Fresh from the Showcase here at SwissWatchExpo, one of the things I want to talk about is
my favorite brand for the sports watches, the Panerai, because it has such a rich history.
When you talk about Rolex and the business right now, they're very difficult to get in
the sports watches.
There's very few available in the marketplace.
The prices continue to keep going up.
A lot of people are thinking, gee, I want a little bit larger size on my wrist and I
want something that is a little bit different than everybody else has.
The Panerai is an absolutely exquisite alternative to the Rolex.
I want to push this product simply because it has a unique history.
It's very unique on the wrist.
It has a lot of things about it that distinguish it from every other watch brand in the world.
When you wear a watch these days, you want something that gives you some sort of individualistic
style.
Why would you want to go with the same thing that everybody else has?
Do something a little bit different, branch out, find something new.
Now you might even be a Paneristi.
A Paneristi is someone who has a lot of Panerais in their collection.
They are very specific and meticulous about each one of the watches.
They have a very specific style that they like.
They really scrutinize the history of Panerai.
If you want to be a Paneristi, now is a good time to start.
You can grab these watches for a really great value.
You're not paying over and above the MSRP for the watch.
You're actually getting a good discount.
Also, remember this, Panerai is very, very strict on their pricing.
Even if you're an employee and you work for an authorized dealer, oftentimes the brands
will incentivize you to wear their watch.
Panerai says, hey listen, we only make a few of these each year.
For example, depending on which style that you get these are numbered.
There may only be 500 made of the one style worldwide, maybe a thousand, maybe 1500.
When you think about how many watches are made by Rolex in the millions each year, and
you think about Panerai, which may not crest more than about 80,000 to 90,000 across their
entire extensive line of watches per year around the world.
Then you dwindle that down into maybe only 1500 examples of the one specific watch like
this Submersible here, then you start to realize that this truly is a unique watch just made
for you.
The way that you know, each one is made in a specific pattern and a specific year and
a specific number, each one of them is stamped on the case back.
For example, this one is in year with code V, which is going to be 2019.
Each one of the letters in the case back indicates the year that the watch was made.
You have to coordinate the letter of the year with the actual year itself.
Then you see the little symbol right next to it.
This one happens to be 373 out of 500 made for this year.
This is a Titanio Submersible with the ceramic bezel.
What makes this one particularly unique is, it has the blue and white lettering on the
dial.
But also remember, that it also has the blue sub-seconds hand.
What that sub-second hand means in blue, typically, is that this is the newest movement for Panerai.
In other words, this is the newest inhouse movement.
This movement happens to be thinner than the previous generations by quite a large margin.
When you look at the side of the case, you may not initially realize just how much thinner
it is until you put it next to an older style case.
You start to realize that it won't sit up so high on your wrist, even though this may
be a 45-millimeter watch or 47-millimeter watch, depending on which style you get.
Now, this particular watch is a stainless steel, but this one's particularly interesting.
It's also the thinner model, as you can see here.
I'm sorry, I misspoke, this is also a Titanio.
This is the blue sub-seconds hand on the dial as well.
It also has an interesting bezel on it.
It's not the ceramic insert bezel like this one, this particular model has the clean bezel
and just very small indications at the 15th and 32nd marker on this bezel.
There's an interesting history to this particular bezel, because this bezel was first developed
for the Egyptian Navy back in the late 1940s, early 1950s.
It was called the Egiziano and which is Italian for Egyptian, the Egyptian Navy.
That had never been done by Panerai before.
The original model of the Submersible for the Egyptian Navy was 60-millimeters wide.
That is an absolutely enormous watch to be wearing on your wrist for diving.
It was extremely durable, there were a lot of specifications that the Egyptian Navy had
specifically requested for their watch, because they wanted that watch to be the most durable
and the very most visible underwater.
Because they were diving in seas that were far darker, far colder, and had far more sediment
in them.
They wanted that watch to be visible underwater to a very high depth.
But also this is also one of the first models with that particular bezel that appeared with
what's called Luminor.
