I have been into wristwatches for quite a long time now and I have seen a large number of wonderful timepieces with distinctive designs and functionalities. Yes, we all know watches are for time telling but to us horology fans, it goes beyond this time telling functionality, every watch has its unique personality that blends well with the wearer’s attitude. Therefore, you can easily tell a man’s preference based on the watch on his wrist – while purely subjective this is how I see it. So in saying about my exposure to watches, I have always liked the intricacy of Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic aesthetics. From the svelte lines of the Radiomir to the gentleman charms of the Luminor and the tool-ish personality of the Submersible, Panerai has always been on the front lines. I have a good size wrist so a large watch is always welcome and Panerai watches are generally speaking quite large but of course, even for me, this is a bit too large. Technically, most of Panerai’s interesting designs are larger than 44 mm which may not be the preference of many horology fans but if you are like me, who are inclined to use large tool-ish watches with emphasis on style too, I am very sure you will also like the Panerai Pam01305 so join me as I share my long-term review of this impressive timepiece. First, I personally offer my gratitude to Panerai for lending me the watch for 2 months so folks, you will only read an honest review about this amazing timepiece.
So without further ado, the Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 3 Days Automatic Titanio is one of the most classic Panerai Submersibles. It is very easy to see the classic charms of the watch but of course, you can as easily feel the contemporary improvements made to the watch such as the powerful P.9010 calibre ticking under the hood. Of course, the Panerai Luminor Submersible 1950 model produced in the past years with the reference PAM00305 is a really cool watch, no doubt about that but the new iteration with its new dial and mechanism refreshed after a small makeup operation is just a whole bunch better. Interestingly though, based on my experience with the watch, the technical features of the PAM01305’s mechanism, with the updated bridge design, are the same as its predecessor.
Gathering my thoughts about this watch while using it is not easy mainly because I seem to not notice how great of a watch it is. I really tried to be as objective as I can so yes, I may have scrutinized the watch a bit too much. I covered all the good aspects of the watch particularly the classic case with its signature crown protector, an undoubtedly classic Panerai element. I love the switch, it feels responsive without being too clicky. While some dive watches offer more depth capacity, I personally think that the 300 m capability is already more than enough. If you go fishing for example and needs to look at the time quickly in the brightest of environments, the anti-glare property of the matte finishing on the case is a very cool feature to have. Likewise in a dark environment, the large lumed surfaces on the hands and indicators offer maximum legibility. Moving forward, my gripe is with the size, as it is quite large even for my already large wrist. So basically the watch does not fit every occasion. Now, this is not really negative because the watch is not designed to be worn like that, I just needed to think in advance what to wear which feels a bit silly or counterintuitive. Another gripe I have is with the bezel that I already mentioned somewhere above. The bezel could have been done better as the quality feel when turning it does not fit the price of the watch. Finally, what is with the noisy rotor Panerai? While I love the movement, the rotor’s noise is very noticeable due to the ceramic bearings. Other than these things, the watch is superb, a pleasurable watch to wear on any day.
