Officine Panerai

PuristSPro joins Panerai North American President, Rafael Alvarez, and the Panerai Beverly Hills Boutique staff to host fellow Purists for a viewing of the new SIHH 2012 novelties.  It was great to see familiar faces and also a lot of new folks as well. 

We began the evening at the Panerai Beverly Hills Boutique. 




A familiar sight to all watch enthusiasts is Panerai Beverly Hills Boutique Director Chad Warrick:




PuristS guests and Rafael Alvarez reviewing the SIHH 2012 Novelties.

Panerai offered a large range of new Radiomir watches for 2012 including the California dialed PAM424 in 47mm with a 3 days power reserve and P.3000 movement.  Another interesting version is the Radiomir SLC PAM425 with the dial combination of bar and dot hour indicators. 
We also had a pair of special editions; the Radiomir PAM338 with the California Dial and 3 day power reserve, and the PAM449 with the bar and dot hour indicators.  Each of these utilize the 47mm sized case and the P.3000 movement.








Another pairing is the special edition Radiomir 1940 in steel and rose gold.  These had a wonderful vintage look and includes a domed Plexiglass crystal.



One of my favorite features of the 1940's is the view from the caseback where you can view the Minerva pocket watch movement.  The movement was nicely decorated showing off the large balance wheel.  I'll post detailed pics in a separate post.

And speaking of decorated movements, we have the Radiomir GMT 8 Days Oro Rosso in 45mm.  This Panerai is fitted with the P.2002 movement however this caliber has open worked bridges and barrel which provides a view of the gear train and mainspring.  This type of movement looks great on the Panerai and I hope that they continue with this on future models. 



In the Luminor collection Panerai debuted three new ceramic models.  From the watch case in the bottom row from left to right is the Tuttonero, the Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT, and the Luminor 1950 Tourbillon GMT. 






The Luminor 1950 3 Days GMT Automatic and the Tuttonero side by side. The caseback has a grey tinted sapphire cyrstal with the P.9001 movement. 





The Tuttonero ceramic bracelet with a matte black color coating that matches the ceramic case.  The overall watch was hefty and much heavier than I expected.

 

Next up is part two as we head over to the Montage Hotel for dinner.

Regards,
ED-209





This message has been edited by DRMW on 2012-06-22 13:13:38 This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2012-11-16 17:12:32

did you catch the PAM reference on this piece?

Ciao - Sergio

Hi Sergio,
The Radiomir 8 days GMT Oro Rosso 45mm reference number is PAM395.  How do you like the looks of the decorated movement?







Regards,
ED-209

 

This message has been edited by ED209 on 2012-06-22 04:21:57 This message has been edited by DRMW on 2012-06-22 05:10:02

I found the "translucent" dial really beautiful...less....the fangs, I can't stand. I was raving about it to Anthony (yesterday). In my opinion a "transition" piece of Panerai between...bold military watches....and jewelery. As I wrote, this model  would fit naturally in a jeweler's window, surrounded by JWCs, Piagets, JLCs, VCs and PPs, IMO..

Ciao - Sergio 

Dinner was held at the Muse Room (above Scarpetta restaurant) inside the luxurious Montage Hotel. 










Here's a video with Panerai North American President Rafael Alvarez and PuristSPro General Manager Anthony Tsai welcomes PuristS guests to the event during dinner. 




The entire SIHH 2012 Novelties were brought with us to the restaurant.





Dinner is served!  A four course meal with a choice of entree.

Our first course was a delicious butter poached dungeness crab with sweet diced mangoes and whipped avacados

I was lucky to be seated at the table with Rafael Alvarez who toasted everyone at the beginning of our dinner.





Our second course was a heirloom tomato with organic mint, arugula, and marinated feta cheese.

There were many watches that we got to try on our wrist.  One interesting watch was the 47mm cased PAM424.  It's a regular production model of the special edtion PAM448 where the primary differences are the gold hour and minute hands, a sapphire crystal, and the OP logo on the dial towards the 6 0'clock position.  This Radiomir is fitted with a P.3000 manual wind movement with a 3 day power reserve.







For the main course I chose the prime filet mignon with veggies.

And the dessert tasting trio (from left to right): Venezuelan dark chocolate cake, creme brulee, and lemon meringue tartlet

Panerai reading material, but who has time to flip through the book when there were plenty of friendly Panerai enthusiasts to talk to and watches to drool over?

Panerai swag bags with goodies for guests to enjoy at home.

It was a pleasure to meet Mr. Alvarez, and as always, great to see the Panerai Beverly Hills Boutique staff.   This was the 3rd PuristSPro event with Panerai and it was fantastic.

Regards,
ED-209

it will take a bit, for my mind to absorb...the hybrid/transitional...heaviness of the case on a Radiomir. Live it looks better than in the pictures, IMO. Nothing wrong with the Minerva's "guts" of course..

Ciao - Sergio 

It is great to see many familiar faces having a great time.

Thanks for the coverage, Ed, and kudos to Panerai for continuing to share their novelties with the PuristS community.

Cheers,

Alex

Thanks Alex and yes kudos to everyone at Panerai for being such gracious hosts.

Regards,
ED-209

Hope you're doing well! 

Recently had a very nice tasting of fine tequila and it reminded me of the one I tried that you had brought with you when you and Andrew visited a few years back. 

The tequila was good, but not as great as yours. 

Wished you were here buddy! 

Great to hear from you!

Ready to enjoy the summer?

All is well on this side of the border.

I am glad you had a chace to try some tequilas recently. Hopefully soon I can plan a visit and for sure bring some tequilas or mezcals for us to try.

Talk soon,

Alex

Great Report Ed! 

It truly was a wonderful night to remember! 

