I thought I’d take some time this morning to write a blog post about one of my personal favourite watches – the Anonimo Professionale.
In a previous blog post (Panerai 233) I mentioned that in 1997 Panerai was sold to the Vendome Group of Richemont SA and the new owners re-located the brand to Switzerland. Although a few individuals who had worked for Panerai prior to the sale went to Switzerland and continued to work for Panerai there, the vast majority of the workforce was made redundant. As luck would have it another watch brand had been set up earlier that year in Florence by designer and entrepreneur Federico Massacesi, and Massacesi quickly saw the exodus of Panerai as an opportunity. He absorbed much of the skilled ex-Panerai workforce into his company, thus not only maintaining a tradition of watchmaking in Tuscany but also adding a strong technical base to the new company.
Massacesi had a very simple philosophy – it was the watches that were important, and not the branding. He believed that the watches should make a statement about the wearer, and that the branding should be of little importance. For this reason he called the new company Anonimo (which translates to English as ‘anonymous’) and decided that only the logo, and not the brand name, would not appear on the dial.
Anonimo initially carried on where Panerai had left off by designing and manufacturing dive watches. The dials and cases were designed and built by the craftsmen in Florence now employed by Anonimo, and these were paired with Swiss made mechanical movements. The first watch was released in 1998. The ‘Millemetri’ (meaning 1000 meters) was a success and led to partnerships with commercial diving companies such as CNS (Cooperativa Nazionale Sommozzatori), and a bit of a cult following amungst collectors of dive watches.
The first Anonimo I bought was some years ago now when I acquired one of the first of the ‘Militare’ watches. I still have that watch – it’s certainly not been a safe queen and so is a little bashed now, but it was the watch that first introduced me to Anonimo and so has a special place in my heart. Soon after I bought my Militare I added a Polluce, and then I saw my first Professionale and I just had to have one. For me, the aspect that set Anonimo apart from many of their competitors at that time was the quality of the cases – both in terms of design and manufacture. The finish of the cases is exquisite, and for me the Professionale highlights this better than any other.
The Professionale was released in 2003 and was designed with professional divers in mind (hence the name). In designing the watch Anonimo worked closely with CNS who raised issues that the divers who ultimately would use the watch may face. One such issue Anonimo were tasked with was to design a watch that could be opened (and re-sealed) with tools they would have to hand should repairs be necessary. Their solution was to design a case held closed by just 4 screws – and for good measure they hinged both the case back and glass/bezel at 9 o’clock. Releasing tension on the 4 screws would allow access to both the movement and the dial easily, and at the same time prevent either case back or watch glass being dropped / lost. This certainly isn’t possible with a conventional watch case, and regardless of how useful this design feature actually proved to be for divers it certainly gives the Professionale a utilitarian look. The following photograph, courtesy of Kristian Haagen, illustrates the case design perfectly.
The original Professionale was available with a back dial, but it was always the yellow dial that I wanted and in 2008 a fellow collector in Sweden told me that he had one he would sell me. When the watch arrived I was blown away by the lines of that case, and it is still something I marvel at when I wear it. The combination of textures of bead blasted and polished surfaces is (in my opinion, at least) a thing of beauty.
This is not a complicated watch. It shows hours, minutes, seconds, a date, and no more. But often simple solutions are best – note the red o-ring around the crown stem which alerts the diver if the crown is not screwed down properly (you can see it in the photo at the top of the page). The crown itself is oversized and two part – the wider inner crown acts to screw the crown tight, while the thinner outer crown is used to set the time and wind the watch.
Unfortunately over the last few years Anonimo seem to have lost their way somewhat. The company made some design decisions soon after their 10th anniversary which many (including myself) thought odd as they complicated the brand image, and it seems that and the desire for a world network of authorised dealers put too much of a strain on the financial side of the business. In September 2011 Federico Massacesi sold the business, and Anonimo today is a completely different company from the one that started in Florence in 1997 – in fact the only connection the new company has with Florence today is that the bronze cases are made in the same factory as before, everything else is now made in Switzerland where the watches are assembled. Regardless, I will always have a soft spot for the original “Nimo” watches, and my Professionale in particular.