Gray market vs AD and future servicing

[Hockeymonkey]

To all the fellow Paneristi - long time lurker. I just experienced something that not sure has been well covered. For my first Pam 422, I purchased this through an AD, no issues, friendly service but got ripped off on price - I did get two free straps, a T-shirt and a key chain. But I overpaid by a good $2000 USD.
Now for my newest addition Pam 590, I decided I would go gray market and save a ton of money. So I did and I thought there were no issues and did save a lot of money.
Fast forward, it turns out that my 590 crown has problems in not being able to wind fully. Something is a-miss. I sent it back and it was fixed by the gray market seller - actually really fast. Same issue again, so this time I took it to a connection at the AD who had his expert take a peek as a favor. It turns out the 590 has had original Panerai parts substituted with generic servicing parts.

My AD said this will be much more common as the MFGs take all of the movements made in house, limit parts distribution to the independants and force all servicing to go through the AD back to Panerai (for "quality control") Of course they won't work on this Panerai now. In conclusion, the AD says this is why you need to buy from them.
Thoughts on this? And if buying used should you only buy used that was originally purchased through the AD to ensure that you are not getting a watch that won't or can't be worked on in the future.

[Al1969]

Originally Posted by Hockeymonkey

To all the fellow Paneristi - long time lurker. I just experienced something that not sure has been well covered. For my first Pam 422, I purchased this through an AD, no issues, friendly service but got ripped off on price - I did get two free straps, a T-shirt and a key chain. But I overpaid by a good $2000 USD.
Now for my newest addition Pam 590, I decided I would go gray market and save a ton of money. So I did and I thought there were no issues and did save a lot of money.
Fast forward, it turns out that my 590 crown has problems in not being able to wind fully. Something is a-miss. I sent it back and it was fixed by the gray market seller - actually really fast. Same issue again, so this time I took it to a connection at the AD who had his expert take a peek as a favor. It turns out the 590 has had original Panerai parts substituted with generic servicing parts.

My AD said this will be much more common as the MFGs take all of the movements made in house, limit parts distribution to the independants and force all servicing to go through the AD back to Panerai (for "quality control") Of course they won't work on this Panerai now. In conclusion, the AD says this is why you need to buy from them.
Thoughts on this? And if buying used should you only buy used that was originally purchased through the AD to ensure that you are not getting a watch that won't or can't be worked on in the future.

Hi and welcome aboard. This doesn't sound good at all. So your Panerai has non-Panerai parts? Have you reached out to the gray seller? To me this would be unacceptable unless it was disclosed during the sale and you knew EXACTLY what you were buying. Where/who did you buy it from? What's the seller's explanation for the "generic" parts? I'm sure others will come along with sound advice. I suggest you contact the seller immediately and get it the bottom of it. Good luck getting this rectified.

[Hockeymonkey]

I would have never purchased if I knew they had some generic parts add in but I also do not know when those parts were added. It could be that my watch was 100% panerai when I got it, winder/crown broke and in the repair process the generic parts were used (which broke yet again but was fixed. Knowing this I am hoping that it works fine going forward. I will never sell this watch because of the mess under the hood but I will inquire as to what it would take to get it back to all Panerai standards. I am thinking these gray market sellers just send these watches for repair to the lowest bidder and that is the repair you get (all speculation of course).
Ultimately, I guess it is a lesson learned and thankfully it was not the most expensive Panerai.