On 19 July 2019 in Florence, Panerai once again inaugurated its historic headquarters in the form of a museum and flagship store transfigured by the spirit of the times. The Florentine space marks the way for the brand's future, already all inscribed in Giuseppe Panerai's ancient vision. "We have changed nothing. It was enough to remove the patina of the decades: the beauty that was underneath now shines in all its originality," says Alvaro Maggini, the Maison's Creative Director. In terms of construction, the showcases take the form of rectangular portholes over the abysses, which have been the brand's natural habitat since the first Royal Italian Navy order in 1936. And there are four of them, like the families of products that have marked Panerai's centuries-long route: Radiomir, Luminor, Luminor Due, Submersible. Each respectively marked by a colour, conceptual nuances of a single "Laboratory of Ideas": military green, deep brown, 1970s yellow, navy blue. In the displays, parallelepipeds made of bronze and canneted coloured glass, the historical pieces provide a backdrop to the House's new products: what in the first decades of the 20th century was power, in the new millennium becomes action. A parabola that thanks to this subdivision the visitor will now be able to follow in all its clarity. The Italian style of the Maison will have its physiological completion in the hospitality of the counter bar, which will then find its place in the other boutiques around the world, where those same visitors will relax as only in the Bel Paese can one relax. At the centre of the museum on the first floor, among the original furniture and documents from the historical archive, sits Giuseppe Panerai at his desk. He is busy making a note, barely raising his head as he is attracted by the footsteps of a guest. "The wax figure is the work of the Musée Grévin in the 9th arrondissement of Paris," says Maggini. "The clothes were made by an Italian designer, the hair is real. And, if it is true that the eyes are the mirror of the soul, well, it is also thanks to those eyes that Giuseppe Panerai's soul still inhabits his studio'. "The Florence flagship store, apart from the uniqueness of the museum, is the pioneer that will guide the next aesthetic development of our spaces," says Panerai CEO Jean-Marc Pontroué, whose signature seals the Panerai passport: burgundy, along the lines of the Italian one, but with the Luminor 1312 dial on the cover. The first examples were delivered to customers during the inauguration. "To be an integral part of our club, they will be able to collect the stamps of the three most representative Panerai destinations," Pontroué continues. "Namely, in addition to the one in Florence, our historic Bermudian ketch Eilean and our Swiss manufacture in Neuchâtel." Stamps that attest not only to a journey through space, but also to a journey through time.
