Panerai × Revolution Luminor Marina Destro Carbotech PAM01708 (©Revolution)

I’ve described the Panerai Luminor Marina as the great anti-hype watch, and I meant it as a compliment. I view these timepieces as a wonderful antidote to the overblown, hyperbolic, Rococo-like extravagance of horology’s equivalent to the Dutch Tulip Bubble. Now that we’ve exited what’s been colloquially described as the “hype years,” where watches were used as borderline confrontational symbols of affluence, access and status linked to their skyrocketing secondary values, we have — you may breathe a sigh of relief — entered an era of rationalism, in which collectors are searching for timepieces exuding true horological authenticity. Panerai’s Luminor Marina with its 44mm case diameter might not be the first watch that comes to mind in an era where we have refocused on 36mm to 38mm men’s three-hand dress watches. But it should be.

Why? Because few brands express authenticity with greater irrefutable veracity than Panerai.

But let’s address a couple of elephants in the room. The first relates to the size of the Luminor Marina. Does it have enduring relevance in the era of male celebrities proudly donning women’s timepieces as an expression of their astounding forward-thinking gender fluidity? To me, without a doubt. Because this era doesn’t belong exclusively to small-sized watches. It also belongs to watches expressing a sense of proportion that corresponds to their DNA. A Chopard L.U.C 1860 should be 36.5mm because that is what it was originally designed to be; in the same way, a Philippe Dufour Simplicity should be 34mm. Vacheron Constantin’s reborn Reference 222 at 37mm is perfect, because that was what Jörg Hysek originally designed it to be. The A. Lange & Söhne Datograph Up/Down is slightly too big, because it should not be 41mm but 39mm. The same goes for the IWC Pilot’s Chronograph. Cartier’s Tank is perfect at 33.7mm by 25.5mm because it is meant to be the epitome of elegance. And yes, Panerai’s Luminor Marina is perfect at 44mm because that is precisely the size that it should be.

Panerai × Revolution 20th Anniversary Luminor Marina Destro Carbotech PAM01708 (©Revolution)

So, let’s now address the second elephant in the room, which is about what happened to Panerai over the last decade. First, let me say I love Panerai. Officine Panerai is the brand that inspired me to be a watch journalist, the subject of my very first story on watches ever, and the object of my obsession throughout my 30s and early 40s. But I would be remiss if I didn’t say it’s lost its way over the last couple of years.

Why do I have so much affection for Panerai? Let’s go back to the early 2000s when many of us first became aware of the brand, which became part of Richemont Group in 1997. As soon as I set eyes on my first Luminor Marina, which was incidentally on the wrist of a woman, I was awestruck by its originality, in particular its incredibly cool crown-locking mechanism. This detail was patented by Panerai in 1955 in Italy and then in 1956 in the United States by Giuseppe and Maria Panerai. It was designed to create a water-resistant crown good for diving depths down to 200 meters that would not infringe on the patented screw-down crown that was owned by Rolex. In trying to think out of the box, Panerai created one of the most stunning works of watchmaking design, which had the additional pragmatic purpose of protecting it against impacts.

Close-up of the PAM01708 dial (©Revolution)

These watches were worn by Italy’s elite Naval Diving Unit known as the Gamma Commandos. And as the brilliant Angelo Bonati and Dr. Franco Cologni called it, a Panerai was “the watch of heroes.” What happened to me after I first saw the 44mm Luminor Marina and then learned that it was, so to speak, “the watch of heroes”? I fell instantly in love. Because what man doesn’t, deep down, dream of being a hero? And the fact that the brand’s military past was perfectly encoded into this timepiece in every conceivable detail, from the wonderfully original fonts on the dial, to the screw-in lugs, to the lever lock for the crown, to the — yes — 44mm case size, imbued it with a sense of heroism. For the next 10 years, Panerai would become “my watch brand” and the focus of most of my watch collecting.

I should, at this point, give a shout-out to Dominique Guenat, Richard Mille’s partner, who owns Montres Valgine, which produced the Pre-Vendôme Panerais; Dino Zei, the engineer who led Panerai before Richemont and was behind the launch of its first civilian watches; and the brilliant designer Giampiero Bodino — all of whom contributed to these perfect military-themed timepieces. It didn’t even bother me that for a military watch, it didn’t feature minute markers but only bold luminous hashmarks every five minutes, which says a lot about how much the Italian military prioritizes precision. The point was, the Luminor Marina, because of its iconic design and incredible history, was more than just a watch — it was a symbolic totem for heroism.

