Panerai has only existed as a luxury watchmaker since 1993. That’s when the Italian brand first began selling its oversized, dive-ready tool watches to the public.
Prior to that, Panerai was best known as a supplier to the Italian Navy, and not just for watches. Although the brand did supply dive watches to the Marine Militaire from the 1930s through 1970 in collaboration with Rolex (The Crown made the watches, Panerai produced their luminous dials), Panerai’s true expertise in those days was in producing luminous military underwater tools and instruments.
Panerai’s 20th-century archives are filled with all sorts of innovative illuminative tools, from wristworn compasses and depth gauges to underwater flashlights and light signals.
Now, Panerai is combining these two pieces of its unique naval heritage in its most iconic watch, the Luminor Marina, with a new version that recalls some of the earliest wristworn instruments the company produced for the Italian Navy.
Dive into history
There are several subtle but notable differences between the new PAM01759 and other examples of the Luminor Marina. Starting with the dial, the date window at 3:00 has been removed and replaced with a full-size “3” numeral. This was done to mimic the brand’s original military watches, which did not feature a date, and makes the watch more of a dive-specific tool. A nice bonus is it also results in a lot more lume on this side of the dial.
Speaking of more lume, this model is arguably more legible in the dark than any other current Luminor Marina thanks to the unique layout of the Super-LumiNova-coated sandwich dial. Whereas other references in the line use hashmarks for most hour markers, PAM01759 uses Arabic numerals for every single index, giving you a holistic view of the time, even in the dark. The extra numerals are styled in a military stencil font that feels very appropriate for the watch.
