Συγγνώμη, για ποιο λόγο σημάδεψε τον 20ό αιώνα το Panerai είπαμε?
Για τους αμορφωτους, ή για αυτούς που λένε αλλά δεν ξέρουν για να λένε.
-1993 is a key year in the history of Panerai and its most iconic watch, the Luminor.
In that year, for the first time, the brand presented the Luminor and its variation Luminor Marina to the public. Before then, Panerai watches had been available only to military forces.
- Founder Giovanni Panerai opened his watchmaker's shop in Florence in 1860 soon becoming the authorized dealer of some of the most important Swiss brands, including Rolex, Vacheron Constantin and Patek Philippe.
- At the beginning of the 20th century, Panerai became an official supplier to the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina in Italian) supplying high precision instruments.
-The invention of Radiomir, a radium-based powder giving luminosity to the dials of sighting instruments and devices, was a remarkable turnaround for Panerai. A patent - the first of a long series - was filed in France on 23 March 1916.
At the time, the effects of radiation exposure were not yet understood and radium was used in several products including food, toothpaste and cosmetics (!).
- In 1935 the Royal Italian Navy approached Panerai and other watch manufacturers with the request of designing a watch resistant to extreme conditions while at the same time keeping exact time for the frogman commandos of the First Submarine Group Command and offering excellent readability even under water.
The prototype submitted by Panerai in 1936 was called Radiomir, from the name of the luminescent substance used for hands and indices, and passed all tests successfully.
- Panerai won the order of the Royal Italian Navy and, following an extensive secret test phase, the first lot of watches (reference 3646) were supplied as of 1938.
The legibility of the watch was enhanced by the particular construction of the so-called "sandwich" dial with two overlapping plates, the lower part containing the radium compound covered by a thin transparent Perspex layer and the upper part having perforated indices and numerals so as to make the radium paint more readable and luminescent.
- In the following years, as Rolex's role as supplier was coming to an end, Panerai started equipping its watches also with an Angelus 240 movement delivering eight days of power reserve, a great improvement compared to the 41 hours offered by the Rolex Calibre 618.
- This way, by reducing the number of times that the wearer had to pull out the crown to wind the watch, it was easier to guarantee water tightness over time.
In 1949 Panerai introduced a new self-luminous substance called Luminor which was not only safer than radium-based Radiomir but also more luminous.The new tritium (hydrogen isotope) based compound was patented on 11 January 1949 under the "Luminor" trademark.
The evolution from Radiomir to Luminor was completed in the Fifties with the invention of the signature crown-protecting device which was patented in Italy in 1955 and almost one year later in the USA. The patent application for a "Tight Seal Device" was filed by brother and sister Giuseppe and Maria Giuseppe Panerai, also listed as the inventors
- In addition to the Italian Navy, in the Fifties also the Egyptian Navy requested some supplies of Panerai watches with specific variations. The 'small Egiziano' (ref. 6154), without crown protection device, was similar to reference 6152-1 but slimmer. The 1956 'big Egiziano' (ref. GPF 2/56) was a radically modified watch with a huge diameter of 60 mm and a new revolving bezel with scale graduated for measuring the duration of immersion. Both had the Radiomir designation on the dial.
- The supplies to the Italian Navy continued but in limited quantities and under military secret, making it very difficult to estimate the exact production quantities. Most experts agree that Panerai produced around 300 watches until 1992. The rarity of these watches well explains the high valuations achieved at international watch auctions.
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