Panerai Luminor 1950 3-Days PAM 663
To be brutally honest, this newly introduced Panerai Luminor 1950 3-Days, or PAM 663, is already one of my all-time favorites concerning modern Panerai watches. It probably was a question of time when they would come up with a Panerai Luminor 1950 with a stunning vintage looking brown dial and a plexi crystal.
This brown color should remember you of the discolored dials of vintage Panerai models (like the reference 6154 also named “Egiziano Piccolo”). These watches initially had black dials, but over time, they changed color to this distinct brown tone due to the effect of the radium-based powder used to lume the hands and indexes. Therefore, Panerai introduces two Special Edition models that have this same brown toned dial (PAM 662 and PAM 663). This is the PAM 663, my favorite of the two, due to the Luminor case mainly. But that’s personal preference.
The 47mm case is made of 316L stainless steel and comes with a plexiglas crystal. The crystal has this cool magnifying effect of the dial, like many domed plexi crystals have. The watch comes with an extra (spare) crystal, as you know they tend to scratch easily (looking at my own plexy crystal watches). Now you can go ahead with Polywatch or toothpaste or something similar to polish, but you will start to see this home-made polishing at some point. So Panerai included an extra crystal and you can have it swapped at any point at an authorized Panerai dealer.
Inside, the PAM 663 uses the P.3000 hand-wound movement. Two spring barrels will power your watch up to 3 days. As shown below, the movement has four nice bridges. Brushed finish with bevelled edges. One long bridge over the balance wheel, like Rolex has in their movements. A bridge like this provides a stable basis for the balance wheel.
Panerai P.3000 movement
The Panerai PAM 633 comes on a Ponte Vecchio strap in brown leather with visible ecru sewing, the heat- engraved OP logo and a tongue buckle in polished steel. The watch is water-resistant to 10 bar (equivalent of a depth of about 100 metres).
The PAM 663 will be limited to 1000 pieces only and will have a retail price of €9900 Euro. Available in July 2016.
More information via Panerai.
