Sometimes a watch doesn’t need to be dressed to the nines in order to impress, or be equipped with every gadget, gizmo and complication a watch designer can think of. Sometimes it’s best to remember the old adage that less is more because time and time again it’s simplicity that makes us fall in love with design. That’s certainly the case with the new Panerai Luminor Tre Giorni PAM01628.
It was only a few months ago we were dwelling on the earliest days of Panerai’s history with the Radiomir ref. 3646 and it’s that watch that clearly influences the design of the new Luminor. Both that original, early Radiomir and the Luminor Tre Giorni have steel cushion cases with black, sandwich dials featuring Arabic numerals at 12/3/6/9 and bars for the intervening indices. Obviously the Luminor has the modernised elements of the Luminor design compared to the Radiomir such as the signature crown locking system that gives it a bolder appearance.
Not that the Luminor Tre Giorni needs help looking bold because with a diameter of 47mm it’s a true wristmonster. Among the biggest in the collection. But that immense size is balance somewhat by the understated nature of the time only display. Yes, it’s going to be controversial because we mere mortals who are too scared to venture beyond a robust 42mm won’t have a dream in hell of wearing one without being engulfed by it.
But when you see it on the wrist of a Sly Stallone, a Dwayne Johnson, a Joe Rogan, it will look exactly right. Plus, as Panerai collectors (the Paneristi) tell us all the time, they don’t want smaller Panerais. So Panerai are catering towards the people who are actually buying their watches by keeping them large and it makes perfect market sense to do so when your customer base is this loyal.
Turn the watch over and you’ll find an exhibition caseback revealing the manual winding P.3000 movement. It’s equipped with a double barrel system that provides a 3-day power reserve, hence the name Tre Giorni, which translates to Three Days in Italian. Once again, elegance and beautiful simplicity are the name of the game in terms of finishing with horizontal brushing on the main plate and polished edges.
As for price, the Panerai Luminor Tre Giorni PAM01628 is £9,100. That’s around the mid-range price for the Luminor collection, which tends to either be around £5,000 for the most accessible models, £8,000-£10,000 for the majority of the collection and then £13,000+ for high complication models with some even breaking the £100,000 mark in precious metals. I think this watch will easily appeal to diehard Paneristi and for those of us who think it’s too big, at least it’s easy to admire from a distance.
Price and Specs:
More details at Panerai.
Apologies, the predictive text gremlin has struck again.
The wording in the later part of my post was “style over substance” as opposed to “style of substance”, I am not making any comment about substance use!
Style and italians generally go hand in hand, you only have to look at their tailoring and sports cars to see that. So, where does the Panerai watch fall into the category of high style.
As Michael points out, Panerai appear to be totally happy with continuing their signature timepiece with minor tweaks over it’s long history, but the “bigger is better” adage is maybe a little too much of a step.
At 47 mm, this latest offering is way too big and bold for the more normal person. My son in law is 6’4″ (and not of slight build) and even he couldn’t carry off this Panerai.
So, having started with the negatives, now to the positives. I personally like the cushion shape and the simplicity of the dial, which is easy to read in various low light environments. (So all back catalogue features). Panerai’s history has links back to the Italian navy, but this isn’t a diver watch (no rotating bezel), so let’s call this a field watch, (for which it’s perfectly suited), but in previous iterations that were smaller. The crown locking system that they have developed spoils the overall design and with little apparent advantage (if it is necessary then why aren’t more makers following suit).
So, Panerai aren’t slow on collaboration, they have developed a watch with Sylvester Stallone and in years gone by, with the British high end gun maker Purdey. Sadly that watch was really a committee design that wasn’t really fit for purpose as it had numerous disadvantages to what must have been the original design brief. In short it was a high end watch (necessary for linking with the Purdey name), with a protective cover (akin to hunter pocket watches), having a large visible area for Purdey’s artisans to engrave big game animals, – so far so good, but (as with the original hunter watches, they were poor in terms of practically) having a flip style cover with a hinge that could easily break when mounted on horseback. Obviously less likely when you are in pursuit of big game or even shooting pheasant in the British countryside, but still a case of “style of substance”, why they didn’t adopt a half hunter design, can only be assumed to be down to a reduced area for the purdey artisans to engrave large animals that will gladly kill the hunter while he is fiddling with his watch case.