Panerai wristwatch photo blog: The elusive Panerai PAM267 Marina Militare

Monday, January 4, 2010

The elusive Panerai PAM267 Marina Militare

An opportunity to take photos of a Panerai PAM267 does not come along often. In fact, you won't find many photos of this particular watch at all. Only six watches exist and these were all released in early 2009. The watches are now owned by collectors, not easy to come across and probably never publicly available for resale. Well maybe if you're a taxi driver in Switzerland...

The elusive PAM267 Marina Militare 47mm

I've read somewhere that Panerai produced these 6 watches for collectors that weren't able to get their hands on a PAM203. It has the same SF 240 Angelus movement, size, case and crown guard. The 203 was introduced in 2005 with an original distribution list of a mere 150 people. The watch could be bought on invitation by Officine Panerai only and one had to be personally selected by CEO Mr Angelo Bonati. Making an OOR of the 203 would be out of the question. The same would obviously be true for the 267.

Panerai PAM267 Marina Militare and PAM203

The PAM267 next to the PAM203 (on the right)

The movement used in the PAM267 is the original sixty year old and large sized Angelus SF calibre 240. Panerai purchased 200 of these rare movements, refurbished them and slightly upgraded the movements for use in the PAM203 and then the PAM267. This would mean that there are only 44 spare movements left (150 used for the 203 and 6 used for the 267).

Panerai PAM267 photo for Paneristi 2010 calendar

PAM267 photo that is used in the 2010 Paneristi calendar

The PAM267 has a 47mm 1950's Luminor style case, similar to the case of the PAM127 - if not the same. Both the 267 and the 203 have a tobacco brown dial, gold hands, small sub seconds and Reg. Tm. engraved in the crown guard. The 267 has Marina Militare written on the dial underneath the 12, where it reads Luminor Panerai on the 203. The 203 has the circular 8 giorni brevettato logo at the 3 o'clock position which is lacking on the 267. FYI 8 giorni means 8 days and brevettato means patented.

Besides the vintage Panerai watches, the only other 47mm Panerai watch with Marina Militare on the dial is the Destro (left handed) PAM217 which is showing in the photo below.

Panerai PAM267 Marina Militare and PAM217

The PAM267 next to the Destro PAM217 (on the right)

The PAM267 has a Luminova sandwich dial and a domed crystal, the same as the already mentioned PAM203, PAM127 and PAM217. The first photo shows the distortion caused by the domed crystal when you look at the watch at an angle. The domed crystal is both loved and hated because of this distortion, but that's a different story altogether.