Human technology changes and improves from time to time; sometimes rapid, sometimes slow. But sure enough Officine Panerai evolves with the times.  Through elaborate mixtures of aesthetics and high-end watch making, Panerai created a concept piece – the most complicated piece Panerai ever made. As a tribute to Galileo Galilei and his genius, Officine Panerai produced 30 examples of a Tourbillion with the Equation of time. They deemed it L’Astronomo. The Equation of Time pertains to the difference between the ‘apparent solar time’ (time told by the sun) and the ‘mean solar time’ (time told by the watch). Because of the earth’s peculiar orbit and axis, these two vary every day except for four days a year. They differ up to 15 minutes – faster or slower. The L’Astronomo also tells the sunrise and sunset times but these vary from location to location. Panerai takes care of this by customizing each piece to have the owner’s chosen city and location as the reference point. Not only does the name of the chosen city and the mil estimation engraved on the back, the watch also features a map of the sky above the chosen city installed on the lower part of the device. Depending on the hemisphere chosen, this disc spins left or right updating the night sky above the chosen city. This 50mm watch seems heavy. But it is actually lighter than it looks because the case is in titanium. It is also available in a pink gold case on request. To see the L’Astronomo, visit Shreve & Co. – authorized dealer of Officine Panerai. 

 

 

References: http://www.panerai.com/s_page.xpd?id_lingua=2&id_sezione=20&id_categoria=9917

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equation_of_time

http://precisiontime.blogspot.com/2010/02/officine-panerai-lastronomo-luminor.html