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The Story of Panerai Watches
The founder of Panerai Watches, Italian-born Giovanni Panerai, initially set out to open a small local business that offered watch services to the public. In the city of Florence in 1860, Panerai first opened its doors to the public, posing as a watch shop and creating the city's first watchmaking school. However, several years after its debut, Panerai became involved with the Italian Royal Navy, serving as a provider of watch pieces to the crews.
Once Panerai watches started being produced for the Italian Royal Navy, the business expanded rapidly. This expansion included a big move to a location on Piazza San Giovanni, where the shop remains today. With an ever-increasing demand for new timepieces from the Navy, Panerai watches evolved quickly, testing new materials for their watch components that were new to the market. The Panerai Radiomir watches were initially manufactured using a radium-based powder, ideal for emphasising visibility underwater.
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It all began in 1860 with Guido Panerai. He opened the first shop for watchmakers in Florence that also doubled as a school for burgeoning watchmakers.
A few years later, the watches were created in a more regular production but most notably two discs were layered upon one another in a "sandwich" fashion that would allow the Radium to be even more visible. The now iconic bridged crown guard is patented in 1956, around the same time Radiomir is superseded by a newer luminous element; namely, Luminor, giving birth to Panerai's second family. This next generation of timepieces uses the stronger case structure requested by the Italian Navy but now also this new crown guard system thus laying the blueprint for the iconic design we are familiar with today. The Seventies saw the brand leave the family for the first time and officially rebranded as Officine Panerai. At this point, their main business still focused on supplying the army with precision instruments including