The new versions of the Panerai Luminor Submersible evoke toughness, with their big chunky cases. The Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Bronzo brings together two of the top trends in watches this season, bronze case and blue dial. The colour scheme is enhanced by the beige SuperLuminova on dial markings and hands. And that name, Bronzo? Just a reminder of Panerai’s Italian origins.
Case that reflects your lifestyle
The case is majestically large at 47 mm, in bronze, a material that develops a patina over time whose appearance will depend on how you wear and use the watch. It’s a little slimmer than the original Panerai Bronzo PAM382, introduced in 2011, by virtue of the P.9010 movement which is almost 2 mm thinner than the P.9000. The case is water-resistant to 30 bar, 300 metres. The unidirectional rotating bezel has Panerai’s patented ratchet system for precision of the clicks. The dial has a minimalist look, with differentiated hour markers, the dots on the dial mirrored by those on the bezel and repeated in a miniature version on the small seconds subdial. The date window, which in many watches feels like an unwanted necessity, is carefully incorporated into the overall design, with the same blue background, and balancing the continuous seconds on the other side. The watch has a leather strap with a titanium buckle.
The patina that develops on bronze radically modifies the watch’s appearance, because it changes from the red gold appearance shown in the images here to a sort of matt brown. So if you buy the watch because you like the bright appearance, you’ll probably have to clean the watch case at intervals using a mixture of lemon juice and baking powder. I’m not sure if Panerai owners would want to do this.
P.9010 automatic movement
The P.9010 movement can be seen through the titanium caseback, and its brushed finish evokes quality and functionality. The movement is built in-house, and it includes two useful features, the stop-seconds function for precision time-setting, and rapid hour hand adjustment, so that it can be moved forwards or backwards in one-hour jumps without affecting the other hands. This is useful when changing time zones. The movement is self-winding, and has a power reserve of 3 days. The balance bridge has a distinctive seagull shape. The titanium caseback ensures that your skin will not be stained, and it has a 12-sided shape.
Price and availability
The Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Bronzo is a limited edition of 1,000 pieces, available from June 2017, price €14,000, US $14,400.
You like the look but you’d like to spend less?
Panerai make their Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic in a range of options, starting this year at €8,500.
The Oris Carl Brashear Limited Edition is another fine diving watch in bronze with blue dial, water resistance 10 bar /100 metres, with an automatic movement, a modified Sellita SW200. This piece costs €2,600, 2,700 Swiss francs.
