The Panerai Luminor collection has hosted a myriad of complications and configurations, but its appeal boils down to the immediately recognizable basics: a sandwich dial inside of a big cushion case with an unmistakable crown guard. It’s a look that defined an era, and while trends have shifted the core charm of the Luminor remains. This week, the collection welcomes a new reference that brings a GMT complication back into the mix alongside an 8 day power reserve indication on the dial. This configuration comes courtesy the P.2003 caliber within, featuring a trio of mainspring barrels providing the robust reserve.
The new Luminor is called the Dieci Giorni GMT, which is Italian for Ten Days. The power reserve is positioned to be read in a linear fashion, with a needle that traverses a horizontal display counting down the amount of reserve left on tap. This is positioned directly under the hand stack, and represents one of the more creative displays of a power reserve at work today. A 10 Giorni label resides above the display, which doesn’t feel entirely necessary as it could be something of a distraction to actually reading the reserve, but it brings a touch of character to the dial at the same time.
At its base, the dial gets a deep blue sunray finish that works beautifully with the small hits of orange used for the GMT and AM/PM indications. It’s a lovely dial that retains that signature legibility of the Luminor, even with the added complications seen here. A big part of that is the AM/PM indication being nested within the running seconds sub dial at 9 o’clock. That running seconds hand jumps directly to the 0 position when the crown is pulled out, allowing for precise setting without the hassle of having to wait until the top of the minute.
An orange tipped 24 hour hand joins the hour and minute hand, though there is no 24 hour scale against which to read it. This suite of features is nothing new for the brand, having been implemented across other collections over the past decade, from the Radiomir 323 (and the then P.2003/6 labeled caliber) to the PAM986 more recently. It’s one of their original movements, and the look is signature to the brand at this point.
All of this is situated within the classic 44mm steel Luminor case with that oversized crown protector dominating the 3 o’clock side. This is not a watch for the faint of heart, but you pretty much know what you’re getting yourself into with this PAM01482 reference. Panerai