Panerai Introduces their First Annual Calendar as Part of the Radiomir Collection

Among the new releases from Panerai at this year’s Watches & Wonders, we find what amounts to a first from the brand: a pair of annual calendars. While Panerai has dabbled in perpetual calendars, the annual calendar compilation is a new venture. This has always felt like an under-appreciated complication to me in an environment where perpetual calendars tend to get all the plaudits. For the relatively minor inconvenience of having to make a manual adjustment to the calendar on the first day of March, you get a calendar complication that’s very nearly “set it and forget it” at what often amounts to a significant discount over comparable perpetuals. While these new Panerais aren’t exactly rubbing up against the value end of the spectrum (they are both well into the five figures, with cases in precious metals), they do represent something genuinely new in the Panerai catalog, which is always going to be of interest to the brand’s dedicated base of collectors. 

The new annual calendars are both found in the Radiomir collection, which is Panerai’s sleeker case design (compared to the Luminor) with vintage style wire lugs and a squared off cushion case shape. Gold and platinum options are available (Panerai refers to their alloys as “Goldtech” and “Platinumtech”) and the cases measure 45mm in diameter. Panerai enthusiasts and collectors will tell you that a 45mm Radiomir case wears quite a bit smaller than the numbers would indicate, because thanks to the wire lugs, that’s essentially a lug to lug measurement. But these are going to be heavy cases in gold and platinum, so that would surely have an impact on the overall wearing experience. Still, Panerais are kind of meant to be oversized – it’s a feature, not a bug, as they say. 

The annual calendar execution here is quite elegant and minimalist, and remarkably intuitive, though it helps if you understand Italian. The day of the week and date are read in-line via apertures at 3:00, and the month is displayed via a rotating disc around the dial’s perimeter, with an arrow next to the date window pointing toward the current month. It’s about as straightforward as it gets, and I bet after a few weeks, you’ll even begin to understand the Italian day abbreviations at a quick glance. It shouldn’t take more than a year for the months to follow. 

The platinum version of the watch (PAM1432) has a red degradé dial, and the gold (PAM1363) has a blue dial with the same effect. Both are constructed in the familiar Panerai “sandwich” style, with cutouts at each hour marker revealing lume underneath the dial’s surface, and larger Arabic numerals at 12 and 6. 

The movement used in these new annual calendar watches is the P.9010/AC, which in turn is based on the brand’s P.9010 caliber. It’s an automatic caliber with three days of power reserve thanks to two barrels. 

The gold version of the watch is priced at $39,200, while the platinum is $88,100. If the platinum seems a little spendy, that’s because buyers of the white metal variant will also receive a trip to Rome, where owners will be given a guided tour of historic sites relevant to the Panerai brand and the craft behind the watch. More information can be found at the Panerai website here.