Panerai is downsizing - The popular Italian watch brand will introduce a 42mm Radiomir in January 2010.

Officine Panerai, is still holding their position as one of the most popular watch brands in a stressed market. When the watch brand introduced their 44mm Luminor series in 1997, the watch market had not yet embraced oversized watches. But Panerai changed all that.

44, 45 and 47mm seem to be the standard size of a Panerai, however the Florentine watch company will introduce a stunning 42mm Radiomir (PAM336) in pink gold with a tobacco brown dial (a'la their limited Edition 232). The layout of the dial is the classic seconds at 9 style. The exceptional legibility in the dark is in fact achieved through a ‘sandwich’ dial with the luminescent material placed between two metal layers, the top one perforated in correspondence with the numerals and indexes. Pink gold plated luminescent hands complement the case as they tick away the seconds, minutes and hours.

The watch, with wire lugs that are easy to remove when substituting the strap and water-proof up to a depth of 100 meters, features the classic screw-down, truncated "onion" style crown ensuring maximum water-tightness.

Panerai is using the new 42mm 336 Radiomir model, to house their latest in-house movement, P.999. With a diameter of 12 lignes and a thickness of only 3.4 mm, the new hand-wound P.999 movement features 19 jewels, a 60-hour power reserve and a balance wheel oscillating at 21,600 alternations/hour.

This new Radiomir, PAM336, is movement-wise, a historic salute to the early days of the Florentine watch company. And a modern salute to the manufacturer position that Panerai proudly holds today.