Bumping this very old thread as I was just checking out a brand new Panerai on the wrist, a model PAM03312 which is a 44mm automatic with sub-seconds and date.
It drew my eye as I briefly had a PAM104 many years ago and this new model looks to be the modern successor to that, 44mm Luminor automatic in steel with date, the only difference I can really see is they added a display back and removed the cyclops.
https://www.panerai.com/au/en/collections/watch-collection/luminor/pam03312-luminor-marina.html
The crown guard mechanism was loose and making noise when you shook it, he'd tried to warranty it but been told it was normal to have a small amount of play. I don't remember the PAM104 being like that, I think
@Archer had or still has one of those too so maybe his experience is different but it firmly held shut under tension with no noise or play on mine.
The PAM03312 was just under $13k duty free out of Singapore apparently so I'd guess in the 14K range (Aussie dollars) here, a used PAM104 seems to be about 4-5k AUD used, so just under a third of the price. I remember buying mine somewhere in the 2s and being happy unloading it around the 3s at the time so they seem to be holding their value decently.
The more I looked at it, the more I really do think that ETA 7750 powered PAM was about their peak, their early in-house movements seemed nothing but trouble and while I'm sure they've addressed that by now, it doesn't really feel like you're getting much for the vastly inflated MSRP, if anything maybe a little less.
I acutally do miss that thing every time I see a Panerai in the wild, the new ones don't really draw me in but the old ones certainly do.
