Overview on the watchbrands who made functionality their distinctive features.

1. CHRONONAU
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2. EPISODE 2 Battlefield watches
Content: Ferrante
Fabio

3. CASIO - born nerd, raised by the army
Casio is a Japanese factory who produces
electronic devices. It broke into watchmaking
history when, in December 1954, launched on
the market a wrist compact-calculator, the first
ever seen.
In 1974 the brand immerged itself seriously in
watches production up to the point that it is
possible nowadays to consider Casio as the
absolute leader in the market of digital watches.
Kikuo Ibe, engineer for Casio, gave his team the
duty of creating a watch who could resist water
pressure up to 10 bar, falling from 10 meters and
with a battery life span of 10 years (The «triple
10 concept»).
To grant performances, the watch was realized
hollow on the inside and with a floaty dial.
After 2 years of development, in the early 80s
the first G-Shock model was realized: Casio
showed how it managed to successfully
challenge itself, creating a timepiece designed
to survive centrifugal forces, water pressure and
collisions.

4. IWC - touching the sky with the wrist
IWC embraces the adventurous spirit of its founder Florentine Jones who,
when he was 27, decided to cross the ocean in reverse towards Switzerland.
His trip was driven by the vision of creating a watch brand who could match
the modern processes used in US with the quality of the Swiss watchmaking
industry.
In 1868 the International Watch Company was founded.
In 1905 the Company released the first pilot’s watch, made with large
numbers and a large dial to be easily seen in extreme conditions. Numbers
and hands were also wet with tritium to make them fluorescent.
Later in the years, IWC introduced an anti-magnetic case for this watch to
prevent mechanics to be damaged by all the electronic devices inside the
aircrafts.
The pilot’s watch was so secure and performing that it became the official
watch of the British Royal Air Force.

5. PANERAI - The watch of the Italian Marina

6. In 1860 Giovanni Panerai opened in Florence his first own
watch shop, who served also as watchmaking academy, the
first in the city.
The Italian watchmaker started to collaborate with Rolex,
between the two farms relations were solid, such that Rolex
helped Panerai developing his firsts models.
Under the impulse of Queen Marina,Giovanni developed the
Radiomir, a timepiece suited for the Italian navy.The
particularity of this model was the innovative use of radio
powder to make numbers and hands inside the case
fluorescent, so that they could be visible also deep
underwater.
In 1997 Panerai is acquired by Richemont Group who shifted
the headquarter in Switzerland and made the brand
international.
Panerai is more than a watch, the meaning it embodies, the
identity of resilience and strength it represent is such that it
gave birth to Paneristi, a world wide autonomous web of
Panerai passionate who meet and organize events.

7. NAUTILUS: Prince of sea
When Patek Philippe showed for the first time ever the Nautilus in 1976,
the audience was outraged. Today, is one of the most sought watches
for wealth passionate seeking a never-boring timepiece.
By the way, the day it was presented in Paris back in 1976 was not a
good one. People were not used to comprehend a wholly iron watch,
designed for younger people and bigger than the watches who were
popular at that time. This made the model to receive bunches of critics
back then.
Today, the popularity of Nautilus is such that various versions of this
model exist and those seeking to buy it from official stores have to face
a waiting list that lasts years.
Waterproof, efficient, sporty and elegant, Nautilus by Patek Philippe can
be considered as the anthem of that generation of watches who is
aspiring to renovate the concept itself of timeless piece.

8. WHENTHE GAME GETSTOUGH
People may think that high-luxury brands are definitely not interested in
producing warcraft watches, but here we find two exceptions.
On the left we have the Richard Mille RM25-01 (20 pieces made), extremely
complicated, with a tourbillon movement, chronograph, impossible mechanics
and compass too. Defined as “a toy for billionaires who want go camping” its
list price is 960.000€.
On the right we find the more modest Jacob&Co Epic X realized in
collaboration with Bugatti.Titanium and carbon case, water resistant up to
200mt, chronograph and limited to 110 pieces; its list price is 45.000€.