Deconstructed watch: Panerai Submersible S Brabus Blue Shadow edition

Fans of souped-up Mercedes-Benz cars will be familiar with the name of Brabus, the tuning house established in 1977 by the then 22-year-old Bodo Buschmann who went on to grow it into a multimillion dollar, international business.

Buschmann died in 2018, but not before he had experimented with applying Brabus customising methods to boats having bought an 11.3-metre Axopar a couple of years earlier and having it upgraded by his engineers to boost its performance and enhance its looks.

The project led to a joint venture with Axopar and now Brabus Marine offers a range of regular production and limited edition dayboats with suitably stealthy looks and levels of performance in-line with that of its cars.

Since Buschmann’s death Brabus has been run by his son Constantine who, mindful of the fact that the end of the road is nigh for new, internal combustion-powered road vehicles, is steadily diversifying the firm’s portfolio.

With that in mind, Brabus recently unveiled new 300bhp and 900bhp boats, a €40,000 KTM-based Brabus motorcycle and, through a collaboration with Panerai, what is expected to be an ongoing range of Brabus Marine-inspired watches.

The one shown here is called the Submersible S Brabus Blue Shadow edition and was first shown alongside the new Brabus Marine Blue Shadow boat during the Palma yacht show in April.

Limited to 200 examples and with a £40,600 price tag, it features a 47mm, 3D-printed titanium case and a unidirectional bezel made from Panerai’s carbon-fibre based Carbotech.

Decoration is taken care of by blue and grey dial detailing and a combination of blue SuperLuminova highlights for the minute hand and ‘12’ indicator and green for the remaining hour markers.

The most intriguing aspect of the watch, however, is its patented date display which takes the form of a laser-engraved glass plate topped with a polarised lens that magically avoids either revealing any unwanted parts of the date disc or hiding the workings of the skeletonised workings.

Comprising 341 parts, the in-house, P.4001/S automatic movement features a tungsten winding rotor, twin spring barrels, a GMT function and a power reserve indicator that’s visible through the sapphire case back.

Panerai’s patented crown locking lever (also made from Carbotech) helps to ensure water resistance down to 300 metres, to which end the watch is fitted with a practical leather and rubber hybrid strap.