During the Fuorisalone events accompanying Salone del Mobile (the Furniture Show), from 14 to 19 April 2015, Officine Panerai exhibited its watches but above all a full-sized prototype of the manned torpedoes that were piloted underwater by Italian Navy divers, wearing Panerai wristwatches and depth gauges. This exhibition was held at Spazio Rossana Orlandi, in…
Panerai’s watches reflect the brand’s maritime heritage, and also their Italian origins. One of the hallmarks of Italy and Italians is their design flair, and their brilliance at designing wide open spaces – vast cathedrals, gigantic piazzas – in which the real beauty comes from the sense of space and the way in which that…
This special edition watch of the Radiomir is named after the city of Florence, birthplace of Panerai, and the 99 pieces will be available exclusively at the historic boutique in Piazza San Giovanni, Florence. The watch encapsulates a lot of history, with the steel case 47 mm in diameter like the first Officine Panerai watch…
“Mare Nostrum,” our sea, was the name used proudly by the Ancient Romans for the Mediterranean Sea, and later by Mussolini’s regime. This watch, presented at SIHH in January 2015, is based on a timepiece made for Mussolini’s Royal Italian Navy in 1943, a chronograph for deck officers in turn derived from an earlier 1924…
Company profile: Panerai, or Officine Panerai, is a brand whose success is based on making relatively small numbers of watches that all look fairly similar, because they are based on the company’s historical precedents. During the 1930s and ‘40s, Panerai supplied the Italian Navy with timepieces for its commando divers, and the watches that they…
Why was astronomy such a marked trend at SIHH, the watch show held in Geneva in January? Difficult to say, but several of the stands at the event showed a powerful astronomical theme, and other brands had some models linked to astronomy amongst their new products. Panerai’s major inspiration has always been its marine heritage…
SIHH (19-23 January 2015) is the first major watch show of the year, and even though it includes just 16 brands, all part of the Richemont group, it provides some indications on trends and developments in the watch industry. The brands exhibiting at SIHH were A. Lange & Söhne, Audemars Piguet, Baume & Mercier, Cartier,…
Panerai builds its success on watches that have a clear link to their past as supplier to the Italian Royal Navy, pieces that have a sufficient degree of quirkiness to set them apart from all other brands and make them immediately recognizable. In addition, they don’t make many of them, and so they virtually become…
1. Origin of the California dial. The watch shown here, the Radiomir 1940 Chronograph Oro Rosso PAM 519, has an unusual layout with Roman numerals at the top and Arabic numerals below, an arrangement now known as the California dial (apparently because some companies in California, such as Kirk Rich, specializing in restoring dials, provided…
Panerai was founded in Florence in 1860, and became a supplier of timepieces to the Royal Italian Navy, watches that had certain characteristics resulting from practical necessities. For example, large size, made more comfortable by a rounded cushion-shaped case; good water resistance; straps long and tough enough to enable them to be worn over a…