Why the Italian watchmaker’s innovative diving watches guarantee longevity.

If you’re going to be 126 metres below the surface of the ocean with no breathing apparatus, you’d better be wearing a watch you can trust. That might be why freediving champion Mr Guillaume Néry is rather attached to his Panerai Luminor Submersible. With its famed luminescence and 300m water resistance, it’s more than a match for his underwater antics. You’d expect this, of course, from a watch made by Panerai. 

Panerai is at the forefront of watch innovation but more than that, it is bringing the industry itself up to speed. This year, the watchmaker announced its progressive Pam.Guard concept, an online registration portal that not only offers Panerai owners an internationally recognised eight-year warranty, but also acts as a highly customisable service interface that connects them to the Panerai community as a whole.

Forward thinking runs deep at Panerai – the company’s aquatic history dates back to 1936. With war imminent, the Italian Navy realised that the only way it could compete with the Allies’ warships was by using manned torpedoes: charges that had to be manually attached to the underside of a ship. To do this effectively, the frogmen, as these divers were known, needed a way of keeping time in the murky depths. So, the Navy asked Panerai, its then supplier of precision instruments such as torpedo fuses and depth meters, to have a go at designing a watch with a watertight case and luminous hands that could be read in the dark.

Panerai didn’t have the capacity to make watches at the time, but it did know a thing or two about luminescence. Back in 1916, the company had patented “Radiomir”, a radioactive powder based on radium, whose luminescent properties made it the ideal substance for underwater visibility.

The original Radiomir was manufactured by a little-known watchmaker by the name of Rolex, and even contained one of its hand-wound movements. Panerai contributed to the design of the dial, suggesting a unique three-layer construction that made the luminescence appear brighter. It was made up of a lower disc containing the Radiomir coating, a central layer of Perspex and topped off with the dial itself, which had perforations for the numerals and indices through which the luminescence could be seen.

By 1949, Panerai had secured another patent, this time for a safer, more luminous, tritium-based powder called Luminor. It had also patented the now-recognisable lever-style crown protection system that gave its watches a then-unsurpassed 200 metres of water resistance. 

All this innovation could have very easily gone to waste after the war, when the Navy stopped buying watches and Panerai lost its biggest customer. Instead, the brand saw an opportunity to dip its toe into civilian waters. It dusted off the Luminor and produced a limited run of nearly 700 for the Italian market, one of which was spotted in 1995 in a shop window by Mr Sylvester Stallone, who was filming in Italy at the time. Mr Stallone liked the Luminor so much he bought one for himself and a few others for his friends. On that list, rumour has it, was Richemont CEO Mr Johann Rupert, who was so enamoured with the watch that he bought the brand, securing Panerai’s future indefinitely. 

The first watch to get the Submersible subhead came in 1998. It was a revised Luminor – one that met all the criteria for a professional diving watch and had a case that was a winning combination of the round “L’Egiziano” bezel from the watch Panerai designed for the Egyptian Navy in 1956 and Luminor’s cushion-shaped curves. Fast-forward 20 years, and Panerai made the decision to separate out the incredibly popular Submersible into its own collection; one comprising true diving watches, nearly all of them good to 300m, and rather more wetsuit rather than dinner suit. 

It’s just another pioneering move from a brand that, more than 100 years ago, had the foresight to patent a glow-in-the-dark powder.

PAM00960

Watch brands love a proprietary carbon fibre and Panerai is no exception. First debuted in 2015, Carbotech is made from thin sheets of carbon fibre compressed with polyether ether ketone, a colourless organic polymer, as a binding agent. It’s lighter than the likes of titanium and ceramic, is hypoallergenic and, due to the way it’s made, every case looks unique. A very modern update of a 1950s classic.

** PAM00974**

This is Panerai’s answer to the question – how can you make a gold watch for the water? The case is made from Goldtech, the brand’s proprietary blend of gold, copper and platinum. The presence of the latter prevents the material from oxidising, while the former is just to give it its distinctive blush. If you’re of the opinion that precious metals have no place on a proper diving watch, it’s worth pointing out that this is actually the only non-diver in the collection. It’s still good to 100m, though, so you can wear it to impress everyone at your local pool.

PAM01389

This is your ultimate Submersible – a straight-talking, no-nonsense diving companion. On the outside, at least. It’s got the iconic round-bezel, cushion-case combination; it’s made from titanium and it’s unfussy with its choice of colour. The twist? It’s a full eight times more resistant to magnetic fields than is required by International Standards. Perfect for scuba-diving roadies everywhere.

PAM00692

Having a case for a diving watch made from something dubbed LiquidMetal might seem counterintuitive, but there’s nothing wishy-washy about BMG-TECH. Made from a mix of titanium, zirconium, copper, aluminium and nickel, this bulk metallic glass (BMG) is injection-moulded at a high temperature and pressure, but then rapidly cooled, just for a few seconds, which stops the atoms from reforming into a regular structure, leaving them in a randomly aligned state instead. This higgledy-piggledy molecular structure lends the material an incredible strength-to-weight ratio – and it’s resistant to corrosion, too.

PAM00979

A military-inspired timepieces designed for those who like to make their weekend feel more heroic. The case of this muscular monster is made from Panerai’s proprietary carbon fibre, Carbotech. Within the case is the in-house P.9010, which has the unusual function of being able to set the time forwards and backwards in hour increments. Ideal for when you’re under pressure on manoeuvres – or simply manoeuvring the kids into bed on time.

PAM00984

Created in conjunction with extreme adventurer Mr Mike Horn, this is Panerai’s first case in eco-titanium, which is more environmentally friendly that regular titanium on account of being made using scraps and turnings from the aviation sector. According to French mining and metallurgical group Eramet, which has set up Europe’s first aviation-grade titanium recycling plant, eco-titanium’s recycling channel will prevent the emission of 100,000 tonnes of CO2. So, it does good and looks good, too.

PAM00982