Reply With QuoteWow, can't help but be impressed by that.
About 15 years ago I bought this Anonimo Militare Mod2004 from a seller via Chrono 24. It was one of the first handwind (Unitas 6497) Militares, and it's been one of my favourites ever since. I suppose you could say it has some sentimental value to me, and it's a watch I can't ever see myself selling. This is a photo I took some years ago
A brief history of Anonimo - bear with me - there is a reason for this.....
Anonimo was founded in 1997 in Florence by designer and entrepreneur Federico Massacesi. Later that year, and un-related at the time, Panerai was sold to the Vendome Group of Richemont SA, and the new owners re-located Panerai to Switzerland. Although a few individuals who had worked for Panerai prior to the sale went to Switzerland and continued to work for Panerai there, the vast majority of the workforce was made redundant and remained in Florence. Massacesi quickly saw the exodus of Panerai as an opportunity and absorbed much of the skilled ex-Panerai workforce into his company, thus not only maintaining a tradition of watchmaking in Tuscany but also adding a strong technical base to the new company.
Massacesi had a very simple philosophy – it was the watches that were important, and not the branding. He believed that the watches should make a statement about the wearer, and that the branding should be of little importance. For this reason he called the new company Anonimo (which translates to English as ‘anonymous’) and decided that only the logo, and not the brand name, would not appear on the dial.
Anonimo initially carried on where Panerai had left off by designing and manufacturing dive watches. The dials and cases were designed and built by the craftsmen in Florence now employed by Anonimo, and these were paired with Swiss made mechanical movements. The first watch was released in 1998. The ‘Millemetri’ (meaning 1000 meters) was a success and led to partnerships with commercial diving companies such as CNS (Cooperativa Nazionale Sommozzatori), and a bit of a cult following amungst collectors of dive watches.
Over the last few years Anonimo seem to have lost their way somewhat. The company made some design decisions soon after their 10th anniversary which many (including myself) thought odd as they complicated the brand image, and it seems that and the desire for a world network of authorised dealers put too much of a strain on the financial side of the business. In September 2011 Federico Massacesi sold the business, and Anonimo today is a completely different company from the one that started in Florence in 1997 – in fact the only connection the new company has with Florence today is that the bronze cases are still made in the same factory as before - everything else is now made in Switzerland where the watches are assembled.
Why am I telling you all about this? Well, about 9 months ago the crown stem broke on my Militare as I was setting the time. Not a huge problem, apart from the fact that it had sheared at the join with the crown and the broken part couldn't be removed from the crown. This meant that I needed a new crown. Well, this isn't easy when the crown is an unusual size and the company has changed hands since the watch was manufactured. My watchmaker friend tried to source one of similar dimensions, but the best he could suggest was to substitute it for a water resistant crown of the same diameter - it would work, but it was much thicker which in turn meant the plunger (fitted to the original watch and the part that presses down on the crown to seal it) would need to be removed. The replacement would mean the watch would be functional, but aesthetically it would be quite different.
Trying to source parts for the original Anonimo watches is not easy, and after a month of making various enquiries I had almost lost hope. I did have a thought that maybe, just maybe, Anonimo in Switzerland may have acquired some old parts when they bought the business and taken them to Switzerland, and maybe there was a Mod 2004 Militare crown gathering dust in a cupboard somewhere, so I called them. I spoke to a woman called Carla there who was polite and helpful, but didn't leave me with much hope. She told me that she would speak to their watch makers and ask them to look, but that there were no parts for the older watches that she knew of. A month went by with no news so I called back and spoke to Carla again. She was apologetic that no-one had contacted me and again promised to speak to the watch makers. Again though no-one contacted me. I called about 5 times in total with no reply, before I gave up and sent a final email to Carla back in October last year. I resigned myself to having to replace the crown with the crown suggesed by my watch maker. It would result in a working watch, but one that would not be quite right in my eyes.
The work was done and the watch returned to me. Working and wearable, but with a much thicker crown, as you can see in this photo I took this morning
So, why am I telling you all this? Well, completely out of the blue and 5 months after our last conversation I received a package from Switzerland this morning. Inside is a letter from Carla, explaining that as she expected they were unable to source a crown that would fit the Mod 2004, but rather than let me down they had one manufactured for me! A new crown and stem were included
Wow, can't help but be impressed by that.
Dave E
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day
That is great customer service. A few other firms could learn from this
Lovely story and restores your faith in customer services- I think in this day age we almost resign ourselves to shoddy CS, pleasant surprise when you do deal with a company that actually does care.
Wow, that's incredible!
Amazing! Well done.
Cheers..
Jase
I looked at their watches a while ago but got put off by comments that the modern ones were not as good/badly made. Now its stuff like the OP which restores my faith in the company and make me want to buy one again.
If only other watch companies got the message, its stuff like this which make customers want to buy from you! Great story and fantastic work by Anonimo.
That's really impressive of them, especially given the separation between the original maker of this model and the current owners of the brand.
That's an excellent result.
Always good to hear these sort of stories, particularly from small brands that are no longer run by their founders.
Great outcome!
...try not to break this one, Rich
Bravo, to them! Excellent result for them!
Best wishes,
Bob
Proper result
That's excellent, above and beyond really. The story made me check them out, cheers.
A great result for your watch and also really interesting to read about the brand's history. Thanks for posting :)
Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk
At the risk of sounding like I’m on TimeZone (US), thanks for sharing!
A nice read that !
If we all coordinate and send Carla one email each, perhaps we can get enough parts to build a whole new watch?
That's a great result and well done to them for good customer service.
That's seriously good customer service.
Best Regards - Peter
I'd hate to be with you when you're on your own.
Very impressive customer service indeed!
Great result, going to start a stampede in people looking to buy an Anonimo, especially the pre 2011
I’ve already started!Originally Posted by Neilw3030
Very pleased for the OP and a great response from Anonimo
D
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Impressive, and an interesting potted history of Anonimo - makes me sad to read of their decline and loss of USP to become yet another Swiss wannabe. Great customer service though, and that counts for a lot.
That is just brilliant from Anonimo. Was looking at buying one of their watches on Chrono a few months back, but will look at them again now knowing they offer such a level of customer service. Thanks for sharing.
That’s outstanding customer service. Congratulations.
thats great customer service,well done that company,,
Great news and also useful to get a more complete account of the Anonimo story; I knew vaguely about the Panerai link but that’s much more helpful.
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
What a result and bravo to Anonimo, with a sprinkling of OP persistence for good measure.
Have you seen the pre 2011 prices?
This thread has definitely had me looking at their website again though. Iguana sell have them at a decent discount too.
This is a truly enjoying post to read, and it shows there are still people that DO care about the customer behind the watch.
Kudos Anonimo.
Got a new watch, divers watch it is, had to drown the bastard to get it!
Many thanks for posting this. It was an interesting read - I didn't know their story - even without the bonus punchline. Ottimo.
Posting Permissions
