To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Officine Panerai is unveiling three new manufacture movements at the SIHH. The in-house movements signal Panerai's desire to move into true watchmaking, ensuring its future in the luxury watch sector.
CEO Angelo Bonati, the engine driving the Panerai train, is proud of what Panerai has achieved in a short ten years, but he's the first one to acknowledge that the company cannot rely on the current status quo. “The in-house movements allow us to enter a new segment of the market,” Bonati explains. "We are doing great business right now and we are very happy, but you cannot continue to survive in this segment because the risk is that it will become narrower and narrower. With our in-house movements, we can enlarge our potential and develop our brand for the future.





“We would like to keep our authenticity and to grow in our technical knowledge, otherwise we can't claim that Panerai is a technical watch brand,” Bonati continues. “Why should we continue to use movements from outside companies? We needed to develop our movements and if we have problems, we will solve them ourselves.”
The in-house movements were designed under the direction of Eric Klein, Richemont Move-ments Coordinator, who started work on this project, to create a family of Panerai manufacture movements, back in 2002. “It was really a very tight collaboration with Angelo Bonati to define this movement family,” Klein says. “We wanted to be different; we wanted to adapt this military watch, bringing reliability and very useful functions into the mix. We started with the P2002, which we presented last year, currently in production. Now, we have three new movements - an automatic, a chronograph and a tourbillon.”
You read that right, a tourbillon is among the new manufacture movements.




P.2002: The first movement developed by Officine Panerai. The power reserve, with 8 days of autonomous operation picked up from the Angelus movements of the 1940s, has been achieved through an energy accumulator of new design consisting of three spring barrels and a linear power reserve indication. The system for setting the time uses the second reset device, which stops the balance and causes the seconds hand to spring back to zero when the winding crown is pulled out, facilitating accurate setting of the time and synchronization with a reference time signal. The GMT function uses two hands to indicate 12 and 24 hours.
Technical characteristics: 245 components, 13 3/4 lines (31.8 X 6.60 mm), Frequency 4Hz, Hand-wound calibre, 8-day power reserve, 3 high-speed spring barrels, Second reset and GMT functions, Linear power reserve indicator.

P.2005: The P.2005 is a movement with a tourbillon escapement. The special feature of the regulating organ by Panerai lies in the fact that the tourbillon cage rotates on an axis at right angles to the axis of the balance wheel and that it makes two rotations per minute: this rotation, which is faster than usual, ensures greater accuracy, providing the best compensation for the irregular rate caused by the effect of the force of gravity. The fascinating motion of the tourbillon, which attracts the attention of everyone who looks at it, can be admired from the back of the watch, while on the dial side there is a little circular blue indicator, within the seconds counter at 9 o’clock, which travels twice as quickly as the seconds hand because it moves at the speed of the tourbillon cage.
Technical characteristics: 243 components, 16 3/4 lines (37.2 X 9.10 mm), Frequency 4 Hz, Hand-wound calibre with 6-day power reserve, 3 high-speed spring barrels, GMT functions, Power reserve indicator on the back of the movement.


“Mr. Bonati wanted a tourbillon, but he said to me that we had to make it totally different,” details Klein. “We had to find a reason to make such a tourbillon. We finally found that difference in September 2005. You see, in all wristwatches, the amplitude when the watch is flat is different than when the watch is vertical. We wanted to use the tourbillon to compensate in order to get the same rate in any position.
”With our tourbillon, which turns on a different axis, the rate doesn't change - regardless of the position,“he continues.”The speed of the tourbillon's revolution is one turn every thirty seconds."
With this new slate of movements, and new watches to put them in, Panerai is making leaps and bounds and moving into what Bonati considers true watchmaking. “I want Panerai to be considered a watchmaker, because the watchmaker is able to do anything,” Bonati says. “Our horizon is broader than just complicated watches because we see all of watchmaking. We always try to propose something to our clients that is exclusive and authentic. We are linked to the history of the brand, the design, the size, the passion; there are a lot of things to this mix. It is a cocktail of positive things that give us the possibility to be successful.”




P.2003: The unusual feature of this mechanical movement is its automatic winding with an autonomy of 10 days (240 hours), possible because of three spring barrels: two of these are located one above the other, while the third is linked through a gear train which enables the remaining power to be indicated on an appropriate graduated scale.
Technical characteristics: 281 parts, 13 3/4 lines (31.8 X 8.00 mm), Frequency 4Hz, Automatic calibre, 10-day power reserve, 3 high-speed spring barrels, Second reset and GMT functions, Linear power reserve indicator.

P.2004: The first chronograph movement created entirely by the brand, the P.2004 is a hand-wound mechanical movement with a single button column wheel chronograph which combines the start/stop/reset functions in a single push-piece. This push-piece is positioned at 8 o’clock so as to maintain the unusual appearance of Luminor watches, with the bridge protecting the winding crown, a distinctive feature of the design of Luminor cases.

Technical characteristics: 333 components, 13 3/4 lines (31.8 X 8.20 mm), Frequency 4 Hz, Hand-wound calibre with 8-day power reserve, 3 high-speed spring barrels, Second reset and GMT functions, Linear power reserve indicator, Column wheel.


Currently, Panerai can manufacture just 50% of worldwide demand. Panerai, like other luxury brands, is in no hurry to satisfy this incredible appetite from the market. “We want to continue to create a strong demand,” Bonati explains. “Our business model is based on this. We don't want to put products everywhere just to make business. If you do that, you cannot survive for a long time, especially if you are a new brand. Panerai cannot make any mistakes because we are young - we don't have enough awareness that allows us to make any mistakes.”
Panerai, according to Bonati and Klein, have a lot of new projects in the pipeline for the future. There are new movements and watches now being worked on for 2011, so you can expect to see new things from Panerai every year.


Source: Europa Star April-May 2007 Magazine Issue