Panerai Luminor Chrono Goldtech™ Blu Notte (PAM01111)
The Panerai Luminor Chrono Goldtech™ Blu Notte (PAM01111) subscribes to the brand’s distinctive design language, but also incorporates a bi-compax chronograph and features a case made from the company’s innovative noble metal, Goldtech™.
Last year, Panerai celebrated the 70th anniversary of Luminor, a luminescent material based on tritium. The Luminor name was subsequently adopted for a collection of divers’ watches, each equipped with a prominent crown guard. Incidentally, the brand’s modern-day models now employ Super-LumiNova, a luminescent treatment widely used within the watch industry.
Clearly, the prestigious watch marque had no intention to let the aforementioned milestone pass without making a bit of a fuss. Indeed, I reported on the release of nine Luminor novelties during 2020 and I suspect that I may well have missed writing about one or two others.
The problem with being closely linked with one particular model is that a brand can appear ‘typecast’. However, Panerai has expended much energy in recent years enlarging its portfolio to encompass numerous versions of the Radiomir, the Submersible et al. Furthermore, despite the Maison being best known for making watches endowed with hours, minutes and small seconds, it has also released models equipped with various complications, including the equation of time, tourbillon and minute repeater.
This year, Panerai seems fixated with the chronograph, releasing five different references at the recent Watches & Wonders fair. Furthermore, just in the last few days, after Watches & Wonders ended, the brand unveiled yet another chronograph, the Panerai Luminor Chrono Goldtech™ Blu Notte (PAM01111).
With the exception of the Luminor Chrono Monopulsante 8 Giorni GMT PAM1135 Blu Notte, all of the newly released chronographs, including the (PAM0111), are fitted with the same automatic movement, the P.9200 calibre. This movement has a frequency of 4Hz and features a single barrel, delivering 42 hours of autonomy.
The Panerai Luminor Chrono Goldtech™ Blu Notte (PAM01111) is housed in a 44mm case made from an interesting noble metal, Goldtech™. This material is 75% pure gold, just like other forms of 18-carat gold, however, Panerai has paid close attention to the composition of the remaining 25% of the material. This particular precious alloy includes 24% copper and 0.4% platinum. The high concentration of copper contributes to the distinctive, reddish tones of the case, while the presence of platinum ensures the material is less prone to oxidation.
As its name implies, this latest reference (PAM0111) is fitted with a rich blue dial. It also features golden hands lined with luminescent treatment. An exhibition caseback, adorned with a wave-style motif, affords sight of the movement within.
The company has offered chronographs for some time, including various yachting-themed models, but I can’t recall the brand releasing so many chronograph options in such a comparatively short period of time. However, I subscribe to the school of thought that you can’t have too much choice, hence I applaud Panerai for its extraordinary creativity.
The brand’s press release (April 2021)
Taming time, pacing epic competitions, synchronizing heroic missions: they are weighty responsibilities that hold success or failure in the balance, and therefore must be entrusted to tools with advanced mechanics. It is a world of precision and performance in which Panerai has distinguished itself since the 1940s. Today the brand reaffirms its role in the sphere of chronography.
Panerai began perfecting its expertise in the category as early as 1943, the reference year of the Mare Nostrum project, a model designed to serve the deck officers of the Italian Navy, developed only to the prototype stage, one of which is carefully preserved in the Panerai museum in Florence. Its mastery has extended into the 21st century, with the introduction of a series of efficient, high-performance new proprietary calibres developed by the research and development department within the Neuchâtel manufacture, the legendary Laboratorio di Idee, a hub for innovation and avant-garde imagination.
The sporting complication par excellence, Panerai’s return to the field of chronography is enhanced by the preciousness of Panerai GoldtechTM, a type of gold distinguished by high percentages of copper and platinum, the metals responsible for its intense colour, and heightened resistance to oxidation. This alloy lends an aesthetic dimension and mechanical properties that do not go unnoticed in the Luminor Chrono GoldtechTM Blu Notte (PAM01111).
A specimen with a precious and refined essence balanced by the powerful profile of the iconic Luminor case, its sporty features include chronograph buttons, diverted to the left of the case, a complement to the crown protecting bridge and as a tachymeter scale on the flange, useful for calculating the average speed over a predefined distance, in kilometres or miles.
Shielded by a smokey sapphire glass window, integrated into the case-back and decorated in a wave pattern through a metallization process, the movement is the new Caliber P.9200, solid and reliable. The self-winding chronograph features a 42- hour power reserve, resulting from the energy stored inside a single barrel.
Water-resistant up to 5 bar (about 50 meters deep), the Luminor Chrono GoldtechTM Blu Notte is paired with a deep blue alligator leather strap fitted with a trapezoidal pin buckle in brushed Panerai GoldtechTM. An additional technical rubber strap, also in deep blue, multiplies the opportunities to customize the model as does a screwdriver for its replacement and removal of the buckle.
Further reading