The Panerai Luminor 1950 8 Day GMT Monopulsante Chronograph

I know what you were thinking when you read that title. Is he really being serious? Did I just spent 10 seconds of my life reading all that? The answer to all that is yes....

I have seen a bunch of requests for squared faced watches, so I will put some focus into that the upcoming week or two. Today, I will blog about the Panerai 1950 Monopulsante, which is one of the few Panerais I like and is one that is high up on my wish list.

If you are unfamiliar with Panerai, let me give you a brief 30 second run down of the brand. Panerai was founded in 1860 by Giovanni Panerai, at italian watchmaker. As the sole supplier of watches to the italian navy, the brand gained prowess in the watch world for both their use and eye catching design. As I have said in the past, there are only two watch brands and people can spot just by looking at: Rolex and Panerai. The brand has since been acquired by the Richemont group, who owns a conglomerate of high end watchmakers and a few other luxury brands but the roots of the watch have remained intact. The company is still headquartered in Italy, but the watches are now manufactured in Switzerland.

The Monopulsante, model PAM311 is a special watch. Panerai runs the tables in a way similar to IWC where many of their cheaper watches contain the ever popular ETA movement that is pre-made, but the higher end watches that demand a premium are all in house and something special. This watch is mind blowing because it contains a GMT function (capability of telling time in two time zones), a chronograph (essentially a stop watch) and an eight day power reserve (can run for 8 days on a full wind) all wrapped up in a 44mm case.

The watch comes in three different styles: steel with a black face, titanium with a brown face or black ceramic with a black dial but the one above is the stainless steel model. At the 9 o clock position, you have a subdial that measures seconds as a watch normally would, but it also has a smaller hand that indicated AM or PM time in the second time zone. The GMT hand is not shown in the picture about because it is probably hiding behind another hand, but you essentially set it like you would any other watch that has a main pin GMT hand. The 3 o clock position contains the second subdial which measured seconds up to 30 if you have the chronograph running. At 6 o clock, you have your 8 day function, which tells you how much time you have left on the power reserve. Panerai uses a three barrel main system on their calibre P.2004 in house movement (seen below). It is beautifully finished and masterfully shown through the display back case. The last design feat this watch contains is the monopulsante function, which is the name sake of this watch. If you look on the side of the case at the 8 o clock position you will see a button. This button serves as the all in one button which starts, stops and resets the chronograph function each time you press it. This is very unique from a traditional chronograph that uses two buttons where the top starts and stops and the bottom resets. Retail on this watch is a hair over $20,000 for a stainless steel watch but for what you get in return, it is well worth the price if you want something incredibly unique and hard to find. Panerais also have incredibly high resale value. So for those who care about that sort of thing, keep that in the back of your mind as well.

Thanks for your time guys.