2020 is the year of the Luminor and there’s a new Luminor Marina in the family. It comes in blue, which is, without a doubt, one of the most popular colors in watchmaking. To be clear, this isn’t the first Panerai with a blue dial. The brand already has a number of Luminor and Radiomir watches with blue dials. But there are a couple of things about the new Luminor Marina 44mm PAM01313 that makes it one of the most talked-about watches among Paneristis for a long time.

In many ways, the new Panerai Luminor Marina 44mm PAM01313 is a return to basics for the brand. It’s a no-frills out-and-out tool watch. The 44mm case features the classic lines of Panerai’s Luminor 1950 case with a matte-brushed finish and a polished bezel. It features 24mm lugs and Panerai’s quick-release strap change system. Water-resistance is a very fitting 300 meters, thanks to a solid screw-down caseback.

The dial is where most of the magic is at. The highlight is obviously the color, which is a brilliant satin-finished blue. On top of that, it features more conventional, or rather less controversial, white luminescent. You see, a common grievance about recent Panerai releases is that they have faux vintage luminescent material. Some call it “fautina” while Panerai calls it “ecru;” regardless, the idea is to replicate the look of luminescent markers found on vintage watches. While I’m quite fond of it, I can understand why some might find it disingenuous.

The rest of the dial is classic Panerai. Since it’s a Luminor Marina, there’s small seconds at 9 o’clock. Balancing it out at 3 o’clock is a well-integrated date window. The dial says “Luminor Marina” at 12 o’clock and “Panerai Automatic” at 6 o’clock. By most counts, this would be considered a rather clean dial. But I can definitely see some ‘ristis taking offense at the word “Automatic.” The watch also has plain silver hour, minute, and seconds hands. Nothing crazy, nothing fancy.

Inside beats Panera’s Calibre P.9010. Unveiled in 2016, the Calibre P.9010 is the successor to the P.9000. It features a number of crucial improvements, the most notable being a reduced height — down from 7.9mm to 6mm. It also has a balance bridge as opposed to a balance cock. It beats at 4Hz and has a power reserve of 72 hours. One neat feature is that it has an independently adjustable hour hand. Unfortunately, the solid screw-down caseback prevents owners from admiring the movement.

Panerai Luminor Marina PAM01313

As I said, this is a return to basics for Panerai. A number of ‘ristis were upset when Panerai introduced the Calibre P.9010 and updated long-time favorites such as the Luminor Marina PAM0312 and PAM0359 to include some controversial changes like blue seconds hand and vastly reduced water resistance ratings. This new Luminor Marina PAM01313 isn’t perfect, but it goes some way in righting those wrongs. The Panerai Luminor Marina 44mm PAM01313 is $7,700. For more information, visit panerai.com.