Panerai Radiomir PAM 00292

Black Panerai. The black Radiomir PAM 292 released by Panerai in 2007, was not their first Black Panerai. Panerai had already previously released the PAM 004, which was a black Luminor Marina and PAM 009 was a Black Luminor. These watches were made using stainless steel cases with a "black" coat applied via physical vapor deposition (PVD). PVD is a method of depositing thin films by the condensation of a vaporized form of the material onto various surfaces. It basically means depositing a layer metal onto another. These Panerai PVD watches were made of stainless steel, coated with titanium nitride. This gave the watches a "black" or "gun metal" finish.

The problem with PVD coating is that they can get scratched as easily as stainless steel, and if scratch badly enough, the stainless steel case of the watch would be exposed. Unlike a stainless steel watch, you can not simply buff out scratches, and re-coating the watch would be relatively expensive.


Panerai Radiomir PAM 292. In 2007 Panerai released another Black Panerai. The Radiomir PAM 292. The PAM 292 belongs to Panerai's historic line. It uses a hand wound Panerai OP X movement, which is a Panerai modified ETA 6497 movement. The movement produces 21,600 vibrations per hour and has a 55 hour power reserve. The watch is encased in a 45 mm case which has a 100m water resistance rating.

The interesting about this watch is not its movement, but its finish. Unlike most black watches in the market, it does not use PVD. It is a ceramic coated watch. The ceramic used is Zirconium Oxide and it is molded from powder using a process of isostatic pressure instead of being cast. This process make it extreme durability, reputedly five times tougher than 316L steel, it also highly resistant to scratches and corrosion.

This finish is also now being used on the special edition Luminor PAM 00026 and Luminor PAM 317.

About Panerai. Officine Panerai was founded in 1860 in Florence, Italy by Giovani Panerai. Panerai was acquired over by Swiss watchmaker Richemont S. A. in 1997.