Officine Panerai specially invited the world-renowned South African explorer Mike Horn and Pangaea environmental yacht to Hong Kong to promote environmental protection concepts, and hold a different press conference on Pangaea environmental yacht. In case of inclement weather, the press conference could be held as usual, let the media feel the perseverance of Panerai and Mike Horn.
Panerai Managing Director of Asia Pacific Mr. Jean-Sebastien Gerondeau first explained the brand core values to the media in the conference room on the boat, such as respect tradition, the pursuit of excellence, reliability and innovation, and protecting the environment and so on, sponsoring Mike Horn expedition activities exactly reflected the firm belief of Panerai in the environmental issue and the recognition of Mike Horn’s values. The cooperation between Panerai and Mike Horn began in 2002, the close relationship has been for 7 years and Panerai totally designed four special edition watches that mixed professional instruments into the watch design, such as PAM 092, PAM 186, PAM 252 and PAM 307. Mike Horn has always worn the watches that Panerai specially made for him in his different expedition journeies, to test durability and performance of the watches under extreme conditions.
Following, Mike Horn personally introduced PANGAEA and shared some of his expedition adventure experience, such as the North Pole expedition, exposure to extremely low temperature, the equipments are frozen and unusable, the only thing that operated normally was his Panerai Luminor GMT Arktos watch. The media listened his interesting speeches with great interest. In addition, Panerai also specially arranged for Jun Li, the first Asian representative of Young Explorers Programme (YEP), to share her two weeks of experience in the South Island of New Zealand Fjord, the event was aimed to attract more young people aged from 15 to 20 to participate in the Young Explorers Programme, I hoped more young generations will concerned about the Earth’s ecological sustainable development.
After the press conference, Panerai invited the media to watch Mike Horn helming on the deck of Pangaea, we all accepted the challenge without hesitation, to experience real navigation, such as participating in hoisting a sail and so on. In fact, human beings could not control the weather is good or bad, but they could have a different point of view: sailing in a storm was also a special experience and challenge. This meaningful and educational journey not only brought a brand-new and extraordinary experience, but also let them have the chance to see the team spirit of Mike Horn and his crew and sticking to their posts even in bad weather and their respect to the changing environment, this was exactly the idea that Panerai appreciated.
Panerai was the current partner of PANGAEA, Panerai CEO Angelo Bonati was also the supporter of Mike Horn. Mr Bonati said, “Supporting Mike and PANGAEA is a very interesting work, it is not only a personal challenge, but also to wake up people to the awareness of the current state of the Earth. Panerai respects for human values, to support Mike’s traditional values, innovation and respect for the environment.”
In close cooperation with Panerai, the four-year global expedition environmental protection activities PANGAEA has entered the second year since Pangaea set sail from Morocco last year and drove to the first stop Puntas Arenas in Chile on October 9, 2008. During this period, Pangaea has taken the lead in South America, Antarctica, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia to expand environmental responsibility education, and promoted the youth all over the world to experience and expand learning horizons.
Now, this Asian tour was an important part of Mike Horn‘s great adventure. Asia was the world’s largest and most populous place, where even would have far-reaching global impact to promote environmental protection concept, so this time Mike Horn chose to come to Hong Kong to help improve the local environment. In Asian tour’s itinerary, after the visit to Australian Sydney and Yokohama in Japan, Mike Horn would stay in Hong Kong for three days and then visit Singapore on October 12.
Panerai always stuck to its core values, such as respect for tradition, the pursuit of excellence, reliability and innovation, and protecting the environment, etc., for this outstanding explorer Mike Horn, Panerai Luminor series is an absolutely trustworthy companion. With professional excellence in watch-making, Panerai Luminor series has helped Mike do a lot of innovations, such as the Arctic Challenge in 2000 when he wore the Luminor Arktos watch; in the first nighttime activities of 2006 Arctic winter expedition, Panerai watch was also his exclusive timer. Since then, Panerai, with excellent technology and perfect accuracy, has forged a close partnership with Mike Horn who was regarded as the warrior to be brave to challenge the limits.
Panerai Luminor 1950 Submersible Depth Gauge Limited Edition PAM 307 inherited tradition, it became an intimate companion of this explorer in the four-year PANGAEA. One of its remarkable features was that even in extreme temperatures in the Antarctic nothing could affect it. Of course, the PANGAEA Asian Tour, which was led by Mike Horn, who was the spreader of environmental protection and the brave person that challenged human limits, was presented by professional watch maker Panerai.
Mike Horn was born in 1966 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He had tremendous enthusiasm and a wealthy knowledge on challenging human limits and crossing barriers in the world. Mike Horn was versatile and often challenged the individual physical and mental limits, often broke the world records, as the first orbiting 20,000 miles above the Arctic Circle Arktos expedition, and alone without the aid of any machinery to complete round the world Latitude Zero adventure in 17 months. However, Panerai Luminor 1950 Submersible Depth Gauge never leave the body of Mike Horn in the journey. He, together with the Panerai, was a combination of unmatched, because they shared the same keys to success – ultimate pursuit of excellence, principled, unafraid in face of difficulties, always reveals a leisurely self-confidence. To get a full know of Mike Horn, visit our previous post: http://www.paneraiblog.us/2011/05/who-is-mike-horn/