So, how did this change? I had an interesting conversation with one of my heroes, Ralph Lauren. For context, his brand, which he still oversees in his mid-80s, has reached an all-time level of cultural relevance and commercial success today, thanks to Gen Z’s obsession with the “Old Money” look. Back in the ’90s and early 2000s, Ralph Lauren was massively adopted by the hip-hop community. When I asked him if he would design clothes to cater to this market, he replied, “No, they liked what I made because it had integrity. If you start to pander to everyone, you will lose who you are,” Respectfully, that was basically what happened to Panerai over the last few years.

The brand ventured into ultra slim watches, experimented with recycled materials, collaborated with gamers and explored vibrant lifestyle colors. All of these moves were aimed at broadening its appeal. While I understand the need to reach new audiences, when you try to be everything to everyone, you begin to lose your sense of self. And that’s something I know all too well. As a media company, like everyone else during the social media boom, we began to question if we should adopt a more bite-sized lifestyle approach — reporting more on celebrities, red carpet events and collaborations with the latest DJs. In the end, Revolution decided to move away from “lifestyle content” this year, and I believe this has made a critical difference. We decided to stick to what we do best: focusing on haute horlogerie, complicated watchmaking, technical innovation, métiers d’art and watchmaking history through long-format journalism.

Wei Koh and Angelo Bonati at the 2018 SIHH

In other words, we chose to focus on authenticity, and it has paid off — our YouTube channel now boasts over 202,000 subscribers.

Panerai Luminor Marina PAM05218

This brings me to the recently launched Panerai Luminor Marina PAM05218, which, to me, perfectly signals the brand’s return to authenticity and its refocus on its core DNA. This new Luminor Marina may prove to be one of the most important timepieces the brand has ever created — not just commercially, but as a symbol of its reconnection to its fundamental identity as “the watch of heroes.”

Panerai Luminor PAM05218 — a return to authenticity and Panerai’s core DNA

But before we get to what the PAM05218 is and why it has received such enthusiastic approval from the Panerai community, let’s revisit the original 5218 references that inspired it.

The first thing to understand is that Panerais were made exclusively for the Italian Navy from 1935 to 1993 — meaning they were not commercially available to the public as they were exclusively military tools. By 1993, the Italian Navy decided not to renew this contract because, like other militaries around the world, they had moved on to electronic timekeepers. To keep the company going, the owner, engineer and former Naval Officer Dino Zei decided to make a run of civilian timepieces using the Luminor case. These timepieces were contracted out to Montres Valgine, owned by Dominique Guenat. This resulted in what are called today the Panerai Pre-Vendôme watches that helped forged the genetic blueprint for modern Panerai. The Pre-Vendôme era includes watches made between 1993 and 1997, when the brand started making 44mm Luminor watches and 42mm Mare Nostrum Chronographs for civilian consumption upon the cancellation of its contract with the Italian Navy.

They consisted of distinct models, all sharing the numerical prefix 5218. Among the Pre-Vendôme Luminors were: the Ref. 5218-201/A “Logo”, produced in examples — a black-dialed timepiece with the inscription “Luminor Panerai” and the famous Panerai logo on the dial; and the Ref. 5218-202/A “Marina Militare”, produced in pieces with a black PVD-coated steel case, featuring a black dial marked “Luminor Panerai” and “Marina Militare”.

Next came the Ref. 5218-203/A Luminor Marina, a 200-piece run with a black PVD steel case, featuring a black dial marked “Luminor Marina” and “Panerai”; the Ref. 5218-205/A “Slytech Submersible”, produced in 95 examples with a steel case and black dial reading “Luminor Submersible” and “Slytech Panerai”; and in 12 prototypes created with the ref. 5218-201/A case; and the Ref. 5218-207/A “Luminor Daylight Slytech”, made in 105 examples — a steel watch with a white dial bearing the inscription “Luminor Daylight” and “Slytech Panerai”, created in conjunction with Sylvester Stallone. Completing the series were the Ref. 5218-209 Luminor, a steel model made in 13 pieces; and the Ref. 5218-210 Luminor Marina with a PVD-coated steel case produced in only two pieces.

