Panerai cases, dials and crystals

A couple of months ago, the generous people from Richemont in Amsterdam allowed me to take pictures of a set that they have available for shows et cetera. The set contains cases, dials and crystals showing how these look during the various production stages. It contains the traditional Luminor cases, the 1950's style cases and of course the cushion shaped Radiomir cases. The picture of the Luminor cases and crystals (below) turned out to be one of my persnal favorite Panerai photos. I made a large A3+ size print of it on an Epson 3800 Pro that looks really nice.


Click for a larger version

I lit the above photo with two off camera strobes. I used a SB900 with a honey comb grid directly above the subject and a SB800 at low output power - left of the camera. The crystals in the photo show how these look at the various production stages, from thick and hardly translucent to polished and ready to be used in a watch. It also shows how the dials start out as simple copper plates.


1950's style case

The above photo shows the 1950's style case - used e.g. for the the Fiddy/PAM 127. It's amazing to see how this case is being machined from a solid block of steel into the beautiful stylish case that it eventually becomes. If anything, having access to this set only increased my admiration for these watches.


The Panerai Radiomir case

The last photo shows the Radiomir case. Quite different in comparison to the Luminor cases with the typical crown guard for which Panerai is so well known.

Click here if you want to see all 15 photos I took of this set

All photos © 2009 M.Wilmsen