Panerai Ushers In a New Era of Watch & Experience Combo with the PAM983

With the watch industry doing more and more collaborations recently, Officine Panerai has embraced this idea and taken it to another level under the helm of Jean-Marc Pontroué. In my exclusive interview Mr. Pontroué alluded to some interesting experiences and events that will be coming up in the near future with special edition watches. This idea was to give the end client a total subversive in depth look into the world of Officine Panerai beyond just a watch.

Enter in the PAM983 47mm Guillaume Néry Submersible Special Edition Chrono. The collaboration couldn’t be better suited with both Néry and Panerai are ambassadors of the sea in their own rights. Now Don’t get this watch mixed up with the recently announced PAM982 special edition celebrating the world recording breaking free diver that was a Pre-SIHH release.

The 15 people that have the honor of picking up one of these special edition pieces will also be given the opportunity of enjoying a unique experience with Guillaume Néry in the ocean depths of the French Polynesia where Néry lives. There you will plunge into the ocean and experience the extraordinary emotions of diving while whale watching with world champion free-diver and ambassadors of the sea. This release is part of 3 watch and experience combinations. The others being the PAM00961 “Training with Commandos” & PAM00985 “Mike Horn Experience”

The PAM983 Submersible Chrono features a 47mm Titanium case that is DLC (Diamond-Like-Carbon) coated giving it a black finish that is more resistant to knocks and scratches giving it the masculine and sporty black appearance.

The thing that stands out instantly on the PAM00983 is the amazing dial which is created to be clearly legible under all lighting conditions and even complete darkness. The white markers stand out instantly against a specially textured black and turquoise blue background as opposed to the shark grey on the PAM982. The blue on this piece is almost like an aqua color that screams an ocean theme instantly. The way that the color of the dial gradients out from a turquoise blue to the black of the outer edges gives the feel that you are diving into the depths of the ocean while being mesmerized by the textured dial.

At the 9 o’clock position you have a sub second hand with a white hand while an hour counter for the chronograph is positioned at the 3 o’clock with a turquoise blue hand.  The watch features a full chronograph movement that is powered by an in-house manufactured P.9100 movement with 3 day power reserve.  On the top of the sapphire crystal is a ceramic bezel that will keep track of your dive time and has a small dot index that has a blue lume which matches the blue lume of the minutes hand while all the other indexes and hands glow in the iconic green lume.

The case back on the PAM983 is solid titanium features the same silhouette of Guillaume Néry diving to his record breaking depth and the island of Moorea where he lives with the longitude and latitude of the location. The watch is finished off with black rubber strap and trapezoidal titanium buckle.

I absolutely love this dial on the PAM983 and think it works beautifully with the textured look and ocean theme. I don’t know how the people who recently bought the PAM982 are feeling right about now depending on how much the PAM00983 will cost with the experience included. Although it is a different watch in terms of dial and case material look there is enough similarities that it could rub a few people the wrong way. Since I’m not in the pay grade to be purchasing either one right now I will sit back and enjoy the beauty that is the PAM983 Titanium Chrono.

If this is any indication of things to come, I am sure a lot of Paneristi fans out there will keep their eyes out for more experiences especially as more and more ambassadors have been added to the Panerai staring lineup recently. You can check out the experience available with long time Panerai enthusiast and explorer Mike Horn with his PAM00985 Special Edition & Experience combo.

Panerai PAM00983 Guillaume Néry Chrono

MOVEMENT: Automatic mechanical, Panerai P.9100 calibre, executed entirely by Panerai, 13. lignes, 8.15 mm thick, 37 jewels, 28,800 alternations/hour. Incabloc® anti-shock device, two barrels.

FUNCTIONS: Hours, minutes, small seconds, calculation of immersion time, flyback chronograph, seconds reset.

CASE: Diameter 47 mm, titanium with DLC (Diamond-Like-Carbon) coating. Buttons for the chronograph functions at 8 and 10 o’clock. Unidirectional rotating bezel in titanium with applied black ceramic disc. Back in titanium with special engraving. Device protecting the crown (protected as trademark) in titanium.

DIAL: Blue and black, with applied luminous dots and indexes. Seconds at 9 o’clock, hour counter at 3 o’clock, central chronograph seconds and minutes hands.

POWER RESERVE: 72 hours.

WATER-RESISTANCE: 30 bar (~ 300 metres).

STRAP: Panerai personalized black rubber strap and trapezoidal titanium buckle.