Officine Panerai's P.3000 movement

Officine Panerai used to classify it watches with in-house Panerai's manifaturra line, which means it has a movement built by Panerai, as opposed to those which have a third party movement modified by Panerai. Officine Panerai only manufactured in-house movements for its more expensive watches with long  six to ten day power reserves, flyback chronograph movements, tourbillons and other complicated movements.

In 2009, Officine Panerai released it's P.9000 movement. This was a self-winding movement destined not for Panerai's higher end watches, but for watches below the price point of US$10,000. At the same time, Panerai dropped the manifaturra label for its watches with in-house movements. Whether this was because of a plan to move all Panerai watches to in-house movements, which would enhance the popularity of this already phenomenally popular brand, or to hedge against potential supply problems from ETA from whom Panerai sourced most of its third party movements, I really do not know. 

But I think all horologist are happy with the end result. Lower cost Officine Panerai's with in-house movements. In September 2010 Panerai, announced another in-house calibre which we expect to see its way into watches under the US$10,000 price point: the P.3000 movement. 

There will be four variants of the P.3000 caliber.  A basic two hand movement, the P.3000-1 with a small second at 9 o'clock position, P.3000-2 with small second and date at 3 o'clock position and finally P.3000-3 with a GMT complication. These movements will all run at 21,600 vibrations per hour and have a three days power reserve. 

I expect the P.3000 calibre to figure prominently in watches which Officine Panerai will be announcing this year at SIHH 2011. I would really love to see a watch following the design of the PAM0000 with a in-house movement. SIHH 2011 is less than two weeks away, and this promises to be an interesting show.