Some of you may have seen another “WFM” post last week over on the IWC forum. In a similar vein today I pulled out another watch which hasn’t seen a whole lot of wrist time in the last several years
My PAM 360. Introduced for the 10th anniversary of Paneristi, 10 years ago in 2010.
Not without a lot of controversy, an article from another site ran the headline “It Could Have Been So Wonderful” which probably summed up very well the overall feeling at the time among potential owners.
There were only 300 watches, and Panerai received almost ten times the number of requests. That might not seem like a huge over subscription in today’s terms but I think ten years ago for what was still a somewhat niche brand and a watch that was announced on an even more niche platform (Paneristi) 10x over subscribed was significant
I was really fortunate to be allocated one of these watches. At the time, and looking back today, I think it wouldn’t be an unfair statement to say “I didn’t deserve one” or that there were “other Ristis more deserving”. The flip side to this of course is that of the original owners my guess is a significant number no longer own this piece, whereas it remains a core part of my collection.
It represents a time for me where watches meant Panerai and watch collecting meant Panerai. I had a fair number of Panerai throughout the 2000s, and cycled through even more, and while there were other watches in the collection at the time (and still in the collection today) Panerai played a huge part and more often than not was the watch on my wrist.
Here’s a shot from today. Always loved the 360 on these OEM Riva straps.