#1 Panerai Radiomir Watches – The Most Popular Watches

Brief History

Giovanni Panerai opens his watch shop in Florence, Italy, in 1860. Becomes the first watchmaker school in the city.

His work ethics and innovation don’t go unnoticed by the Royal Italian Navy, which hires Officine Panerai to design special and specific watches for military use. Especially for the Royal Navy Divers.

Panerai patented the Radiomir in 1916. A radium-based powder that makes the luminescence of the markers and the minute and hour hands easily readable. This being the first of many innovations and patents that Panerai has in its history.

On the brink of the Second World War by 1916. Panerai creates the prototypes of special frogman commando watches and uses the name Panerai Radiomir Watches to describe this very pioneering timepiece.

At the time the issue of visibility for navy divers was of great importance, especially when working with explosives and night missions. That is why Panerai used his patented Radiomir and developed a 47mm case divers watch with a manual movement.

It took two years of testing and reviewing the technical specifications until the full-scale production of the Radiomir prototypes generated the now-famous military-grade watches. They were improved in strength, water resistance, low light visibility, and a larger strap that could be used over the diver’s suit, specially designed to be used in very extreme conditions.

Special Design & Technical Specs of Panerai Radiomir Watches

This beautiful watch is powered by an automatic mechanical movement Ref. Panerai Caliber P.4000, designed and manufactured in house.

• It has 31 ruby jewels, a well-made balance wheel, and a sturdy anti-shock device as this movement is supposed to be used as very strong divers and sports everyday watch, to be used under extreme conditions.
• The case size is 45mm in diameter.
• The back case has a see-through anti-scratch sapphire crystal window that allows you to enjoy this intricate and magnificent movement.
• It works at 28,800/hour.
• Water-resistant to 100 meters or “10 Bar”.
• It is manufactured in stainless steel, titanium, and gold.
• No date in this model.
• Has a 72-hour power reserve with two barrels and it takes 203 well-designed and well-placed parts to make this wonderful timepiece tick.

Functions

It offers a very simple and Panerai classic hour, minute, and second hands. Easy to read and extremely useful underwater or low light conditions. A tough watch ready for everyday battle or playing golf with your buddies. 

Complications

As you can imagine, manufacturers look into what the market needs or how the market reacts to their products and act accordingly. Complications are infinite. Officine Panerai offers other variations of this watch that with a date, power reserve, and GMT functions or date and GMT functions.

There is also a 42mm, 47mm, and 48mm case version very attractive for active divers using different Panerai movements as the Panerai Ref. P4001, P4002.

Radiomir series, what we can expect from Officine Panerai

As with all Panerai Radiomir watches you would expect a very manly timepiece, hence there are some special editions with the Base logo, with the Black Seal Logo, the California edition comes with a 47mm case and analog and roman numerals, the Edizione Verde Militare. They come in stainless steel, titanium, and gold. Always very much in sync with the military image that this manufactured is recognized for.

What’s to come

Many things have changed since 1860. The world has changed and the watchmaking and watch collection has adapted to the new needs and market trends. Not a minor one being that larger company acquired smaller ones for the quality of their movements, for their name recognition, or just because of the potential of growth was there. 

In 1993, Officine Panerai presented an awesome collection of three series of limited watches: the Luminor, the Luminor Marina, and the Mare Nostrum. They were based on the watches produced for the Second World War. The watches were an immediate success story and many collector’s attention was drawn to them.

Due to this success, Vendome Group acquired Officine Panerai in 1997, which gave more working capital and world marketing to this brand, increased the distribution network. Also, focus their production on the very successful Mare Nostrum, Luminor, and Luminor Marina.

With the world watching, Officine Panerai opened the first boutique refurbishing the original Giovanni Panerai’s shop in Florence. From there it launched a worldwide marketing campaign. They opened boutiques in the US and Hong Kong while moving its manufacturing to Switzerland, where it started to design and develop brand new in-house movements for its watches.

The world is changing and Officine Panerai is fast adapting and creating innovative products, well designed and well priced for a market that needs new quality products to keep on growing.