The dress watch and the diver’s watch are among the most quintessential timepiece styles, so much so that if you’re wearing a watch, it’s likely one or the other. The former, prized for its ruggedness and sporty looks, is the perfect weekend accessory while the latter—sleek, refined, and luxurious—is an ideal complement to dressier ensembles. The Panerai Luminor Due Goldtech™ PAM1336 offers a sleeker, more refined take on the brand’s iconic design. With its proprietary Goldtech™ case and elegant strap, it balances Panerai’s bold spirit with a versatile, contemporary silhouette.
The clean lines, bold numerals, and distinctive reddish hue of Goldtech, its signature alloy (a proprietary blend of gold, copper, and platinum), give the Panerai Luminor Due Goldtech more than its share of charisma at a glance, but its allure goes far deeper than these standout details. Within its design codes, materials, and precisely engineered Swiss movement is a story that goes back more than a century, and helps to explain why this particular timepiece is one of the most covetable in Panerai’s extensive lineup.
To begin at the beginning is to return to 1860, when Giovanni Panerai—the brand’s namesake founder—opened his first shop on Florence’s Ponte alle Grazie, just downstream from the city’s famed Ponte Vecchio. Panerai would relocate to a new location in front of the Florence Cathedral in the 1920s, and the brand’s Florentine flagship boutique remains there today. Over the hundred-plus years that followed, Panerai would distinguish itself as a leader in precision seafaring instruments, from the gauges used on Italian naval ships to the watches worn by elite navy divers. While the Panerai Luminor Due Goldtech is every bit a 21st-century luxury accessory, signature features like its ultra-legible “sandwich” dial (created in the 1940s to make it easier to read the time underwater) and a distinctive crown protecting device (added in the 1950s to ensure superior water-resistance) speak to the ingenuity of these early designs.
The majority of Panerai’s watches remain the rugged underwater tools they have always been, with most models in the Luminor range rated water resistant to a robust 500m. The Luminor Due, however, is a decidedly more refined proposition. Diver’s watches have always been on the larger side—all the better to fit over a wetsuit—but at just 42mm across the case, the Luminor Due’s unisex sizing makes it among the most easily wearable pieces in the Panerai stable. Similarly, by swapping a utilitarian stainless-steel case for one made of gold, this Due firmly establishes itself as a watch that’s better suited to the red carpet than the ocean’s depths. That said, one of Goldtech’s most impressive characteristics—aside from its unmistakable russet hue, that is—is a superior resistance to scratches compared to standard 18k gold. Combined with its adventurous Italian bona fides, this makes the Luminor Due Goldtech neither a diver’s watch nor a dress watch, but something altogether its own.
Feature Image: courtesy of Panerai.