It was great to meet a lot of familiar faces and it's great to see a few new ones as well! 

Thank you for the report Ed!  And many thanks to PuristSPro, Panerai, The Beverly Hills Boutique Team, and Monseiur Alvarez for hosting this amazing and memorable event.  Truly, many thanks! 

This message has been edited by patrick_y on 2012-06-22 18:37:26

you wouldn't be able to find folks any nicer...such a wonderful group of people. As always, Chad and Marcel from the boutique were delightful and it was great catching up.  It was also a special honor to meet and chat with Elizabeth and Rafael from Corporate.  Very special thanks to Panerai for hosting the event and Anthony and team for making it happen.  My wife, Autumn, and I truly had a great time. 

 

Cheers,

Lou in SoCal

Hope to see you again at future PuristS events!

Cheers,
Anthony

Thanks for joining us with Panerai.  It was nice to meet you and your wife and hope to see you in future events.

Regards,
ED-209

Really enjoyed your company and discussing with you about your collecting philosophy.  Welcome to the fold and I look forward to seeing you an Autumn at future events! 

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The SIHH 2012 Panerai watches are here for everyone to touch, play and strap on for test drives.  One of the great things about Panerai is they create many sets of prototypes to circulate around the region to show to collectors and press on their roadshows.  A lot of brands don't do this, and this is something that all brands need to start doing IMO.  Who wants to go to an event where all the watches are wrapped up in plastic and you can't strap the watches to your wrist?  This is why I always love our Panerai events.  You get to really touch and feel all the watches!

Here are some wrist shots of some of the pieces.  Below is the PAM441 Tuttonero which is an all ceramic Luminor - even the bracelet is black ceramic.

A shot of the 48mm PAM396 Ceramic Tourbillon:

A beauty and PAM we all wouldn't mind adorning our wrists - the PAM398 in red gold.  Don't you love that huge Rolex crown?  I sure do!!!

Here's the limited edition PAM449 Radiomir S.L.C. 3 Days:

Below are a couple comparison shots of a 42mm Luminor & 44mm Luminor.  Notice the 42mm Luminor PAM392 on the left is smaller in size as the 44mm Luminor on the right.  The same movement is in both watches.

And here is a thickness comparison picture of a 42mm & 44mm Luminor.  The 42mm is on the left, and you can noticably see that it isn't as thick as the 44mm Luminor on the right.

And here's a dial side comparison shot of the 42mm and 44mm Luminor.

Here's a fellow PuristS trying on the PAM392 42mm Luminor.  Looks great doesn't it?

And below is a shot of 3 different Panerai cases.  The bottom Panerai is the PAM23, middle is PAM399, and top is PAM449.  Notice the faint differences of the lines of the cases and lugs.

Below is a comparison shot of my 44mm PAM195 on the left and the 44mm PAM438 Tuttonero black ceramic on the right.  The cases are different because my PAM195 uses the regular Luminor case while the PAM438 uses the Luminor 1950 case which is a tad more curvy and has a larger crown guard.

Below are more events and food pictures.

Here are our gracious hosts for the day:  Chad Warrick - BH Boutique Manager (left) , Rafael Alvarez - Panerai President (middle), and Elizabeth Donohue - Marketing Coordinator from Panerai NY (right)

Delicious hors d'oeuvres at the Boutique during our cocktail reception:

2 of our PuristSPro moderators working diligently - the notorious Ed & Ming

More guests slowly trickling in.  Traffic was horrible today, so we had a lot of late comers.

One PuristS showing his wife why this Panerai watch is sexy!

The power of Panerai draws everyone's attention.

After the Boutique, we walked over to the Montage and headed up to Scarpetta's Muse room.

And below are food shots of most of the menu for the night.  I'm missing a picture of the halibut.

Cheers,
Anthony

Thank you again to PuristS and Panerai for a great evening of food, watches and friends! 

What a great event to meet new PuristS and to catch up with friends of old.  Its always a good time and again, I enjoyed myself immensely. 

I am always amazed at how these pieces look sooo much better in person than on the computer screen. 

My companion to the evening...

LOVE the 338 and 339!

I was pleasantly surprised at this piece:

And did I mention its ALL about the friendships?

THANK YOU AGAIN to PuristS and Panerai!  Until next time!

This message has been edited by ocwatching on 2012-06-22 10:11:14

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Hi ocwatching,
Great to see you at the PuristSPro Panerai event.  Your 390 was awesome, it was the first time I was able to handle a 390.
And thanks for sharing your pics.
Regards,
ED-209

Thanks for the coverage. The 399/398 look amazing! Filet Mignon looks pretty good too.

Great event, it looks like I missed some nice appetizers at the boutique. The food at the montage was excellent though. Thanks for all your hard work, it was a memorable event.

i enjoyed every bit of it

Thanks for attending and it was great meeting you in person.

I'm eying the ceramic too.  And still trying to convince myself that a 47mm Radiomir looks good on my small wrists.

Regards,
ED-209

A true pleasure to have met you!  Very pleased that the opportunity presented itself! 

Looking forward to meeting again!  Truly!  Hopefully soon. 

Many thanks to Panerai and PuristSPro for putting on this event so that I could meet so many new and old friends! 

Glad to have you join us for the event!  HAGWE my friend!

-MW

.. 338, but what is "California" dial?  Sounds nice, though!
Thanks for the report on the wonderful event.  Wish I were there....

Best,
Ken

Hi Ken,
Wish you could have joined us for this fun event. 

The California dial is a combination of Roman (upper half fo the dial)  and arabic numerals (lower half) for the hour indices. 

I like the 337/338 and particularly the 336/378 in rose gold.  The 42mm is a nice balance of sporty and dressy.

Regards,
ED-209