Panerai Luminor watches

The Panerai Luminor is the cushion-cased dive watch recognised by the bridge and locking lever that cover its crown. The name came first: by 1949 Panerai had registered Luminor for a tritium-based luminous compound, a safer successor to the radium-based Radiomir. The crown-protecting bridge with its lever followed in the mid-1950s.

Panerai's dive watches began as instruments for the Royal Italian Navy and its frogmen. The Luminor case integrated the lugs into the cushion, doing away with the wire lugs of the early Radiomir. In 1993 Panerai moved into the civilian market, and that year it recreated the Luminor.

Most Luminors are 44 mm, in steel or titanium. The Luminor Marina Quaranta brings the case down to 40 mm, and the Regatta Transat Classique 2019 (PAM00956) goes up to 47 mm in titanium, limited to 150 pieces. Beyond the Luminor Marina and Luminor Base, the line runs to Power Reserve, GMT, Chrono (including the Chrono Daylight) and 8 Days models, with white gold, titanium and tantalum, or PVD-coated steel on a few. The Sealand carries themed editions, among them the Sealand for Purdey animal series and Chinese zodiac pieces such as the Year of the Dragon, limited to 50. A long run of Luminor Marina boutique editions is named after cities, from Firenze and Geneva to Manama and Kuwait City, in runs of 30 to 300.

PAM00026 and PAM00028 each exist twice: as the PVD-coated Luminor Marina Left Handed and Luminor Power Reserve, and as Re-Run editions limited to 1,000 pieces each. The Luminor Base Logo PAM01086 is 44 mm across and 13.05 mm thick, with the hand-wound P.6000 calibre, a 72-hour power reserve and 100 m water resistance.