Panerai service or not?

[Mastergreenhand]

Hi fellow Paneristis!

My beloved Pam 212 is in good working order, keeping good time, but the bottom chrono pusher is a bit tight. It works, it just feels really stiff to push in, particularly when resetting the chrono from stop.

Should I send this into Panerai? I'm sure it's never been serviced, but it's working fine other than the chrono pusher. A routine service for a chrono is just under 1k.

Or can a local watchmaker be trusted to play around with the pusher? It being a chrono and in house OP movement, I think I'm forced to use Panerai, but thought I'd ask here.

[Jwcinsd]

I’m no expert, can I assume it’s not under warranty if the cost is $1000, yet how old is it? It’ll be due for a service at 5-7 years anyway. I don't know of a highly skilled watchmaker who would advise you to fix just the pusher and not service the watch. If the pusher is sticky, it’s possibly not operating sealed, so its water and dust resistance is potentially compromised. I'd want at least a pressure test. Having recently paid Richemont $1100 for my PAM00183 and having the watch gone for 13-14 weeks, I would’ve taken it to my local watchmaker (D’s Time Service) for $500 and had it back in a few weeks. But I did send it to Richemont, and they did an excellent job, and now that it's back on my wrist with a new strap, I have that new watch feeling again, so it was worth it to me. Beautiful watch, by the way!

[Mastergreenhand]

Yeah, it’s from 2008. Runs great and keeps great time. I’m not the first owner so I’m unsure of its service history. So in short, no it’s not under warranty due to its age. But you bring up a great point about it needing a proper service and a pressure test. Thanks!

[Jwcinsd]

Yeah, I bought mine in Japan (2006 model) and with the language barrier, they said it was serviced, but the original seals were still good. That made no sense to me but it was a good buy so that with a full service and a new strap, I still came in about what it would cost in the USA. As soon as I got it back from service, I jumped into the pool with no worries.

Don’t forget, even if your watch is running at +/-2 seconds a day, it doesn’t mean the oils haven’t dried up more than 50% and causing excessive wear and damage while still keeping good time or that the water resistance is maintained enough to get it wet. It’s literally an oil and gasket change for your watch. Your car could still get normal MPG and feel fine if you changed the oil every 20,000 miles, but why would you? We love mechanical watches because they have 200-400 tiny pieces, assembled by hand, spinning at 28,000 vibrations per hour, and keeping accurate time to within a few seconds per day.