PRIDE OF PANERAI

Organising a GTG with local collectors is hard enough but when more than 200 passionate fans gather from around the globe to celebrate Panerai, we simply had to take a peek behind the scenes to find out what motivates the so-called Paneristi.

- DANIEL GOH

Let me put it in simple terms, any brand would kill for a bunch of fans like the Paneristi. Imagine, if you will, a group of people so passionate about a brand that they are willing to organise themselves independently, and once a year fly to a location that could be anywhere around the globe, completely out of pocket, for a celebration of said brand. This is where we found ourselves one Friday evening for P-Day 2024 in Kuala Lumpur surrounded by Paneristi. Just like the Tifosi for Scuderia Ferrari, the Paneristi live and breathe Panerai.

Like with most watch enthusiast groups, this group of die-hard Panerai fans started on online message boards. As the story goes, Paddy Conway, the founder of the Paneristi community basically posted a question on AOL asking about how to wind his Panerai watch.

The next day someone from Scotland offered some helpful advice, and the day after that someone else chimed in and in essence this became the building blocks for the Paneristi. Funnily enough, if you visit Paneristi.​com today, the website looks very much like something out of the early 2000s and this is because the entire thing is selforganised and in fact, Conway mentions that he pays for the hosting out of his own pocket.