As a big fan of the original Radiomir design, I found these two watches enormously appealing right out of the box. They’re a return to fundamentals for Panerai – the brilliantly glowing dials, wonderfully elegant case shape, and deliciously archaic wire lugs all put together are a package that delivers a vibe often imitated but, as they say, never equalled. Seeing them is a reminder of why Panerai became the cult classic that it did. It’s probably hard for a lot of us to remember at a remove of two decades (or for those of us who weren’t around for the first round of Panerai fandom) but there really was nothing like the Radiomir and Luminor when they first began to attract a wider audience and while the degree to which they have been imitated has, through no fault of Panerai, somewhat diluted their impact, they remain some of the most instantly attractive and plain fun to wear watches anyone’s ever made. Much has been made of the roots of Panerai in conflict, and there’s no escaping the reality of that history but that’s only to observe that so often, useful and even beautiful things are routinely born from warfare, the ugliest of human occupations. The ambivalence is perhaps not Panerai’s, but humanity’s.
from Best Watches For Men https://ift.tt/2p7lldQ