However, the most celebrated Pre-Vendôme Panerai is the Ref. 5218-218/A Luminor Marina “Black Seal Slytech” from 1996 — a striking black PVD steel model with four lines on its dial: “Luminor,” “Black Seal,” “Slytech” and “Panerai.” Ordered in just five examples before Panerai’s sale to the Richemont Group, it was never produced in series, adding to its legendary status.

The 5218-218/A Luminor Marina “Black Seal Slytech”

There were also three main Mare Nostrum Chronographs produced during the Pre-Vendôme era. The Ref. 5218-301/A featured a steel case and blue dial, marked with “Mare Nostrum” and “Panerai”. The Ref. 5218-302 also had a steel case and black dial, marked with “Mare Nostrum” and “Panerai Slytech”. The Ref. 5218-304 was similar to the 5218-302, but with a satin-finished bezel and no tachymeter scale. What makes these Pre-Vendôme watches so collectible is akin to owning an early air-cooled Porsche: while the basic shape and design have remained the same over time, there is a certain soul, character and authenticity encoded in these pioneering models that is just so cool.

Panerai exploded into popularity when Sylvester Stallone saw the watches around 1994 while in Italy and decided to wear a Ref. 5218-201/A in his film Daylight, which was shot in Rome. This timepiece was auctioned in 2020 by Phillips and fetched a healthy 214,200 U.S. dollars. He famously became a one-man Panerai Luminor evangelist, gifting it to friends and even telling them about this legendary Italian military brand. All the watches that read “Slytech” were made.

Sylvester Stallone wears a Ref. 5218-201/A in his film Daylight (Image: Phillips)

Of all the Pre-Vendôme Panerais, the Ref. 5218-202/A is the most collectible because initially, it wasn’t offered to the public but sold instead to Italian Navy personnel. One quirky visual leitmotif about this watch is that it has mismatching tritium hands compared to the dial. Originally caused by a chemical reaction between tritium and varnish, the early production pieces developed orange-brown numerals while the hands remained greenish — a contrast that later became highly collectible. In late 1994, another 50 were made, putting the production number of the timepiece at 150 pieces in total.

The 5218-202/A Luminor Marina Militare in PVD steel (Image: Antiquorum)

What is incredible is that 30 years later, this timepiece has lost none of its appeal. Panerai has officially relaunched the Ref. 5218-202/A, now known simply as the PAM05218, in a version that is both historically faithful and yet wonderfully up to date. The first major change is the material for the black case, which is steel with DLC or diamond-like carbon coating, which is infinitely stronger than the fragile PVD (physical vapor deposition) of the original version. Otherwise, it is almost identical in proportion, featuring a dial with all the vintage watch’s charm, including the non-matching serif font used for “Marina Militare” and a replication of the non-matching hands, but this time using colored Super-LumiNova.

Panerai Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218

Beating inside the watch is Panerai’s manually wound three-day power reserve Caliber P.6000. Like its predecessor, it is a base model, meaning it has no seconds indicator. Perhaps one of the most important features of this timepiece is not immediately visible: its price of 7,500 Swiss francs. While not inexpensive, it restores Panerai to the more rational price levels that helped make the originals so appealing. The outpouring of love for this watch has been massive, with a waiting list already forming for the 500-piece annual production. It’s clear that Panerai still holds a special place in the hearts of collectors worldwide, and this timepiece may be the key to unleashing even greater excitement. For that reason, the new PAM05218 leads my list of the greatest Luminors of all time. I hope it marks the start of Panerai’s realignment with its core identity.

Recessed Arabic numerals and hour markers in dark beige Super-LumiNova

Tech Specs: Panerai Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218

Movement: Manual winding Caliber P.6000; three-day power reserve
Functions: Hours and minutes
Case: 44mm × 13mm; stainless steel with matte black DLC coating; water resistant to 300m
Dial: Matte black; recessed Arabic numerals and hour markers in dark beige Super-LumiNova
Strap: Gold brown calf leather with trapezoidal sandblasted black DLC-coated steel pin buckle; additional black rubber
Price: CHF 7,500
Availability: Limited edition of 500 pieces

Panerai Luminor Ref. 5218-201/A “LOGO”

The original “Logo” also makes the list of the greatest Luminors of all time. Why? Because it basically created the blueprint for modern Panerai watches. Bear in mind that until 1993, when this timepiece was launched, there was no 44mm model. This took the design cues of the military watches and compressed them into a civilian watch that still resonated with all the charm, allure and heroic narrative of the watches used by the Italian Navy. It also embodied the Zen reductionist pure essence of modern Panerai with its polished steel case and lever lock mechanism. As there is no small seconds, it is only the full 12, 3, 6 and 9 Arabic indexes that are on display, and the dial is emblazoned with “Luminor Panerai” and the famous Panerai stylized logo. The initial plan was to manufacture 899 units, but in the end, just 687 units were produced, with the remaining 212 watches used for the three different “Slytech” collaborative editions.

