The most exciting news of the week so far are here. May we present you the most complicated Panerai to date and an exceptional piece that combines several complications in one amazing watch. The new Officine Panerai Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT PAM 600, combines a minute repeater carrillon, a dual time zone GMT complication and a tourbillon. Fully developed and conceptualized at the manufacture in Neuchâtel, what makes this Panerai more special is the fact that the minute repeater features a carillon with three different sounds indicating the time through a melody.
For this new Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT PAM 600, Officine Panerai has developed the new in-house calibre P.2005/MR with a power reserve of 96 hours —4 days. This new manual wound movement composed of 633 parts, 59 jewels and two spring barrels is fully skeletonized and features one of the most fascinating minute repeaters in the market. The chiming is activated by a pusher located at 8 o’clock, and it is carried out by three hammers which strike an equal number of gongs fixed to the movement and the case. The choice of three hammers, instead of the traditional two, enables three different sounds to be combined, so that the carillon can play a melody, like that of a bell.
In a traditional minute repeater, the first gong is the lowest and identifies the hour, while the
last and highest indicates individual minutes with a double mid-tone that identifies the quarter hours. The unusual feature of this new Panerai Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT PAM 600 is that the second gong sounds triple chimes of an intermediate note, each triple chime corresponding to ten minutes instead of the traditional fifteen minutes for the quarter hours. For example, in a traditional minute repeater if the time is 10:28, the first gong will ring ten chimes for the hour, a different double-chime for the quarter of an hour and then thirteen individual chimes for the minutes. In the new Officine Panerai’s Minute Repeater Carillon, however, the sequence consists of ten chimes for the hour, then two triple-chimes —two ten-minute intervals— and then eight subsequent single chimes. The system of tens, reducing the number of chimes, makes telling the time easier and quicker, and it also corresponds to customary way in which time is now indicated by digital watches without the emphasis on quarter hours.
The 49 mm case is presented in 18K red gold, a metal of intense color and excellent properties both in terms of resistance to corrosion —thanks to a small percentage of platinum in the composition of the alloy— and in propagating the sound, with its particular hardness. The quality of the sound propagated by this minute repeater is also enhanced by the attributes of its red gold case being formed of two parts created separately and then soldered together. This construction enables the empty spaces inside the case to be optimized in order to enhance the quality of the sound and work as a sound box. The hand work by master watchmakers gives the sound of each watch a unique character, similar yet imperceptibly different from each other. The most remarkable feature of this new Panerai Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT PAM 600, is the fact that the repeater function can be activated both for local time and for a second time zone, which is indicated on the dial by the central arrow
hand and the am/pm indicator on the counter at 3 o’clock.
In this case too, the simplicity of selection and of activating what is, in essence, a double hour and minute repeater mechanism, is astonishing and the device is designed not to affect the safety of the movement. To avoid accidental activation, the carillon can be operated by the pusher at 8 o’clock only when the winding crown is rotated slightly. The degree of rotation required is shown by a black indicator placed on the side of the crown: when the indicator can be seen from the front, the carillon cannot be sounded but, by a single pressure on the pusher on the crown, the local time or the second time zone can be selected, and the red HT/LT —Home Time/Local Time— indicator located on the dial at 8 o’clock, marks which of the two
alternatives is active with a conspicuous red dot.
As well as the minute repeater mechanism, the manual wound calibre P.2005/MR calibre is the result of four years of research and development by the Laboratorio di Idee in the Neuchâtel manufacture, also has the remarkable Panerai tourbillon regulator, which can be admired from both the front and the back of the watch thanks to the sophisticated work of skeletonization. In the system patented by Officine Panerai, the rotation of the tourbillon is different from that of the classic tourbillon. In the traditional version the balance cage rotates continuously on itself, cancelling out any variations caused by gravity and possible shocks. In the innovative Panerai mechanism, the tourbillon cage rotates on an axis which is perpendicular, not parallel, to that of the balance.
Also, while the rotation is once a minute in a traditional tourbillon, in the Panerai Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT PAM 600, the rotation takes 30 seconds, and this is shown by a 'ecru' dot indicator which rotates in the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock.
The greater speed and the particular arrangement of the mechanism enable it to compensate for any changes of rate very effectively, ensuring a very accurate precision timepiece. The sophisticated work of skeletonizing is helpful in providing better acoustic performance and it also enables the sophisticated technology of the P.2005/MR calibre and its fascinating details to be admired. All the elements which form the dial are directly mounted on the movement or on the flange, on which the words ‘Radiomir 1940 Panerai’ and ‘Minute Repeater Carrillon’ are engraved.
The little hammers of the minute repeaters and the two spring barrels, which store a power reserve of at least four days, are visible from the open back, through which the power reserve indicator mounted on the movement can also be read. From the aesthetic point of view, the codes of the new Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT are the immediately recognizable ones of the Panerai style, such as the historic Radiomir 1940 case —49 mm in
diameter— and the characteristic bar markers and figures covered with 'ecru' superluminova.
Another essential element of a Panerai watch, even for an exceptionally complicated model such as this new Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT PAM00600, is its water resistance, which in this case is guaranteed to 30 meters.
This watch is only available as a Special Edition and only made to order. Therefore, Panerai has anticipated the possibility of personalization, which includes not only the choice of strap, of the hands or of other special features, but also the possibility of making the case in a material
other than red gold.
Sticker Price Starting at $400,000 USD depending on the client's choice of material for the case and other options. For more info on Officine Panerai click here.
