PANERAI Submersible Chrono Flyback Jimmy Chin EDITIONs

World renowned mountain-man / free-skier, Jimmy Chin, the Academy Award winning filmmaker, National Geographic photographer and alpine sports athlete has just joined the ranks of Panerai’s official brand ambassadors. In 2002, Jimmy secured a breakthrough assignment to be the cinematographer for a high-profile National Geographic–sponsored trek across Tibet’s Chang Tang Plateau. In 2006, he became one of the only people to ski off the summit of Mount Everest. His 2015 film Meru won the coveted Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary. Jimmy’s latest documentary Free Solo won a BAFTA and an Academy Award for best Documentary Feature in 2019. For 2021 Jimmy embarked on his first collaboration with Panerai which lead to the creation of a short film – and you guessed it a pair of incredible new Submersible Chrono Flyback Jimmy Chin Edition watches. First up is PAM01208 with its 47mm in diameter case in brushed Titanium DLC as well as its specially granulated finished dial in Shaded Grey. Next up is PAM01207 with its 47mm in diameter case in sand-blasted Titanium as well as specially granulated finished dial in Grey. Apart from the finishing of their cases as well as their components, their dial and strap colors; both models follow the same aesthetic codes with their: minute-tracks as well as their sub-dial flyback chrono and seconds indictors all executed in sky blue. In addition to the above both models come with the same case-back engraving with “Jimmy Chin Edition” placed proudly above Mount Everest’s peaks with the US Stars and Stripes, below and a pair of crossed skis. Powering both these Jimmy Chin Edition watches is a P.9100 caliber, executed entirely by Panerai. It has an Incabloc anti-shock device as well as a power-reserve of up to 3 days thanks to twin barrels. Both of Panerai’s new Submersible Chrono Flyback Jimmy Chin Edition watches come on grey textile straps with anthracite contrast stitching and a black rubberized underside. MSRP in the USA is as follows: PAM01208 is 43’200USD while PAM01207 is a mere 19’400USD. WTF, Lex, I hear you ask – how come the DLC variant is more than double the price of the sand-blast finished model? Tbh I dunno’ for sure other than PAM01208 is a true Limited Edition and you need to contact Panerai’s concierge directly to get one.

Thoughts? Damn, that pricing disparity is a real head scratcher; perhaps there was misprint or the likes. If they had listed the DLC as 24k I wouldn’t blink but 43k is bordering on criminal. 

But what do you think – one of these or something a little simpler like the Luminor Marina 44mm Guillaume Néry EDITION – I’ll take the Néry Edition over one of these, all day long. For me it is one of the coolest PAMs in decades. ;)