The 5218-201A with “Luminor Panerai” and the famous Panerai stylized logo (Image: Antiquorum)

Panerai Luminor Marina PAM00026 A/B/K Series

The concept of a “Destro” watch came from the demand of divers who had to wear the depth gauge and compass on their left hand. As a result, the large-sized Panerai diving watches were designed for the right wrist. Interestingly, “Destro” means “right-handed” in Italian but it’s remarkable how many people think it means “left-handed.” With the switch to right-hand wear, the crown guard and lever locking mechanism were relocated to the left side of the case. The 1960s saw the introduction of vintage Panerai “Destro” or left-handed watches, such as the Ref. 6152/1.

But it was the Richemont-era management consisting of then-CEO Angelo Bonati and designer Giampiero Bodino that took it upon themselves to launch the stunning PAM00026A in 1998 as a 200-piece limited edition and followed it up with the PAM00026B in 1999 as a 500-piece limited edition. In 2008, Panerai paid tribute to this same timepiece with the relaunch of the PAM00026K as a 1,000-piece limited edition, which now featured a sandwich-type dial and Super-LumiNova instead of tritium. Because these watches were designed to be worn on the right hand, wearing them on the left is technically incorrect, and yet it looks so incredibly cool that it’s inspired a multitude of Destro watches over the years from other brands, including a very famous GMT timepiece with a “Sprite” colored bezel.

Panerai Luminor Marina PAM00036

While we are at it, we might as well look at a few of my other favorite Panerai Luminor Marinas, which share the “Marina Militare” designation. The first of these is probably my all-time favorite Luminor Marina, the famous Panerai PAM00036. It’s an amazing example of how words in Italian sound so much more colorful and evocative — specifically, the seven alliterative syllables of “Marina Militare.”

The PAM00036 Luminor Marina Militare with tritium painted dial (Image: Sotheby’s)

The words “Marina Militare,” which simply translate to “Navy” in English, appear on a wide range of Panerai’s military timepieces. Examples of the soldered-wire-lug Ref. 3646 Radiomir watches from the 1940s featured these distinctive dials, though it is widely believed that many have been retrofitted. The tome Vintage Panerai by Ralf Ehlers and Volker Wiegmann supports this view. The “Marina Militare” dial is more often associated with the solid-lug modified Radiomir models of the ’60s and, of course, the iconic Ref. 6152/1 models of the 1955 to 60s, which featured the patented half-moon-shaped Panerai crown-locking lever device.

In the modern, non-military era, there have been a total of seven watches honored to bear the words “Marina Militare” on their dials (the latest of which is the fantastic PAM05218), and we’ll look at them all by the time we’re done with part two of this story. The first was created by Officine Panerai in 1993: the Ref. 5218-202/A, a manual-wind watch in black PVD-coated steel, featuring “Luminor Panerai” at 12 o’clock and “Marina Militare” at 6 o’clock. A total of 150 pieces of these watches were made.

The distinct PAM00036 watch with titanium case and tobacco-brown dial appeared in the 1998 catalog in all its transcendent glory. Yet somehow, the watches weren’t released until 1999, which explains why they were engraved with a “B” serial number, corresponding with that year. A popular theory is that Bonati intended the PAM00036 as part of the first salvo of watches. Giving credence to this is the fact that the luminous indexes of the PAM00036 are tritium. Tritium was used for all “A” series dials; however, because of changes in Swiss law, by the “B” series the following year, all Panerai dials (with the exception of its professional certified diving watches and special edition PAM00040) would feature Luminova indexes. This would lead us to believe that the dial of the PAM00036 could have been manufactured in 1998, along with all other A-series tritium dials.

