Panerai Luminor Sealand Year Of The Rat: Malaysia Price And Review
Panerai’s Luminor reaps a fine Lunar New Year harvest.
Panerai’s Chinese Zodiac series centred on the Luminor Sealand model has been 12 years in the making. The progressive annual rollout began with the Ox in 2009 and concludes in 2020 with its final puzzle piece, the Rat, which is actually the first animal in the 12-year cycle.
Just like other pieces in the series, the Rat is rendered in sparsello—a unique floral style of engraved illustration that is an ancient Italian art technique. Of all the auspicious Rat renditions that you’ll come across from watchmakers this year, Panerai’s interpretation is the jolliest by far. With a cheeky smile, the shrewd gatherer can barely contain its glee as it guards its hoard of grapes—which symbolises a bountiful harvest of great wealth in Chinese iconography.
To create it, a master craftsman uses a small scalpel to etch the design on the decorative hunter-type cover (with a signalling mirror inside) that is a distinguishing feature of every Sealand. It is then inlaid with gold threads in multiple parallel layers, which are hammered until they completely fill the recesses. All in all, it takes 50 hours to complete each piece.
Despite its traditional outlook, the brush-finished steel cover hinged at 12 o’clock to the matching 44mm case flips open to reveal a rather modern matte grey dial. It is decorated with printed black Arabic numerals and linear hour markers supplemented by Super-LumiNova dots for low-light legibility. The main hands and small seconds hand at nine o’clock are similarly coated.
The Sealand Year Of The Rat runs on the ultra-thin P. 9010 Calibre that’s been used throughout Panerai’s Chinese Zodiac series. It offers a power reserve of three days provided by twin spring barrels, and rapid time adjustment that also changes the calendar. With automatic winding, it is made entirely in-house at the brand’s Neuchatel Manufacture.
The watch is fitted with a semi-matte calf strap in gold offset against beige stitching, and presented in a pear wood box. Inside, you’ll find a second strap of black rubber, a special tool for changing the strap and a screwdriver to remove the buckle. Whether or not it is your Chinese Zodiac sign, don’t sleep on it if you like what you see. Act fast: only 88 pieces of the Sealand Year Of The Rat will be released worldwide. You snooze, you lose!
|
Case |
44mm stainless steel |
|
Dial |
Matte grey with sunburst centre, transferred black Arabic numerals and Super-LumiNova hands and dot hour markers, small seconds at nine o'clock and date at three o'clock |
|
Movement |
Self-winding Calibre P.9010 |
|
Strap |
Gold calfskin leather with beige stitching; extra black rubber strap |
|
Functions |
Hours, minutes, seconds, date |
|
Power Reserve |
72 hours |
|
Price |
RM89,200 |
End of content
No more pages to load
