Back when Panerai was a supplier to the Italian Navy, wristwatches were just one of its offerings, and the company produced a variety of instruments designed for different nautical applications. While Panerai’s wristwatches relied on its “Radiomir” and “Luminor” luminous paints (with these historic names now serving as the monikers for its most famous collections), the brand also used an electroluminescent technology called Elux, which was patented in 1966 and featured in other naval instruments that required high levels of low-light visibility. For the brand’s latest release of 2024, Panerai has decided to bring this technology into the world of its wristwatches, and the new Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 is a mechanical timepiece with an integrated micro-generator that powers an electroluminescent display.

While it certainly is innovative, this actually isn’t the first time that we have seen a luxury brand create a mechanical watch with an electronic lighting system, and a few different brands have entertained the concept within the last decade. Notable examples include the Louis Vuitton Tambour Spin Time Air Quantum (which pairs a mechanical movement with a battery-powered lighting mechanism) and the HYT H4 Metropolis, which doesn’t rely on a battery and instead uses a spring-driven generator to power its electronic lighting system. In fact, HYT used this same concept for several models within the H4 series, such as the H4 Alinghi Special Edition from 2015 and the H4 Neo, which appeared a couple of years later in 2017.

As for the new Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, this latest addition to the Italian brand’s catalog opts for the battery-free method (similar to the approach used by HYT), and its Caliber P.9010/EL automatic movement contains six barrels, with two used to drive the timekeeping side of the movement, while the other four are used to power the various electroluminescent elements that appear on its hands, dial, and even the zero-marker of the bezel. The 55-jewel Cal. P.9010/EL inside the Panerai PAM01800 runs at a frequency of 28.800vph (4 Hz), and while the timekeeping side of the movement offers a three-day power reserve (72 hours), its on-demand Power Light function can provide its display with up to 30 minutes of continuous illumination.

Measuring a properly sizable 49mm in diameter, the case of the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 is crafted from Blue Ti-Ceramitech, which is titanium that has undergone a ceramization process using plasma electrolytic oxidation, which creates a distinctive dark blue color. Similar to other ceramic/titanium hybrid materials, Panerai’s Ti-Ceramitech could best be described as titanium with a hard ceramic layer fused to its exterior surfaces, and the specific elements chosen for the process are what allows the brand to achieve its dark blue color. As it is based on titanium, Ti-Ceramitech is 44% lighter than stainless steel steel, although it is exponentially more resistant to scratches than regular titanium alloys, while also having a fracture toughness that is ten times higher than traditional ceramic.

Just like other models from the Submersible collection, the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 features a sapphire crystal above its dial, along with a unidirectional rotating bezel, solid screw-down caseback, and the brand’s signature crown-protector bridge extending over the winding crown on the right-hand side of the case. However, on the new Panerai PAM01800, the bezel and caseback are both crafted from Ti-Ceramitech, and protruding from the 8 o’clock location is an additional pusher with a patented protection system that operates the movement’s on-demand Power Light function. Additionally, to illuminate the zero-marker on the bezel, electricity needs to be routed outside the internal case, although Panerai was able to achieve this without sacrificing water resistance, and the new Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 offers a rather impressive depth rating of 500 meters.

Featuring a pair of centrally-mounted hands, bold geometric hour markers, and a small running seconds indicator at the 9 o’clock position, the fundamental design and layout of the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800’s display is similar to other models from the greater Submersible collection. However, an additional linear Power Light reserve indicator appears below the hands on the lower half of the dial to track the 30-minute duration of its light-emitting display, and the base of the centrally-mounted hands is incredibly chunky because the hands also include electroluminescent elements. To help optimize the amount of energy supplied by its mechanical barrel system, the bezel features smart lighting that only illuminates the LED lights near the zero-marker, meaning that only 15 of the 60 total LED lights within the ring will ever need to be simultaneously activated.

In addition to the electroluminescent elements that appear throughout the watch, the new Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 also includes Super-LumiNova accents to provide a more traditional luminous display that is not dependent on its movement’s electronic on-demand Power Light function. The minute hand and the zero-marker on the bezel receive blue-glowing Super-LumiNova X1 accents, while the hour hand and indexes are punctuated by Super-LumiNova X2, which is a new green-glowing variant that Panerai states offers 10% higher luminosity compared to SuperLumiNova X1 when measured after 180 minutes in the dark. Lastly, fitted to the 26mm lugs of the Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 is a blue rubber strap with a titanium version of Panerai’s usual trapezoidal tang buckle, and the watch comes as a set with a secondary bi-material strap, although no images of this option were included among the press materials or pictured on the brand’s website.

Realistically speaking, Panerai probably should have used the superior grade of lume on the minute hand and bezel of the Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, as it is far more important to track elapsed time than to see the hour hand and markers (at least during any actual diving applications). However, I can’t imagine many people will actually do much scuba diving in the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, simply because it has an official retail price of $96,300 USD and will be produced as a limited edition of 150 examples with an output capacity of 50 pieces per year. Despite having 500 meters of water resistance, the Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800 isn’t just an underwater tool, this timepiece is intended to be a showcase of technological innovation in the form of a concept watch that has been brought to life and made available to collectors. For more information on the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, please visit the brand’s website.