Description

Panerai – bio

In 1860, Giovanni Panerai set-up a watch repair workshop and a sales showroom in Florence, which he later named Orologeria Svizzera. A destination for Swiss watches in Florence, the company later diversified into mechanical engineering and component fabrication, which helped them secure military contracts with the Royal Italian Navy, as an official supplier of mines and submersible navigation tools. Panerai’s R&D lead them into the development of a self-sustaining source of illumination for the military equipment, which was trademarked as ‘Radiomir’.

Within its watch business division, Panerai had strong ties with Rolex who had developed the world’s first water resistant case – the ‘Oyster Case’. With ‘Radiomir’ and the Rolex Oyster case, Panerai made solid tool watches, further strengthening its relationship with the Italian Navy.

The result of this three-way collaboration was the legendary Ref: 3646, made between 1938 and 1956.
During the WWII, the Panerai timepieces and Italian frogmen became influential in elite tactical circles. The German navy adopted the Panerai, dubbed the “Kampfschwimmer,” as the timekeeper of choice for its own elite amphibious units.
Panerai continued to develop and experiment with enhanced designs which lead to the creation of the models such as ‘Mare Nostrum’, and the ‘Luminor’. It is important to note that until the consumer era, the names Radiomir and Luminor exclusively referred to luminescent paint compounds, and not the case designs. Panerai supplied watches exclusively to the military until the 1970s, after which the brand practically went out of business as the wars / contracts ended.

In 1993, following Rolex’s commercial success within the diving watches, they launched three watches for the first time for civilians, based on their historical naval associations. One Mare Nostrum and two Luminor references, of which the latter became the basis for Panerai’s breakthrough consumer product. Now a specific case design rather than a luminous paint.
By the late 90s, the brand started gaining popularity within the consumer market and caught the attention of the Vendome Group – now Richemont, S.A. which acquired Panerai in 1997. Today, Panerai is one of the most iconic and instantly recognisable brands in the world.