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I know this is primarily a thread about sustainable materials (which I'm not too bothered by, except for the pretty awful logo on the dial), but hear me out.
I used to be a huge Panerai fan, it was my first ever proper watch. I bought a blue face 119 in Selfridges in London for £2500 back in 2005 to celebrate getting a particular job.
Over the years I then bought a 243 (best sub ever made imho), a 233 (one of the best watches Panerai have ever made imvho) and odd things like a 160.
I gave the 119 to my son for his 18th, some years ago now, he has always loved it and it will, I hope, always stay in our family.
However ... I went into the London boutique a few weeks ago and tried on some watches I'd seen online, keen to get back into the brand. Gone from the current collection are most of the watches I liked; the new bracelets are tinny, awful, feel like they've fallen out of a Christmas cracker. I must have tried on 10 watches, none of which I would have worn had they been given to me for free. Massively disappointing. I think the guy in charge has got it seriously wrong. The brand back in 2005 made a handful of models, most with something quite special about them. Now they pump out what feels like hundreds and, as others have said, they just don't have the finishing and quality that I remembered. They feel pretty unsubstantial in the hand and I'm out. It's such a shame. The only silver lining is that pre Vendome pieces seem to be plummeting in value so I might go there. As someone said above, buy from the right era. Maybe a 127. Or wait for 203's to be dragged down by the brand until they're almost worthless and pick one of those up for a song.
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