Panerai – Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT

Panerai presents Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT, the most complicated watch ever made by the manufacture in neuchatel.

For the creation of this watch, Officine Panerai has sought inspiration from its own history – for over a century indissolubly linked to the world of the sea – and from the marine tradition of marking the passage of time by a ship’s bell.

For the Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT Officine Panerai has developed the new P.2005/MR Manufacture movement, a hand-wound skeleton calibre fitted with a high-end minute repeater mechanism.

THE CARILLON

The chiming is activated by a push-piece at 8 o’clock, and it is carried out by three hammers which strike an equal number of gongs fixed to the movement and the case. The choice of three hammers, instead of the traditional two, enables three different sounds to be combined, so that the carillon can play a melody, like that of a bell. As is traditional, the first gong is the lowest and identifies the hour, while the last and highest indicates individual minutes. The unusual feature is that the second gong sounds triple chimes of an intermediate note, each triple chime corresponding to ten minutes instead of the traditional fifteen.

THE DOUBLE HOUR AND MINUTE REPEATER MECHANISM

The most remarkable feature of Officine Panerai’s Minute Repeater Carillon is the fact that the repeater function can be activated both for local time and for a second time zone, which is indicated on the dial by the central arrow hand and the am/pm indicator on the counter at 3 o’clock. To avoid accidental activation, the carillon can be operated by the push-piece at 8 o’clock only when the winding crown is rotated slightly. The degree of rotation required is shown by a black indicator placed on the side of the crown: when the indicator can be seen from the front, the carillon cannot be sounded but, by a single pressure on the push-piece on the crown, the local time or the second time zone can be selected, and the red HT/LT (Home Time/ Local Time) indicator at 8 o’clock marks which of the two alternatives is in force.

THE TOURBILLON REGULATOR

The hand wound P.2005/MR calibre, also has the remarkable Panerai tourbillon regulator, which can be admired from both the front and the back of the watch thanks to the sophisticated work of skeletonisation. In the system patented by Officine Panerai, the rotation of the tourbillon is different from that of the classic tourbillon. In the traditional version the balance cage rotates continuously on itself, cancelling out any variations caused by gravity and possible shocks. In the innovative Panerai mechanism, the tourbillon cage rotates on an axis which is perpendicular, not parallel, to that of the balance. Also, while the rotation is once a minute in a traditional tourbillon, in the P.2005/MR it takes 30 seconds, and this is shown by an indicator which rotates in the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock. The greater speed and the particular arrangement of the mechanism enable it to compensate for any changes of rate very effectively, ensuring a very accurate precision timepiece.

The sophisticated work of skeletonising is helpful in providing better acoustic performance and it also enables the sophisticated technology of the P.2005/MR calibre and its fascinating details to be admired. All the elements which form the dial are directly mounted on the movement or on the flange, on which the words ‘RADIOMIR 1940 PANERAI’ and ‘MINUTE REPEATER CARILLON’ are engraved. The little hammers of the minute repeaters and the two spring barrels, which store a power reserve of at least four days, are visible from the open back, through which the power reserve indicator mounted on the movement can also be read.

For this watch, realised as a Special Edition and only made to order for clients, Officine Panerai has anticipated the possibility of personalisation, which includes not only the choice of strap, of the hands or of other special features, but also the possibility of making the case in a material other than red gold.