SIHH 2011: Officine Panerai Radiomir 8 Days Ceramic PAM00384

Black Ceramic. Most watches with a black finish are created by applying a "black" coat 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 of metal onto another. 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.

Officine Panerai initially used PVD coatings to produce black watches, but later developed a different way of producing black watches by using zirconium oxide, a synthetic ceramic made by applying isostatic pressing process to the material in powered form. The result is a ceramic coated watch. This process is designed for make the finish extremely durable, reputedly five times tougher than 316L steel, it also highly resistant to scratches and corrosion.

This finish has been used by Panerai in previous models, the PAM00026, PAM00292 and PAM00317. 

Officine Panerai Radiomir 8 Days Ceramic PAM00384. The Panerai Radiomir 8 Days Ceramic PAM 384 has a Radiomir style case in the more contemporary 45mm size. Using the Panerai 2002/3 calibre, it displays the time, date and reserve power on its dial. The distinctive feature of Panerai 2002 calibre that this manual winding movement has a long 8 day power reserved.

The dial of the PAM 384 is protected by a sapphire crystal glass, and a smoked sapphire crystal glass is provided at the back. While I cannot confirm it, the crystal on the face may be smoked too, or the luminous material used is of a different color, because from pictures they appear to have a different color from other Panerai watches, giving it a nice aged appearance. Water resistance is rated at 100 meters.

While the PAM 384 is regular production watch, so it will be in Panerai's catalog for several years, yearly production will be reportedly rather limited, maybe just to 500 to 1000 pieces per year.

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.