Panerai's President

If the Panerai watch represents a military secret, then the commanding secret behind the company is its President, Angelo Bonati. Signor Bonati has created what may be one of the great success stories in the watch industry over the past quarter-century.

-Mr. Bonati, you’re in charge of a brand that elicits strong opinions from the public. You must be a watch connoisseur yourself. Please tell our readers about your background in the watch industry.

-I was always involved with the Italian market. I started with Richemont back in 1980; that has been a long time. Mr. Franco Cologni was always my boss. It was always Richemont: at one time Cartier and then Vendome. I was President of Cartier and some other brands.

I did leave the group for two years in mid-1990s, finding other international experience. I re-entered in 1997. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Cologni called me and said “I have an adventure in my hand. Do you want to do it with me?”

-I understand that the adventure was Panerai. How did the idea of Panerai as an international brand develop?

- Officine Panerai had to face the reduction of the military budget in the early 1990s, as the Italian Navy then was its sole and exclusive client. In 1993, it commissioned about 1000 watches from suppliers and sold them.

-Historically Panerai watches were very large. History is well and good, but wouldn’t that inhibit sales?

-Size was another aspect of the strange history. At the time of 1997, there really were only two well-known oversized watches, the Audemars-Piguet Royal Oak Offshore and the IWC Portugieser. But for Panerai we decided to respect the watch and its history.

Yes, the Panerai watch is heavy. It is big; it is strange. But it is different and it has a strong personality. Most importantly, there is a history here. There is a history of value, a history of man and a history of hero. This is not a normal history, linked only to a watchmaker.

Here, it is a symbol; the watch is a symbol. We decided that we had to maintain the concept.

-What, may I ask, are you wearing? Is it special?

-Oh, yes. I’m wearing a GMT Regatta, which is what I wear when I travel. It’s 1 of 300 in honor of the Laureus. In May 2002 we sponsored a yacht in a Regatta in Monte Carlo.

-Even if you’re maintaining a tradition, you’ve developed new models. When you started, initially Panerai had two lines –both the historic and the contemporary. How do you develop a brand yet maintain the basic concept?

-Yes, we developed models and the brand. But frankly we were “not in business just to make business”. We wanted to achieve real status. We wanted to stay simple and genuine. Our success is linked to one idea of the watch, to one product --its history, its strong personality.

-While your designs are simple, I’ve admired the number of new models Panerai has produced in just a few years.

-Actually, we don’t have that many models. Apart from the Special Editions, we have just 40 references: eight historic, the rest belong to the contemporary range. Also, we have only a few dials. Brown for titanium, blue for some special dials and then a few basic dials. I don’t want more. I prefer simplicity.

The Radiomir line can use other content and lets us use more complicated movements. The Luminor line has several models: the “solo tempo” basic model, the GMT, the Power Reserve and the chrono. These preserve the heritage --which is somewhat contradictory, I admit, since in the 1930’s the Radiomir models preceded the Luminor. The Radiomir was the first Panerai.

- If you would, please tell us about the company today; its facilities and people.

-We bought a building for factory in 2001 in Neuchatel. We develop there and assemble there and control quality there. We are training new people and working on movement and case production there.

We have 30 employees at the factory plus 15 in Milan. There’s 4 people in the U.S. A total of 80 people around the world. Our structure –it’s very simple. We are like a family.

ETA makes most of our movement and we transform them. The GMT and Power Reserve are our developments; Valjoux transformed them and they are now exclusive to us. We worked on this for three or four years. Also, look at the finishing.

-It’s clear to me that you understand where you want Panerai to be.

-We have to keep the watch simple and pure to its history. You have to have a clear vision and then follow what you believe.