Panerai Radiomir

Radiomir is a line from the Florentine brand Panerai, tracing its origins to the underwater watches of the 1930s made for the combat divers of the Royal Italian Navy. It is named after the patented radium-based luminous compound that made the indications visible at depth. The silhouette of the 1936 prototype is still recognisable today: a cushion case, thin wire lugs and a conical crown.

The main difference from the Luminor is that the classic Radiomir has no protective bridge over the crown, which simply screws down, giving a cleaner silhouette. In 1940 a transitional case appeared, with lugs forming one piece with the case rather than being made of wire; this case is used on the Radiomir 1940 GMT Power Reserve. The Radiomir Egiziano 60mm Titanium stands apart: a homage to the Reference 2/56 made by the manufacture in 1956 for the combat divers of the Egyptian Navy. It has a titanium case, a rotating bezel and a Luminor-style crown guard, and was released as a limited edition.

The collection includes both hand-wound and automatic watches. The hand-wound P.6000 calibre was developed at Panerai's manufacture in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and runs for three days; it powers the Panerai Radiomir Tre Giorni, Radiomir Officine and Radiomir Base 3 Days Acciaio. The eight-day P.5000 is used in the Radiomir 8 Days and Radiomir California, both made of Brunito steel with a hand-applied patina. Among the automatics is the 4.2 mm-thick P.900 in the Radiomir Quaranta. The micro-rotor P.4001 and P.4002 calibres add a second time zone and a power reserve indicator in the Officine Radiomir GMT 45 mm and Radiomir 1940 GMT Power Reserve, while the P.2003 in the Radiomir 10 Days GMT runs for ten days. There are also OP calibres based on third-party movements: the OP X, based on the Unitas 6497-1, in the Radiomir reference PAM 00210, and the certified-chronometer OP III, based on the Valjoux 7750, in the Radiomir Black Seal. Complications include a tourbillon: in the Radiomir Tourbillon GMT Titanio 48mm, the carriage of the P.2005 calibre rotates perpendicular to the balance axis and completes one revolution every 30 seconds.

The key choices within the Radiomir collection are winding type, case size and metal: stainless steel, white gold in the Radiomir 40mm White Gold, and titanium.