Basketball player Michael Jordan spotted wearing a Panerai

Michael Jordan was recently spotted wearing the Panerai Radiomir S.L.C. PAM00425, a 47mm stainless steel dress-tool hybrid that sits at one of the more historically intriguing corners of the Florentine brand's catalog. The sighting adds another serious horological entry to Jordan's well-documented watch wardrobe, which has long skewed toward bold, large-cased references that command attention without demanding explanation.

The Radiomir S.L.C. — the initials standing for Sovra Luce Campione, meaning 'light sample' in Italian — takes its design cues from a pair of anonymous pre-war dials discovered in Panerai's Florentine archives. Those two surviving specimens, widely believed to be experimental prototypes from the mid-1930s, feature a distinctive dial layout that Panerai reinterpreted for the PAM00425. The 47mm cushion-shaped case in stainless steel wears the wire lugs and wire crown-protecting device that have defined the Radiomir silhouette since Panerai first delivered watches to the Regia Marina in 1936 — instruments built for frogmen, not boardrooms. The manually wound P.999 calibre runs at 28,800 vph, offers 72 hours of power reserve, and is visible through a sapphire caseback, a concession to modern collector taste. Water resistance stands at 100 metres.

Among collectors, the PAM00425 occupies a considered position. It is not the most technically complex reference in the Luminor or Radiomir lines, but its historical provenance — rooted in those near-mythical prototype dials — gives it a narrative weight that more common references lack. The understated sandwich dial construction, with its recessed numerals revealing a luminous sublayer, rewards close inspection in a way that photographs rarely capture fully.

Jordan's affinity for Panerai is consistent with his broader taste: the brand's oversized cases and uncompromising Italian design philosophy align naturally with someone who has never been drawn to shrinking into a room. At 47mm, the PAM00425 sits proportionally well on larger wrists, and Jordan wears it without apparent self-consciousness.

The PAM00425 has been discontinued, which has firmed up its presence on the secondary market. Grey-market pricing has moved modestly above original retail, reflecting steady demand from Paneristi — the brand's devoted collector community — who value the S.L.C. designation as a genuine piece of archive-driven design rather than a marketing exercise.