Panerai was never meant to be used by the civilians; it is the tools used by Italian navy seals and military back in the 1930s'; way before saturation diver watch catches the mass like Blancpain fifty phantom and Rolex submariner in 1950s', it's built by request from Italian navy during the world war, in that time no one was making a wristwatch that big, so Panerai have to supply the movement from Rolex pockets watch and modified the case to fit, along the way Panerai supply the watch for the military and have many updates to the case after used and tested by the navy seals, including the iconic crown guard because underwater many things can go wrong, they have to carry a lot of gears and equipment that could hit the crown while moving around and could potentially break the crown, the crown protection added in 1956 becomes the iconic features of Panerai watches

Panerai continued to supply watches to the military and navy until the end of the 70s'; Panerai needed a new strategy to sustain; after the military contract ended, they started selling watches to the civilian market. Still, the brand wasn't that well known, only by the saturation divers and ex-military.

Fast forward to the 90s'; when Panerai designed the new case profile, they called it "bettarini" or a tuna case; the new case design became the face of the Panerai watch in the 90s's the most recognized shape of the watch world.

Between 1993-1997 before the Vendom (Richmond group) purchased the company, it's known by the collector as the Pre-Vendom era; in this period, all the Pre-Vendom are highly collectible and can go from 30,000$-60,000$ in the market.

The key point of the popularity and the big hit happened when Sylvester Stallone wore the watches in "Daylight" movie in the late 90s'; a story told that he went shopping and stumbled across Panerai watches; he got hooked on the looks and history, he loves it so much he bought back a few pieces and gave to many of his friends, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jason Statham, Syl wants a unique watches that never appear in any movie and can survive the rough location in the film. After the movie was released, Panerai goes to the roof;

The watch in the film and all the watches that Sylvester Stallone gave away most of them are Pre-Vendom; after the company own by the Vendom group, they started using the alphabet to determine the year beginning from A in 1997, still many Panerai having the A and B serial are also very collectible because it still adopts the use of Tritium in the dial like the pre-Vendome era,

After Serial C, Panerai starting to used Luminova on the dial but still stayed true to the original Pre-Vendome style bettarini case, and better yet, Panerai brought back the "sandwich" dial from the military period in the 40s' Sandwich dial is a character which the dial has the upper part sitting on top of the luminova disk under, creating a beautiful depth,

The movement Panerai used are also faithful to the history with third party supply from company like Rolex and Angelus back in the military era, all modern Panerai since Pre-Vendome used Unitas (ETA) movement from the pocket watch, this is a working horse movement that stands the test of time and very easy to fix and maintain for any watchmaker. some enthusiastic also don't like it when they stop using Unitas (ETA) movement and went entirely in-house; I don't have any problem with that. Still, I like it when they used the third party movement like back in the military era. It's also will be easy to maintain because any watchmaker can handle ETA movement, and you don't have to spend a lot of money while sending it to service.

Panerai is built upon a deep and rich military history, reliable and straightforward, nothing crazy, a simple dial, and a simple yet reliable movement, we have here the essence and foundation of a Panerai DNA with pre-inhouse movement, the era close to the original spirit of Panerai.

The turning point of Panerai is happend again around 2015, things change (in a bad way). Panerai started cutting costs on the watches with snap-on case and re-release discontinue limited model, is a business move that try to push Panerai into a luxury statement and fashion statement. but turn out it killed the origin of the brand's and left many enthusiastic disappointed.

So I tried to suggest people and friends who like to get into Panerai to go for the discontinue ETA movement (not in-house) as it will be faithful to the history and will be easy and affordable to maintenance the watch after many years to come, the price also solid, will trade in and out close to the price you paid, just get the basic PAM !