In an earlier post about Officine Panerai’s commemoration of 70 years of the Luminor, I mentioned a new composite material making its debut – Fibratech™ , a basalt-fibre composite created to be light (it is 70% lighter than steel and 55% lighter than titanium), strong, and durable. Basalt rock is formed into fibres which are then bound with a liquid polymer to, as the brand says, become thin layers which then undergo a process of being baked until the composite material is in a form that can be machined into the case. It that post, it came in the form of the case for the Luminor Marina Fibratech™ 44 PAM01119, but I mentioned that this is not the only use of this new case material by Panerai this year.

The second piece is the Luminor Marina Fibratech™ 44mm PAM01663.

For this new model, the matte grey of the composite is accompanied by the use of Carbotech™ (made by compressing thin sheets of carbon fibre and a polymer together at high pressure to create a strong durable (and light) material) for the bezel, crown, and crown bridge lever. The crown protection device is in Fibratech™.

The watch is 15.6mm thick and has a water resistance of 300m. Its dial is blue, and continues on with a trend I’ve noted already this year of dials with the colour having a graduated treatment (‘sunray’ being the other popular dial term so far this year). It has the classic Panerai sandwich dial, with Arabic numbers and hour markers featuring green Super-LumiNova.

Behind a screw down case back in sandblasted titanium is the automatic Calibre P.9010, which beats at 28,800 VPH and has a power reserve of three days.

It comes on a blue Sportech™ (a popular choice for Panerai this year) strap with white stitching and a buckle in titanium with black DLC coating. There is also a second blue rubber strap, along with a strap changing tool.

The RRP for the Luminor Marina Fibratech PAM01663 is AUD 23,800.

[Photo credit: Officine Panerai]

Categories: Panerai, SIHH/ Watches & Wonders GVA 2020, Watch materials, Watch Profile, watches