Last week, watchmaker Officine Panerai took us on a dive into time to discover the past, present and future of the Italian company. At the Marino Marini Museum in Florence, the firm presented the new Luminor Due case, a new Luminor Marina collection (featuring the calibre P.9010, as shown below) and, of course, the Panerai Minute Repeater. The exhibition space was impressive at 1,000 square meters but even such a large area can barely contain the notions of time and timekeeping that collector-favorite Panerai (which is Florentine by heritage but its watchmaking is done in Neuchatel, Switzerland) was playing with. Indeed, it succeeds in showing how difficult it is to communicate the depth of skills, vision and heritage present in every Panerai watch. Certainly, our little story here will barely scratch the surface so we will attempt to focus our efforts a little.

We have already brought you news on the PAM 600 Minute Repeater so do check that out for the details on what we can only reiterate here is a momentous timepiece. That leaves us the less daunting task of telling you about the Luminor Due, the Luminor Marina and the Radiomir Firenze in a few hundred words, while also succinctly delivering the goods on the exhibition itself. We’ll begin with the future, meaning the 11 new watches on display in Florence. Now we really do mean the “future” when we mention these new watches because they are only expected in store by September this year (depending on where you are in the world).

To begin with, these new watches did not show at the SIHH earlier this year, making their appearance now something of a surprise. True, the minute repeater was long-expected but having 11 watches following on from this tent pole release is like Marvel releasing 11 Marvel Universe movies at the same time it opened Avengers Age of Ultron. If we can liken a watchmaking event to a cultural one, that is how big this Florentine reveal is. It left us swooning and we only just recovered enough to write this up.

Panerai Luminor Due

Ok seriously, the Panerai Luminor Due is basically the firm’s version of the ultra-thin watch, which never previously featured in its collections. To understand the slimness here, just take a look at the two images above, both of which are automatic Luminor Due models. There are actually four models here ranging from 10.5mm thick (manual-winding) to 10.7mm thick (automatic). The manual versions are the Luminor Due (PAM676) 3 Days 42mm (in steel) and the Luminor Due (PAM677) 3 Days 42mm (in red gold). The automatic versions are the Luminor Due (PAM 674) Automatic 45mm (in steel) and Luminor Due (PAM 675) Automatic 45mm. Specs for each are below.

Panerai Luminor Due 3 Days Acciaio PAM676

• Dimensions: 42mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, seconds reset
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Manual winding, calibre P1000
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; black dial, Arabic numerals, hour markers
• Water Resistance:  30 meters

Panerai Luminor Due 3 Days Acciaio PAM677

• Dimensions: 42mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, seconds reset
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Manual winding, calibre P1000/10
• Material: 18k polished red gold; anthracite dial, Arabic numerals, hour markers
• Water Resistance:  30 meters

Panerai Luminor Due 3 Days Automatic PAM 674

• Dimensions: 45mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic, calibre P4000
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; black dial, Arabic numerals, hour markers
• Water Resistance:  30 meters

Panerai Luminor Due 3 Days Automatic Oro Rosso PAM 675

• Dimensions: 45mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic, calibre P4000/10
• Material: 18k polished red gold; anthracite dial, Arabic numerals, hour markers
• Water Resistance:  30 meters

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950

The story with the six watches of the Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 is the movement and the case are new but it is still the same fan-favorite Luminor 1950 (signature crown protector, dial features, hands and so on). All six watches share the same automatic calibre P.9010; two of the watches share a diameter of 42mm while four more measure 44mm in diameter.

What’s significant to collectors then is that the old Luminor models with calibre P.9000 will be phased out. Check out the PAM numbers in the specs list below and you can figure it out. The one exception is the Carbotech model (PAM661) as it is an entirely new variant.

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM1523

• Dimensions: 42mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic calibre P.9010
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; white dial, Arabic numerals and dot indices
• Water Resistance: 100 meters

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM1392

• Dimensions: 42mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic calibre P.9010
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; black dial, Arabic numerals and markers
• Water Resistance: 100 meters

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM1499

• Dimensions: 44mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic calibre P.9010
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; white dial, Arabic numerals and dot indices
• Water Resistance: 300 meters

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM1312

• Dimensions: 44mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic calibre P.9010
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; black dial, Arabic numerals
• Water Resistance: 300 meters

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM1359

• Dimensions: 44mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic calibre P.9010
• Material: AISI 316L polished steel; black dial with Arabic numerals and markers
• Water Resistance: 300 meters

Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 Carbotech 3 Days Automatic PAM661

• Dimensions: 44mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes, small seconds, date
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Automatic calibre P.9010
• Material: Carbotech; black dial with Arabic numerals and dot markers
• Water Resistance: 300 meters

Radiomir Firenze 3 Days

This is a new version of last year’s Firenze model, a boutique exclusive at the Officine Panerai historic store in Florence. The new Panerai Radiomir Firenze 3 Days Acciaio (PAM672) features a hand-engraved case as usual but also an engraved manual-winding calibre P.3000. Visitors to the exhibition would have actually gotten the chance to see the watchmaker working the engraving. This is one seriously limited proposition, with just 99 pieces for 2016. Considering the handwork involved, this is hardly surprising.

Specs

• Dimensions: 47mm
• Functions: Hours, minutes
• Power Reserve: 72 hours
• Movement: Manual-winding calibre P.3000/F
• Material: AISI 316L brushed steel
• Water Resistance: 100 meters

Finally, just over a thousand words later, we’re all done with the 11 new watches from the Dive into Time exhibition. We went above our promised word count so we apologize for that. If you’re still with us (congratulations!), you must be looking for information on the exhibition itself. We close our story with just a paragraph here on this event, which our friends at World of Watches were invited to. Did we mention that it was held in an ancient crypt of the former church of San Pancrazio in Florence? Well it was and, here in the dim confines, Panerai drew back the veil on previously unseen historical gems, including the first instruments (read: not watches) made by the Panerai family. Of course, watches from the current era (since luxury group Richemont acquired it in the late 1990s) and from the famous wartime past were on display.