USEFUL BREAKTHROUGH

With the Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, Panerai has delivered the smartest and brightest dive watch ever made.

- ASHOK SOMAN

Watches such as the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 get watch enthusiasts all hot and bothered. A technical tour-de-force, the Elux PAM01800 delivers maximum low-light legibility for a mechanical dive watch; it is also a rare timekeeper that lights up without the use of batteries, and the only one to do so for 30 minutes, on-demand. Looking at the watch, it may boggle your mind to discover that it took four patents (pending), six barrels and eight years of development to make the Elux PAM01800 a reality. So, what exactly are we talking about here? While typical dive watches use luminescent materials to keep things readable in the murky depths, Panerai delivers the possibility of lighting up the dial, hands and bezel markers via a mechanical system that generates electrical power for LEDs.

The idea behind this is something Panerai CEO JeanMarc Pontroué calls “retro-futurism,” which references the idea of starting on a technological path not taken in the past and imagining the results today. “It’s about how we can include an idea from the past and reinterpret it with all the innovations we know today,” said Pontroué, with regards to both developing the Elux PAM01800 and Panerai’s approach to using its heritage.

Moving on to the recent past though, the enthusiasts amongst you will immediately recognise that other brands have showcased similar one-off creations, notably the always-ambitious Van Cleef & Arpels. Unlike that very creative brand, Panerai always has to work within the constraints of its DNA, according to Panerai Chief Operating Officer Jerome Cavadini (Cavadini, who leads the manufacture at Neuchatel, was speaking with us about the new watch, along with Pontroué). Taking into account the development time for the Elux, Cavadini is one of the few senior executives who was around right at the start of the project; Pontroué was CEO of Roger Dubuis at that time.