That's because they're bricking it over the fact the bottom is going to fall out of the Palbundi market. The whole Panerai craze is like the tulipomania of the 17th century. The reason they have value is that they have value. The watches themselves have nothing going for them, apart from nice typography and ... um, they're big. Panerai is a brand based on smoke and mirrors and the tears in the seams are showing. Their new watches are, to be frank, low-end hockey-pucks made of off-the-shelf components. Once the emperor has been deemed naked, and that's at the end of this diatribe, the value of vintage models will be taken down along with the crumbling realisation that nothing new has come out of the factory since they turned a pocket watch on its side and put it underwater.
Oh, sorry, they have a technical innovation. I forgot. That crown guard, which really is too big and serves no purpose, apart from covering up an ability to add a threaded crown to a bought-in movement. You might as well get a Graham Cockfighter OVORKOMPENSATOR watch, at that point.
The upside is that the prices on the vintages will stabilise and once the hollywood non-girly men move to something more cucumber-down-pants, you'll be able to buy pre-vendome models for realistic money instead of house-and-car money. Bad news for investors, good news for proper collectors.
Anyway, so as to be a harbinger, I'm saying it here and now.
The Emperor Has No Clothes: New Panerai watches are as good as Tag Hauers, and that's it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but them's the facts. Big Tag Hauers, sure.