As many luxury watch brands do, Panerai often develops special models specifically for certain geographies — China in particular.  For example, you may recall the Panerai PAM 366 “Fu” China 福 featuring the “Fu” symbol on the dial for good fortune or happiness, as I profiled back in 2010.  Of course, this being the Chinese year of the Dragon we have seen sooo many watches with dragons on them (too many?), as every brand under the sun tries to cash-in on the dragon bonanza.  Anyway, I was very interested to see that the team over at Monochrome.nl profiling a Panerai PAM 840 created for the Chinese market, from the very exclusive and little known Panerai “Sealand” series.  Panerai “Sealand” is defined by its specially engraved and embellished “hunter” style case, a relic of the pocket-watch era now used for nostalgic purposes.

Though I do not find the PAM 840 to be a particularly attractive watch, I was intrigued because I thought that Panerai stopped producing watches in the Sealand series watch in 2005 when the Panerai for Purdey collection concluded (see “Did You Know?” below).  But Monochrome seems to indicate that Panerai has produced various pieces with different zodiac signs on them for China — I hope to get more information on this soon.  Whatever the case, it is a fantastic opportunity to see one of these great watches in person –Be sure check out Monochrome’s hands-on with the Panerai PAM 840 Sealand Dragon Watch, here.

Panerai Luminor Sealand Dragon Watch (PAM 840)

Limited Edition 50 pieces for China

44mm Luminor “hunter” style case with Dragon engraving, automatic mechanical OP III movement

Did You Know?

Panerai’s Sealand models are extremely exclusive — from 2002 to 2005, Panerai made several Sealand models for bespoke gun and rifle maker Purdey featuring African big-game engravings on the hunter-case — simply amazing watches, highly collectible and little known to most watch enthusiasts.