AnthonyTsai
[PuristS]
22366
Why is everyone here attracted to Panerai watches?
For those who don't know me, let me give you a background history of myself and how I became interested in Panerai watches.
After I graduated from college, I worked my a$$ off (sorry for the language but that really is how hard I worked at that time) and went through hell to earn my 1st paycheck. Let me just say that I ate pasta w/ Ragu sauce everyday for lunch for half a year 
I wanted to buy myself a "nice" watch, so I bought myself a Tag Heuer 2000 quartz chronograph 
I always liked watches when I was in college but couldn't afford one. (And yes, I have to admit that I did buy several Canal St. Tag Heuer fakes because I didn't have any money to buy the real thing.) When I saved up my money, I decided to buy my 2nd watch which was a white gold Rolex Daytona.
I then stumbled into a Tourneau shop in late 1999 or early 2000 with my wife's brother. He was there window shopping for a watch himself, and we both saw these unusual watches in the window display. It said Panerai on the watch stand, and I never heard of this brand before. I said to brother-in-law, "Wow. That watch looks awesome! You should buy one of these!" What'd you know, he bought a Breitling instead :P Either way, I was still fascinated at these interesting looking watches called Panerai.
Looked up Panerai on the web and stumbled up on Paneristi.com. Perused for a couple weeks, and instantly fell in love with the design of the Luminors. There was just something about the simplicity of the dial and the crown protector which caused me to be hooked on Panerai like a drug addict on cocaine. Shortly after, I decided to buy my 1st Panerai which was the 40mm PAM52 chronograph on Ti/Steel bracelet. After that, it went downhill from there and I found there was no point in trying to resist the Panerai bug.
When Paneristi.com founder Guy Verbist gave Thomas the site to manage, Thomas asked me if I wanted to help moderate on Paneristi because at that time, I was an active participant on both Paneristi and ThePuristS. I said sure why not, and I'll help out in whatever way I can. There I was a moderator for around a year and a half and then followed Thomas over to ThePuristS when Thomas handed Paneristi.com over to its 3 current owners - Jay, Paddy, and Paul. I felt honored to join ThePuristS team as everyone on the team was a watch guru and well-respected among the online watch communities. And a few years later, here I am today as the General Manager of PuristSPro and now the moderator of our new Panerai forum.
Wow that was a lot longer than I had intended to write but oh well :P.
Anyways, my main point of this thread is to find out what everyone here loves about Panerai. Was it the attraction to the watches itself? The Panerai community? Or you just happened to stumble upon this brand after collecting other brands?
For me, what first attracted me to the Panerai brand were the watches itself. The awesome shape of the Luminor case, the curves of the Radiomir case, and the clean simple layout of the dials - all these reasons made these sporty rugged watches fit well my everyday casual dress. Obviously, the community has grown 1000x fold since my own Day 1, so community wasn't really a factor for me at the start. However, the close knit Panerai community today helps me keep my passion alive and pumping, and I've made many friends and met many great people along the way.
One of my dream watches is a 44mm Luminor minute repeater, and I hope Panerai will make this watch someday so I can be in Panerai nirvana
How did you guys stumble upon Panerai? Please share with us whatever you feel comfortable sharing about yourself online so we can get to know each other better!
Cheers,
Anthony
