THE FRENCH CHAMPION FOR CONSTANT WEIGHT FREE-DIVING IS THE STAR OF THE CHAPTER NAMED “MARE” (THE SEA) IN THE SERIES PANERAI TRAITS AND FROM TODAY HE IS A WORLDWIDE AMBASSADOR OF OFFICINE PANERAI
MARCH 2018 – Guillaume Néry, the French free-diving champion who has broken four world records and won two Constant Weight World Free-Diving Championships, is a brand ambassador of Officine Panerai. The partnership with Officine Panerai, which will run for two years, begins with the Panerai Traits project, in which Guillaume Néry is the star of the third chapter “MARE” of the series devoted to the historic link between Panerai and the world of the sea. In the video, which will be online on the site
www.paneraitraits.com and on the social media channels of Guillaume Néry and Panerai from 20th March, Guillaume Néry describes in words and spectacular images his own passion and flair as he dives in the waters of Villefranche-sur-Mer, the bay near Nice, his birthplace, where Guillaume grew up and established his supremacy. Since he broke his first world record at the age of just 20, free-diving to a depth of 87 metres, Guillaume Néry has raised the limits of this discipline several times. In 2015 he reached the incredible depth of 139 meters in a world record attempt, 10 metres deeper than expected, due to an error of measurement from the organizers. Unfortunately, Guillaume lost consciousness a few metres from the surface and the record couldn’t be validated. It remains the deepest dive in freediving competition history. In 2015 Guillaume Néry retired from competition and since then he has devoted himself to communicating his passion for the sea through meetings, training and expeditions all over the world. The underwater images created by Guillaume Néry are among the most famous ever made and several of his videos created in collaboration with his wife – Narcose, Ocean Gravity, Free Fall, and Runnin, which was created for the American singer Beyoncé – have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, helping to disseminate his activities and also his philosophy all over the world. As described by Guillaume Néry, diving is an internal experience, not just a way of exploring the sea but also a means of knowing oneself, facing danger and solitude, and accepting the psychological and climatic pressures which exist at the bottom of the sea. On his wrist, Guillaume has chosen to wear the Luminor Submersible 1950 Amagnetic 3 Days Automatic Titanio PAM1389, a model from Panerai’s Divers Professional watch collection, water-resistant to a depth of 300 metres.
GUILLAUME NERY Guillaume Néry, born in 1982 in Nice – France, is a professional free diver specialized in disciplined depth. Much more than a sport, he considers free diving as a way of life, an exploration of the depths to the unknown, and the pushing of human limitations. He is just 14 years old when he falls in love with freediving. Every day, Guillaume dives a little deeper and deeper under the sea, with patience, pleasure and rigor. In 2002, at the age of 20 years old, he dives to -87 meters in the Villefranche-sur-Mer Harbour, in the Alpes-Maritimes of France and becomes the youngest man to break the world record in the history of free diving. Between 2004 and 2008 Guillaume breaks 3 world records (96m, 109m, 113m). In 2008 he gets his first world championship gold medal with the French team. In 2011, Guillaume Néry becomes World Champion at the Freediving Individual World Championship in Kalamata, Greece at -117 meters. In 2015, while attempting his fifth World Record at -129m, the organization made a mistake and he dove by accident into the incredible depth of -139m. Unfortunately, the record could not be officialized but it was still counted as the deepest dive ever to be done in free diving competition history. Today Néry is fully devoted to his passions, succeeding in various projects between photography, short film making (Narcose, Ocean Gravity, Haven…) and writing (Profondeurs in 2014, Reconnexion in 2019). www.guillaumenery.fr OFFICINE PANERAI Founded in Florence in 1860 as a workshop, shop and school of watch-making, for many decades Officine Panerai supplied the Italian Navy in general, and its specialist diving corps in particular, with precision instruments. The designs developed by Panerai in that time, including the Luminor and Radiomir, were covered by the Military Secrets Act for many years and were launched on the international market only after the brand was acquired by the Richemont Group in 1997. Today Officine Panerai develops and crafts its movements and watches at its Neuchâtel manufacture. The latter are a seamless melding of Italian design flair and history with Swiss horological expertise. www.panerai.com www.paneraitraits.com