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Originated in Florence, Panerai started off as a retailer of various Swiss made watches with the name of Orologeria Svizzera. In the early 20th century Panerai supplied diving watches for the Italian Navy based on a Rolex Oyster watch fitted with their patented Radiomir dials.

Its only up until 1993 Panerai under the helm of Dino Zei started producing civilian watches with its military legacy. It became well known with its unusual oversized case at 44mm and a crown guard. The company was then sold to Richemont in 1997 and the rest is history. This period between 1993-1997 is simply known as the Pre-Vendome era.

The 5218-201/A was one of the first three model introduced in 1993. It has a 44mm Stainless Steel case with an oversized crown guard, this model is known as the Luminor Logo. Simply because the dial is scripted “Luminor Panerai” at 12 and it has the “OP” Logo at 6. It is powered by the Unitas Cal. 6497 manual winding movement.

The earlier production pieces has a dial with a much darker tritium hour markers that was unintentional. It was caused by a reaction between the dial varnish and the luminous material. These dials are called the Non-Matching dial. Later on the varnish was replaced making the Non-Matching dial rarer and desirable amongst collectors.