Panerai's Manifattura line

In-house movements. A lot of watch manufacturers use movements built by third party companies, even top Swiss manufacturers like Omega, Oris, Panerai, Tag Heuer and others. Omega, Panerai and Tag Heuer heavily modify ETA movements before putting them in their watches. For example Omega's ETA based Co-Axial movements are so heavily modified it is hard to say if they are more ETA or more Omega. Still, horologist place greater value on watches with in-house movements. Omega, Panerai and Tag Heuer have been releasing more and more watches with in-house movements due to this preference.

Panerai Manifattura. Panerai sells it Radiomir and Luminor watches under the categories of historic, contemporary and manifattura. The manifattura line is Panerai's line-up of watches with in-house movements built by Panerai.

In many cases, the in-house movements built by the watchmaker do not really offer the buyer anything different from the ETA modified movements. In the case of "built by Panerai", I am glad to say that is not the case.

You will pay a premium when you decide to buy a Panerai manifattura you get something special. When Panerai builds in-house, they do not do it just for the sake of saying built by Panerai, but to give you something different.

Six to ten day power reserves. Whether you select a manual winding or self winding watch from the Panerai manifattura line you get a 6 to 10 day power reserves which is much longer than the 2 to 3 day power reserve of other watches. They also all produce 28,800 vibrations per hour.

Panerai Radiomir PAM 00268 (PAM 268) with the power reserve indicator

The Panerai PAM 190 and 197 also have movements with 8 day power reserves. This older 8 day movements are Panerai modified Jaeger-LeCoultre movements.

GMT the Panerai way. Most GMT watches will a second hour hand to keep track of a second time zone. The primary hour hand (rotating every 12 hours) is read in conjunction with 12 one-hour markers on the dial while the secondary hand (rotating every 24 hours) is read in conjunction with a second set of hour markers on the dial or the bezel. This makes for a busy face.

Panerai manifattura watches primary and secondary hour hands both rotate every 12 hours. In order to show whether or not the GMT hand is indicating AM or PM, a small AM/PM indicator is incorporated into the small seconds hand.

Panerai Luminor GMT PAM 00270 (PAM 270) with the GMT hand and AM/PM indicator

GMT + Chrono. Watchmakers do not often combine GMT and chronograph functions because is make for a very complex bezel and dial. Panerai does this and is able to keep a nice clean face. However, they do not incorporate tachymeter. The Paneria manifiturra chronographs incorporate the flyback function. This allows for single button operation and from a nice clean casing not clutter with pushers.

Panerai Luminor GMT Chronograph PAM 00311 (PAM 311) with the single button operation

Our other articles on the Panerai manifattura line-up:

• Officine Panerai Radiomir Luminor 1950 8 Days GMT PAM 233 and PAM 289
  
• Officine Panerai Radiomir PAM 268
• Officine Panerai Luminor 1950 10 Days GMT PAM 270
  
• Officine Panerai Luminor 1950 8 days Chrono Monopulsante GMT PAM 311 & PAM 317
• Officine Panerai Luminor 1950 Titanium Tourbillon GMT PAM 306
• Officine Panerai Radiomir Titanium Tourbillon GMT PAM 315