Alvin Wong 15 June 2020

Lume buffs take note.

One of modern watchmaking’s most celebrated icons, the Luminor can be easily recognised from 10 paces away, thanks to its signature silhouette with protruding crown guard, and its unmistakable dial with baton hands and hour numerals. To celebrate this 70th anniversary of the watch, Panerai has decided to pay tribute to these trademark features by literally illuminating them on the Luminor Marina PAM01117.

On the stunning timepiece, green Super-LumiNova has been used to mark out the brand’s logo, hands and indexes on the dial, as well as the crown, crown guard, locking lever and even the contrast stitching on the watch’s fabric strap. As such, the Luminor Marina PAM01117 is especially stunning in the dark, as it emanates a clubby, sci-fi-esque vibe while highlighting the collection’s most iconic features.

Incidentally, the name ‘Luminor’ references the introduction of the tritium-based luminous substance that was used all those decades ago in the original model. However, the Luminor Marina PAM01117 uses the latest-generation Super-LumiNova X1, which illuminates for 60 per cent longer and is more legible than regular grade Super-LumiNova after being charged up with light exposure.

Elsewhere, the watch’s titanium case also contributes to its futuristic allure. Sporting a light matte grey, it is made from a process called Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS), an advanced 3D printing method that involves the depositing and sintering titanium powder, layer by layer (at 0.03 mm each layer), using a high-powered optical fibre laser.

The DMLS construction ostensibly helps to further reduce the weight of the already-light titanium. Together with the automatic P.9010 twin-barrel movement with three-day power reserve, the Luminor Marina PAM01117 weighs only 100g with strap.

But that’s not all. Even the Luminor Marina PAM01117’s warranty promise is revolutionary. Panerai is offering 70-year warranty for the Luminor Marina PAM01117, along with two other boutique-exclusive models released in 2020, the PAM01118 and PAM01119, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the collection. This new warranty duration covers the care and maintenance of those watches to 2090, and surpasses even Panerai’s own eight-year Pam.Guard warranty programme that was launched only in 2019.

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Alvin Wong

Ex Editor-In Chief

Alvin promises not to be a douche when talking about watches. He may have scoured the Basel and Geneva watch fairs for the past 15 years, and played an instrumental role to the growth of Singapore's pioneering horological and men's lifestyle publications, but the intrepid scribe seeks to learn something new with each story he writes.