Pre-SIHH: First look at the Panerai Luminor 1950 3 Days Chrono Flyback Automatic Ceramica PAM580

Felix Scholz

The SIHH novelty that Panerai have let out of the bag early is, let’s be honest, classic Panerai. Big, bold, and black.

At first glance this guy doesn’t look much like a chronograph – after all, there’s only one subdial, and it’s the standard PAM running seconds at 9. But you’ll notice the two central hands. The blue one is the elapsed seconds, and the other, rhodium plated one is elapsed minutes. It certainly looks cool, but if you need to time something for longer than an hour, you might need to look elsewhere.

The big selling point of the PAM580 is the case. Around the in-house P.9100 flyback chrono movement is a shell of black ceramic. It’s lightweight, hardwearing and slick in every sense of the word. The case is the classic 44mm Luminor 1950 case, about which not much more needs to be said.

We can’t wait to get our hands on this, as we can only imagine the cognitive dissonance on picking up a Panerai and having it weigh hardly anything.