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Panerai was founded in 1860 by Giovanni Panerai who ran a small watch shop in Florence, Italy. Giovanni specialized in mechanical engineering and designing and producing high quality equipment for the Italian Navy. In 1915 Giovanni Panerai developed and patented a process for creating luminous markings for equipment made for the Italian Navy, which he called Radiomir. It is soon after this when the history gets really interesting.
The Italian navy needed a watch for their frogmen and in 1935 Panerai contacted Rolex. They needed a watch that was waterproof, was visible in the dark and big to furter increase the visibility. So it was that the first Panerai watches, from 1935 and all the way to 1954 were actually made by Rolex!
After the Rolex era, Panerai lived a quiet life until the resurrection of the brand in 1993, when the actor Sylvester Stallone stepped into a Panerai store in Florence. He was so excited about the watches that he bought a bunch of them and also decided to wear one in the movie “Daylight”.
This was off course what the brand needed and pretty much overnight it became the talk of the town, which it still today is.
Panerai – The Rising Star on the Luxury Watch Brands Heaven
The Panerai brand has travelled a long way since the start in Giovannis little watch shop in Florence, 1860. With headquarters still in Florence, the manufacturing is based in Neuchatel, Switzerland, Panerai nicely mixes the best of two worlds; Italian design and Swiss quality craftmanship.
“Perfect mix of fine Italian design & Swiss quality craftmanship”
Panerai Watches Product Portfolio
The main Panerai product portfolio consists of these collections: Radiomir, Luminor, Luminor 1950
Notable fact about Panerai
After using third-party movements, which they refined, Panerai launches its first in-house movement, the P.2002 in 2005. The P.2002 is a hand-wound calibre with GMT function and an eight-day power reserve.
Notable wearers and/or brand endorsers of Panerai
Panerai does not have any official ambassadors, but is often seen in media on the wrists of macho action movie actors. This probably creates an image of the brand which not many of the Paneristis is willing to stand behind, who like me feel that the Panerai brand is for the Paneristis. Anyway, here are some pics.
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- Bill Clinton wearing Panerai
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- Arnold Schwarzenegger wearing Panerai
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- Sylvester Stallone wearing Panerai
Officine Panerai Manufacture
Historical Reference:
To get a more detailed history of Panerai, I absolutely recommend you to read the four part article series of Panerais history by Jake Ehrlich. Jake runs the blog Jake’s Rolex Watch Blog.
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