Panerai
Gaining Popularity with High-Technology Mechanism

Panerai has been gaining popularity worldwide for its combination of Italian designs and Swiss technology. Guido Panerai founded this company in 1860 and has since focused on quality standards that attracted the Royal Italian Navy’s partnership. The company began producing and supplying high precision technological instruments for their soldiers.

In 1938, they produced the first water-resistant military diver watch for the commandos and men of the Gamma force. These military forces managed to accomplish successful attacks against enemy ships during World War II. The collection was known as Panerai Radiomir which immediately gained popularity among collectors after the war ended.

In 1993, after more than 50 years of producing solely for the Royal Italian Navy, they began creating their first numbered and limited edition collection for the public. The two models were Luminor Marina and Mare Nostrum.

The Richemont Group bought over the company in 1997 and evolved the brand further but maintaining its tradition that continued to gain more popularity worldwide.

The Luminor Marina has a special design to improve its water resistance. It uses a unique lever device that helps to compress the winding crown against the caseband. Till now this very design is still being employed in this collection.

There are many versions of Luminor Marina models and one that caught up with quite a bit of attention was Luminor Marina with a hand-wound mechanical movement. It uses Incabloc anti-shock device and a water resistance of 300m but tested up to 400m.

Their other model Luminor Power Reserve has interesting movement using OP IX caliber from Panerai using 21 jewels with 42 hours of power reserve. It also has a COSC certification for its chronometer and uses either titanium or steel for its case.

Here are some of the other models in their Contemporary range:
Luminor 1950
Luminor Marina Tantalum
Luminor Marina Automatic PAM0104
Luminor Marina Automatic PAM 0164
Luminor Marina Automatic PAM0140
Luminor Marina Chronograph
Luminor Power Reserve PAM0171
Luminor GMT
Luminor GMT 40mm
Luminor Submersible PAM0025
Luminor Submersible 1000m
Luminor Submersible PAM0170

It has a Special Editions Collection and some of the very elegant and exquisite designs would be the Luminor Blackseal and Luminor Sealand for Purdey. Blackseal has beautiful engraving that pays tribute to the naval corps. It showed two Italian frogmen on a human torpedo.

The latter has a hinge cover system that protects the watch in a closed position. It has very finely engraved and complicated engraved patterns in four designs.

They have also introduced other Radiomir in their Contemporary collection. The Radiomir GMT Alarm contains a 47 hour power reserve with Incabloc shock absorber system. It has a 42mm case with a second time zone indication at 6 as well as a sonnerie using the center hands.

Its Arabic numerals, triangle markers, steel baton markers and the central hands are all with luminescent. Some other models are:
Radiomir 40mm
Radiomir Independent
Radiomir Historic Chronograph
Radiomir Chrono Split Second

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