Officine Panerai

SIHH 2013: Panerai PAM514 Radiomir 1940 3 Days 47mm

 

RADIOMIR 1940

In about 1940, the  Panerai  workshops in Florence perfected a new  case,  designed to meet the increasing demands of the  commandos of the  Italian Navy. The case  had evolved from the  one presented in 1936 which is known today as the Radiomir – a term which originally  referred to the luminous material patented by Panerai  to make the  dial readable in the  dark  – but  it presented some innovations designed to make its construction even  more solid and hardwearing.

In the new  case  the strap attachments were no longer formed from a strong piece of steel  wire bent and welded to the case, as they had been previously. This design might expose the watch to the risk of the strap coming off in the course of the extreme operations which commandos were called  upon to  undertake when on  board their  underwater assault  craft.  In the  1940s  version, however, the lugs were larger and much more solid, being milled from the same block of steel as the case,  of which it was an integral part.

As well as the strap attachments, the system of attaching the strap was also changed, becoming much simpler and more secure. While previously it had been necessary to sew  the leather round the wire strap attachments, the new  construction had small holes in the lugs themselves in which little tubes could be fitted, having  been inserted through the  loops at the  ends  of the  strap.  This was a more modern solution, which also meant that the leather strap could easily be replaced.

As well as the  modification to the  strap attachments, other changes altered the  Radiomir case in a definitive way,  presaging the  subsequent development of the  shape of the  Luminor case which came out a few  years later. The cushion-shaped outlines were now less accentuated. The winding crown was slightly larger and cylindrical rather than troncoidal. The overall thickness of the watch increased from about 15 mm to almost 17 mm.


So was born the Radiomir 1940 case, which Officine Panerai is presenting again today – with the same forms but in a thinner version - in new  models of the collection, watches endowed with the strength and fascination that only being a part of history can convey.

RADIOMIR 1940 3 DAYS – 47mm
RADIOMIR 1940 3 DAYS ORO ROSSO – 47mm



The enthralling Radiomir 1940 case is making its debut in the Historic Collection of Officine Panerai with  the  new  Radiomir  1940 3 Days, available  in steel  or red  gold  and  fitted with  the  P.3000 calibre,  a hand-wound mechanical movement with a power reserve of three days.

In the  Radiomir 1940 3 Days the  essential forms of the  Panerai  design have  been integrated with haute horlogerie technical solutions in the choice of materials and in the construction of every detail of the watch.

The dial, with  the small seconds hand  at nine o’clock and the date  window at three o’clock, has the sandwich structure of two superimposed plates with the luminous material between them, its light being visible through the holes  made corresponding to the hour  markers in the upper plate. This type  of dial construction had  already been designed by Panerai  at the  end  of the  1930s  to provide greater brightness and  legibility.  The  colour of the  dial is black  in the  steel  version and brown in the red gold model.

The case  is made of AISI 316L stainless steel, a grade extremely resistant to corrosion, or of 5Npt red gold,  an alloy with  a high percentage of copper, which gives the colour greater intensity, and a proportion of platinum, which helps  to exclude oxidation. In both versions the finish of the case and bezel  is polished.

The P.3000 movement, developed and produced entirely  in the  Officine Panerai  manufacture in Neuchâtel, can be admired through the large sapphire crystal window in the back. Hand-wound and with a diameter of 16½ lignes, the P.3000 calibre  has a power reserve of three days achieved by means of two spring  barrels in series. It has wide  brush-finished bridges with chamfered edges and a variable  inertia balance with  an unusually large balance wheel (13.2 mm in diameter) which oscillates at a frequency of 3 Hz. The P.3000 calibre  also has the device which enables the hour hand  to be adjusted in jumps of one  hour  forward or backward, so that  its adjustment does not interfere with the progress of the minute hand  or the running of the watch.

The  Radiomir   1940  3  Days  (PAM00514) and  the  Radiomir 1940 3  Days Oro Rosso (PAM00515) are supplied respectively with  a black  leather strap or a brown alligator  strap,  and they are part of Officine Panerai’s Historic Collection.



RADIOMIR 1940 3 DAYS - 47mm

Movement: Hand-wound mechanical, Panerai P.3000  calibre,   executed  entirely   by  Panerai, 16½  lignes,  5.3  mm thick,  21 jewels,  Glucydur® balance,   21,600   alternations/hour.   Incabloc® anti-shock device. Power reserve 3  days,  two barrels. 162 components.

Functions:   Hours, minutes, small   seconds, date.

Case: Diameter 47 mm, AISI 316L polished steel. Screw-down winding crown personalised OP.

Bezel: Polished steel.

Back: See-through sapphire crystal.

Dial: Black  with  luminous Arabic  numerals and hour  markers. Date  at 3 o’clock, seconds at 9 o’clock.

Crystal: Sapphire, made of corundum, 1.8 mm thick. Anti-reflective coating.

Water-resistance: 10 bar (~ 100 metres).

Strap: PANERAI personalised leather strap and trapezoidal polished steel buckle.

Reference: PAM00514

This message has been edited by Kong on 2013-01-21 06:54:13 This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2013-01-21 12:11:50

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