Panerai Luminor Marina 1950 Ginza Boutique Edition PAM 958 Watch Review | SwissWatchExpo
Fresh from the Showcase here
at SwissWatchExpo. Today,
we’re doing a Panerai video and a super
exclusive one at that. So let’s check it out.
This new arrival we just got here at
SwissWatchExpo is awesome. And it is a
super rare piece to my understanding too. This
is a Panerai Luminor Ginza boutique edition,
and the Ginza boutique actually refers to
the specific store in Japan that this was
an exclusive for. And I thought it would be
interesting to refer to the Ginza district
in Tokyo where this store is based, because
there’s actually a pretty interesting story
and a very interesting part of town for anyone
who’s ever been there. It is definitely their
sort of luxury shopping district and there is a
lot of it there you can definitely compare it to
Japan’s answer to a Rodeo drive or Madison
avenue would if you would, pretty much all of
the high end Western luxury shops can be found
there just a quick glance, pretty much all the
names you would expect to see you there,
your Guccis, your Pradas, your Louboutins,
Jimmy Choos, et cetera, as well as pretty much
all of the luxury Swiss watchmakers there.
In fact, I think the Richemont Group actually
has all
most of their boutiques all on a single
street in this Ginza district. So if you
are into shopping and into buying luxury goods
and you were there, that is the place to go,
and you definitely can’t talk watch making
in Japan without mentioning it because it is
also the headquarters of the Seiko corporation,
which is of course a Japan’s largest watchmaker
and definitely their most popular one here in the
States. I don’t know if they were founded there,
but their headquarters are definitely based
there now. And it’s one of the more impressive
buildings in that part of town. If you get a
chance to take a look at it online. So anyway,
that is my brief travel guide to
a city I’ve never been to before.
So let’s talk about the watch. This is an
incredible looking Panerai and it’s always unique.
Two things right off the bat. That’s going to
set it apart from a lot of other Panerais. You’ve
seen: the blue dial and the bracelet, which is
very similar to the other Luminor bracelets I’ve
seen. I’ve seen the inverted links appear to
be proportionately ever so slightly different,
but these super rare one-off boutique additions.
You’re going to see very subtle tweaks to them,
but they’re definitely not going to reinvent
the wheel. And that kind of goes for all brands,
but the blue dial is incredible. It is a sandwich
dial, which if you’re asking me is the only way to
go when you go Panerai, but I’m sure I’m going
to upset a lot of Paner-isties out there who
might feel otherwise, but it is incredible looking
contrast. You get in these layers, the sandwich
dial for people who don’t know, it’s a solid
luminescent, a layer that is underneath the dial.
And so that does sort of give you this three
dimensional look. Well, it is a three-dimensional
look because it is sort of depressed into
the dial, which is where you’re going to see
these markers and numbers. And you do have the
traditional sort of script there that Panerai is
known for the inverted six and nine character.
I just absolutely love this. So while this is a
unique and rare Panerai, it’s certainly not
going to be that big of a departure from
some of your favorite Luminors in the past.
The case is 44 millimeters. I think it’s a
really great size. It might be a little large
for some people, but Panerai is a large watch
ideally built for large people. And this does
kind of set it apart from a lot of the other
Japanese exclusives we’ve had, especially
considering the Japanese exclusive Omega
Speedmasters have come to mind, beautiful watches,
some of my favorites, but a very traditional size,
very old school and classic to my understanding
the taste of there do run a little bit smaller.
So this is definitely a big would almost say
‘Ugly American’ watch by by comparison. It’s
a 44 millimeters. It’s massive. It is by far the
largest Japanese exclusive watch I have ever seen,
but I wouldn’t expect anything different
from Panerai and neither should you,
the movement that powers,
this is a P.9010 movement,
which is a pretty popular one. That’s in a
lot of their movements is a 31jewel movement,
which looks beautiful on the other side of this
exhibition case back and does have a three-day
power reserve as well. No indicator on the dial,
they left it relatively clean with just the 6, 9,
12, and date window. But I also really do love
the bright blue colored second hand. You’ll see
this on a lot of different Panerai models, but I
do think it has done to very great effect here.
Other than that, you do have the butterfly
style clasp here on this bracelet, which I
do think is a really rugged and really
powerful looking bracelet. But again,
like so many other things about this watch, just
because it’s unique, just because you probably
won’t see this for sale elsewhere does not mean
that this is given up any of the Panerai DNA.
You certainly would not confuse this for anything
other than Luminor. And this is why it’s such a
fantastic watch for any Paner-istie, but it’s
certainly not so esoteric that you would need to
be a Paner-istie to appreciate this watch. If you
are looking to get your first Panerai, and want
something is going to set you apart for the other
people that have a Luminor in their collection,
definitely look at this because wow, it
is definitely a exclusive and rare watch.
It is not priced that differently from some,
I would say less rare models of Panerai. So if
you love this blue dial on a bracelet, don’t
let the fact that it’s a Japanese exclusive
scare you off, or think that somehow this
could be way outside your budget. Chances are,
it’s probably not that much more than some other
Panerais you had your eye on in the past as well.
All in all, it’s a beautiful watch. Even
if you are not into the history of it,
you can still appreciate it. And of course, this
is a very unique Panerai, but we have a ton of
other more traditional Radiomirs and Luminors.
And of course, a variety of other brands, if you
didn’t know that already. Like and subscribe
to our channel so we can show you every week,
we’re dropping new videos for new arrivals.
And of course, we got all the classics,
all the hits from Rolex, Omega, Tag Heuer, and
a whole lot others it’s SwissWatchExpo.com.