Because of changes in Swiss law, the PAM00036 B-series feature with Luminova indexes instead of tritium dials on A-series (Image: Wiseman’s)

So, what was the cause of the delay? Very conceivably, the cases — which were being manufactured at the then family-owned Donzé-Baume Swiss case factory. (Donzé-Baume was subsequently acquired by Richemont Group in 2007.) When I visited many years ago, I was told by a surprisingly gregarious representative that “the titanium Panerai cases were a real learning curve for us. The problem is that when machining titanium, the heat can cause the metal to ignite. So, it took us some time to perfect the technique related to this.”

Regardless of its slightly delayed launch in 1999, the titanium Panerai PAM00036 Luminor Marina with tobacco dial, decorated Unitas movement and sapphire caseback — combined with its status as Panerai’s second special edition (made only in a series of 200 watches) — was an instant hit and voraciously snapped up around the world.

The PAM00036 Luminor Marina with tobacco dial

Panerai Luminor Marina PAM00040

It is impossible to discuss the PAM00036 without also sidetracking for a moment to discuss the Panerai PAM00040, a titanium manual-wind Luminor Marina with a black dial that was launched the same year — 1999. Why would Panerai launch two somewhat-similar titanium Luminor Marinas the same year?

The PAM00040 Luminor Marina Titanium with Tritium dial (Image: Panerai Watchlounge)

Well, if the PAM00036 had been intended for a 1998 launch, it is conceivable that the PAM00040 was intended to be its follow-up. Adding to the confusion was the fact that though also made in only 200 examples, the PAM00040 was only launched in specific markets such as the United States, Germany and Japan. Also intensifying the murkiness of the waters is the fact that, unlike most B-series watches, the PAM00040 — like the PAM00036 — had a tritium dial. You could imagine that the dials and hands on these watches were identical to those on the PAM0001A and were ordered at the same time. But that might be reaching and, as with many things in the watch world, it remains an unexplainable anomaly.

Panerai × Paneristi Luminor Marina PAM00195 and Luminor PAM00360

When discussing Panerai, it is impossible not to include the phenomenon of the Paneristi, the world’s most passionate collecting community. To honor the Paneristi, several watches have been made, including two of my favorite Luminors.

The first is the PAM00195, the timepiece in which Angelo Bonati grudgingly brought back the PVD case. It featured a spectacular four-line dial with “Luminor Marina,” “Panerai” and the logo on the dial. This watch was made in 200 pieces with the name of each owner on the caseback. One amusing moment occurred when Kristian Haagen, now a famous watch journalist, decided to test the quality of the PVD with a corkscrew after a bit of wine. The results were highly entertaining and were a demonstration that the Paneristi community didn’t take itself too seriously.

The second Luminor made for them that I love is the PAM00360, released in 2010 to celebrate Paneristi. com’s 10th anniversary. Limited to 300 pieces, it featured a PVD-coated case and an in-house movement. I especially enjoy the article, “It Could Have Been So Wonderful — The Panerai 360 10th Anniversary Edition for Paneristi.com,” by the founder of Fratello, Robert-Jan Broer, which delves into the hype surrounding the watch’s release and the frustration that followed when demand far exceeded supply.

Panerai × Revolution 10th Anniversary Luminor Marina “8 Days” PAM00599

This is one of the most important watches to me from a purely emotional perspective. The genesis of this watch occurred in Singapore, when I finally met the man who is something of a legend in Panerai-collecting circles. His name is Alan Bloore, but he is much better known by his Internet handle, “Hammer.” His story of courage and perseverance in his recovery from a freak accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down had already been chronicled in the pages of our magazine. But what distinguishes Hammer is his incredible charisma and his wonderful enthusiasm. When I first mooted the idea of a Revolution special edition Panerai to Hammer, he replied, “You know, Mr. Bonati probably won’t do it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.” Similarly, when I asked my friend Alexandra Zoller, who was Panerai’s International Retail Director at the time, she laughed and said, “You know, Mr. Bonati will probably say no because he doesn’t like this kind of editions, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.” Later, when I spoke to my friend Jean-Sebastien Gerondeau, then Panerai’s Managing Director of Asia Pacific, he had much the same reaction: “It will be unlikely to happen, but it never hurts to ask.”

