Fresh from the Showcase here at SwissWatchExpo, we're debuting another series of the Panerais that
we have in our inventory. And the reason that we keep going over Panerais is because they have so
many different types and they're so much fun to collect. There's so many folks that call
themselves Paneristis because they have four or five, 10 Panerais in their collection, maybe more.
So I always aspire to be a Paneristi, but that's not quite happening yet.
We have some very interesting models that I wanted to talk about here today.
One of the ones that I have on my wrist is my absolutely
all time favorite watch, it's the Pam 00643, the 643 model. And what it is is it's got
a DLC coating, much like a ceramic coating on the outside of the watch itself. It's very simplistic.
It's the original Radiomir. So it has the convex crown, and it also has the wire loops for where
you attach your straps, all original, all what the original essence of the Radiomir Panerai was.
And it's a manual wind watch. So it's absolutely my favorite. The interesting thing about this
one is it has a hobnail of Paris or what I call a Parisian Hobnail dial. Uh, there are probably some
people that would like to kill me for saying that, but, uh, that is the essence of what that dial is.
And it looks like a waffle pattern. So it's got little, um, uh, raised indentions all through it.
That looked like a little bit like a pyramid, but I think it looks more like a waffle pattern. And
also what's interesting about this dial is even though it's black, it can reflect a little bit of
green because of the way that the anti-reflective coating on the crystal shows the dial.
It took me forever to realize that that dial actually wasn't green. It was black,
but that's because it also takes into effect the lumination on each one of
the painted numbers and indices. They're also a little bit of a light green of white whitish,
light green. It's a very interesting color, but it's very simplistic. The 12,
3, 6 and 9 markers are there unlike a lot of the other Panerais where they have a
date complication or something taking up one or the other three or the nine are both. So
this is just a very simple piece. It's a very thin piece. It doesn't weigh a lot. It's a 45
millimeter watch and it's extraordinarily easy for me to wear. I just think it compliments
everything. This is the watch I would wear absolutely every day. If I could get my hands
on one of these. Now let's talk a little bit about some of the other three that we have here.
The three that we have here are a Due,
a Chronograph and a Radiomir 1940 in gold Rose gold to be specific. Now
the Radiomir 1940 has the sandwich dial. And we've talked about this a little bit before
it's got the, uh, the in-house movement because it does have the crystal case back as well. Now,
the reason that I brought this one out is because I wanted to compare it to the Radiomir that I
have on my wrist. Right now, you can see that the size difference is huge. The 43, I mean,
sorry, the 42 millimeter versus the 45 millimeter. It's a large difference between the two pieces.
So keep in mind that if you love the idea of having a Panerai, that you always are concerned
about how thick they are and how large they are, this Radiomir 1940 will do the trick every time.
And interestingly enough, most of the pieces that they have come and gold like this, in
the Rose gold come in this particular style, the Luminor is not found as much with that particular
combination. So that is the Radiomir 1940, but let's move on quickly to the chronograph.
This is really interesting. Panerai doesn't do a lot of chronograph movements. Panerai
mainly enjoys the simplicity of things. And with this particular watch, it's
called a daylight series. The reason that it's called the daylight series is because the 1996
Sylvester Stallone made a movie called daylight. That movie was the inspiration behind the name
of the Daylight series of Panerai. One other little small note, anytime you see a white dial,
you see them, and they may actually say slide tech at the bottom of them. And there again,
that's Sylvester Stallone his influence of the white dial on the Slytech Panerai.
So the daylight is the movie. The slide tech is the inspiration behind the white dial. And this
chronograph is actually called the daylight. Now, the funny thing about the dial on this
one is, is it has a very unique patina. It's more of an orange, it's not found all that much on the
Panerais. And in fact, actually this chronograph is pretty rare. There are a lot of people who
like Panerai, but don't necessarily have a strong interest in the chronograph movement,
but the people who do have a strong interest in the chronograph movement specifically are
in this model because of all the little do unique things that it has that first of all,
the name, the daylight name, but also secondly, that orange patina that was created to make
those indices the way that they do. And then of course the layout of the chronograph dial,
it's very clean and unique to Panerai the way that they are simply laid out through the dial.
