Description
Panerai has spent a century on the same corner of Florence. The shop at Piazza San Giovanni opened in 1926 as Orologeria Svizzera, and it is the address where Giovanni Panerai's descendants sold and serviced instruments long before the brand became a Richemont-owned maison with a global boutique network. To mark one hundred years of that shopfront, Panerai has released two limited-edition Luminor Firenze 8 Giorni watches: the PAM01734 in Platinumtech, limited to 100 pieces, and the PAM01794 in polished steel, limited to 1,000.
Both are 44 mm Luminor cases carrying the hand-wound P.5000 calibre and its eight-day power reserve, and both take their visual cue from a rare reference 6152/1 prototype from the 1960s. The steel model lands at EUR 10,700 and the platinum at EUR 55,000, with availability from September 2026 through Panerai boutiques. This is an anniversary pair aimed squarely at collectors who care about the Florence story rather than at the diving heritage Panerai usually leans on.
Design
The shared architecture is pure Luminor: a 44 mm cushion case with the patented crown-protecting bridge, a domed sapphire crystal shaped to echo the curved Perspex of the vintage originals, and vintage-style double pencil hands. The PAM01734 pairs its Platinumtech case with a green sandwich dial finished with circular brushing, green Super-LumiNova showing through cut-out numerals at the cardinal points and gold-effect hands, plus an open sapphire caseback over the P.5000's three-quarter plate. The PAM01794 takes the opposite route: polished steel with a brushed crown bridge, a black circular-brushed sandwich dial, blue-finished pencil hands and a closed, brushed steel caseback engraved with the Florence boutique.
Both dials carry a "Panerai Firenze" inscription below twelve. Straps are Tuscan calf leather hot-stamped with the Florentine lily — black on the platinum, dark brown on the steel — with a trapezoidal buckle in white gold and steel respectively, and a rubber strap included in each box. The presentation boxes are mahogany, fitted with a metal plaque depicting the historic boutique entrance.
Specifications
- References: PAM01734 (Platinumtech), PAM01794 (steel)
- Case diameter: 44 mm
- Case materials: Platinumtech (95% platinum alloy, hardened) / polished stainless steel
- Crystal: domed sapphire, vintage-inspired curvature
- Caseback: open sapphire (PAM01734) / closed engraved steel (PAM01794)
- Water resistance: 100 m (PAM01734) / 300 m (PAM01794)
- Dial: green sandwich, circular brushed (PAM01734) / black sandwich, circular brushed (PAM01794); green Super-LumiNova
- Movement: Panerai P.5000, in-house, hand-wound
- Components / jewels: 113 / 21
- Barrels: two
- Frequency: 21,600 vph (3 Hz)
- Power reserve: 8 days (192 hours)
- Functions: hours, minutes
- Strap: Tuscan calf with hot-stamped Florentine lily, plus rubber strap; trapezoidal buckle in white gold (PAM01734) / steel (PAM01794)
- Limited edition: 100 pieces (PAM01734) / 1,000 pieces (PAM01794)
- Price: EUR 55,000 (PAM01734) / EUR 10,700 (PAM01794)
- Availability: September 2026, Panerai boutiques
What's Exciting
The steel PAM01794 is the one worth arguing about. EUR 10,700 buys a 44 mm Luminor with a genuinely in-house hand-wound movement running eight days between winds, 300 m of water resistance and a closed caseback engraved with the reason the watch exists — and it does so without the usual limited-edition markup. Eight-day power reserves are rare below five figures anywhere in Swiss watchmaking; Panerai has been quietly delivering one since the P.5000 arrived, and this is the most characterful case it has been put in for some time.
The PAM01734 is a different proposition. Platinumtech is Panerai's hardened platinum alloy, and at 44 mm it makes for a seriously dense watch, but the green sandwich dial and gold-toned hands are the most convincing colour combination Panerai has run in precious metal in years. At EUR 55,000 across 100 pieces it is priced as a trophy rather than a tool, and the exhibition caseback — unusual for a Luminor of this type — suggests Panerai knows exactly who is buying it. Together the pair does something anniversary editions often fail to do: it gives collectors two honest entry points into the same story instead of one unobtainable one.
History
Giovanni Panerai opened his watchmaking business in Florence in 1860, and in 1926 the family moved the shop to Piazza San Giovanni, in the shadow of the Duomo, trading as Orologeria Svizzera. For decades that address was the brand's public face while its instrument work for the Royal Italian Navy stayed classified. The boutique was reopened to the public in 2001, and it remains the spiritual home of a brand now headquartered in Neuchatel.
The design reference here is the 6152/1, a Luminor-case reference from the 1960s; the prototype that inspired these two editions is among the rarer things in Panerai's archive. The 8 Giorni designation — "eight days" — nods to the long-running Angelus-derived eight-day movements Panerai used in its mid-century instruments, a lineage the modern in-house P.5000 was built to continue.
