Panerai is releasing the Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT, The watch combines a minute repeater with a sophisticated GMT function which allows the wearer to chime both local and home time.
Differently from most minute repeaters, a decimal minute repeater sounds the hours, ten-minute intervals, and minutes.
Panerai added the capability of chiming out both local time and home time. And while there have been a few other repeaters able to chime both local and home time, this is the first – as far as we know – that can instantaneously switch from one to the other.
This operation is performed quite easily, first by twisting the crown to switch the watch into a selector mode, then by pressing the pusher on the crown to alternate between the local/home repeater mode as indicated by the small HT/LT display under the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock. Until the crown is not twisted back, the minute repeater push-piece at 8 o’clock is locked to prevent possible damages to the mechanisms.
The chiming 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 second time zone is indicated on the dial by the central arrow hand and the am/pm indicator on the counter at 3 o’clock.
The impressive hand-wound P.2005/MR calibre is built on the P2005 Tourbillon platform which Panerai introduced in 2005 and that represented a major step in the world of high complications. Beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offering a power reserve of 4 days thanks to the two barrels, the movement can be admired from both the front and the back of the watch thanks to the sophisticated work of skeletonisation, which is also helpful to enhance the acoustic performance. The power reserve indicator is visible from the open back.
Positioned at 11 o’clock, the tourbillon has the particularity that its cage he tourbillon 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 the small dot which rotates in the small seconds counter at 9 o’clock. The greater speed helps ensuring the highest timekeeping accuracy.
