How I found Panerai

Gents,

I am pleasantly amazed that there is a forum in which collectors of reps openly discuss the rep industry! Story of how I found out about Panerai brand and am now a fanatic of rep PAMs:

My boss owns a large gen high-end watch collection, wears different brands of watches, and when I first saw him wear a PAM089, I was flabergasted at the style and size of the watch. As an owner of a gen Breitling Super Avenger (48mm on SS bracelet), I was surprised that there was another watch produced that came close to matching the size of my Breitling. [I purchased the BSA after a co-worker introduced me to the Breitling brand.]

Immediately, I started researching the prices and locations at which PAMs were sold. After realizing the wife would NEVER let me purchase another 3k+ watch, I resigned myself to buying a rep. My job sent me to Thailand for a week, and I found what I thought was the best-looking rep (turns out it is a fantasy PAM resembling a PAM111 with blue face) for $60USD. I wore it with pride everyday for about 6 months.

Then, I started gaining courage to ask the wife for permission to own a gen PAM after I had nicked the face of the rep I had been wearing. The wife said "OK", and I was prepared to go on a quest to find the perfect gen PAM. The I discovered ioffer.com and Andy (or Andrew as the rest of you guys call him here). As a skeptical person, I only shelled out $150USD for a PAM164, a week later, it arrived, and I fell in love all over again. [I've never worn the fantasy PAM from Thailand since!]

That was 3 months ago.

Since then, I've bought 6 other rep PAMs (111, 112, 113, 196, 217, and 029) from Andy, all of which have been great. In addition to finding out about Andy, I discovered Panatime.com, and have added a considerable amount of straps to my PAM collection, also.

After all of this, I have a few comments and questions:

My dad, father-in-law, and step father-in-law have all admired my PAMs, and I purchased one for each of them as a gift. Obviously they all know the watches are reps, and they aren't into watches, much less Panerai, but this goes to show that "common folk" are really fascinated by this brand.

After purchasing a total of 7 rep PAMs, I'm totally shocked that I spent about half of what only ONE gen 0000 would cost. Do other collectors feel this good about owning several reps and not even spending a fraction of what one gen would cost?

After perusing previous posts, I've not seen one mention of the PAM164, which is my favorite because it has the numerals around the dial. Am I the only collector who likes this model, or do most rep collectors like collecting only manual-wind versions?

How long should I expect the Asian Unitas watches to last? I've read that for long-term wear, one should purchase Swiss reps, but I've purchased the less expensive Asian movements. Should I expect to purchase new reps every year if I have the Asian components?

Last comment: Since having discovered the Panerai brand and the reps (starting with the first one in Thailand), I have worn my gen BSA for only about 10 minutes. And that was to shake it once a month to make sure it still worked!

MattUSSS

Thanks for sharing your story Matt and welcome to RG.

Welcome to the forum Mattuss.. Andy/andrew is a great friend of ours.. Glad you find your way to him.. not many has great story like you.. they find croocked dealer, get ripped off then find this forum.

I owned gen pam.. and tell you the truth.. i dont wear them much often after all the rep i own or owned. its just way to over priced.. and with the price of 1 gen.. i can get 10 of them quality rep.. tell that to paneristi.. they have 2 or 3.. we have 50 + :D :D :D

Asian unitas quality is getting better and if there is a problem.. it come during assembly. asian unitas can get purchased also for roughly $60.00 and could last a while as long as the gen brother if you take good care of them. Just the problem is the part.. if it broke.. you have to get a new movement instead of parts. I dont have many asian copy.. mostly swiss eta.. just for a piece of mind that if broke in the future.. i can always fix it..

Welcome again.. and LOOKING forward to see your pam collection.. Post it at eye candy section... its sure will be eye candy

Dan

Welcome to RepGeek matt, and thanks for the interesting post about your discovery of Pams.

I think Dan has covered off all you need to know about the asian mechanisms. Although difficult to repair, they can be 'lightly' serviced, so if you look after them, they can run for a long time.

N.

Hi there Matt!

Thats a great intro, pleased to read you enjoy the forum. It sure sounds like you've jumped right in with both feet and ordered some very nice reps.

Next step is to share some pics with the forum.

Glad to have you here and again, welcome and enjoy RepGeek!

Cheers

James

Cool story ;) PAMs are certainly very addictive....sooo when are you going to get a 177? lol ;)

Welcome :)

(Just an FYI: It IS OK if you buy a watch that isn't a Panerai. I know how many people will tell you it's not at this forum, but there is an underground movement that smuggles the occasional Vacheron/Franck Muller/Cartier in. We haven't been banned yet:neener:)

Welcome to the board!

Is Andrew pawning off watches on iOffer as Andy?...didn't know that....sure its the same guy?....