Panerai Radiomir Quaranta

For over a century, the Panerai family legacy has been intertwined with precision instruments made to accompany the Italian military in their exploits. Commissioned by the Royal Italian Navy to supply high-precision instruments, it was Guido Panerai’s Radiomir - a radium- based substance that illuminates for visibility in the dark – that began it all when it was patented in 1916.

An archival receipt shows that the Radiomir prototype was presented in 1935, and over the years, the sandwich construction has been progressively adjusted and is currently made of only two superimposed plates. Other improvements include the crown-protecting device, and a new luminous substance, the Luminor. A watch produced strictly for the military, the forces used it until the early 1970s, with its designs protected by military secrets.

Officine Panerai leaped into the commercial watch market in 1992, launching three collections of ten references in limited editions - the 44 mm Luminor and Luminor Marina watches and the 42 mm Mare Nostrum chronograph, which were presented on 10 September 1993 at the La Spezia military harbor in the presence of Duke Amedeo D’Aosta, son of Sir Aimone di Savoia, the then supreme head of the Italian diving department. Radiomir was only made public in 1997 when the Vendome Group – today Richemont Group - acquired Panerai, introducing the first Vendome special edition in sixty pieces - the PAM 21 model in a platinum version.

The acquisition advanced Panerai’s history into contemporary developments from the reopening of the historic boutique in Piazza San Giovanni to the establishment of the Panerai Manufacture in Neuchâtel where fine Swiss watchmaking meet innovation driven by an Italian soul. With a century of innovative instruments developed for performance in response to evolving technical needs, Panerai projects into the future via research, strategic partnerships, sustainability, and empowering modern heroes.

These initiatives include eSteelTM, a next-generation metal obtained from pre-consumer recycled steel scraps (up to 95%) coming from different industries, preferably from Swiss watchmaking industry, whose production significantly reduces CO2 emissions, and apartnership with the IOC-UNESCO to develop solutions with the aim of building a more sustainable, equitable society.