Officine Panerai

In MY PERSONAL OPINION; the early days, hard core Panerai enthusiasts (the ones that used to go unearth the vintage pieces) started a "contagion" that spread out like a bush fire, in a very short period of time. An underground movement, whispering Panerai was created. The history of Panerai, the vintages which had belonged to war heroes and could be found, did the rest. In a relative short period of time (10/15 years IMO) the whisper had turned into a scream. Panerai became THE WATCH to own for his history. Never mind that, inside the "historical" pieces, there were modern production models (1993 to 1997) with rather ordinary movements inside, the only merit of which, was having a beautifully manufactured  Tritium Dial. They were PANERAI. Asian collectors and speculators, besotted by historical pieces, started buying everything in sight with a T-dial, regardless of the exorbitant prices which, as a consequence, increased almost on a daily basis. I was in Kowloon when I bought my first Panerai (a PAM249). I strapped it on my wrist and walked out of the shop. Not 500 meters down the road, I bumped into another Panerai reseller. I walked in and the owner, in seeing my spanking new 249 told me...literally: " Oh nice Panerai, do you want to sell it to me?". Those were the days.

A T-dialled model in Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok or Jakarta, used to sell for the...asking price! No negotiations. For all this, the "attachment" to the brand, which had put Panerai on the pedestal, faded away, replaced by the: I must have a Panerai because it's not known and everybody notices it on MY wrist. Or I buy it today for 10 and sell it next week for 100 So out of the underground it came (Panerai) and into the collector boxes, without "attracting" new true LOVERS. The Panerai production was so puny, that even wanting to buy a watch, you had to go through the resellers that would "mark up" the prices even before they were produced! A lot of would be lovers (without accordion like wallets) utterly frustrated, started looking at other brands. When the Asians stopped buying everything Panerai and the company started to manufacture better quality timepieces (comparable to other brand, that is), with new "in house" movements and precious metals, the bubble exploded. Today can buy a "legendary" 5218-201A "logo", the first commercial Panerai ever built, for the price of a mid-level modern one with so many push buttons, it will take you a week to find the one that will...brew coffee for you. Only 2 years ago, with the same amount of money, you could buy a 5218-201A NM or a good size....car. As I wrote at the beginning this is my PERSONAL interpretation of what happened. Since I bought no less than 35 Panerais (I still own 22) "inside the bubble" I think I can afford to have an OPINION Sorry for the rather long....scribble.

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