History
Founded as a workshop, shop and school of watch-making for many decades Panerai supplied the Italian Navy specialist diving corps with precision instruments. Originally created to be used deep underwater, Panerai watches are known for their unparalleled legibility and luminosity in the dark.
Italian design meets Swiss precision
Panerai‘s luxury watches are the perfect mix between Italian design and Swiss technology at the service of the passion for the sea. Since 2002 – when the first Panerai Manufacture was opened – Panerai has developed a full range of in-house movements with watch functions at the highest levels: from the GMT to a complete range of Chronographs, from the extended Power Reserve to the unmistakable Panerai Tourbillon. In 2014 Panerai introduces the P.4000 calibre, an in-house automatic movement distinguished by its off-centred oscillating weight; a perfect synthesis of design and highly sophisticated watchmaking technology.
A new chapter
1860 Giovanni Panerai opens his watchmaker’s shop on Ponte alle Grazie in Florence: serving not only as a shop and workshop but also as the city’s first watchmaking school, Officine Panerai’s history begins here. The shop later moves to its current location in the Palazzo Arcivescovile in Piazza San Giovanni, changing its name to “Orologeria Svizzera” at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In 1997 the brand was acquired by the Richemont Group and launched on the international market. Today Panerai develops and crafts its movements and watches at its Neuchâtel manufacture, combining Italian design flair and history with Swiss horological expertise.