Panerai’s Luminor is an incredibly versatile wristwatch. On the tool watch side you have pieces like the Luminor Quaranta Carbotech and on the luxury side you have this, their latest release for Watches & Wonders, the Panerai Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech PAM01575 with sapphire dial.
As the name suggests, it’s made from Panerai’s proprietary Platinumtech material, which is an alloy made from 95% pure platinum reinforced with for extra durability. The case itself measures 44mm in diameter in the Luminor’s signature cushion shape with circular bezel and the collection’s lever crown protection system. Though while the name Platinumtech does make it sound more robust than a dress watch and to give it its due, it is 40% harder than regular platinum, this is still not a tool watch or diver. As to the latter, it only has a 50m water resistance rating.
Amusingly, despite its very long name, one thing that isn’t covered is what actually makes it stand out from the rest of the current range of Luminor watches: its sapphire dial. Sapphire is the incredibly hard material that most watches use for their main crystal glass above the dial, but some watches use the material to replace a traditional dial. Using its transparent properties to give you a glimpse into the inner workings of the movement – Christopher Ward recently did the same with the C60 Sapphire Edge.
Here the sapphire dial is tinted blue giving a dark hue to the aspects of the movement that can be seen below. The most prominent features are the day and date disks, which occupy a large portion of the display, wrapping around the perimeter and inner circle of the display. The rest of the display is occupied by the central hour, minute and GMT hands as well as the small seconds subdial with day-night indication. The rest of the perpetual calendar complications are found on the rear of the movement, visible through the exhibition caseback. Those include year, month, power reserve indicator and leap year indicator.
The movement itself is the P.4100, an automatic, micro-rotor calibre with 72-hour power reserve. A three-day power reserve is pretty solid for a perpetual calendar given the number of functions it has to provide energy for. It makes it easier to keep wound so that you can make use of the fact it won’t need adjusting until the year 2100. The Luminor Perpetual Calendar GMT Platinumtech PAM01575 is also a boutique exclusive.
Price and Specs:
More details at Panerai.
