In the end if you don't like the design, that's fine. It's not to everyone's taste, but I don't understand the pure hatred some people have for a wrist watch...

Cheers, Al

* - the space program was a great achievement, but the association with the Speedmaster and Omega's milking of it has me rolling my eyes a lot. It was one of thousands of items that were used during the era, and essentially was an off the shelf item. I have more interest in things that were a challenge in getting people off the earth such as developing a fuel pump that would pump enough to feed the engines - that's a real engineering achievement that I can respect as an engineer.

I service ETA based Panerai's all the time. As long as all that is required are movement parts and seals for the case, there's no problem with an independent watchmaker servicing these.