Panerai - any reason not to buy one?

It's been a while since I've bought a new watch of any description and I've long had an itch to buy a 'classic' sandwich dial Luminor of some description. I had a MM homage type thing a few years ago to see if the style/size worked for me and I rather enjoyed it, but the real thing was a bit out of my price range at the time.

I've seen a few pass through for sale at just under the £3k mark which makes for a tempting proposition compared to some of the other things that are available at the moment.

The question is though has the brand gone off the boil a bit recently? When I first joined up on here there was some serious love for the marque with rabid Paneristi having regular spats with fans of other brands, but that all seems to have gone a bit quiet lately.

Is there anything I should be wary of or shall I just bite the bullet and try and lay hands on one?

Cheers,
Dan

I’ve had a few - all 44mm luminors -
and sadly what drove me away was the terrible servicing from Richemont, leaving visible fluff in the movement, using the wrong loctite in the strap screws so they were impossible to remove, scratching a mint watch so badly it needed a new case! - I loved the watches but not the aftersales!


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If you go for something around 3k it’ll more than likely be an earlier model which won’t have an in house movement,so it won’t need to go to panerai for any work.
Also at that price point I doubt you’ll lose any money,so what’s not to like


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If you mean hype, I don’t know as I have been down the Panerai rabbit hole for a year or so. AFAIK there is good interest and for the price you’re suggesting preowned. Buy the seller as there’s no shortage of scare stories about fakes

They may have gone off the boil a little, but that shouldn’t stop you buying if you like the watch.

Ive bought my favourite model Panerai ever in the last week, and I love it :)

Was it a good deal? Maybe, maybe not. I bought new, but thankfully with a discount, so I should get the 8 year warranty on registration, but it’s a 3 day in-house manual, so at some stage I might have to deal with the servicing centre, or it might need to go back under warranty at some stage - so I’ll cross that bridge at a later date.

Yes, loads. I wouldn't touch one personally.

Their CEO can't stop liking fake Panerai watches on Instagram.

Panerai themselves can't stop uploading fake watches on their profile under their #MeAndMyPanerai campaign.

Worst of all Panerai just used photos and videos of "Nazi elite commandos" wearing their watches in their marketing on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Absolutely disgusting.

Worth looking at Perecope's Instagram for the details - https://www.instagram.com/p/CNZ-sTuLuVJ/

I have posted before about my experiences with Panerai service. Twice I had to return a watch for warranty work, once when a watch leaked when diving, and once for regulation (each time within the watch's 2 yr warranty period). On each occasion the work was first class, if not the swiftest, and the watch returned for regulation came back to me fully serviced FOC. No complaints at all.

I’ve got a few , the oldest 15 years old worn in rotation , absolutely no problems with any of them .


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It is not easy owning a Panerai, for all the reasons stated above. But if you love them, then get one or two even. I am sad they are with Richemont but what can anyone do about that?


https://perezcope.com/ is the best historical watch site ever

The perezcope site is always an interesting read but the guy behind it does seem to have a particular take on things and I’m not sure all that is asserted to be fact is necessarily always so.
If you find a watch you like, new or preowned, no reason I can see not to buy. They’re not to everyone’s liking but that’s good in my view.


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In answer to your initial question, no.

If you like it, buy it, same as any other watch.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wileeeeeey

Worst of all Panerai just used photos and videos of "Nazi elite commandos" wearing their watches in their marketing on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Absolutely disgusting.

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:angry5: Not a watch to wear on Remembrance Sunday :eek-new:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wileeeeeey

Yes, loads. I wouldn't touch one personally.

Their CEO can't stop liking fake Panerai watches on Instagram.

Panerai themselves can't stop uploading fake watches on their profile under their #MeAndMyPanerai campaign.

Worst of all Panerai just used photos and videos of "Nazi elite commandos" wearing their watches in their marketing on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Absolutely disgusting.

Worth looking at Perecope's Instagram for the details - https://www.instagram.com/p/CNZ-sTuLuVJ/

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+1 ... love the 233 but the company's recent behaviour will let me spend my money elsewhere

If you like it, no reason not to buy it.
Plenty of snow flaky reasons to be found on the internets to deter you. Personally, have no respect for Perezcope who seems to have devoted his existence to defaming Panerai. Current company has nothing to do with Nazi roots ( for which Rolex also supplied movements)
Remember it is not a Rolex in terms of value retention.
Personally, a big fan.

Thanks all for the replies - not as fiery as the threads a few years ago, it's good to see folk have mellowed a bit :encouragement:

I think I'll keep my eyes peeled for something popping up on SC, there seem to be plenty available at dealers in the £3-£3,500 bracket so would hopefully see them a bit cheaper should one pop up on here judging by previous SC threads!

I definitely prefer the sandwich dial but would be happy either with or without the sub-seconds, so I think that's a Luminor or Luminor Marina either in base or 8 day flavour!

If anyone sees one for sale at a decent price I'd appreciate a heads up :encouragement: - think I'll pop a WTB up as well later.

Cheers,
Dan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wileeeeeey

Yes, loads. I wouldn't touch one personally.

Their CEO can't stop liking fake Panerai watches on Instagram.

Panerai themselves can't stop uploading fake watches on their profile under their #MeAndMyPanerai campaign.

Worst of all Panerai just used photos and videos of "Nazi elite commandos" wearing their watches in their marketing on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Absolutely disgusting.

Worth looking at Perecope's Instagram for the details - https://www.instagram.com/p/CNZ-sTuLuVJ/

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Gruppo Gama went a bit further than that as I remember (Isnt the name based upon the commando group anyway?) They had a whole webpage dedicated to them and a picture of one of the ex members of the unit.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RAJEN

If you like it, no reason not to buy it.
Plenty of snow flaky reasons to be found on the internets to deter you. Personally, have no respect for Perezcope who seems to have devoted his existence to defaming Panerai. Current company has nothing to do with Nazi roots ( for which Rolex also supplied movements)
Remember it is not a Rolex in terms of value retention.
Personally, a big fan.

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Yep, he clearly has an agenda.

Although what is enteraining is the on going saga between him & Orchi (who does my head in refering to himself in the third person) as the self apointed vintage know it all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by endo

Yep, he clearly has an agenda.

Although what is enteraining is the on going saga between him & Orchi (who does my head in refering to himself in the third person) as the self apointed vintage know it all.

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Can't even read an Orchi post, the whole third person thing is a headache.

I wasn’t aware of the ‘controversy’ but I certainly do now. 😮