Panerai PAM Watches

The Historic line consists of Luminor Base, Luminor Marina and Radiomir. The Luminor Base comes in five editions: PAM 00114, PAM 00112, PAM 00176, PAM 00219, PAM 00000. Each with a small variation but maintaining a 44mm stainless steel or titanium case, hand-wound mechanisms, a 56 hour power reserve, a water resistance of 300 meters, leather or alligator straps, with functions for hours and minutes and a see-through sapphire crystal back. The Luminor Marina has four editions: PAM 00113, PAM 00111, PAM 00177 and PAM 00005. This series has similar characteristics with the difference that the functions also include small seconds. And finally the Radiomir comes in 6 models: PAM 00231, PAM 00210, PAM 00292, PAM 00183, PAM 00197 and PAM 00190. The Panerai Radiomir comes in hand-wound and automatic mechanical systems, has a 45mm stainless steel or 18 carat rose gold case, comes with a power reserve of 50 hours, shows hours, minutes and small seconds, a leather strap and large-size polished steel buckle and has a water resistance of 100 meters.

The Panerai Contemporary line consists of Luminor Marina Automatic, Luminor Submersible, Luminor GMT, Luminor Power Reserve, Luminor Chrono, Radiomir Black Seal and Radiomir Chrono. A lot of these models are simply upgrades from the Historic line, but others bring completely new elements to the Panerai precision time pieces. The Luminor Submersible stands out with its models PAM 00243, PAM 00024 and PAM 00025 because amongst its functions besides having hours, minutes and small seconds it has the date, calculation of immersion time, it also has a steel or titanium back, with a rubber strap and 300 meter water resistance. Radiomir Chrono is a classic model with a 45 mm case that includes two chronometer push-pieces, a 42 hour power reserve and is water-resistant to a depth of 100 meters.

The Manifattura line is Panerai’s line-up of watches with in-house movements built by Panerai. In most cases when the in-house movements are designed by the watchmaker there is really no distinct difference, but with Officine Panerai watches this is not the case. Whether we take a look at manual winding or self winding watch from the Panerai manifattura line it offers a 6 to 10 day power reserves, which is much longer than the 2 to 3 day power reserve of other watches.

This line also contains GMT watches, where most GMT watches will have a second hour hand to keep track of a second time zone. The primary hour hand (rotating every 12 hours) is read in conjunction with 12 one-hour markers on the dial while the secondary hand (rotating every 24 hours) is read in conjunction with a second set of hour markers on the dial or the bezel. Panerai manifattura watches primary and secondary hour hands both rotate every 12 hours. In order to show whether or not the GMT hand is indicating AM or PM, a small AM/PM indicator is incorporated into the small seconds hand.

Special Edition watches are designed and produced annually, in limited editions which are distributed among retailers and official Officine Panerai stores. These Special Editions vary, but the latest were produced in 2009, which were the Luminor Power Reserve (PAM 00028) with a production of 1000 units, Luminor 1950 Regatta Rattrapante (PAM 00332) with 500 units and the Radiomir Egiziano (PAM 00341) with 500 units.

At the end of the day Officine Panerai watches holds a revered position among watch collectors with its limited and special edition time pieces. All of their references hold unique characteristics that set them apart and reaffirm their status as a world renowned precision time piece producer.

Anthony Nguyen