And of course, unlike other Panerai, this one has a date function that is between the four and five,
just a lot of different, unique things about this, but then when you move on
to the crown guard, hard, most rise on the Luminor series. The crown guard opens from the top to the
bottom or from the 12th to the sixth. The interesting thing on the chronograph is,
is to completely the opposite and it actually moves. It's a very small piece
that moves to the top from the six. So from the sixth to the 12th, and it's a lot smaller on the
cam side. And you'll notice that the reason is when they designed the pushers for this watch,
they're very close and tied into the crown guard as well. So they had a little bit
of real estate to work with and a lot of different features to incorporate.
But what I find interesting about this particular con the, the, uh, the crown guard
is that right, the manipulation of the crown guard seems to be a little bit easier for me.
And it's a little bit more solid. It's a very strange thing how that works. And they
were able to incorporate that design. Now it's just a standard chronograph. Obviously Panerai
use just a base movement ETA, and then a Valjoux movement, and then built their, uh, mode models on
top of it for all their chronograph features. It does have one other interesting feature. It has a
corrector here on the case, which is something that you don't find on other Panerai's either.
So this is, there's a really unique item and it's absolutely in phenomenal condition
there, again, the value, the story behind purchasing watches from Swiss watch expo,
especially for time pieces like this, you save some money over the price.
New, we've got a lot of pieces that people are just now realizing even existed in the world,
because remember that Panerai will only make a certain series and a certain number per year.
And they were very hard to find in the beginning. Now
these are an absolutely excellent condition. We're trying to get everything
in boxes with all the tools and that type of thing. When we acquire these, which is something
that's also very difficult. Now, I want to move on to the Due, which is something that came out.
This is 2021. So this watch appeared about five years ago initially. And the do way is a thinner
piece. The idea behind it was to be able to wear it much like the Radiomir that I'm wearing so that
it fits up underneath a cuff and, and is easier to wear. It's not so tall and bulky and heavy.
This actually happens to be a Luminor Due. So it functions like your typical Luminor it has
the crown guard. It even has a there, the reg and then the trademark. So the patent pending
Mark and the trademark part, just like all of the Radiomir, I'm sorry, the Luminor 1950s,
this watch mocks the painted dial of the Daylight series. It's not a sandwich dial
each one of these numbers that's on the dial is actually painted. It's got a very unique, almost
an eggshell color on the white dial. It can go a little bit silver. It can go really bright white.
It has a multitude of personalities. And of course it glows just like anything else, having the
luminescent glow dots around it'll glow, just like any Panerai, that you would ever imagine.
Plus it has a date feature and function, and it has a sub-second dial.
It also has this unique blue strap. Now, one
thing about the Due that I always want people to understand the Due, although it is a Panerai,
I don't suggest it being worn in the water as much as you would a standard Panerai, because
in fact, these are not rated to the same depth of diving that the original luminary is there
a little bit less, not a whole lot less. You can still swim in them. And that type of thing,
you won't have any trouble with them, but they're certainly not the original diving watches that
you would expect from Panerai. They're a little bit more elegant and a little less tool watch.
So do be careful of that, but the straps change very similarly to the other Panerais. You also
can get the tools to help change them out. There are a multitude of distance straps.
And remember with Panerai, you can actually order all of the different colors directly from
Panerai.com. You can get the rubber straps or what they call Caoutchouc. It took me forever. I had,
when I used to work at an AD, I had a fellow from Italy come in and he didn't speak a lot of
English. And I had seen that word, but I wasn't sure how to pronounce it. And I noticed that it
was on the strap and I kept seeing that word over and over again. And when he was trying to ask me,
if I had one of the Panerais, he kept saying cow chew, and it didn't register in my brain
until I realized he meant the rubber strap. And that's when I realized that's
what the Caoutchouc means on all the rubber straps. So that's just a little bit of fun
language history for you. Panerai is a lot of fun. You'll enjoy these, the summertime's coming up.
You'll be able to wear them anytime, anywhere for any reason. If you have any questions,
give us a call here. It's supposed to watch expo. Obviously be sure to ring the bell,
subscribe, leave us comments and any questions that you may have, we will be happy to answer.