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| Panerai Brand Watches |
This Italian cult brand, which has quite a following Stateside, has been famous in its home country for the last ten years or more. Officine Panerai's good reputation is based on the information exchanged in the world's active circle of watch collectors. Guido Panerai & Figlio, founded in 1860 in Florence, advanced quickly to become the official supplier of the Italian navy and delivered extremely modem and precise instruments. Over the decades, a highly specialized product line has tied the name Panerai in insider circles to the measuring of time and space in naval areas.
The Bottega d' Arte Panerai in the heart of Florence was one of the best addresses for fine Swiss watches in the year 1900. A good one hundred years later the small retail shop on Piazza San Giovanni has re-opened, but not before the Italian military gave it their blessing:
Wristwatches and measuring instruments used to be manufactured on the second floor of this workshop that are still top secret according to the law ...
Some of the historical instruments and tools that Guido Panerai and his son handled can be seen today in the altered workshop. Other exhibition pieces in this showroom include conventional table and grandfather clocks and numerous documents, blueprints, and sketches.
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Panerai's business has been brilliant since it was taken over by the Richemont group six years ago, and the constant investments are now beginning to bear fruit. This year the Panerai Manufacture will be opened in the former cantonal police prefect building of Neuchatel, Switzerland, and it is planned that manufacture movements will be made there soon. The re¬forming of the plain Unitas hand-wound caliber has already taken on impressive shape, and the Valjoux movement that is used as the base for Panerai's watches with subsidiary seconds is also being changed around.
Italians are generally envied their feel for style, and the Panerai product managers are no exception as they fish out just the right models from the rich pond of the instrument builders of days gone by. When designing the Parallel Collection, a line featuring more manageable case diameters and generally more wearable dimensions for all, Giampiero Bodino, Panerai designer and top creative director in the Richemont Group, shows that he has a good nose. Even if the brand's watches are currently getting a little smaller, the Panerai brand is able to establish that it can also stand out in a more conventionally competitive environment.
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Panerai
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