The Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 is among the first pre-SIHH 2016 releases. It is no news that every year, Panerai debuts a number of new iterations and variations of its tried and proven designs – what is more surprising, though, is that even from what might appear to be a somewhat limited number of ingredients to work with, there still is room for firsts.

As such, the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 is the first Radiomir 1940 with a white dial, mixing this more restrained, elegant case design that all Radiomir 1940 watches have with a white dial that lends it a more sporty appearance. White-dial Panerai watches have been around for as long as one can remember, but they remain relatively rare, as most models from the brand feature darker colored dials. The crisp white dial of the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 has large Arabic numerals printed all around its periphery with the exception of the 9 o’clock position where the sub-dial for the running seconds is located.

Its 42-millimeter-wide case is in steel (as the term Acciaio, which stands for steel in Italian, implies in its model name), and in line with Panerai’s 1940- and 1950-marked collections, features a cushion case with rather beautifully curved case profiles and straight lugs. The latter were originally designed in, you guessed it, 1940, replacing the wire lugs which were used in previous versions – and of course, in today’s “normal” Radiomir models, like this engraved version we checked out hands-on here.

The movement inside the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 is the in-house manufactured P.4000 movement that runs at 4 Hertz and, thanks to its double, series-coupled barrels, provides 3 full days of power reserve. That means that you can take the watch off on Friday night and put it back on on Monday morning with it still keeping accurate time – a feature we would love to see from all new manufacture movements coming from luxury watch brands.

Speaking of which, Panerai says that the 3-day power reserve is the new standard for all its in-house movements, meaning that all present and upcoming manufacture movement-equipped Panerai watches will have enough go-juice for at least 72 hours. The P.4000 movement with micro-rotor is impressively thin, coming in at just 3.95mm thick, allowing the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 to be 10.93 millimeters thick all cased up with sapphire crystals front and back.

Panerai likes to refer to the Radiomir 1940 as a sports watch, and with 100 meters of water resistance and such a bright, high-contrast white dial, the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 does indeed have a sportier look – with that said, the Radiomir collection in general remains the dressier alternative to Panerai’s Luminor series of watches, and the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 strikes an interesting balance between sporty and elegant. Price for the Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days Automatic Acciaio PAM655 has been confirmed to be $10,000 – that actually is a bit less than some other Radiomir 1940 pieces equipped with the same caliber. panerai.com