This year, Revolution turns 20. Two decades of chronicling watches, people and ideas have given us a front-row seat to a remarkable story: how an age-old craft has both preserved its soul and reinvented itself for the 21st century. To celebrate, we’ve chosen over 100 names and milestones that, for us, define the era so far. From leaders to watches, you can see the whole list here.

I liked the world much better when Angelo Bonati was alive and at the helm of Panerai, which he had transformed from a military tool watch maker into one of the hottest sports watch brands by the time it debuted at Richemont Group’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) in 1998.

The universe just made more sense. People didn’t hate each other; there was a clear distinction between right and wrong; and common sense for the better part seemed to prevail. It was a time when people still very much believed in heroes, and a watch brand for heroes was exactly what Angelo Bonati, Giampiero Bodino, Franco Cologni and, of course, Johann Rupert made Panerai into. They didn’t just launch watches, but also ignited a cultural revolution around these timepieces that would take the world by storm. In 1997, as Bonati traveled around Italy with prototypes of the watches designed by the great Giampiero Bodino in his suitcase, he would single-handedly start the revolution for oversized watches that dominated modern watchmaking until five years ago. Soon, Bonati knew he was on to something. All the retailers that had purchase Panerai watches reported back that they needed more. By 1998, when Panerai launched at SIHH, the brand was producing 6,000 watches, and every single one of these would be almost instantly sold out.

Panerai Mare Nostrum

The Panerai craze would grip the watch world throughout the early part of the new millennium like nothing Swiss watchmaking had ever seen. Panerai would become mainstream, worn on the wrists of Sylvester Stallone in the film Daylight (1996), Arnold Schwarzenegger in Eraser (1996) and Jason Statham in The Transporter (2002). To me, it was the single most culturally significant sports watch brand from 2000 to 2010. Not content to just make watches, Bonati created a manufacture for his beloved Panerai, which soon featured in-house movements and cases representative of his interest in material innovation, from tantalum to ceramic, bronze and carbon fiber. As the saying goes, when there is wind, set your sails. Angelo Bonati did this to the very fullest of his ability; he was always calm, his large hands firmly on the wheel of his brand in the same way they would steadfastly pilot his wood-hulled, ex-America’s Cup J-Class yacht Eileen in later years.

Sylvester Stallone wearing Panerai in movie Daylight (1996)

Arnold Schwarzenegger sporting Panerai Luminor Marina in the movie Eraser (1996)

Jason Statham wearing a Panerai PAM 098 in the movie Transporter (2002)

That was Angelo Bonati — a man to whom the entire watch industry owes a debt of gratitude for the cultural impact of what he did with Panerai.