More than just timepieces, the absolute most expensive Panerai watches come bundled with exclusive once-in-a-lifetime experiences that invite owners to enter the brand’s world. While the watches themselves typically rank among Panerai’s most premium and advanced models, the included experience is often the true headlining feature, and past releases have allowed their owners to participate in everything from training with the Italian Royal Italian Navy to an excursion to the North Pole with Panerai ambassador Mike Horn. For Watches & Wonders Geneva 2024, Panerai has unveiled a new limited-edition experience watch that gives buyers inside access to Panerai’s world of sailing, and the new Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405 comes bundled with a trip to the 37th America’s Cup finals in Barcelona to enjoy a behind-the-scenes look at the competition and the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailing team.
Measuring 45mm in diameter, the new Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405 is smaller than previous tourbillon-equipped Submersible models, and its middle case is crafted from the brand’s Carbotech carbon fiber material, which serves as a nod to the carbon fiber components that form the foundation of the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team’s vessel. The Carbotech middle case is furnished with a domed sapphire crystal above its dial, along with a screw-down titanium caseback that has a black DLC finish and a flat sapphire display window. Surrounding the front crystal is a unidirectional rotating timing bezel that is also crafted from black DLC-coated titanium, and at the 3 o’clock location is the brand’s signature lever-locking crown protector bridge that helps secure the winding crown to guarantee the model’s rather generous 300 meters of water resistance.
Similar to other technologically complex Panerai models, the dial of the new Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405 is largely open-worked to showcase the watch’s internal mechanics, and the vast majority of its display consists of the plates and bridges themselves. An outer flange houses the hour markers and gives them the appearance of floating above the movement, while the various other dial elements are bolted directly onto the skeletonized mainplate and stand above the thin grid-like structure that serves as the foundation. The overall appearance of the new Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition is definitively modern and highly technical, although the design of the dial combined with its black and red colorway (the colors of Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team) creates an overall aesthetic that is somewhat similar to the limited-edition Panerai Submersible S BRABUS eTitanio PAM01403 that debuted last year.
In regards to the layout of its display, the Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405 features a horizontal 30-second tourbillon on the upper left-hand side of the dial, while the running seconds indicator for the time appears directly below it within a register at 9 o’clock. Additionally, since the running seconds are displayed by a sub-dial, the third centrally-mounted hand with the red arrow-shaped tip is actually a GMT hand, and it has its own dedicated day/night indicator in red and white that is located within the other sub-dial at the 3 o’clock position. Additionally, two different colors of Super-LumiNova are used throughout the watch, and while all of it appears white in the daylight, the lume on the minute hand, bezel, and the night section of its day/night indicator glows blue, while the rest glows green to help offer increased contrast in low-light settings.
The Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405 comes with two different straps that include a standard 24mm black rubber strap, along with a bi-material strap in gray textile and rubber that has the Luna Rossa team’s signature red stripe and a DLC-finished titanium buckle. Meanwhile, powering the watch is the Caliber P.2015/T manual-wind tourbillon movement, which can also be found with a significantly different style of finishing inside the brand’s Radiomir Tourbillon Bronzo PAM01284. Running at a frequency of 28,800vph with a four-day power reserve, the Panerai Cal. P.2015/T is a 27-jewel movement that consists of 256 individual components, and to help users keep track of its multiple days of autonomy, a power reserve indicator appears on the reverse side of the movement, and it can be viewed through the sapphire display window in the caseback.
Given that the Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition comes with the exclusive opportunity to be a guest of the brand at the America’s Cup finals in Barcelona, it is naturally being offered as a small-batch limited edition, and there will only be a total of 20 examples available. As you can imagine, this watch/experience package is also rather expensive, and the Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405 has an official retail price of $176,500 USD. While this same amount of money can buy you a supercar or even a house in certain parts of this country, it is worth noting that this only represents a $10k premium above the retail price for the standard-catalog Radiomir Tourbillon Bronzo PAM01284, which uses this same movement and doesn’t come with a once-in-a-lifetime experience to hang out in Barcelone with Panerai and the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli sailing team. For more information on the Panerai Submersible Tourbillon GMT Luna Rossa Experience Edition PAM01405, please visit the brand’s website.
