Watch Dandy

Over the last few years, Panerai has gone to a lot of effort to evolve their offering. The foundation pieces are still there – aggressively simple dive watches that make little effort to belie their military origins, but these days the brand has so much more to offer, from hi-tech tourbillons to slender dress options. These two GMTs, released last year, are the kind of watches that bridge old and new. They’re undeniably Panerai, with the large 45mm Radiomir 1940 case and instantly recognisable combination of super-stylised Arabics and hash marks, but look closer and the changes are obvious too. The dial, for starters. No longer a simple matt sandwich, Panerai has added texture to the mix, with subtle Clous de Paris and vertical stripe finishes to keep things interesting. Likewise, the iconic luminous sandwich construction hasn’t been used here, with the ecru-coloured luminous material applied in the more traditional manner. As you can see, both these watches display a second time zone via the slender, arrow-tipped hand. This is a 12-hour hand, which is convenient for reading the second time at a glance, but less so if you have problems remembering if it’s day or night in that time…

The post HANDS-ON: A traveller’s twin-set – Panerai’s Radiomir 1940 3 Days GMT PAM 628 and PAM 657 appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.

Editor’s Note: In the office there’s a bit of a running joke about my taste in watches – that I *only* like 36mm vintage pieces. And while I do own one 36mm vintage watch, the two watches I wear most often are 40 and 45mm respectively (both new, btw). I used to be much more into the old stuff, but these days not so much.  When I first started getting seriously into watches, I was all about vintage. In my mind this is where it was at. I lusted after the IWC Mark XI, the Omega Memomatic and the Tudor Advisor. I’d wince when a brand ‘updated’ its icon, which invariably meant making it bigger, wider and to my eyes, uglier. With the rosy-tint of nostalgia for a life that was gone before I was born, I was sure perfection in watch design was reached in the pre-CAD times of the mid-’70s (it goes without saying that I thought the ’80s was a horological dead-zone full of quartz, Swatch and two-tone). Fast forward to today – I’ve learned a little more about watches, and have come to a realisation. I’m no longer a vintage watch guy. Don’t get me wrong,…

The post EDITOR’S PICK: Why I’m no longer a ‘vintage watch guy’ appeared first on Time and Tide Watches.