The Marina Watch – Panerai
It is very appropriate for name watch maker Panerai to call one of its watches the “Marina”. Seeing as how they are the western European nation with the most distinctive coastline (of course, Russia has the longest coastline). Also, the fact that the Italian Navy (for whom they are commissioned to make watches) is properly named the Marina Militare. The watch in question is, of course, the 1950 8 Days GMT Panerai Luminor Marina. Sometimes it is just called the Number “12″ for its single hour marking at the 12 o’clock position. The simple beauty of the watch makes it appropriate for the marina, the yacht, cocktail party or just to hang around with. The same can be said for the replica Panerai watch.
Incredibly, finding an exact copy of the Marina has been like searching for the proverbial red herring – perhaps it does not exist! However, many fine imitations of the Luminor and the Marina can be found in the marketplace. One of the best is the IR “Panerai Luminor GMT Automatic PVD with Black Dial” – where PVD is the acronym for Vapor Phase Deposition coating. This is a very elegant piece of eye candy in black with white hour markings – though they are few and far between. Only 12 and 6 appear as Roman numeral hour markers with the rest appearing as batons.
The simple second sub-timer dial appears opposite the date window – at 3 o’clock. Inexplicably, the watch is also equipped with a 24 hour dial inside the bezel – not normally observed in Panerais nor their copies. The antithesis of the Panerai design style philosophy would of course be the skeleton watch. Such a beast does exist – it is the RH “Panerai Replica Transparent 999 Swiss Watch”. The intricate exposed inner workings and carved inner fretwork make this a Panerai replica watch like no other.