1. Panerai 2. IWC 3. Hublot

My post to the question... how do you rank these 3, Hublot IWC Panerai...

Hublot doesn't do it for me. I think JC Biver has done a great job with the brand and its revitalisation and its great to hear of his passion and witnessing his involvement in online forums and issuing out extended warranties on tz like candy but coming back to the watch. It looks derivative and somehow the brand cachet isn't there for me. Mind you if you saw the earlier hublot designs pre-Biver they are pretty scary but I think more could have been done. I'll stop there.

IWC was on a high last year in my view. They really got their act together in 2006 with nice releases, new Big Pilots(including the perpetuals), the first and better Ceramic Doppel, very nice new Pilots watches, kicking portugueses... This years followup is a let down for me as none of the watches appeal significantly and some of the things they have been doing don't seem to jive somehow eg launching the top gun ceramic with cheesy 80s movies logo on the back and side(not the logo of the real fighter school mind you), ingy's without anti-mag(well just about a year ago you were highlighting its robustness and anti-mag qualities and now you strip it out of the watch? right...)

Panerai ... they could have pleased their fans and released some pvd/dlc luminors this year which is easy enough for them to do but they instead went all high end on us with tourbys and rosegold pieces and such, but it ties in to a broad strategy that I can appreciate. They have time to come out with their ceramic historics and SEs and they know demand will be overwhelming for those. Will be an interesting brand to watch in the coming years as the folks there seem to have it together.

Ranking wise then, based on the above and just looking at these 3 brands only

1. Panerai - I may not like the new releases but they know what they are doing with breadth and depth and coming up with a holistic line to cater to different levels of watch enthusiasts
2. IWC - This year saw a deepening of their broad product lines with the curse of the too many LEs hitting them hard
3. Hublot - Lotsa bangs out there now. Bling bling ones to mat ones and all kinds of mixes with different materials imbetween... uuuggghhh

Voting with my wallet :)