PANERAI MUSEUM OPENING IN FLORENCE: THE PAST HAS NEVER BEEN SO PRESENT
In Florence, on July 19, 2019, Panerai has inaugurated its
historic headquarter once more. The reimagined space has become a museum and
flagship store informed by resurgent values: a return to enduring craftsmanship and
the allure of adventure. It is a view into the future of the brand, a vision foretold by the
keen insight of Giuseppe Panerai.
“We have not changed anything. It was enough to remove the patina of the decades. Beauty that was once obscured now shines in all its originality,” says Alvaro Maggini, Creative Director of the Maison. The Piazza San Giovanni headquarter represents the fulfillment of a destiny that arose with the very first Radiomir — just as the legacy of an apple is already fully preserved in its seed. Inside the boutique are displays that resemble rectangular portholes peering into the underwater world, the natural habitat of the brand since Panerai received its first order from the Italian Royal Navy
in 1936. The vitrines number four in total, like the product families that are signposts in Panerai’s centuries-old evolution: Radiomir, Luminor, Luminor Due and
Submersible. Each is distinguished by a color — military green, deep brown, 1970s yellow, navy blue — that is a conceptual cue from Laboratorio di Idee, Panerai’s
creative incubator. Housed in displays composed of coloured corrugated glass and bronze, historical pieces that were the foundation for subsequent innovations are
on view: what was potential in the first decades of the 1900s, is realized in the 21st century. It is development that visitors will see with complete clarity through the
organization of the exhibition. And Italian hospitality is represented by the presence of a counter bar, a feature that will eventually appear in boutiques around the world.
At the center of the museum on the first floor, among original furniture and archival documents, Giuseppe Panerai sits at his desk. He is busy with a note and lifts
his head slightly as he overhears the approach of a visitor. “The wax figure is the work of the Musée Grévin in Paris’s IX arrondissement,” says Maggini. “The clothes
were made by an Italian designer and the hair is real. If it is true that the eyes are the window to the soul, well, thanks to those eyes the soul of Giuseppe Panerai still
inhabits his studio.”
“The flagship store in Florence, including the unique features of the museum, will guide the aesthetic development of all our spaces,” says Panerai CEO Jean-Marc
Pontroué, whose signature seals the Panerai passport; it is a bordeaux color, like an official Italian travel document, but with the Luminor 1312 dial on the cover.
The first copies have been delivered to customers during the reopening. “To be an active part of our club, members can collect stamps from the three most representative
Panerai destinations,” continues Pontroué. “They are, in addition to the Florence flagship, our historic Bermudan ketch Eilean and our Swiss manufacture in Neuchâtel.”
Stamps in the Panerai passport attest to a journey through space, but also a journey through time.
Founded in Florence in 1860 as a workshop, shop and school of watch-making, for many decades Panerai supplied the Italian Navy in general, and its specialist diving
corps in particular, with precision instruments. The designs developed by Panerai in that time, including the Luminor and Radiomir, were covered by the Military
Secrets Act for many years and were launched on the international market only after the brand was acquired by the Richemont Group in 1997. Today Panerai develops
and crafts its movements and watches at its Neuchâtel manufacture. The latter are a seamless melding of Italian design flair and history with Swiss horological
expertise. Panerai watches are sold across the world through an exclusive network of distributors and Panerai boutiques.
