Did your Mother ever tell you that if you eat carrots, you can see in the dark? Mine did, and my MI5 dreams were thwarted as I added another candle on the cake each year, and realised that a myth is all it was. But that doesn’t mean your chances of viewing delicate details in the dark should be severed once and for all, thanks to the esteemed Italian watchmaker, Panerai.

In the watch world, glow in the dark translates to luminescence, and the Italian innovators just proved their ambition when it comes to turning on the light. Meet the Panerai Submersible Elux LAB-ID PAM01800, or PAM for short. The mastery of eight intense years of development, this novel timepiece debuts a full mechanical watch that can power up its own light on demand. When Panerai had a lightbulb moment all those eight years ago, they really meant it.

So what does it all mean and why is this such a victory? Well, if you decide to take a plunge in the darkness of the ocean up to 500 metres – should you be so daring – know that there’s a 30-minute power light feature that will stay lit for the duration of your dive, and all with the simple touch of a button. Think of it like your first CASIO with the light up LED button, except it’s not CASIO, and you don’t have to hold the button down to keep things bright. Turn on the lights with the pusher, and the watch illuminates through a method coined by the Panerai Laboratorio di Idee (no need for Google to translate that one), in the bold home of a 49mm case.

But who’s keeping the lights on, you ask? The mammoth force of four dedicated energy-storing barrels, designed to unwind in a microgenerator (the love language for all physicians amongst you), that then converts the mechanical energy into electricity. All without any active electronics. Brightening up the watch, the energy is channelled through to numerous indicators on the dial, from the lightning power reserve, because no one likes to be alarmed by an unexpected blackout, and the indexes that mark the hour. They’ve even gone as far as to light up the hands for you, so any excuse not to know the time won’t be believed.

Most modern tool watches boast about their use of SuperLuminova® (X1) today, a pigment that illuminates on dials, hands and bezels when in darkness. Panerai takes another proud step forward with the accents of green SuperLuminova® X2, which you can probably guess by the name, promises even more vibrancy. So much so, that this new grading ensures a luminosity 10% higher than its forerunner after 180 minutes in the dark.

But why stop with one major achievement, when you can go for two? Filing a patent (which in watch terms means a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making it), Panerai have crafted an all-new case material, this time through seven years of diligent research and development to create a Ti-Ceramitech ™ case, crafted from ceramicised titanium. Offering a unique colourway, it makes for enhanced harness and a case that’s 44% lighter than steel, but paradoxically fracture toughness ten times higher than traditional ceramic. Valiant in the face of high pressures and high thermal stress, the new Panerai PAM feels as though it’s been safeguarded from every element, and is pitched as the perfect piece to take make your next dive with. And on the eighth year, Panerai said: “let there be light.”

Discover more at Panerai.com.