Giovanni Panerai opens his first shop in 1860 at “Ponte alle Grazie” in Florence, serving not only as a watch shop and workshop, but also as the city's first watchmaking school: the history of Panerai begins here. A name that has meant high-quality watches in Florence for over a century.

Panerai watches offer a unique combination of Italian design, Swiss watchmaking and a deep passion for the sea. The brand's history is both deeply rooted in its legendary past and focused on its bright future.

Since its debut on the international market, Panerai has chosen the phrase “Laboratorio di Idee” to indicate its commitment to the continuous search for innovative technical solutions that will raise the standards and performance of its watches ever higher. The word “laboratorio”, Latin in origin, evokes the resourcefulness of the Panerai family, natives of Florence who not only founded the first watch workshop in the city in 1860, but who also transformed a family activity into a forwardlooking company capable of creating innovations and revolutionary products which have become classics in the history of watchmaking.

The Laboratorio di Idee is above all embodied in the Research & Development Department where all the technical projects are created and perfected by the skilled hands of the watchmakers and engineers who instill the craftsmanship and perfection of form demanded by the highest standards in the field. In assembling Panerai watches, absolute precision and a high degree of specialisation are required. The extreme example of this is to be found in the Atelier Haute Horlogerie, the department of the Manufacture where the most highly skilled Master Watchmakers bring the most sophisticated, prestigious in-house calibres to life.

The stage of assembling and adjusting the movements is fundamentally important in ensuring the maximum accuracy of the watch. It is performed by hand and, in the case of the more complicated calibres, it requires the remarkable skills and abilities of a Master Watchmaker operating entirely in the Atelier Haute Horlogerie, that is, the department of the Panerai Manufacture in which movements are assembled with the most impressive, sophisticated complications. It is in this workshop that movements are assembled and adjusted by hand.

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The Officine Panerai collections offer a remarkable breadth of choice in terms of innovative materials and high-performance technology: a selection which is among the widest in the field of luxury sport watches, enhanced every year through the research and experimental work carried out by the Laboratorio di Idee.

A new world preview from the Panerai Laboratorio di Idee: the first mechanical watch case made of BMG-TECH™, a metallic glass with excellent characteristics of strength and durability which enable it to preserve its appearance over time. The secret of this material lies not so much in its appearance, similar to that of titanium but darker grey in colour, as in its atomic structure, which provides a range of very useful qualities for an underwater watch: extreme resistance to wear, high strength and great lightness.