News 
Renowned for its avant-garde innovations, Officine Panerai has unveiled the Submersible Elux LAB-ID, a veritable revolution in mechanical luminescence. The new PAM01800 is a watchmaking feat with a quadruple-paented system, 50 bar (~500m) water resistance and a 30-minute power light feature, all encapsulated in a 49mm case diameter.
On-demand lighting is powered by fully mechanical energy storage, a breakthrough innovation. With a simple gesture of opening the pusher-protector system and activating the mechanism via the pusher, the watch lights up by means of a mechanism developed by the Panerai Laboratorio di Idee. This feat is achieved through an innovative arrangement of four dedicated energy-storing barrels – out of six available in the movement – precisely engineered to unwind in a microgenerator that converts mechanical energy into electricity. To optimise energy efficiency, it incorporates no active electronics, but instead a high-speed rotor operating at 80 revolutions per second and generating a high-frequency electrical signal of 240 Hz.
This energy is then channeled to illuminate various indicators on the dial, including the lighting power reserve and hour-markers. Illuminating moving elements such as the hands and bezel marker was a particularly ambitious process. Overcoming numerous challenges, the team has also ingeniously conducted electricity to the bezel via the outside of the watch case, while maintaining exceptional water-resistance levels.
July 11, 2024