Panerai Radiomir California PAM01349 Revives a Vintage Dial

We’ve already touched upon a couple of the new Radiomirs that Panerai has revealed for 2023, the Annual Calendar PAM01363 and PAM0432. However, we’ve yet to talk about our personal favourite, the Panerai Radiomir California PAM01349.

The watch continues Panerai’s trend of downsizing some of their classic design elements. This is the first time they’ve produced a California style dial at 45mm, having only done so at 47mm previously. A “California dial” is one where the numerals of the hour track are given in a combination of Roman and Arabic numerals split along a horizontal axis. For clarity, the 3, 6, and 9 indexes are typically dashes.

California dials were first popularised by Rolex and Panerai during World War Two, created in order to prevent coordination errors between military elements. The idea being that it’s easy to read on the go because it can be read from any angle as the display itself provides orientation.

The style became known as California dials after Rolex stopped producing them and people turned to a refurbishing company in Cali to add the display to their Rolexes. However, Panerai never stopped making California dials, which means that these days they’re arguably the watchmaker with the most association to the style.

For the Radiomir California PAM01349, they’ve paired the display with a deep olive green base and an eSteel cushion case with their new Brunito finishing. The finish gives it a distressed aesthetic like a well-worn vintage timepiece with dark weathering and faux scratches. It suits the PAM01349 incredibly well as it all comes together to create the aesthetic of a genuine heritage military timepiece.

Housed inside is the P.5000 calibre with astonishing 8-day power reserve. It’s the same one as used in the Otto Giorni and we see that ultimately, the California and the Otto Giorni (which we’ll be covering in more detail soon) are the same watch with different dials. Honestly, that’s no bad thing as they’re great watches and each version offer something different.