Panerai Luminor Chronograph Movements

THE BIG NEWS at Panerai was its two new in-house chronograph movements. One is the P.9100, Panerai’s first automatic chronograph movement with a fly back function.

The P.9100 is debuting in the Luminor 1950 3 Days Chrono Fly- back, which features pushers on the left side of the brushed-steel case. The elapsed-minutes hand is mounted in the center of the dial, along with the elapsed seconds hand (the latter is blue).

Both of these hands are narrow and easy to distinguish from the standard hour and minutes hands. The case is 44 mm in diameter, with date at 3 o’clock and small seconds at 9 o’clock. The movement is 13 3/4 lignes in diameter and has 302 com- ponents. Two barrels give the watch a power reserve of 72 hours.

The other new chronograph movement, Caliber P.9100/R, found in Luminor 1950 Regatta 3 Days Chrono Flyback Titanio, features a regatta countdown function, also a first for Panerai. By repeatedly pushing the orange button at 4 o’clock, the wearer can move the chronograph minutes hand backwards in one-minute leaps to time the pre-race interval.

He then starts the chronograph via the pusher at 10 o’clock. It first counts down the pre-race interval and then instantly begins timing the race. The pusher at 8 o’clock returns the hands to zero. Pushing it while the chrono is still running will activate the flyback function.

Panerai also debuted the Luminor Submersible 1950 2500m 3 Days Automatic Titanio. This dive watch has a unidirectional rotating bezel with markers at the quarter-hours modeled after a design Panerai created for the Egyptian Navy in 1956.

The watch is water resistant to 2,500 meters and has a helium valve. The movement, Caliber P.9000, was intro- duced in 2009. The brushed titanium case is 47 mm in diameter and has a screw-down caseback. Small seconds are at 9 o’clock and the date at 3 o’clock. The watch will be made in a limited edition of 500.