Panerai Luna Rossa: the 2021 America’s Cup watch

24 February 2021 | Panerai , Diving Watches , Watch Talk

Panerai Luna Rossa: a successful partnership

The relationship between sport and watches is long-lasting and consolidated. Over the years, watch brands have developed technical solutions to support athletes in their quest for superior performance, guaranteeing precise timekeeping and sturdiness. Can a specific brand hit the spotlight, like a renowned sports athlete? Yes, it can; it is what recently happened with the successful Panerai Luna Rossa partnership.

The partnership between the Florentine-founded brand and the Italian sailing team, signed in 2019, has gained first-page news this year, and here is why: the victory we as Italians are all proud of. Luna Rossa has just won the Prada Cup and defeated Britannia by a hard-to-believe seven wins against one and will therefore officially challenge the reigning champions and America's Cup defender Emirates Team New Zealand.

We expect to live quite a challenging series of match races at, beginning of March. The challenge we foresee is not only eye-catching; we'll sure see extensive media coverage like never before. The Prada Luna Rossa challenger to America's Cup will be under the spotlight even more and regarded as a kind of David against Goliath.

Such spotlight will ensure and is already providing extended visibility to Panerai as the challenger's official timepiece. It's not just a matter of sailboats and countries competing against each other; the racecourse will be the scenario of a fight between Panerai and Omega, America's Cup final's official timekeeper and sponsoring partnering of Team New Zealand.

Panerai sponsors Luna Rossa

The partnership between Panerai and Luna Rossa is an unmatched combination whose foundation is to excel in their respective industries.

Just like the Italian AC75 sailboat, Panerai's vision is to outperform the competition. Founded in Florence over 150 years ago, it stands for original wristwatches, boasting an uncommon military-inspired pedigree while pushing the envelope of new materials; hence the motto "Laboratorio di Idee."

As a result of this sponsorship agreement for the 2021 America's Cup, the brand revealed a specific watch collection, whose materials draw inspiration from the cutting-edge boat recently awarded with the Prada Cup trophy. The product offering includes five timepieces combining proprietary materials with specs and materials also adopted across full-foiling AC75 Italian one-piece hull. Here is the list:

Submersible Luna Rossa 47 mm
Luminor Luna Rossa GMT 44mm
Luminor Luna Rossa GMT 42 mm
Luminor Luna Rossa Chrono Flyback 44mm
Luminor Luna Rossa Regatta 47 mm

They all feature specs and designs that keep encompassing technology, lightness, rugged and advanced materials. From a mission statement point of view, the brand's vision has a lot to share with the challenge carried out by Luna Rossa, thus making the Panerai Luna Rossa quite an attractive recipe. Let's take a quick look at the first two ones.

Panerai Submersible Luna Rossa

It is a water-resistant timepiece capable of withstanding depths up to 300 meters, showcasing a bold personality. The case's material, a Panerai's patent, is a nod to the AC75 Luna Rossa's hull and is called Carbotech™. It is an innovative material designed to ensure resistance and lightness and an esthetic appeal like no other. Panerai introduced Carbotech™ at SIHH 2015.

Its mechanical resistance results from the unique production methodology: thin sheets of carbon fiber are compressed and combined with a high-end polymer, under controlled temperature, and at high-pressure working conditions.

Functions and characteristics

The list of functions includes hours, minutes, small running seconds, date, and GMT, powered by a self-winding in-house mechanical movement that can run for three days when fully wound.

The unidirectional rotating bezel with a graduated scale surrounds a dial whose nod to Luna Rossa's sail is at your fingertips. The date is set at 3 o'clock, the small seconds counter at 9 o'clock, while designers chose a dark sail gray palette enriched with luminescent dots and indexes for the dial.

The case back comes in titanium; it is screwed in and has a black coating on top. The case is 47 mm across, and the strap is in black rubber.

Panerai Submersible Luna Rossa price

This timepiece retails for 21,000 Euros, being the second most expensive one across the collection.

Panerai Luminor Luna Rossa GMT 44 mm

The Panerai Luminor Luna Rossa GMT 44 mm shares the Submersible's technical layout, excluding the case measures 44 mm across and is not in Carbotech™ while adopting a similar Luna Rossa-inspired texture on the dial.

Functions and features

The case comes in DLC-treated titanium to ensure good resistance to shocks and scratches.

The dial sports a date window at three and a small seconds counter at nine. The bezel is in DLC titanium, too, as it is the screwed-in case back depicting Luna Rossa's fast sailing, whose design is standard across the range.

The mechanical movement is the same with self-winding caliber P9010/GMT adopted by its Carbotech-equipped sibling.

Luminor Luna Rossa GMT 44mm price

This model retails for 10,900 Euros.

Panerai: a brand with a rich history and a bright technological future.

Besides showing off the Panerai Luna Rossa lineup, we have extensively covered Panerai in our magazine. That's why you'll find plenty of content on here.

Last year we had the honor of spending some quality time with Panerai's CEO, Jean-Marc Pontroué, during our Podcast session. Back then, Jean-Marc explained the brand's philosophy and hinted at what to expect in the coming future. I suggest you sit down and listen to our podcast by clicking here:

Live PODCAST with Jean-Marc Pontroué - CEO Panerai.

You'll love it.

Also, here is a list of the most recent products reviews:

As the 2021 America's Cup is close to the final competition for the trophy and Watches and Wonders 2021 is around the corner, stay tuned. There's much to come from us moving forward.

(Photo credit: courtesy of Panerai)

Tommaso Sabia @Horbiter®