Panerai has unveiled a new watch whose case is made entirely of a metallic glass with excellent characteristics of strength and durability, which enable it to preserve its appearance over time.

The material, called BMGTECH, is an innovation from Panerai’s Laboratorio di Idee. And has been used for the new Luminor Submersible 1950 BMG-TECH 3 Days Automatic 47 mm.

The secret of this material lies not so much in its appearance – which is similar to that of titanium but darker grey in colour – as in its atomic structure, which provides a range of very useful qualities for an underwater watch: extreme resistance to wear, high strength and great lightness. 

The material of which the case, bezel, winding crown and associated protection device are made – is a bulk metallic glass, that is a material made from a special glass-like alloy in a way which prevents crystallisation, so that the atoms do not arrange themselves in regular geometric structures. 

The alloy (consisting of zirconium, copper, aluminium, titanium and nickel) is subjected to a high-pressure injection process at a high temperature and then to a cooling process lasting for only a few seconds, so that the atoms do not have enough time to become arranged in an ordered, regular structure, as normally happens in crystals. 

The “chaotic” structure of the material is the secret of its properties – in particular, its extreme corrosion resistance, its great robustness and resistance to external shocks and its resistance to magnetic fields – bringing further advantages to the owner of a watch which also provides excellent performance while preserving its appearance virtually unchanged over time. 

The innovative properties of BMG-TECH provide additional features for a model rich in technical content and of unmistakable Panerai identity. 

An underwater instrument with water-resistance guaranteed to 30 bar (a depth of about 300 m), the new watch has the bezel with a graduated scale for calculating the time of immersion, which rotates only anticlockwise, the date window at 3 o’clock and the seconds counter at 9 o’clock. 

The clear markers on the blue dial – which has a new polished finish creating fascinating reflections – provide absolute ease of reading and excellent visibility under all lighting conditions and even in the dark, thanks to the use of two different types of Super-LumiNova on the markers, making it easy to identify the reference points for reading the time and the length of immersion. 

Entirely developed and created by the Panerai Haute Horlogerie Manufacture, the movement is the P.9010 automatic calibre with a power reserve of three days. Consisting of 200 components and with 31 jewels, the calibre is 13¾ lignes in diameter and 6 mm thick, which enables the thickness of the case to be reduced. 

The balance is fixed by a bridge with twin supports and it oscillates at a frequency of 28,800 vibrations per hour (4 Hz). It is connected to a device which stops it as soon as the winding crown is pulled out, so that the watch can be synchronised with a reference time signal. In addition, the hour can easily be adjusted without interfering with the movement of the minute hand, by means of the device which moves the hour hand on its own, in jumps of one hour forward or backward. This function is very useful when changing time zones or moving between summer time and winter time, particularly since adjusting the time automatically changes the date when necessary. 

The back of the new watch is made of titanium and the strap is made of black rubber.