Initially, the Officine Panerai’s undertaking may seem a little paradoxical – as the company’s virile image is generally associated with a maritime environment through its diving watches and involvement in traditional sailing regattas. Even more since Panerai has begun developing its own calibres, the idea of providing lovers of beautiful mechanics with an additional scientific and cultural dimension to this reputation, promises to be a wise one. Over and above the shared geographical origins of the brand and the museum, the spatio-temporal contents and international renown of the ancient Institute and the science history museum, renamed the Museo Galileo in June 2010 following major changes to which Panerai contributed, has the potential of making the curators of a city like Geneva green with envy. Where Panerai stands out from other watch brands that support one or the other temporary exhibition in great museums in famous capitals, is in the permanent relationship that has existed between the two entities since 2008 and the creation of an exceptional model directly linked to the scenography of the Museo Galileo. In fact, as its CEO Angelo Bonatti explains, “Through this extraordinary planetarium clock, the Officine Panerai Manufacture wanted to pay tribute to the father of modern science and the man who paved the way for precision watchmaking, by formulating the laws of pendulum motion.  This is an unprecedented masterpiece, whose level of mechanical complication provides a new example of the technical virtuosity of the Manufacture”.

 

A reference

Like timepieces whose decoration is just as complex as their watchmaking content, the Museo Galileo combines an 11^th century setting, the Palazzo Castellani, which houses some 3500 m² of ancestral know-how, with an internationally open mind and exemplary spirit of sharing. Its documentation centre and state of the art research in the realm of science and technical history not only makes over 170,000 volumes in its library available to researchers all over the world, but also gives internet users access to a large collection of digital works, which were consulted by a million visitors in 2011. The exhibition reflects ultramodern principles of museum conceptualisation, juxtaposing historical and scientific rigour, conservation needs, communication strategy (notably in the highly educational interactive section) and refined design. A year after its birth, the Museo Galileo was awarded the Museum of the Year prize in Italy (in the best management category), as well as the 2010 Great Exhibitions Competition awarded by the British Society for the History of Science, and the 2011 European Museum Academy Prize.

 

Galileo and the measuring of time

In collaboration with Panerai, the new interactive section of the museum provides a better understanding of the complex functioning of certain scientific instruments, notably for measuring time with the help of increasingly sophisticated mechanical devices. Through touch screens, mechanical models and collectors’ items activated by visitors at will, the three rooms in this section bring to light the fundamental role of Galileo’s discoveries in perfecting systems for measuring time. The first is dedicated to the movement of objects (time, distance and trajectories), another to antique watches including the spectacular reconstitution of the Orologio dei Pianeti, the astronomical watch that Lorenzo della Volpaia created in 1510 for Laurent de Medici, and the last room to Galileo’s research into time and space, notably in the realm of calculating longitude. Galileo tried to solve the problem by observing the movement of Jupiter’s satellites and by applying the pendulum to the mechanical watch to it. The operation of the pendulum clock is explained by an enlarged reproduction of the instrument for measuring time invented by Galileo and by a mechanical model that compares Galileo’s circular pendulum to the cycloidal pendulum. The operating principles of mechanical clocks are illustrated by large-scale escapement prototypes, which may be directly activated. Well worth a look at www.museogalileo.it.