Titanium Panerai Luminor 1950 Chrono monopulsante

The new PAM311 is one of four new Panerai Manifattura chronograph watches that were introduced in 2008 (K-series).


PAM311 Titanium Chrono Monopulsante

The PAM311 has the same specifications as the ceramic PAM317, the brushed steel PAM275 and the brushed pink gold PAM277. The gold 277 - with its amazing blue dial - was released as a special edition watch in 2007 (J-series). The other three Chrono Monopulsantes are regular production watches. All are powered by the Panerai in-house movement (Manifattura) calibre P.2004/1 or P.2004. This calibre offers the following functions: hours, minutes, seconds, second time zone, 8-day power reserve, 24h indicator, second reset, horizontal power reserve indicator and a single button chronograph.


Left-to-right: PAM311, PAM317 and PAM275

The above photo is also available in the wallpapers section

The case of the PAM311 is made from brushed titanium but its bezel is polished steel.
Considering the impressive number of complications, Panerai did a more than excellent job with the design. The dial does not look any busier than for instance the dial of the PAM233 or PAM270.


PAM311 crystal case back

The watch is fitted with a crystal display back but the bridges hide most of the 8 days movement. It's a pretty sight nonetheless.

The chronograph is operated by a single button with a fly back function. This button is positioned on the lower left side of the case, leaving the unique Panerai crown guard design on the right side of the watch untouched. Unlike most chronograph watches, the PAM311 does not have markings on the bezel.

The GMT function of these watches operates in a Panerai specific manner. The primary and secondary hour hands both rotate every 12 hours. In order to show whether or not the GMT hand is indicating AM or PM, a small AM/PM indicator is incorporated into the small seconds hand. The way Panerai has implemented the GMT function on the Manifattura models is a huge improvement over earlier GMT watches. The second time zone is much easier to read and the dial is cleaner looking because a 24 hour ring is not required. Another unique feature of the Panerai GMT function is that you can hide the second timezone hour hand underneath the normal hour hand when you don't need it.

The titanium PAM311 has a beautiful brown dial and comes with a high quality brown crocodile strap that perfectly matches the dial.

There's also an earlier entry including photos dedicated to the ceramic PAM317 chrono monopulsante.

All photos © 2009 M.Wilmsen

Comments and/or questions are highly appreciated.