Luminaries Come Out For Panerai’s Splashy Design Miami Dinner

On December 2,  Design Miami Co-Founder, Craig Robins presented industrial designer Yves Béhar with Design Miami’s 2015 Design Visionary Award, along with Officine Panerai CEO Angelo Bonati. 

The luxury watch brand sponsored the dinner and presented Béhar with a timepiece the day before the big event to commemorate his award. Robbins called Béhar’s work, which includes Nest Home thermostat and One Laptop Per Child, “intelligent, beautiful and with the transcendent effect of shaping human behavior.”

“Panerai is the ideal presenting partner because [the company represents] an exemplary combination of innovation and great design,” said Robins. The international VIP crowd enjoyed a Perrier-Jouet reception at the bilevel Design District boutique, located in the Palm Court, before heading to dinner.

Diners were led down a magical-feeling path surrounded by brightly lit bamboo before emerging in a sprawling tent aglow with swaths of flickering candles on hundred foot tables—complete with stars overhead.

Guests included Nadja Swarovski, Jeffrey and Don Soffer, Carlos Mota, J.W. Anderson, Alina and Anthony Shriver, Mayor Philip Levine, Shareef Malnik and Gabrielle Anwar and artist Michele Oka Doner. Attendees got to enjoy a 3-course dinner that included ceviche, Chilean Seabass, and three desserts and was perfectly executed for a staggering 580 guests.

Panerai has announced it would make financial contributions to several causes which are important to the designer, including SPRING Accelerator, a global program that supports businesses which can improve the lives of adolescent girls and San Franciso’s MoMa Education Fund, which supports the arts in the Bay Area. Behar has called San Francisco home since leaving Switzerland twenty years ago.