Panerai has brought out a special edition of its Mare Nostrum chronograph, reproducing the version created in 1993 with a 42-mm steel case 42 mm and a blue dial.

The Mare Nostrum was Panerai’s first chronograph. The first prototypes appeared in 1943 but never went into production. One of these prototypes was discovered and acquired by the Panerai Museum, enabling the appearance and functions of this model to be reconstructed accurately. 

Until then, the watch had been known only through the limited documentation which survived a flood in Florence in 1966, and it was on the basis of this documentation that Panerai made a first re-edition of the chronograph in 1993, when it launched its first collection of Panerai watches to the public.

The 1993 model had the same design and functions as its predecessor but it also had some differences. The stainless steel case was 42 mm in diameter instead of 52 mm, and it was fitted with a broad, flat brush-finished bezel engraved with the tachymeter scale in km/h. 

The two push-buttons controlling the chronograph functions were in traditional style and the screw back was personalised with the inscription Officine Panerai Firenze and the OP logo engraved upon it. Its water-resistance was 5 bars (about 50 m), the same as that of the new special edition. 

The dial of the new 42-mm Mare Nostrum Acciaio is a sophisticated deep blue, like the 1993 model, and it coordinates perfectly with the alligator strap, with matching stitching and a sewn-on steel buckle. The chronograph minute counter is at 9 o’clock while the small seconds dial is at 3 o’clock and the chronograph seconds hand is centrally mounted. The engraving on the dial and the markers are coated with Super-LumiNova to ensure excellent legibility.

The new Mare Nostrum Acciaio - 42mm (PAM00716) uses the same movement as the 1993 model: the OP XXXIII calibre, created by Panerai on the ETA 2801-2 base with a Dubois-Dépraz chronograph module. With a diameter of 13 ¼ lignes, the hand-wound calibre has a power reserve of 42 hours and is COSC certified. 

The box of this special edition of 1,000 units contains a model of the Luigi Durand De La Penne, the destroyer of the Italian Navy launched in 1993. 

The ship was named in honour of Admiral Durand De La Penne, who in 1941 had taken part in the celebrated attacks in the port of Alexandria in Egypt for which he and other commandos equipped with Panerai instruments were awarded the Gold Medal for Valour. 

Mare Nostrum of 1993 was presented on the same destroyer the first time, in September of that year.