Panerai

(Active since 1860)

Officine Panerai, or just Panerai is an Italian luxury watchmaker, founded in Florence, Italy in 1860 and now based in Geneva, Switzerland. Along with such prominent manufacturers as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Dunhill and Montblanc Panerai is a part of Richemont SA, a luxury goods holding company, founded and based in Switzerland.

Originally Panerai was established as a watch shop in Florence, run by Giovanni Panerai. The watchmaking manufacturer came into sight after the business had been taken over by the founder’s grandson, who connected the two enterprises, the Panerai family watch shop and his wife’s family’s mechanical workshop. 1915 became a game-changing year for the prospering business. It was back then, when gun sights, illuminated by special powder were invented. The radium-based mixture was called Radiomir, derived from the Italian “radium sights”. Soon after that Panerai became an official supplier to the Royal Italian Navy. The workshop, based in Florence, produced wrist-worn diving instruments, while all the watches were originally designed and manufactured by Rolex SA. In 1956, Panerai was a supplier to the Egyptian Navy. Since 1993 the manufacturer has traded in the civilian market. Nowadays the Panerai watches come in four main editions.

One of the brightest pages of the brand's history is the period of cooperation with Ferrari, that lasted from 2005 to 2010. In cooperation the two prominent brands launched a collection of watches that was called “Ferrari engineered by Panerai” and included two product lines, "Granturismo" and "Scuderia". The collection was presented by 11 models that became extremely popular among the clients and customers of both Ferrari and Panerai.