Initially created for underwater operations of the Italian Navy, Panerai watches showcase superb engineering and design works which have won the hearts of many. Nowadays, Panerai watches not only cater to the needs of seamen, but works for sportspersons and laymen alike.

Founded in 1860 by Giovanni Panerai, the company started as a manufacturer of precision instruments and watches to the Italian Navy. The brand was not available to the public until 1993. Before its public launch, Panerai was a favourite on the auction circuit because only legitimate members of the Italian Navy could buy Panerai watches, making them quite rare.

Panerai was not a watch manufacture, after all, but a supplier of parts, equipment and completed pieces. It was, however, a ‘laboratory of ideas’, a place of inspiration and ingenuity that conceived the essential aspects of the original Radiomir and Luminor watches, which elevated them from being mere timekeepers to high-specification military instruments. Among the products it offered was a range of highly accurate timing devices created and developed over several years for military use. This invaluable experience is partly what prompted the Italian Navy to request that the company explore the possibility
of creating a type of wristwatch that no other manufacturer had
previously been able to offer.

Panerai’s early innovations included the ‘sandwich’ dial construction employed in the second series of watches; the rigorous sealing system for exceptional water-tightness; the ingenious lever-locking device that increased the theoretical waterproof range of its watches to a phenomenal 200 metres; the use of the Angelus movement made by the Stolz brothers, with its eight-day power reserve; and, above all, the ‘Radiomir’ luminous compound for which Guido Panerai had applied for U.S. and British patents as early as 1915. In due
course, the potentially hazardous Radiomir material was substituted for a safer, tritium-based compound. This, too, was perfected in the Panerai laboratories.