Luminor is an actual paste, it's a paint.
In the previous generations, they had used radium.
That's why the previous generations were called Radiomir.
When you get to the Luminor, Luminor was patented by Panerai and it's actually an isotope.
It was sort of what we know now, as you see Super LumiNova or LumiNova paint, which was
eventually developed by the Japanese.
But this paint did not contain any radium in the early days.
That's why it's patented as Luminor, and that's why subsequently, all of the cases that have
this particular crown guard, because that crown guard was also developed at the same
time, they are called the Luminor series, as opposed to the Radiomirs, which did not
have that crown guard.
If you see these out there, and you're a little bit confused as to why these are different,
that's why.
Now, one of the things that's really cool about what we have here at SwissWatchExpo,
because we're starting to get a lot more Panerais into our inventory and part of the reason,
to be quite frank, I'm pushing the idea of the Panerai because I love them.
I think our customers and clients will like them as well.
Once you start to get to know the brand a little bit more, it's a great value.
It's easy to wear and they're super durable.
What they've done in the past, what we've heard is that these watches are just a little
bit too big.
They are a little bit big on the wrist.
Now, I happened to be wearing the Luminor Due which is a very, very thin model.
It was introduced around 2016, early 2017.
You probably didn't see them appear in stores until late 2017, because they were just that
rare.
Now this happens to be a GMT.
This is not really as much of a diving watch as these Submersibles are.
There's a various water resistance level that's available in these watches.
This happens to be 50 meters.
You can swim in it and those types of things, but diving is not recommended.
It's more of a fashion watch.
It incorporates a lot of the things that the other lineup of Luminors do.
I'm going to take this particular watch off.
It's a classic watch.
It's got the beautiful gray dial and it doesn't have the qualities of the Submersible.
I really wanted to show you that these were significantly different.
If you happen to see these on our website or just out in the general public, the Due
is much thinner than the other models, and it's just more of a fashion and classic watch.
Now, I want to put on this particular watch, because this is a 42-millimeter.
This is something that was done new in 2019.
It was a brand new style.
Now, this one happens to come with the box.
It also comes with the extra synthetic strap with the blue stitching, and the tools to
be able to change out each one of the straps on this model.
But it also comes with the little plastic protector to keep you from getting scratches
and things on the body of the watch.
Now, this is a 42-millimeter, so it's not as large as it's brother here.
You can see those are significantly different sizes.
If you want that smaller wrist style, now I have a larger wrist, so I typically like
to wear at least a 44-millimeter, but the 42 on this particular model is absolutely
exquisite.
I can tell you that it looks amazing.
It's not too big, it's not too heavy, it's not too bulky, it's absolutely the perfect
size for someone who wants a little bit smaller.
But even on my wrist, in my own eyes, this doesn't look like a small watch, but at least
it sits better on my wrist and it sits a little bit more light.
If you compare that particular piece to the larger 47-millimeter, you can see that this
is quite a bit of difference.
You can see just how much more space and room that that watch takes up on my wrist as opposed
to the 42-millimeter.
There's a lot of choices within the Panerai line up.
These happened to be the Submersible.
These also all happened to be the newest, thin model of the movement with the blue sub-second
hand.
Most people don't have this particular lineup.
They don't have the different sizes available in these pieces and span the gamut of the
choices that they have in Panerai.
We're lucky to have these and we really have great prices on them.
I really want you to consider having Panerai in your collection.
If you don't want to have a watch like everybody else has, and you want to have something uniquely
yours, maybe it's even for a unique and specific year model.
We've got a lot of them.
We have a lot of the different Submersibles that we get in and we find from time to time.
Definitely contact us here at SwissWatchExpo, make sure to ring the bell, subscribe.
Let us know what your comments and thoughts are.
Give us a call here.
We'll discuss the Panerai.
I will give you all the different details of them.
If you happen to like some of the older generations, we've got those as well.
Give us a call at SwissWatchExpo.