SIHH 2012: Officine Panerai Special Edition Radiomir California 3 Days (PAM00448) and Radiomir S.L.C. 3 days (PAM00449)

"Vintage". In keeping with Officine Panerai's recent trend of manufacturing historic watches with more historically accurate materials Panerai announced at SIHH 2012 two exclusive Special Editions Radiomir watches, the California 3 Days (PAM00448) and the Radiomir S.L.C. 3 Days (PAM00449). Each watch will be produced in a limited quantity of only 500 units each.

The main feature of the two Special Editions dial protected by a Plexiglas crystal instead of a sapphire crystal one used in most watches today one. To highlight the emphasis on the historical nature of this watch Panerai engraved the the word "VINTAGE" between the strap attachments at 6 o'clock.

This is the one element of the watch I find disagreeable as I do not see how these watches would qualify as "vintage" watches simply by the use of a Plexiglass crystal. Still, they are beautiful creations.

Both watches have a 47 mm diameter case water resistant to 100 meters. Inside is a in-house manufactured manual winding P. 3000 calibre movement inside which features a three day power reserve. The movement is visible through a sapphire crystal case back.

PAM 448

California Dial. The PAM 448 has the so-called "California Dial" which has a rather odd looking combination of Roman numerals, Arabic numbers and stick and triangle markers on its face. The California Dial was used by some Panerai and Rolex watches manufactured in the 1930's. It should be recalled that back than, Panerai watches used Rolex movements, so a certain degree of sharing in design did occur between the two companies. In the 1980's a company based in California, USA, refurbish the dials of several vintage Rolex watches with the combination Roman numerals and Arabic number dials, and the dial got the name, "California Dial." As near as I can surmise, these dial was the result of Panerai experiments at perfecting the high visibility dial.

Dot Dial. The PAM 449 has a dial with dot and stick markers. While unconfirmed, the story supposedly is that the first pancake dials in the 1930's  were manufacture using dots and stick markers until the technology was perfect allowing for the use of more complex arabic and roman numerals. The pancake dial is a three layer design where the luminescent material is place in between two dials rather than being painted on a dial. 

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.