Discontinued, Out of Production & Special Editions

[Ryuden]

Couple of years back, these are the kind of words pam lovers, collectors and flippers love to read and hear. Back then when there's rumors or signs that a particular Pam model is going to be discon, you can expect prices to shoot up.

Everyone wants to get that soon-to-be-discon Pam. And when it eventually gets discon (as it usually does), the prices buyers are willing to pay for it is so good that sellers,dealers and flippers are smiling from ear to ear.

To me, this is called exclusivity. One have to pay for exclusivity.

But things have since changed...Panerai has to cater to a much bigger and wider market. The term discon; out of production and Special Edition, wasn't like what it was back then. It is just a marketing strategy that has been over-used.

Don't worry about the model going to be discon, out of production or Special Edition...buy because it sings to you and it makes you happy when you strap it onto your wrist. There are too many models and Special Editions out there that everyone is spoilt for choice, thus making the term discon and out of production or even Special Edition doesn't seem that exclusive anymore.

Well...I still love Panerai.


Are these terms important to you?







p.s. there are still some Pams that are sought after and we are talking about Pre Vs, T dials and such, plus some Special Editions that are really really special and the price for it is especially expensive i.e. 21 and 203 etc etc...

[ngokyc]

Well. I would buy those I like and possibly value for money

[r1_77]

special edition or normal production dont matter to me.
as long as i like it (& can afford it) i will buy

[azrielsc]

I would get a Pam if I liked it. Exclusivity/SE doesn't matter.

[wlover]

I share the sentiments with all the bros above

[roguehog]

This is based on my relatively lited observation.

When a guy shows his brand spanning new base Pam (000, 005, 111), everyone gets excited and wants to know his source.

When someone shows off his le Pam, the crowd just offer a simple congrats. Not hint more.

[snoop]

I definitely would love to own a SE or a discon piece one day, like the pam 360 or even better the pam 785, just that I'm priced out most of the time, in fact everytime!
Just waitin on pam to do a general release on a historic dlc luminor for the masses.

[Ryuden]

Was watching The Incredibles with my families yesterday when one of the scene struck me as funnily related with Panerai Richemont...



Senario:

Syndrome aka Bonati
Mr. Incredible aka Mr. Giovanni Panerai


Syndrome: Oh, come on! You gotta admit this is cool! Just like a movie! The watches will emerge dramatically, do some damage, throw some screaming people, and just when all hope is lost, *SIHH* will save the day! It'll be a bigger hero than previous ever were!

Mr. Incredible: You mean you killed off real vintages so that you could *pretend* to be one?

Syndrome: Oh, it's real. Real enough to outsell yours! And I did it without your precious originals, your oh-so-special vintages. I'll give them copies. I'll give them the most spectacular copies the world has ever seen! And when I'm rich and I've had my fun creating this copies, I'll sell my copies so that *everyone* can have specials. *Everyone* can be super! And when everyone's super...

[chuckles evilly]

Syndrome: *no one* will be.

[L3stat]

I don't really care but it does bother me when some market regular production models as "limited edition". Sure, it's limited to X units for any given production series, but that's just playing with semantics when a subsequent series will be produced. Only the Special Editions or one-offs are true limited editions.

[Ryuden]

Regular Limited Production and Special Editions are Panerai Marketing MO (Modus operandi).

It has been the way Panerai does things since the beginning of Vendome Group era (though the numbers are far far lesser than Richemont now) and its a unique marketing strategy in my opinion.

Its actually smart, restricting the production for that year to a certain no of pieces..regular model yet limit the number of pieces produced and save couple hundreds/thousands more the following year. Like example Rolex making only 500,000 pieces of their Regular Submariner for 2014 and following year making maybe another 700,000 and on and on...only diff is, Panerai allocate a limited production number on top of the watch production serial numbers while Rolex doesn't, just production serial numbers.

Non I know who are in love with this brand have any issue with the Regular Limited Production marketing strategy...only problem is...too many regular limited production models.


Special Editions are the gem of collecting Panerai...or was...

A lot can be argued about how true one-offs and limited are the SEs. Though the shifting of eta movt to inhouse movt are a major part of Panerai history in the making...but having nearly similar looking SEs with only minor dial or crown position change...a true one off limited edition?


Example, the 249 vs the 448...

Below is the comparison pic...so which is which?




Can tell?

Unless one memory of Panerai database is superb...can't really tell...

These are only one of the many close resemblance between SEs...does that makes it a real one-offs true limited editions?

And when Panerai says that they will NOT produce anymore similar SEs watches in the future (read Bronze), they will.

Ask Bonati.






p.s.pic courtesy of Asi, a well known respected Paneristi.

[Watcha]

When profit pressure is in and the ideas dry. Similar SE models will emerge.

Iconic pieces will still be iconic. Eg first bronze, fiddy. Thought the flooding of SE erodes their price potential. They already erodes the newer SE.

I love the strapping pams. But I will always find it overpriced. It was good when a 111 was at 5k +. Not to cheap not to high.