Panerai

Why a Manual-Wound Panerai is worth it

In today's horological market, one is impossible to not notice the cult following of Panerai. For years, we've seen people marvel on these big timepieces. How big you say? 47mm diameter big. That's a whopping size even for basketball players. Who would've thought that big watches are here to stay and the king of all big timepieces is non-other than Panerai.   Panerai watches have long been revered by fans and yet reviled by enthusiast. So why do enthusiasts hate the brand so much? Simply because Panerai has been guilty of putting in ETA or God forbid a Unitas movement into their pieces and selling them for more than 5,000 USD a pop. In which case for snobs and enthusiasts alike, that is the epitome of horological blasphemy. But all things changed when Panerai began to invest on R&D and began introducing in-house movement calibers to their pieces. This is perhaps the best thing Panerai has done ever since its revival. There are several in-house movements already made by Panerai and most of which are manual wound ones. Like the hand-wound P3000 series caliber. Despite being a manual wound movement, the movement is robust, and built of fine quality. Indicating hours, minutes, seconds and the feature of resetting the seconds hand for precise timing. The movement in itself has a power reserve of up to 3 days or 72 hours and an indicator can be seen at the back of movement courtesy of the photo above via monochrome.nl.   In any case, if you're in the market for a Panerai piece, despite what haters have been saying and what enthusiasts and snobs alike called them. Make it a point to get one with an in-house movement, even if it being a manual wound. At the end of the day, if you've been following my column lately and how I give so much emphasis for manufactured movements over mass produce ETA ones. A manual wound Panerai may perhaps be the better choice.   Visit Panerai website for more info.