Help Please - Looking for my first Panerai

[Oxfordian]

Hi all,

I have been interested in watches for many years but not had lots of funds available to buy watches on a regular basis but have managed to put together a collection comprising of two Omega's a Seamaster Professional Diver and a Hesalite Moonwatch, I also have a DJ41 which I bought last year as a belated major birthday present for myself..

This year I would like to add a Panerai Luminor, I love the design, it is unique and looks like nothing else which is very appealing, but I haven't a clue on what is what within the range. This forum is proving useful as it is a huge knowledge pool but also confusing for a novice fan of the brand.

So my purpose of starting this thread is to try and get some pointers on the what I should be looking at.

I plan to buy new and have a budget up to around £7500, I think that a 44mm watch would be ideal as I have tried an Omega PO Chrono and that looked fine on my wrist.

If I may take some liberties and pose a few question please, understanding that the ultimate choice of watch has to be mine;

1. What would be some good models to look at, I have viewed the 13** range on the Panerai website and these look good, but also the 77* range and the 5**'s, a 914 looks different from the some of the other watches with the Tan strap.

2. Some of the differences in the watches appear to be the dials with some having a painted dial whilst others a stencil dial, is there a preference on which to have or is it 6 to 1 and half a dozen to the other?

3. White dials, there are a few but there seems to be a lack of white dial watches on this forum, the WRUW thread on recent pages has a minimal number of white dial watches, is there a reason for this as the dials look good.

4. Could anyone point out some good threads for me to read and digest some good Panerai information please.

Sorry for such a long post and apologies for rambling on.

Thanks.