Panerai Radiomir Guide: History, References, Specs & Prices | Ultimate Watch

The Radiomir is where Panerai starts, both as a company and as the shape every collector pictures when they hear the name. It is a cushion-shaped case, wire lugs soldered or screwed to the flanks, an oversized winding crown, and a dial built for one job: being read in the dark, underwater, by a man who cannot afford to squint. The name comes from the luminous compound Panerai patented in 1916, a radium-based paste the company called Radiomir, from 'radio mire,' meaning radium sights. G. Panerai e Figlio was a Florence instrument maker and the official supplier of precision gear to the Regia Marina, the Royal Italian Navy, and in 1936 the Navy came to them asking for a wristwatch tough enough and legible enough for combat frogmen. Panerai did not build a movement or a waterproof case in-house. They went to Rolex. That decision, a Florentine dial specialist marrying a Geneva watchmaker's Oyster case and a Cortebert-based pocket-watch caliber, is the origin story of the whole brand. We buy and sell Radiomirs every month at our counter on 47th Street, from the sub-$6,000 Quaranta pieces to five-figure limited editions, and this is the reference that separates people who like Panerai from people who understand it.