Panerai Radiomir 1940

The Panerai Radiomir 1940 is a true testament to the brand's remarkable legacy. IN ABOUT 1940, THE PANERAI WORKSHOPS IN FLORENCE PERFECTED A NEW CASE, designed to meet the increasing demands of the commandos of the Italian Navy. The case was a development of the one presented in 1936 which is known today as the Radiomir – a term which originally referred to the luminous material patented by Panerai to make the dial readable in the dark – but it presented some innovations designed to make its construction even more solid and hardwearing. In the new case the strap attachments were no longer formed from a strong piece of steel wire bent and welded to the caseband, as they had been previously. This design might expose the watch to the risk of the strap coming off in the course of the extreme operations which commandos were called upon to undertake when on board their underwater assault craft. In the 1940s version, on the other hand, the lugs were larger and much more solid, being milled from the same block of