September 8, 2017 – Trondheim, Norway
So, what do you wear when you are traveling across the world to Norway (via London) for a family wedding? For me, it was my trusty PAM 311.
This is without a doubt one of my favorite Panerai watches (either in general or in my collection). It has the bubble crystal like on my trusty PAM 233. It has a sandwich dial. It has a titanium case (which also means it gets Panerai’s brown tobacco dial treatment). It has a display back. It has a 12-hour GMT hand as well as a 24-hour dial that shares space with the second hand dial. It has an 8-day power reserve with the remaining power “shark tooth” complication on the bottom of the dial. And it’s a chrono.
But this isn’t any regular chronometer. It’s a monopulsante. That means one button controls the stop/start and reset of the 30-minute timer. Basically, this is a lot of Panerai goodness all rolled up into one timepiece. A lot of checked boxes on the cool Panerai feature list. Neat.
Now, the reliability of the in-house P.2004 movement might be in question for some, and I have certainly had my issues with some of Panerai’s earl(ier) in-house movements. But this one has served me quite well for many years.
I’ve gone back and forth on straps for this watch. I now have it on a Panerai brushed titanium deployant. Even though the titanium case probably saves some wight, this baby is a heavier, thicker and top-heavy watch. So thicker straps seem to work better. And the tobacco dial does limit the colors that work nicely with the watch.
The only thing missing from this watch is the date. But that would certainly make the already-almost-busy dial just that.
Would love to hear anyone else who likes the 311. It definitely makes my PAM top-5 list!
NOTE: This is a back-dated post that took place during my three-year hiatus from Wrist.blog. Rather than post a new deluge of wrist shots here in 2021, I’ve decided to use the date the image was taken for the post, in this case September 2017.
wrist.blog 
Leave a Reply