Watch Review | Panerai Luminor Base 8 Days - PAM561

From a strictly military perspective, wearing a white dial dive watch on a mission would possibly cause your fellow commando soldiers to smack you in the back of the head. But what the Panerai Luminor Base 8 Days Acciaio PAM561 lacks in historical accuracy and stealth capabilities it makes up for by being one of the more affordable, in-house-movement-equipped and refreshing-looking alternatives in a sea of boring black and blue dial watches.

Panerai may be a brand of only a handful of – admittedly very similar – collections, yet it still is one among few that have an almost unearthly power in bringing their first-time customer back for another model... and then another, and another, and so on. As such, I don't think that the Panerai Luminor Base 8 Days Acciaio PAM561 is a typical "first Panerai" – for that, check out our Cost of Entry article on the most affordable Panerai you can buy.

I picked the PAM561 specifically because I wanted to review a Panerai that isn't an obvious choice but something one might actually end up considering after looking at the current production line-up of the brand. Clad in a 44mm-wide Luminor case, it is a simple, legible, and among Panerai watches, competitively priced offering that also packs a more unusual hand-wound, in-house-made movement with an 8-day power reserve.

Dial & Legibility (& My Only Gripe)

The dial is more unusual not just in its color but also in its markings, with Arabic numerals all around (unlike your more typical Panerai dials that only have numerals for 12, 3, 6, and 9 with baton markers everywhere else) plus an additional and, again, rarer 60-minute track on the periphery. The numerals are not lumed, only the hands and the pips on the periphery of the dial are. All of these are painted on the dial's surface as the Panerai Luminor Base 8 Days Acciaio PAM561 has a solid dial rather than the famed Panerai sandwich dial.

Sandwich dials are fun and all, but your first Panerai more than likely had that already, and the PAM561 is more like your second or third in the line, as I mentioned above, where you do want something new in the subtleties that render one Panerai different from another. The prominent "8 DAYS" marking above six o'clock refers to the P.5000 in-house caliber – but before we move on to that, just one more word (and my only gripe with the PAM561) on legibility.

The black numerals and the black painted hands with their off-white (but not faux vintage!) center contrast beautifully against the sharp white dial – the lume pips and the center of the hands turn noticeably green even when it's bright outside, the famously excellent Panerai lume is so strong. Stay inside for longer, though, and as the lume discharges (and doesn't receive much charge from ambient lights), these elements go back to being white.

Everlastingly good color contrast aside, however, the only two hands on the PAM561 are just way too short. I noticed this in official images but even during the excitement of unpacking a freshly received review unit, they soon stood out for me as too short – and, frankly, I don't see why this was necessary. The minute hand falls way short of the track it's by definition supposed to reach, and the hour hand sometimes just looks "lost" in the sea of white, coming in way too short to be even remotely close to the outer edge of the dial (it barely reaches halfway across).

Perhaps longer and heavier hands would have put additional strain on the movement, but if anything, an 8-day power reserve movement should have enough torque to move these thin and light hands around. I personally will go so far as to say I would have traded a day or two of power reserve for longer hands.

For above type,  we have same type, if you are interested in , please feel free to contact us, you will have a pleasant surprise.

Skype: gavinma9620@outlook.com
WhatsApp:  +86-15631181926
Wechat: 11001486