End of an Era and here's to a Fresh Start
 

Jean-Marc Pontroué the Ceo of Panerai since past 7 years exits making way for new Ceo Emmanuel Perrin.

Lets have a healthy unbiased discussion of your personal opinion of Panerai regarding the last decade and expectations from the brand.

I personally feel the guy has done a decent job and other than the in-house movements issue and non hacking few crazy 'experience' watches but overall the brand has done well in terms customer service and recognition. The experience at a Panerai boutique is so much nicer compared to any other watch brands.

Regards to future I hope they bring back solid genuinely in-house movements, and focus mainly on the watches themselves keeping both purists and new buyers happy.

Also please use this thread as an excuse to share your collection and passion for Panerai :)

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I've owned two Panerai's from the JMP era, and I personally think that he has done more damage to the brand than conceivable.

Cost cutting at every corner, along with decrease in quality and crazy price increases. Their current catalogue are probably 50% too expensive. The movements are uglier and less serviceable, new dive watches with 30m water resistance and the lies about in-house movements, removing hacking and downgrading finish without telling customers tells me he lacks integrity chasing a quick buck.

Don't even get me started on the endless dumb collaborations with 'navy seals, brabus, luna Rossa, mike horn' etc.

Good riddance to JMP and hope that Panerai can recapture the magic they had.

I saw a good comment about it:

Panerai need to take a page out of Grand Seiko’s playbook: focus (and authenticate) their marketing, overbuild their watches to match that marketing, and make their core “Paneristi” constituents happy. Then, when someone buys a Panerai as their second or third watch for a change of pace, they’ll be pleasantly surprised by the quality and attention to detail in design, which will result in their feeling like they’ve discovered an entirely distinct style of watchmaking, a la Grand Seiko. Most importantly, Panerai are lucky to already have what Grand Seiko and so many other brands lack: iconic designs and names that are recognizable and grounded in history (however unsavory that history may be).

Way too many new releases and collaborations. High pricing and lack of exclusivity that the brand once had.
I still love the brand and hope to see a healthy uptick in direction under the new CEO.
My favorite references are still some of the OGs like the 127, 233 and earlier Submersibles.

Not a fan of JMP.
He made Panerai too trendy, gimmicky, and “luxury” for me. Lol

*But to be fair, I thought Panerai started losing its DNA with initial introduction of Due line in 2016 (SnapBack case, 30m WR. Smh)

I really can’t see myself spending money on any of the new Panerai watches with its bloated prices.

Since JMP killed the Pam used market prices, I will prob end up acquiring something like 2005 pam183 to add to my pre-JMP collection.

I have been a Panerai collector for 20 years. JMP era seemed to make the brand weaker due to number of odd specialties. Simplicity and clarity would be a path forward. Clear communication about brand goals would make sense. I focus on older references.

JMP, trends, luxury, gimmicks… I don’t about all that... all I know is that when I look at the photos of the watches in this thread, I think to myself “these look good!”

:cheers:

They sure look good but the comment above about the ridiculous Due range is spot on

I am a huge Panerai fan and long time owner and after talking in length with many of their concierge and recent service department has given me a good idea of where Panerai is today:

The last ten years with Panerai is like living with a crazy genius. Some ideas with advanced materials like Carbotech fits the brands adventurous image and style. Other ideas like Due, Esteel, and non hacking movements is utter nonsense. The idea of removing the hacking feature from their top in-house P.9010 movement when it started with the feature was a bizarre and critical mistake that still has never been answered or addressed why.. Panerai pretends this is normal and goes about their next release as if nothing has changed.

The most insulting slap in the face to me was: any watch with a camlock crown protector better be 300wr. If it’s not, it ain’t a diving watch and to have as just a “design element” is as idiotic as wearing a snorkel mask while playing pickle ball with dive fins on. They prostituted one of their most iconic and functional case designs to go on an inferior model that doesn’t require it.

The prices are now out of touch with the level of watches they are making yet they go on obliviously believing their own press to justify their msrp. They have developed a certain arrogance that only Rolex can really pull off with their product and I suspect it is to justify their price point.

