Panerai 111 'L' Series - Only 500 pieces made ?

[jamester]

My friend was examining my pam 111L and he remarked that it's very unusual for 111 to have only 500 production quantity. He remarked such a small production qty is usually meant for limited edition/higher end models and pam 111 production numbers are usually in the range of 2000-3000+ onwards. Anyone knows why this series had a such a small prod qty? Does this mean this series is more valuable than others?

Sample of one which was recently sold at passions.sg

http://www.passions.com.sg/v2/watch/panerai-44mm-luminor-marina-pam111-steel

Number of 111 (and other models) made for each series:

http://www.timekeeperforum.com/panerai/production_numbers/

[Paneraii]

Come on guys.. Someone surely know about it. please help. remember we are sg-roc friendly panerai community. haha..

[jymy]

I bought my previous 111 from AD in 2009 when the L series was being issued. Those days need to wait about 1-2 months for the watch. No difference compared to other 111 with sandwich dial. Asked the same question to AD why only 500 L series. They are also not sure. Maybe you can send Panerai an email to clarify?

[leeye]

is a sign that panerai is trimming back production on base models running the base ETA movements.

the boutique would have a book with details on the production numbers of each model each year.

information can also be found here but only up to K series.

http://www.paneraisource.com/millesimation.shtml?ordering=refno

or paneristi

http://www.paneristi.com/reference/sortable_database/millesimation.html

note: some info is not updated.

[leeye]

I checked at the boutique and production numbers for 111 for M, N and O series are 2500 pieces. Only L series is 500 pieces.

[jamester]

I checked at the boutique and production numbers for 111 for M, N and O series are 2500 pieces. Only L series is 500 pieces.

That's what I found out too. Thats y I'm puzzled y the sudden drop in production qty

[bluefire]

I am curious too as I am holding on to the L series which have 500 pcs production.

[Keith8896]

My guess, did other model with eta it spike up from L series. Maybe there are only x number of eta within panerai.

[jamester]

My guess, did other model with eta it spike up from L series. Maybe there are only x number of eta within panerai.

My friend speculated that the manufacturing of 111 'L' series may have been late such that it was too close to 'M' series, hence fewer were made to avoid too many 111 from being released into the market within a short period

[Keith8896]

My friend speculated that the manufacturing of 111 'L' series may have been late such that it was too close to 'M' series, hence fewer were made to avoid too many 111 from being released into the market within a short period

Maybe.
I recall there is a year wher pam 0 is missing from that new series till q4 (or q3) of that year. Ppl start to say pam 0 is discont'.
Now we know the truth.

[jamester]

Just realised that it's only only 111's production qty which got reduced. 005, 48, 49 and 51 production qty also dropped drastically (see info from paneristi website). unfortunately paneristi doesn't have info for rest of the models for 'L' series but I would bet most, if not all, also got smaller numbers. maybe it's due to 2008/2009 lehman brother financial crisis, panerai expected demand for luxury goods to drop and decreased production?

http://www.paneristi.com/reference/sortable_database/millesimation.html

[pegasi]

Could be due to that the were surplus in the sale channel for previous series - (3500 & 3000 pcs were produced for J & K series respectively).

Could be due to that more models had been put in the market and the overall demand for PAM had not caught up with the increase in overall volume (i.e. total volume of all PAM models).

Could also be that the absolute demand of new PAM had drop during that period (or even now?) - a possible scenario since many demand of PAM are fulfilled by the preowned market.

Could be a combination of all the above.

Personally I don't see that a certain series as more valuable simply due to lower production, when the exact same watch have been produced in tens of thousands over different series. The alphabets denotes the production year or batch, just like what rolex used to have as part of the serial numbers.