Panerai Embraces Maximalism With A Horizontal Tourbillon In A 47mm Titanium Luminor

Panerai's in-house movement era has a pretty complicated past. Scandalous, even, as they were caught passing off outside movements as their own, just dressed up. But even despite that, at the higher end, they've made some pretty impressive stuff. Their in-house movement era began in 2005 with the hand-wound P.2002, and two years later the brand gave the tourbillon its own interpretation: the P.2005, with the cage turning on an axis perpendicular to the balance, once every 30 seconds. That was followed up with the skeletonised P.2005/T in 2016. It's that movement that now shows up in the new Luminor Tourbillon PAM01784. The PAM01784 joins the very similar Goldtech PAM01060 already in the catalogue, only this one is made out of Grade 5 titanium.

The case is 47mm wide which is absolutely massive. But the cool thing about Panerai Luminors is that they wear much smaller than you would expect. It won't fit on the vast majority of wrists, still, but it's a fun wear. It's made out of Grade 5 titanium which makes it light, but it's actually shockingly light. The watch weighs just 105 grams. The finish is brushed, with a polished titanium bezel, and on the right is the familiar crown-protecting bridge. A domed sapphire sits on top, a sapphire display window is placed into in the titanium caseback, and water resistance is 100 meters.

Since this is a skeletonized watch, the blue-treated movement plate stands in for the dial. Numerals and indices are fixed straight onto it, and you look past them into the barrels, the gear train and the rotating cage. Hours, minutes and GMT are indicated with centrally mounted hands, with small seconds at 9 o'clock and an AM/PM indicator at 3. The power reserve sits just left of 6 o'clock. The GMT, AM/PM and power reserve hands get orange tips, and the lume is color-coded: white for numerals, indices and the main hands, blue for GMT and AM/PM, green for the power reserve. It's busy, as openworked watches always are, but very cool.

Inside is the hand-wound calibre P.2005/T, 10.05mm thick, with 277 components and 31 jewels, running at 4Hz. Three barrels in series hold 1.36 meters of mainspring between them, which get you 144 hours of power reserve, or six days. The GMT is a traveler setup: the local hour hand jumps forward or back in one-hour steps. It comes on a blue alligator strap with a titanium folding clasp, plus a blue rubber strap with a pin buckle.

The Panerai Luminor Tourbillon PAM01784 is not a cheap watch. Not at all. It's priced at €160,000. It goes on sale in December. See more on the Panerai website.