Officine Panerai

Hi all

I had a chance to photograph the new Panerai PAM390 today.  I was able to get a PAM 000 and a PAM 232 to contrast and compare.

 Originally Posted in 2011.

What we know so far about the PAM 390 is that is a Special Edition of 2000 pieces.  This comes in a special edition presentation box (larger than the standard issue)  together with the famous "Scroll"  that accompanies all Panerai Special Editions.  These will be "only" available through the boutiques worldwide.  As we have seen there are many owners who have been kind enough to share their new acquisition with us.  This watch was little know around the Panerai community and as with many of these micro edition sprung out of nowhere to "now here"  (the love guru) and blindsided most.  However as many have also noticed there where catalog pictures last year but no mention till they hit the streets.  Mr. Bonati played this one very close to his chest and was able to keep the surprise and the lid on this release as the internet buzz has once again beaten the street with Ad's scrambling to find out about this beauty.  This is a keeper and is sure to find it's place with collectors like the PAM 249 and too many to mention …  You can fill in the blanks

The Panerai 390 is a real beauty with the famous "chocolate" dial and aged patina application for the numeral and index application.  The watch sports the classic OP1 movement with a highly polished case reminiscent of the PAM 000.  In fact it is very similar except for that gorgeous brown dial and aged patina that give a more historic feel to it.  And yes Gold hands that pop unlike the subdued hands of the PAM 000 which almost blend into the background. OK I won't bore you with and more fluff and take you to the pictures.  On a side note the brown dial is almost impossible to represent in photos with using artistic license "photoShop", the pictures here are sans photoshot but with the reference of a black dial and a brown 232 you can get a feel for the color.

Now we start to compare and contrast.  The PAM 000 and the PAM 390.  The difference in dial color is pretty obvious.  The "Zero" looks great also but the combo of aged patina, brown dial and gold hands make for nice showing.

Next the Pam 390 VS the PAM 232 that sports a similar brown dial and gold hands.  At the base the colors are not too dissimilar however the sandwich dial and greenish markers tend to shift the color somewhat vs the yellow in the aged patina markers that lend themselves very well to the making the brown somewhat richer.  Again both dials look great I just trying to best describe the brown dial.

Finally all three put together is very revealing for the dial colors.  I hope you enjoy the photo review and good luck catching one.

Bill