SIHH 2010: Panerai Radiomir 42mm with P.999 movement (PAM337)

With its new P.999 totally in-house hand-wound movement Panerai makes a serious claim for its own share of dressy watches.

Being almost 2.5 times thinner than their wide-used Manifattura movement, the P.999 allows for a lot thinner watches that you can actually wear with your shirt.

The new Panerai Radiomir 42mm PAM337 is one of these.

Built on 19 jewels and beating at a frequency of 21,600 semi-oscillations per hour, the movement sports a single mainspring barrel design and offers impressive 60 hours of guaranteed power supply.

As far as I understand, the movement doesn’t have so called ‘hacking seconds’ function that stops and resets to zero the subsidiary seconds hand (it is traditionally located at 9 o’clock,) while you manually correct the watch.

Panerai doesn’t say a word about the watch’s case actual height but, judging by real-life photos of the model, it is pretty much clear that the PAM337 is a lot thinner that other models from the Italian brand.

By the way, here is a short video from PuristSPro.com that shows how good the PAM 337 looks on a normal wrist:

With its diameter of only 42 mm, the watch is also smaller. As I have already noted, now it is almost a real dressy watch, although it is still not a great threat for Patek Philippe.

UPDATE. Again, I have found a very well-done video showing you how the in-house Caliber P.999 movement works.

Photos: Officine Panerai

Panerai Radiomir 42mm P.999 PAM337 watch specification

Price range: $13,000
Movement: Panerai P.999 Calibre, hand-wound, 144 parts, 27.06 mm in diameter, 3.40 mm thick, 19 jewels, 21,600 vph, in-house
Complications: N/A
Power reserve: 60 hours
Case material: Stainless steel
Bezel material: Stainless steel
Case shape: Cushion
Transparent case back: Yes, sapphire crystal
Case size: 42.0 mm
Case height: N/A
Dial: Black
Hands: Stainless steel
Strap: Alligator leather strap
Crystal: Sapphire, corundum, 1.5 mm thick, antireflective coating
Water resistance: 100 meters