In Florence, Panerai immerses its fans in its former military secrets
The most Italian of Swiss watchmaking houses displays its past in the service of the Italian Navy in its historic boutique.
For over eighty years, watches and other precision instruments by Officine Panerai remained shrouded in secrecy. Indeed, the company, founded in Florence in 1860, joined the ranks of suppliers to the Italian Navy in 1910. Its creations only became known to the general public in the 1990s, with its opening to the civilian market, followed by its acquisition and global expansion as a luxury watch brand by the Richemont group. Not to mention its appearance on the wrists of muscular Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Between unpublished archival pieces, sometimes family, compasses and depth meters, the exhibition "The Depths of Time" which is held for more than two months in Florence, before traveling across Europe and then the world, takes us behind the scenes of the history of the watchmaking house, in particular these decades of secret production. Thus, in 1916, Officine Panerai filed the Radiomir patent: a radium-based powder, allowing instrument dials and sighting mechanisms to be made luminescent. The first prototypes of Radiomir watches would not see the light of day until 1935, as part of a secret underwater combat project. The Reference 2533 will be manufactured from a base and a caliber supplied by Rolex-Geneva and modified by Panerai. A 47 mm diameter watch capable of withstanding the rigors of the underwater missions of the “Incursori”, these saboteur divers…
Now based in Neuchâtel, Panerai took advantage of the inauguration of this exhibition on September 10 to unveil a watch paying homage to these classified times: the Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218. A faithful reinterpretation of the Luminor 5218-202/A from 1993, then produced in a hundred copies with the help of Guenat SA Montres Valgines for the personnel of the Italian Royal Navy. Hence the inscription highly sought after by collectors, "Marina Militare" on its dial. That same year, the brand launched, under the aegis of Dino Zei, three collections and ten references, between the Luminor 44 mm, Luminor Marina and the Mare Nostrum 42 mm chronograph, drawing their inspiration from the models created for the submarine commando division. A presentation that took place on September 10, 1993 in the military port of La Spezia, aboard the Italian destroyer Durand de la Penne, in the presence of Duke Amédée d'Aoste, then commander-in-chief of the diving unit.
The new Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218 remains faithful to the original 1990s model, with a 44 mm steel case, dressed in a black coating. While the dial still bears the inscription "Marina Militare", this watch with military DNA is now powered by a hand-wound P.6000 caliber with a 3-day power reserve. A nod for connoisseurs: while the first pieces featured greenish hands and orange-brown numerals, due to a chemical reaction between tritium and the varnish, this model deliberately recreates this effect using caramel Super-LumiNova applied to its black engraved single-layer dial.
Panerai Luminor Marina Militare PAM05218, €8,500 (Panerai.com).
lefigaro
