There is something endlessly alluring about the Bosphorus Strait. Not only does it captivate almost every one of the 10 million tourists that visit Istanbul each year, but—according to Turkey’s famed author Orhan Pamuk—for the locals its importance is akin to something divine.
‘To be able to see the Bosphorus, even from afar, for Istanbullus is a matter of spiritual import,’ wrote Pamuk, ‘It may explain why windows looking out onto the sea are like mihrabs in Mosques and alters in Churches—inside the tables, chairs, sofas and dining tables are all arranged in ritual to see the Bosphorus-facing view.’
The untameable nature of open water has that effect on people. For millennia we have
tried (and failed) to conquer it by sailing across it, building over it, and diving under it—but we’ve never quite been able to master it or to overcome the sense of wonder that it inspires.
One brand that reciprocates that sense of awe is Panerai. With its well-known history of providing watches for the frogmen of the Italian navy during World War II, even before that, the sea had been the watchmaker’s inspiration dating back to its founding in 1860.
In 1936, Panerai released its first prototype watch—a high-strength diving wristwatch that was a precursor to its iconic Radiomir. That very same year, up in a Scottish shipyard, a classic 22-metre two-masted Bermudan ketch named Eilean, made her maiden sail across the River Clyde.
Designed by legendary yacht designer William Fife III, the boat would unwittingly chart a course over the next 90 years that would lead it into the hearts of watch aficionados across the world—via the pantheon of pop culture as the star of Duran Duran’s 1982 music video “Rio”.
Records show that Eilean’s first owners were brothers James and Robert Fulton—keen sailors, and already owners of another Fife vessel. Destiny ordained that the Fulton brothers would use the boat for only a couple of years, after which they left to fight and, unfortunately, die in the war. From that moment little is known about the boat’s history until the 1970s when it was bought by an English architect, John Shearer, who would spend the next 20 years sailing it as a charter around Antigua in the Caribbean and making Occasional trans-Atlantic crossings.
Unfortunately, it was after one of these crossings that Eilean would eventually be abandoned in Antigua, and fall into a state of complete disrepair. It was here that it was spotted in 2006 by Angelo Bonati, then CEO of Panerai.
Leaning on the luxury Italian watch brand’s deep association roots in diving and sailing, the vessel was rescued by Panerai and transported to the Francesco del Carlo shipyard in Viareggio, Italy, to begin a three-year restoration process. Using the original designs from the Fife shipyards, they recovered all the materials and instruments they could save and used traditional shipbuilding techniques to fix the rest. In 2009 Eilean was relaunched as Panerai’s sailing ambassador in a series of advertisements.
In many ways the restoration of Eilean inspired Panerai to be the brand it is today. Not only is it evidence of the importance that it places on the values of craftsmanship and the inspiration taken from its heritage, but having Eilean as part of its marketing fleet allows it to offer more intricate experiences to its customers.
Fuelled by the palpable loyalty of its most passionate collectors—the self-proclaimed Paneristi —in 2019 the watchmaker began providing money-can’t-buy experiences to those clients willing to dig a little deeper for specific models that offered something extra. At first there was a Panerai watch that came with an invite to train with the Italian navy (the Submersible Forze Speciali Experience Edition); then there was the model (the Submersible EcoPangaea Tourbillon GMT) that allowed five people to accompany notable explorer Mike Horn on an Arctic expedition; and then there is Eilean—who’s captain and crew spend time seeking harbour in popular classic yacht haunts and welcoming aboard invitation-only customers.
Eilean’s most recent sojourn was in Istanbul, its first journey into Asia. It was there that the classically restored, Fife designed, 90-year-old vessel navigated the ancient waves of the Bosphorus with a cargo of grinning Paneristi on deck—that combination, bringing together
a unifying sense of awe that, for some, is something truly divine.