Panerai is inconsistent as a brand and unless you can tune out the crap and focus on a few outstanding pieces, they will go on devaluing the brand posing as their long past image. All the right pieces and image of Panerai is still there but they need to regroup and clean house. Develop a internal code of design ethics on maintaining the integrity of their watches and their brand integrity will follow organically. If you are going to use a Richmont base movement in a smaller case design, then your msrp can’t be the same as a in-house Panerai movement.


Richmond in general doesn’t impress me. The Richmond movements need to have higher standards of accuracy and METAS would be an ideal outside standard to keep some independent movement integrity of performance which they currently do not have. Panerai skates around this and I have addressed it directly to their service dept and they state they have their own set of accuracy standards for each movement model within the way THEY do the testing. +2 or -2 isn’t in their level of testing or expectations.
This is where Omega absolutely blows Richmond out of the water with their movements on every level.

^^ That’s spell checker for you.:chuckle:

I have a PAM564 that I wears quite often during weekends. Luckily I got in on the first year when it was sandwich dial. Pretty telling that they decide to cut cost by having the painted dial for the rest of the production run. Then they decide to lower the finishing of the P.5000 movements, how many cents does it save to reduce 2 machine cut outs?

Excellent selection of PAMs:thumbsup:
In your second picture above with the 3 pieces, I believe the one in the middle is the 372, but what is the smaller model to the right?
Thanks.

One thing that stands out is the snap back / lower WR of some of the releases we have seen.

Also the unfinished movements found under the hood of others.

Conclusion can only be they were cost saving measures? The savings couldn’t have been so significant to make such changes warranted rather than simply raising the price to maintain the historic standard. This was a real impact to the brand in my opinion.

372 is in the middle of the picture. The 44mm Luminor to the right is a 390.
The 390 was a limited production reference from 2011. Was super hot for the Paneristi crowd.

Thank you, Joe. That explains it, because the 390 caught my eye immediately even though I love the 372.:cheers:

They are both classics. I’m pleased to have them both in my collection. 372 case is amazing and the sandwich dial is wonderful with the red gold hands. The 390 with the Luminor case and dark brown sausage dial is a great base Panerai.
I recently picked up a 416 Beverly Hills edition that has really nice character. Sort of old school pieces compared to many pieces from the last 10 years.

Great Panerai collection Rick! Love the GMT!

Thanks :thumbsup:

I think Panerai's return path to success is very simple: Get back to pre-JMP design/pricing/distribution/service. Everything that made Panerai great was discontinued under JMP. Bring back the 233, 372, 127, 690 etc. and they are back in business.

They may want to reconsider their flagship 47mm size. Having versions of the 372/127/690 and other classics would be well received in slightly smaller sizes.

Must haves (Panerai DNA):
1950 Luminor cases
Crown protectors
Sandwich dials
Domed bezels
Manual winds with big power reserves
Stainless steel or Ti cases.

Finally! Please no more recycled metal luxury watches. Also, bring back the wood boxes, the nice original ones not the cheap ones that JMP sourced.

I have been in two Panerai-boutiques: the one in Barcelona and the one that was recently opened in Oslo.

The customer service was out of this world. I was beyond impressed, and immediately fell in love with the brand and their watches. No pushy sales people, just fellow enthusiast and watch geeks who loved to show their watches and share the history of Panerai. Their hospitality is something I will never forget. It just felt right, and the watches I tried was impressive too.

Now, I didn't end up buying a watch, simply because of their price point compared to what you get for the money. Controversies about their movements and finishing is also part of why I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

I hope the new CEO will take care of this and bring Panerai back to more refined watches, without hiking the price too much. 100 meters of WR is good enough for most people, but a brand with roots in diving and marine operations, should produce watches with at least 200-300 meters, no matter what the size of the case is. Who would buy a dressier version of the Submariner with 50 meters WR? I would not.

I will for sure buy a Panerai in the near future if they focus more on their core thing, and bring back open casebacks for most of their models with nicely finished movements, as well as increased WR. I have a feeling that their new CEO will take care of this.

My dream watch would be a Quaranta with improved finishing, increased WR and a hacking movement.

When he became CEO I had a collection of 8 watches of which 5 were Panerai.

Today my collection has grown to 21 watches of which only 1 is Panerai (a great PAM 4b with t dial).

Today I only follow the brand because I kept a great relationship with the boutique and some collectors.

There have been some bad CEOs in this business, but J-MP got to be one of the worsts. Hope the next one understands that and tries to recover Bonati amazing legacy.