Panerai: organizing the chaos...

[Travelller]

this recent post...

Originally Posted by porschejeff

Panerai's are just so confusing, Sandwich, pig, sausage, hundreds of models...

...prompted me to think about the various characteristics that differentiate the many PAMs. Here are some:

Product Lines: Historical / Contemporary / Specialties / Special Editions / Limited editions
Case: Radiomir (380) / Luminor Bettarini (000,...) / Luminor 1950 (233,...) / Submersible (024,...) 1950 Submersible (305,...) / "neo" 1950 (372,...) / 1940 (399,...) / Destro (219,...) / Mare Nostrum (006,...) / Egiziano (341) / ...
Case sizes: Radiomir - 38 / 40 / 42 / 45 / 47; Luminor - 40 / 42 / 44 / 47; Others - 48 (Tourbillion) / 50 (Equation of Time) / 52 (Mare Nostrum 300) / 60mm (Egiziano)
Case Material: SS / Ti / Au / Pt / Ta / Ceramic / Composite
Caseback: solid / exhibition / engraved
Dial color: black / brown / black-slate (320/321/...) / white
Lume: Tritium / Super LumiNova (green, patina)
Dial types: Sandwich (111,...) / single-layer painted [aka sausage, beveled] (000,...) / single-layer printed (104,...) / skeleton
Dial styles: Base (112,...) / Marina (111,...) / Logo (000,...) / Pig (292,...) / S.L.C. (449,...) / California (249,...) / various contemporary configurations
Dial Text: Radiomir / Luminor / Luminor Marina / Marina Militare / Black Seal / Luminor Submersible / Automatic / GMT / 8 Days / 10 Days / 8 Giorni / Slytech / Arktos / Regatta / Mare Nostrum / T-Swiss-T / T Swiss T / T Swiss Made T / L Swiss L / L Swiss Made L...
Crystal: standard (000,...) / domed (233,...) / curved (361,...) / plexi (372,...) / raised (422,...)
Movement: ETA (Unitas, Valjoux,...) / in-house (P.2002,...) / other houses (JLC, Piguet, Zenith, etc.) / vintage (Rolex, Angelus)
Complications: 2-hands, 3-hands, small-seconds, date, GMT, power-reserve indicator, Monopusher & standard chronographs, flyback, Rattrapante, Tourbillion, "Equation of Time" / ...


But the more interesting facet of the above "PAMs" is how they relate to vintage and pre-V Panerai models... that's when the real fun begins...

[kilyung]

Oh my brain hurts.

[porschejeff]

and I thought I was confused not knowing sandwich, sausage, pig, oh my!

[Psmith]

And people say they all look the same...

[Cru Jones]

Woah! impressive start.

I'll add YG and RG case material....and blue and silver dials, too.

And the engraved models with the flip top (don't remember their name).

I would also list the 312 as the example 1950 case, as the 233 is thinner....

[Travelller]

Originally Posted by Cru Jones

...
...YG and RG case material
...blue and silver dials...
... the engraved models with the flip top...

Nice additions
I think the "Purdey / Sealand" series have the protective covers. I think I subconsciously blocked that out...

We'll have to add anthracite to the dial-color list too...
YG RG - I'm not big on gold (wish I were, probably would have sold it all roughly a year ago and could retire now... ) so I didn't differentiate - it's all Au on the elements table... If we go that route, we'll have to add C (... for Carbon ... in the form of diamonds )

Actually, I'm lucky Mik hasn't shown up yet because I left out his favorite Panerai "detail"... hands!!!

Hands: black / silver / gold / blue frames, single / partial / multi-frame sections / ...

EDIT - Luckily Lee hasn't shown up yet either... left out one of his favorite case-materials...

B R O N Z E

EDIT (some more....)
Left out "Daylight" from Dial text. We could get silly by adding depth figures (1000M 2500M etc.) and so on but there has to be some cut-off point... otherwise, the list will make us all and don't let me research the different crystal* thicknesses...

*But "cyclops" needs to be added to the list of crystal options...

[One Ping Only]

How many possible combinations does that make? Special editions for the next century or two I'd guess.

[Travelller]

Originally Posted by One Ping Only

How many possible combinations does that make...

Well, the fact that 2013 introduced "500" series should give us all a rough idea... Actually, there are some "7xx" & "8xx" PAMs - but those are either box sets or other oddities, but there's only like a dozen, so you can go with ~400 (not every number between 000 and 500 have been used, or some were one-off internal prototypes, etc.)

Here's something I just learned that will interest you too, as a fellow 233 owner; I have a "Product Lines" list in my OP. Well, it turns out that when the 233 was first released (2005), OP created an new product line, called "Manifattura" - thanks to their OP-dedicated 2003 Neuchâtel Manufacture...

Of course, once they added all the other in-house movements, the product line no longer made sense, so they dropped it.

[S``]

Does anyone know about the swirling a few years ago rumors that OP lost the " Marina Militare" TM due to the Italian Navy restriction? Is this still true or proven false?

[Travelller]

Originally Posted by S``

...Is this still true or proven false?

AFAIK, it's status quo. I have no clue what the Italian Naval divers are using today or why it's such a big infringement...
...in any case MM's are a beloved moniker and this "state of affairs" only makes them more desirable. IIRC, the 339 (2010) was the last MM

fwiw, my Pcom "wanted" sig contains two very hot MMs... the 217 destro & 267 Angelus

[S``]

Originally Posted by Travelller

AFAIK, it's status quo. I have no clue what the Italian Royal Navy's divers are using today or why it's such a big infringement...
...any any case MM's are a beloved moniker and this "state" only makes them more desirable. IIRC, the 339 (2010) was the last MM

fwiw, my Pcom "wanted" sig contains two very hot MMs... the 217 destro & 267 Angelus

Thanks

[RUpanerai]

Damn, impressive list.