ReviewPanerai Luminor Due 42: Once in a Blue Moon

This Luminor Due 42 is a bit of an oddball when you compare it to the other pieces manufactured by Panerai. The brand has been punching out iconic timepieces since the turn of the millennium, gaining an increasingly cult-like following with every subsequent release. But to understand why the watchmaker has such immense respect in the industry, it’s important for you to know that Panerai wasn’t a watchmaker, to begin with.

For the uninitiated, it was the balmy city of Florence where the journey of Panerai began. The founder, Giovanni Panerai, put together an office that combined the functions of a watchmaking school, a repair workshop, and a sales showroom. Soon after, Giovanni’s son, Leon Francesco, started working hand-in-hand with his father to give the established centre a new direction. This gave birth to a firm called Guido Panerai & Figlio that specialised in making marine equipment, which was soon commissioned by the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy). Now, the government also needed a watch for military special ops units, which were not only tough and durable but also extremely legible, on the ground and underwater too. This is but a small snippet of Panerai’s origin story.

Now that you know a little about the genesis of the brand, let’s dive back into the review of the Luminor Due, shall we? Remember when I called it a bit of an oddball? Well, if you see the line-up of the timepieces from Panerai, they aren’t really what you’d call colourful. I’d go as far as to say that they’re the Peaky Blinders of the horological world. Grim, dark, and serious. But tempting, nonetheless. So you can see why a watch with the words ‘Luminor Panerai’ etched onto an ivory dial with sea blue accents created a bit of a flurry among Panerai aficionados. However, it still is undoubtedly a Panerai with a classic Luminor-style stainless steel case and large Arabic numeral hour markers (and of course, Super-LumiNova). The case measures 42mm, which is quite compact compared to the other watches of the brand but sits perfectly under your cuff. Equipped with a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal and a solid caseback, the watch can resist water up to 30 metres, and durability has never really been a worry with Panerai’s timepieces, owing to its tough military upbringing.

With a thickness of just 10.5mm, the watch sits quite comfortably on your wrist

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Housed within is the Calibre OP XXXIV, which beats at 4Hz, and has an impressive three-day power reserve when fully wound

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The dial features a date window at three o'clock and a subdial for seconds at nine o'clock

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The Panerai Luminor Duo 42 looks nothing short of artistic elegance on the wrist

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Powering the watch is the Calibre OP XXXIV, a highly reliable and robust movement. Solely created to fit in this slim Luminor Due-style case, the self-winding movement beats at a frequency of 4Hz, offering an impressive three-day power reserve. The movement also has a date complication, read through an aperture at the three o’clock position, balancing the rest of the dial beautifully. Paired with a sky-blue strap boasting contrasting white stitching, this is truly a beautiful timepiece.

This Luminor Due 42 brings to the brand a much wider appeal that was missing from its offerings for a while. The watch is still unquestionably a Panerai, albeit with a whiff of fresh air and a touch of art-deco. It’s a change to the design philosophy, without really changing the design philosophy all that much. And an oddball is exactly what you need every now and then.