Panerai Radiomir 1940 – 42mm: This Panerai 1940 42mm, for me is the most perfectly proportion timepiece in their collection. The PAM00512 released this year at SIHH has gotten a lot of love and its easy to see why. Panerai’s are quite huge and although they also released the colossal 47mm PAM00514 and PAM00515 at SIHH; the PAM00512 and PAM00513 look more like the timepieces originally produced for the Marina Militare back in 1940. This offering from Panerai is somewhat invigorating to say the least. The Radiomir 1940 is essentially a Luminor without the chunky crown protector, which does make it more flexible.
The Radiomir 1940 comes in a choice of two materials, 316L polished steel (PAM00512) and rose gold (PAM00513). Encased in the svelte 42mm case is a P.999 screw-down hand-wound movement – water-resistant to 100 meters; the smallest and thinnest in the wide range of calibres produced by the Officine Panerai manufactured in Neuchâtel. I’m pretty darned sure winding it up will be a pleasurable experience, if you like that sort of thing (I know I do). Visible through the window of the sapphire crystal case back, the P.999 has a power reserve of 60 hours and a balance which oscillates at 21,600 alternations/hour (equal to 3 Hz). The Radiomir 1940 and The Radiomir 1940 Oro Rosso are supplied with black or brown alligator straps, but I can’t help feeling it’ll look so much better on a nice Italian Leather Horween strap in any of these colours?
Ok, enough of the technical mumbo jumbo. What I really love about the Radiomir 1940 is how you could easily be seen wearing it with casual attire and when you decide to have those “scrub-up well” moments, it will not look out-of-place with a suit and a nice fat Cohiba. I love the way this Radiomir 1940 also has inherent patina. Some may argue that patina is earned and shouldn’t be given so casually – but I quite like it. There are very few cushioned cased watches that are on the current market that I do like, this is the exception! Hopefully Sly Stallone won’t see it necessary to display this beautiful Panerai 1940 in his below par Expendables.
For more info on this gorgeous timepiece check the Officine Panerai website.
