oiramsq
2
All things to all people
Jan 16, 2012,21:25 PM
(Sorry that I've never posted anything before and I'm choosing NOW to make myself known...)
What I find interesting is that people aways talk about the models that are being added - and not those that are being taken away. By that I mean that Panerai can still be all things to all people so long as they don't disrupt the foundation of the collection.
Personally, my biggest fear for O.P. is that by adding so many new models (special edition/limited edition or otherwise) there is the chance that people will get put-off from buying into the brand. It reminds me a bit of Porsche - there isn't just the Carrera, theres the Carrera, Carrera S, Targa, Targa S, Turbo, Turbo S... so many different variations on the SAME platform. They all may be extremely specialized and refined for different uses - but to an outsider - so many choices makes the brand management look scatter-shot. It also puts some distance between a person who might only want a Carrera as opposed to a Carrera Turbo S Cabriolet. (Is there really much difference between them? I dunno.)
Perhaps Panerai need to thin out some of the collections OR refocus the marketing of the different collections so that there are fewer than the current number of families and just focus on: Luminor, Radiomir, 1950 and something akin to "Other." To me it seems that the products are very 'flat' and by that I don't mean stale - I mean - people follow the 448 and 424 models as have been introduced as though they are separate offerings. While I like both (and have asked my sales rep to get me both) I see them as just Radiomir watches: both with California dials, one has gold hands, one has blue, one has a date function - the other not. Is there really much difference in demographic between a person who wears a 380 vs a 210 vs a 424? Again, I dunno.
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I'm going to agree with some of the other contributors by saying that 47mm is starting to border on insanity. I've got the 372 - and it's great. I like the 399 - and would love to have one. Would I want a collection made up exclusively of 47mm watches? No. I never wanted to move up to 44mm watches because they made all my Rolex watches look 'small'. Now that I have a few 47mm watches the 44mm watches look 'cute'. For me - 44mm is a good size - it's still a very large watch (by most standards) it doesn't make customers in Japan, China, Singapore...etc shy away. I would have like to see more 44mm watches this time around. Who knows - maybe Basel?
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... as for pandering (or perhaps better put as 'Panda-ing') to China. There IS in fact a 44 (not 40) mm Luminor case Dragon watch. I've seen it (in the Panerai Bible) it was made a few years ago. There is only one and they charged an astronomical amount of money for it! O.P. appear to have made watches commemorating all of the animals of the Chinese Zodiac... all in pretty wee numbers (I think the biggest allotment I saw was 25). There have already been 6 or so China specific watches (more if you include Taiwan - my friends here always include Taiwan - a different discussion all together.) Ironically - when speaking to a local sales rep here I suggested doing a Luminor case with 12,3,6,9 all in Chinese... he balked saying that it would look too (for want of a better translation) 'twee' and that it would turn off a lot of local buyers.
Mario