Panerai marks a century of its Florence boutique with the Luminor Firenze 8 Giorni

Panerai has introduced the Luminor Firenze 8 Giorni to mark 100 years since its Orologeria Svizzera boutique opened in Florence, the shop that helped define the brand. There are two versions: the PAM01734 in platinum, limited to 100 pieces at $56,400, and the PAM01794 in polished steel.

Both watches replace the usual Luminor branding on the dial with the word Firenze, a nod to the boutique and to a rare prototype, now in a private collection, that also carried the words Panerai Firenze on its dial. The reference borrows its 44mm case proportions from the midcentury ref. 6152/1.

That earlier reference housed first a Rolex caliber 618 and later an Angelus caliber 240, and examples of Panerai's own Luminor case name, patented in 1949, remain rare among collectors. The new watches keep the dial deliberately plain: cut-out numerals, applied indices and pencil hands finished in Super-LumiNova, with no date and no complications.

What sets the platinum version apart

The PAM01734 is the pair's showpiece. It is cased in Platinumtech, Panerai's proprietary alloy of 95% pure platinum made 85% harder than conventional platinum alloys, which leaves the watch roughly 33% heavier than an equivalent piece in 18-karat gold.

For the first time on a Panerai watch, the crown's signature protective bridge carries parallel grooves cut into its inner sides, a detail aimed squarely at collectors who track such changes closely. The case also has a brushed green sandwich dial, green Super-LumiNova hour markers and an open caseback.

A domed sapphire crystal gives the watch a vintage profile despite its modern build. Both references run on the hand-wound P.5000 caliber, which delivers an eight-day power reserve, an Incabloc Parechoc anti-shock system and water resistance to about 100 meters, keeping the watch usable beyond display.

The strap is Tuscan calf leather, hot-stamped with the Florentine lily, and the watch ships in a lacquered mahogany box fitted with a custom metal plaque depicting the boutique's entrance on Piazza San Giovanni, overlooking the Duomo.

Why the Florence boutique matters to Panerai

Panerai's founder Giovanni Panerai had already run the business for 66 years by the time the Orologeria Svizzera boutique opened in 1926, but it was there that the company built its workshop and its name as a multibrand retailer, repairer and precision timekeeper.

That reputation carried Panerai from a Florentine shop to a supplier of tool watches and instruments to the Italian Navy, and eventually to the standalone luxury watch brand it is today, one we track on our Panerai brand page alongside its recommended retail pricing across the current catalog.

For decades Panerai's identity rested on outsized, tough dive watches built for military use rather than dinner jackets. The Luminor Firenze 8 Giorni keeps that scale but trades some of the brutalism for restraint, extending a shift toward refinement the brand has leaned into more visibly in recent years.

We have covered Panerai's approach to long power reserves before, including the Luminor 31 Giorni, which runs a full month on a single wind using four barrels and 3.3 meters of mainspring. The new watch's eight-day reserve is more modest by comparison, but it comes from a hand-wound movement rather than the automatic architecture behind that earlier piece.

Collectors curious about Panerai's back catalog outside the new releases can also find pre-owned examples of the Panerai lineup through third-party retailers, where recommended pricing on past references gives a sense of how the Florentine-inspired models might hold value over time.

How Panerai is marking the anniversary

Panerai is staging an exhibition called Immersion at Florence's Museo Marino Marini from September 10 to 19, timed to the centenary and open to the public during that window. The brand has said celebratory events will continue at the Florence boutique throughout the rest of the year, part of our ongoing coverage of scene news from the watch world.

Fans able to make the trip can see the anniversary marked at the same Piazza San Giovanni address the boutique has held since 1926, a location Panerai has folded directly into the new watch's design, from the dial text down to the box's engraved plaque.

Panerai has not stated a broader retail release date beyond the centenary announcement, nor has it disclosed a production limit for the steel PAM01794, unlike the platinum edition's 100-piece cap. The brand has, however, confirmed the boutique itself remains in operation on the same site a century on.