Panerai Submersible 42 mm PAM00973

The storyWhy this reference matters

Panerai's rotating bezel was not born in Florence but on an Egyptian order. In 1956 the Egyptian Navy asked for an enormous Radiomir with an eight-day Angelus calibre and a graduated bezel for timing a dive; that Egiziano is the grandfather of everything Panerai has done with a bezel since. The name Submersible took decades to appear and, when it did, it came as a surname: for years the house's divers were called Luminor Submersible and shared a catalogue with the rest of the Luminors.

The change came at SIHH 2019. Panerai reorganised the catalogue into four collections, Radiomir, Luminor, Luminor Due and Submersible, and for the first time the diver had a house of its own, with its own dial language and its own range of materials, from steel to Carbotech by way of BMG-Tech. That year the stand was full of Submersibles: editions with Guillaume Nery, with Luna Rossa, with the COMSUBIN divers. The PAM00973 was the steel version with nothing added.

Inside the collection it occupies a very specific slot: the 42mm one. Panerai carries a reputation for building enormous watches, and the 47mm Submersible feeds the legend; the 42 uses the P.900, smaller than the P.9010 of the big cases, to fit three days of running into a case 13.2mm tall. The reference database puts PAM00973 production at around 3,800 pieces over three years, until the PAM01973 took over.

SpecificationsThe numbers, in one table

IdentificationHow to tell it apart

The bezel is the giveaway. The PAM00973 has a unidirectional bezel in brushed steel, with the scale engraved into the metal itself and the five-minute markers standing proud. Its 2019 siblings, the PAM00683 and the PAM00959, carry ceramic inserts in black and blue respectively. If you see ceramic, you are not looking at this reference.

From the front, a matt black dial with partly skeletonised polished steel hands and luminous tips, plus a blued seconds hand. Date at three and small seconds at nine. From the back, a solid case back: you see nothing of the P.900. A 42mm Submersible with a display back is a different watch, full stop.

Figures to check against a listing: 42mm across, 13.2mm tall, 22mm lugs, sapphire crystal and 300 metres. Those 22mm lugs are a practical advantage few people mention: there is vastly more replacement strap in that width than in the 24 or 26mm the big Panerais use.

CollectingWhat collectors check

The bezel first. It is the part that suffers most and the one that hides it worst: turn it right round counting the clicks, feel for side play, and look at the engraved scale against the light in case someone has gone over it. A bezel that slips or halts between positions is workshop work, not a kitchen-table adjustment, and on a discontinued diver the part does not always turn up first time.

Then the crown and the bridge. Those 300 metres depend on the crown gasket and on the lever bridge closing properly. If the lever shuts soft or the crown will not thread smoothly, budget for new gaskets and a pressure test before it gets wet. It is cheap to do and very expensive not to, particularly on a watch people buy precisely to put in the water.

On the market it competes with its own successor, the PAM01973, and with the ceramic-bezel siblings. The all-steel version looks more like an instrument and less like a shop display, and plenty of people like that. Being a discontinued reference, the box, the certificate and the original rubber strap count for a great deal more in the price than they would on a current model.

Common questionsWhat people ask us about this reference

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Close relativesThe ones it gets confused with