Timothy Barber goes behind the scenes at Panerai’s new factory to witness how ultra-luxe is wed with technical brilliance

Seated at mahogany benches in a glass-walled inner sanctum, six elite watchmakers are busy assembling one of the most complex and unusual minute repeaters you?ll find. It?s a one-man/one-watch job, with three months required to put together a single 633-part timepiece, each one a convoluted tangle of skeletonised bridges and plates. Features include a vertical axis tourbillon, a three-hammer decimal repeater (it strikes tens of minutes rather than quarter hours) activated by a push-piece, and the ability to chime the time in two different time zones. The watchmaker responsible for each made-to-order piece will also be responsible for its servicing in the future.
It?s the kind of hushed, studious tableau one might expect to find at august complications specialists such as Vacheron Constantin or Jaeger-LeCoultre. But no, this is Officine Panerai; and even given the brand?s ever-accelerating progress up the haute horlogerie tree, I didn?t really expect this. Moreover the watch in question, the Radiomir 1940 Minute Repeater Carillon Tourbillon GMT Oro Rosso ? a 49mm behemoth that?s as sculptural and elaborate as its name is long ? still took even the most seasoned Panerai-watchers by surprise when it appeared last year.

Perhaps it shouldn?t have. It?s 12 years since Panerai made its first movement, and a decade since its first tourbillon ?...