This trend appears to have become common among watchmakers, too, which are getting involved in events meant to consolidate the link between the history of the brand and the technologydriven present. Officine Panerai has been sponsoring the Panerai Classic Yacht Challenge for 5 years, a regatta which includes vintage and classic boats, and has been involved in one of the most extensive restoration projects aimed at a vintage boat, Eilean. The Breguet manufacturer has not forgotten that its founder was also Marie Antoinette’s watchmaker, and has sponsored the restoration of the Petit Trianon, the queen’s favourite place.

For its part, Parmigiani Fleurier has not allowed the success of its new collections to become too overwhelming, and instead became involved in restoration of historic clocks, declared ”dead” by the rest of the specialists. The Vauban harbour, close to the Saint Jaume bastion in Antibes, on the Côte d’Azur, became for 4 days in June the scene of one stage of the Panerai Classic Yacht Challenge. It was in fact a genuine historical parade, because each of the boats (some more than one hundred years old) has over time collected stories that would not be out of place in a Hollywood movie script.

Moonbeam IV from 1914, a 33 metre-long aurica cutter, where Prince Rainier of Monaco and Grace Kelly spent their honeymoon was one of last year’s winners. Each of this year’s winners, among which Rowdy, from 1916, which won in the over 15-metre Vintage, category and Chaplin, declared a winner of the under 15- metre Classic category, received a Panerai Luminor 1950 Regatta Rattrapante. Available in a limited edition of 500, the watch is a split-seconds chronograph, accompanied by a chronometer certificate, and indicates the final 5 minutes preceding the starting signal of a regatta. The new model preserves the Luminor 1950’s 44- mm case, but its look is different due to its special, DLC (Diamond-Like-Carbon) coating, which gives the watch a black colour and more resistance to corrosion.