Panerai Radiomir Ref. PAM00323 B+P+SP

If you have a big watch collection, you might not wear this watch for a couple of days. No worries though, as this watch will run for 10 days straight.

The PAM00323 takes the classic Radiomir ingredients; a huge 47 mm cushion case, wire lugs and a highly legible black dial and adds a surprising amount of watchmaking underneath. The familiar 12 and 6 dominate the dial, but look closer and you find a date at three, small seconds and AM/PM indication at nine, a second time zone and the 10-day power reserve display at six.

Inside sits Panerai’s automatic calibre P.2003/6. The movement is visible through the sapphire caseback and uses three barrels to provide its impressive ten days of autonomy. It is exactly the sort of movement that makes this much more than simply a big Italian-looking watch. The broader P.2003 architecture was developed in-house by Panerai and runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour.

There is something fitting about the 47 mm size too. Panerai’s historic Radiomir Ref. 3646, made for the Italian Royal Navy, also used a 47 mm cushion-shaped case, wire lugs and the highly luminous sandwich-dial philosophy that still defines the collection today. This PAM00323 is obviously a far more complicated and luxurious descendant, but the family resemblance is difficult to miss.

And if oversized Panerai feels inseparable from nineties action-film culture, there is a reason for that. Sylvester Stallone famously wore a Panerai in Daylight in 1996, helping push the previously obscure military supplier into a completely different cultural world. This is not the Luminor he wore, but it carries plenty of that same Panerai attitude.

If you are looking for a watch that is definitely not designed to disappear under the cuff, this 47 mm Radiomir with GMT, ten days of power reserve and the P.2003/6 on full display is for you. Big even by Panerai standards, and mechanically much more serious than it first appears. Available at Reestraat 3, Amsterdam.