The Panerai x Revolution 10th Anniversary Luminor Marina “8 Days” PAM00599 (©Revolution)

The Revolution’s logo engraved at the caseback (©Revolution)

Finally, I gathered my courage and asked Angelo Bonati. My face was literally frozen in slack-jawed shock when Mr. Bonati thought about it for a moment and replied, “Yes.” When I recovered, I asked Mr. Bonati why he had said yes. To which he replied: “Because you are a friend. Basically, I disagree with this kind of things. We receive a lot of requests and I almost always say no. Firstly, to protect the integrity of the brand. Secondly, I cannot continue to do special editions, because doing too many special editions in the economy of production doesn’t make sense. You lose money with these watches. This is the reality. But frankly speaking, with you, I cannot say no.”

With that, Hammer and I started brainstorming on a timepiece and landed on the Pre-Vendôme era for our inspiration. The most famous Pre-Vendôme Panerai comes from 1996 and is the Ref. 5218-218/A Luminor, featuring a black PVD steel case and four lines — “Luminor, Panerai, Black Seal, Slytech” — on its dial. It is simply stunning, and, as I had mentioned earlier in this article, part of its lore is that five prototypes were ordered, but due to Panerai’s sale to the Richemont Group, it was never produced in series. It is today one of the most collectible Luminor watches, fetching well over a quarter-million U.S. dollars — if, and that’s a big if, you can find one. Hammer and I instinctively knew we wanted to pay homage to this incredible watch.

Mr. Bonati replied, “I am saying no to your first proposal, but I propose to you something different.” Little did we know at the time that Bonati and Panerai had already prepared an incredible homage to the Black Seal, in the form of a set featuring a pair of Pre-Vendôme inspired watches, known as the PAM00785.

In the end, I think we created a watch that wonderfully united two different eras in Panerai’s history. Its design was definitely Pre-Vendôme in spirit; in particular, the three lines of text combined with the logo, which, in Panerai-collecting lore, made it a coveted “four-liner.” Hammer said, “If you look at Panerai’s history, many of the most collectible watches are ‘four-liners.’” The DLC (diamond-like carbon) case is a fitting homage to the Pre-Vendôme era’s PVD case, and also emphasizes Panerai’s pioneer status as the first high-luxury brand to use blackened steel cases. For many years, Angelo Bonati would refuse to make more black-cased watches because he felt the technology at the time was not good enough. He reintroduced black watches by using ceramic, the first of these being a Radiomir watch. But for small, nostalgic limited productions, he would agree to make black steel cases, but now with DLC coatings, which are far more robust than the PVD (physical vapor deposition) coatings of old.

The black steel case coated with DLC (©Revolution)

We asked for the Super-LumiNova, as well as the dial and hands, to be made in ecru to replicate aged vintage tritium and to distinguish our watch from the PAM00195 four-liner Luminor Marina made several years ago for the website Paneristi. But while all of these design codes were backward-looking, inside would be Panerai’s in-house manual-winding movement with an eight-day power reserve — an incredible testament to Angelo Bonati’s vision to transform Panerai into a true manufacture. In every sense, the watch was an incredible gesture of friendship — truly moving beyond words.

The Luminova indexes (©Revolution)

Panerai Luminor Box Set PAM00785

Remember how Angelo Bonati turned me down on a Luminor “Black Seal”? This box set, already in the works, was the reason. Launched at the 2014 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie Genève (SIHH), it was closely inspired by the Ref. 5218-218/A “Black Seal Slytech,” the controversial watch that was believed to have only been designed but not made in series, and the Ref. 5218-207/A white-dialed Luminor “Daylight.” These timepieces differed in the wording on their dials, with the Black Seal featuring cardinal numerals while the Daylight model featured full Arabic numerals with a detailed minute track; the steel case of the Black Seal saw the application of black DLC (diamond-like carbon) coating, while the Daylight used polished stainless steel. Both are powered by the P.5000 eight-day manual-wind movement, also found in the Panerai PAM00599.

The PAM00785 Luminor 8 Days Set Black Seal/Daylight

Panerai × Revolution 20th Anniversary Luminor Marina Destro Carbotech PAM01708

Now that you know I’m a huge fan of Panerai’s Destro watches, when the opportunity arose to create a timepiece for Revolution’s 20th anniversary, the first word out of my mouth was simply: “Destro.” The blacked-out steel case of the PAM00026 was beckoning me. At the same time, over its evolution, Panerai had begun to place a real emphasis on materials innovation, starting with the titanium cases for the PAM00040 and PAM00036. But the material that really captured my imagination was Carbotech, which was introduced to the brand in 2015 with the PAM00616, a very cool Submersible model. It’s constructed from thin layers of carbon fiber and a binding agent called PEEK (polyether ether ketone), which is laid up and then heated and compressed. The parts of the Luminor Marina case are then machined out of Carbotech, which creates a random wavy pattern, making every component and every case unique in appearance.

