SIHH 2010: Panerai Luminor 1950 Marina 3 Days 44mm in Titanium (PAM351)

The new Panerai Luminor 1950 Marina PAM351 automatic wrist watch is yet another model offered in a titanium case playing with brushed and polished surfaces.

Just like the PAM338 and PAM346 models, it hurts your eyes with a strange combination of titanium and gold.

Somewhat frantically converting its models from ETA-sourced mass-produced ebauches to its own in-house Swiss made movements, the Italian watchmaker Panerai keeps introducing watches that look almost the same as last year’s models, but are different inside.

This refreshed PAM351 model, for example, is powered by the P.9000 Calibre automatic movement that, at 31mm in diameter and 7.9 mm thick, is quite simple and therefore very robust and reliable, which makes it a perfect fit for a model that costs around $8000.

Introduced only last year, the new self-winding caliber is equipped with a couple of spring barrels that provide the timepiece with an impressive power reserve of 72 hours.

Well, maybe this is not REALLY impressive in theory, but in practice this means that you can get the watch off your wrist on Friday night and put it back on Monday morning and the movement will still be ticking merrily inside the cushion-shaped titanium case that measures whole 44 millimeters in width.

Or you can leave it on your wrist and go to the nearest beach, since with its water resistance rating of 300 meters it is a full-blown diving watch, although sans a unidirectional rotating bezel.

Photos: Officine Panerai

Panerai Luminor 1950 Marina 44mm in Titanium PAM351 watch specification

Price range: $8,000
Movement: Panerai P.9000 Calibre, automatic, 197 parts, 31 mm in diameter, 7.9 mm thick, 28 jewels, two mainspring barrels, 28,800 vph, in-house
Complications: Date
Power reserve: 72 hours (3 days)
Case material: Brushed titanium
Bezel material: Polished titanium
Case shape: Cushion
Transparent case back: Yes, sapphire crystal caseback
Case size: 44.0 mm
Case height: N/A
Dial: Black
Hands: Gold
Strap: Leather strap
Crystal: Sapphire, corundum, 2.6 mm thick, antireflective coating
Water resistance: 300 meters