Italy is the land of ‘amore’, ‘vino’, a ‘bellicima’ language and beautiful women. It is the country of beautiful cities like Rome, Milan, Venice and Florence. And in Florence, in 1860 a watch company was founded by Giovanni Panerai in a watchmaker’s shop. This company is the Officine Panerai, and their product: the Panerai, a watch created with such perfection that the company became the official supplier to the Italian Navy. Sadly, it is now owned by the Swiss luxury items company Compagnie Financière Richemont SA. The Panerai watch was the first company to use luminous dials, a great help to the Italian commando frogmen while underwater. The dials were made of a concoction of Zinc Sulphide and Radium Bromide which was named ‘Radiomir’, a name that is still used as a series of their products. Not knowing the health hazard presented by the Radium Bromide Guido Panerai, grandson of the founder, applied and got a patent for his work. This was later replaced by another patented invention: Luminor, a luminous substance created from tritium. It replaced the Radiomir on the dials of the watches. The Panerai watches also have clamps that hold the crown down even under great pressure. This is also another patented feature the Panerai family still holds. If all else fails, this is one feature that any replica Panerai watchmaker will find hard to functionally imitate. Though no longer radioactive, ideal goods still sport ‘killer’ looks. Another thing not for the faint hearted is the price tag. It is not uncommon to shell out USD 200,000.00 for a ‘Panerai Luminor 1950 Equation of Time Tourbillon Titanio L’Astronomo PAM365’, the Panerai opus magnum. It really is sad a fact that a nice things bought online for a little over USD 200.00 gives the owner the right to walk in the same light as proud owners of the genuine watches. Owners like Sylvester Stallone, who fell in love with the watches on the set of one of his movies. Sly is rumored to have has his own branded watch series called the ‘Slytech’ with his autograph on the back cover of the case that he gives out as gifts to friends.