The last time we saw a Panerai with a gradient blue-to-black fume or smoked dial, it was the Panerai Submersible Chrono Guillaume Néry Edition with an unforgettable grained face. Today, Panerai’s conservatively styled Radiomir is getting an aesthetic update in the same vein – smokey blue dials with a similar gradient treatment on a sunray brushed dial.
The new Officine Panerai Radiomir Mediterraneo Collection comes in two variants – a 45mm edition and an eminently more versatile and wearable 42mm version. Smoked or fume dials, recently popularised by Schaffhausen manufacture H. Moser, but really a popular execution since the 1960s, have seen brands like Rado and Mido digging into their archives with their own heritage interpretations of these gradient light to dark dials.
Here on the Radomir Mediterraneo, the gradient blue visual effect takes special significance – an association with the Mediterranean sea where champion diver Guillaume Néry frequently trains. The ocean region is also the locale of the 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck, when the disaster prompted the Italian government to strengthen patrols of the Mediterranean Sea through “Operation Mare Nostrum”, a military and humanitarian mission which aims to protect and rescue migrants and arrest the human traffickers in the Mediterranean. The operation itself shares a name with a heritage Panerai timepiece – the Mare Nostrum chronograph.
Both 42mm and 45mm models have the same “Mediterraneo” dial treatment and the signature Panerai Radiomir case, but they both enjoy different movements which watch aficionados will appreciate since some brands are guilty of using the same movement in collections of the same model regardless of size, depending on spacing rings to hold hold the movement in place for the larger variant. The consequence of this is usually dial layouts which appear unduly cramped towards the centre.
Thankfully, Panerai has equipped the 42mm Radomir Mediterraneo with the manual-winding manufacture calibre P.1000 with twin barrels and consequently a 3 day power reserve. The larger of the two, the 45mm Radomir Mediterraneo uses an automatic calibre P.4000 with 3 days power reserve. Both are resistant to 100 meters water resistance.
New Radomir Mediterraneo 42mm and 45mm Price & Specs
Movement Manual winding manufacture Calibre P.1000 for 42mm. Automatic winding calibre P.4000 for 45mm. Both with 3 days power reserve
Case 42mm or 45mm stainless steel with 100 meters water resistance
Strap Alligator leather
Price On Application