PANERAI

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Officine Panerai was founded in 1860 in Florence by Giovanni Panerai. It later became the official supplier to the Royal Italian Navy and expanded to building precision diving instruments. The company is famous for its Luminor and Radiomir watches, notably for their use by Italian commando divers.

The Florence-based watchmaker produced about 300 watches for the Italian Marina Militare during the second world war. After which the company ceased to provide watches to the Marina Militare as they were no longer cost-effective. It then moved to launch its products to the civilian market, but remained relatively little known until the actor Sylvester Stallone spotted and bought a Panerai Luminor in a watch store in Rome in 1995 to wear during shooting of the film Daylight. Stallone ordered a small batch of such watches with his signature on the case back, called Slytech. He offered them as gifts to friends, including Arnold Schwarzenegger. The brand gained rapid popularity.

Among its most famous watches, are the historic Radiomir series. In 2006 it issued a special edition Radiomir 1936 with California Dial, a reissue of the first Panerai model ever presented to the Italian Marina Militare. This highly sought after model was limited to a run of 1936 units.

Panerai's success with large watches started a trend that has also led other companies to introduce larger watches, including Audemars Piguet, IWC and many others.

Today Panerai has a huge cult following and with a waiting list for almost every model is arguably the hottest brand on the planet. Over the last few years, demand has far exceeded supply and with Panerai producing only around 30,000 watches a year (compared to Rolex's 1 million), and with more and more switched-on collectors, A list celebrity's and watch fans jumping onto the bandwagon on a daily basis, this trend looks likely to continue and intensify.

Aficionados of Panerai are known as "Paneristi"