Officine Panerai

Jester
[RD Moderator]
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I understand your sentiment but before you jump off,

there're a few points that might be worth your thoughts?

#1

Let's take a quick look at OP's limited edition pieces that were either NEW in casing design or dimention at the time of release and NOT limited by the movement supply:

PAM52, the first 40mm Luminor Chronograph with zenith movement, limited run of 500 pieces.   Followed by:  PAM72/74, 121/122, 105, 108.  (I didn't list 168 as it was fitted with different movement but you get the idea!)

PAM64 1000m submersible, limited run of 500 pieces.  Probably another 2000 pieces or so of basically the same watch as PAM87.

PAM76 Luminor blackseal w/ cover, 300 pieces initially then all these variations of JV, Purdeys, Sealand, Shanghai boutique editions( urgh! )    *Not even sure if this truely qualifies as it's probably just new tooling from bezel level up so overall cost probably not as high as a truely new design*

PAM127 1950 Luminor, 1950 pieces then 1000 pieces of 217 and 150 pieces of 203, not even counting those OOR.

PAM187 47mm Luminor 1950 submersible chronograph, 1000 pieces and all those daylights that follows.

PAM191 60mm Compass 300 pieces, well this is one exception BUT it's a compass afterall so I would guess the R&D cost is a lot lower...

PAM194 47mm Luminor 1950 2500m submersible w/ helium release vavle, 1000 pieces, then the PAM285 + the small run of destro for a retailer in Paris?

PAM198 45mm Radiomir w/ JLC 8 day PR movement, well it was released with 190/197 and all the in house movement variants were housed in this case size as well.   

PAM232/249/262 47mm Radiomir, total about 4000 pieces not counting the 309/322/349 granted these models have a sub second so technically one can argue that they're different.

Without trying to justify the manufacturing/tooling cost vs price, it seems clear that the brand would make 1000+ pieces every time they roll out a new models so based on the previous observations, I would expect Panerai to do more than 1000 pieces on the 339.  The choice is would you rather them do 1000 pieces now and then come out w/ another 500-1000 pieces of  OOR/variation later?  

As Nicolas mentioned earlier, they've been doing this for years and there's no reason to expect them to change ttheir attitude  After all, they're running a business, in fact a business operation within a large conglomerate.  As such they are probably under huge pressure to make profit, not necessarily just for the brand but also for the group.     What they've done to the 339 is nothing new and rightfully in the best interest of the share holders.      Of course this might not be in the best interest for some collectors but I think we can all agree it's the right business decision?

#2

Regarding the communications between the dealer and HQ.  I'm not sure if you have first hand information regarding the actual dialogues, unless you do, it would be difficult to assess the right or wrong.  

Moreover, they're in the business of direct marketing via various boutiques, as such it's perfectly sensible to channel the desirable models via the boutique.       Would you have done the same thing if you were running the boutiques?

IMHO, this would continue to post a problem for people who has been traditionally buying from the dealers.  All these momentum on opening brand specific boutiques could potentially drive up the overall cost of ownership for the end consumer.   But this could be another topic in itself.

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