A very special edition — the Panerai × Revolution 20th Anniversary Luminor Marina Destro Carbotech PAM01708 (©Revolution)

The rationale for this goes back to my very first meeting with Angelo Bonati at the SIHH in Geneva in 2004. At the time, he had discontinued the black-cased Luminor Marina watches because he had become dissatisfied with the durability of the coating. This would eventually lead him to experiment with tantalum — long before anyone else, apart from AP — and ceramic, all in pursuit of a way to retain Panerai’s stealth military appearance, but at the material level and not with a coating.

A distinguishing mark of this special Panerai x Revolution 20th Anniversary Luminor Marina Destro Carbotech PAM01708 (©Revolution)

2015’s Carbotech provided that same blacked-out appearance at the material level, but added lightness and extremely high tensile strength to the mix. The exact specifications for Carbotech indicate that it is 64 percent lighter than titanium and 80 percent lighter than steel, which, from the perspective of a military watch, makes it ideal in terms of wearability and comfort. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Carbotech, we decided to craft the case, bezel, crown, crown guard and even the lever from this material — everything except the caseback is made in Carbotech. A particularly nice touch is that our Revolution logo is engraved on the lever.

The vintage-looking dial that glows up in the dark, paired with a subtly modern material like Carbotech in the case (©Revolution)

For the dial, we wanted to pay tribute to our favorite four-line Pre-Vendôme era models, as well as watches like the PAM00036, and the fantastic PAM00195 and PAM00599. Indeed, the dial draws inspiration from our 10th anniversary model, the PAM00599, but this time it is crafted using a more complex sandwich construction. Now, here is where a potential controversy arises: we chose a beige lume to evoke the look of a vintage Pre-Vendôme watch — or, honestly, even an aged tritium dial from a watch of the same era that we are celebrating. I am not a fan of what is often called “fauxtina,” but in this context — just as with the new PAM05218 — it works, because it pays tribute to the brand’s key historical models. I also love the idea of a vintage-looking dial set against a subtly modern material like Carbotech, which makes me think of cars such as Singer Porsches.

A beige lume was chosen to evoke the look and feel of a Pre-Vendôme era mode (©Revolution)

Inside the watch is the Caliber P.9010, an automatic movement with three days of power reserve. After creating the PAM0599, I realized that an automatic movement could be a more pragmatic alternative to a manual-wind, especially one with a long power reserve. The result is an exceptional Luminor Marina that, to me, expresses the best of modern and vintage Panerai, demonstrating that contemporary materials like carbon fiber can harmoniously co-exist with the old-school ’90s aesthetic that made the brand truly special.

“Ten years after our first collaboration, we are pleased to introduce a new timepiece to mark Revolution’s 20th anniversary, a magazine that has since become a voice of authority in watch culture. By blending heritage with a cutting-edge twist, it captures our design essence through a historic left-handed configuration, inspired by Panerai’s archives, matched for the very first time with a Carbotech™ case.” says Alessandro Ficarelli, Chief Marketing and Product Officer of Panerai.

That’s very kind of him, but I should instead be thanking Alessandro, Jean-Marc Pontroue, Giampiero Bodino and Panerai’s current CEO, Emmanuel Perrin, for their kindness towards me and Revolution.

Tech Specs: Panerai × Revolution 20th Anniversary Luminor Marina Destro Carbotech PAM01708

Movement: Self-winding Caliber P.9010; three-day power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds and stop seconds
Case: 44mm × 14.5mm; Carbotech; water resistant to 300m
Dial: Matte black; recessed Arabic numerals and hour markers in dark beige Super-LumiNova
Strap: Brown calf leather with beige stitching and Revolution’s star emblem engraved on top, trapezoidal titanium and DLC pin buckle; additional black rubber
Price: CHF 11,340 excluding taxes
Availability: Limited edition of 100 pieces

Available for purchase on 1 December 9pm SGT / 3pm CET / 9am EST on RevolutionWatch.com and Panerai ION Orchard and Marina Bay Sands boutiques, Singapore.