DEEP BREATH

It’s a balmy early summer afternoon in Antibes. Champagne is being poured, cigars are being lit, and Rolling Stones covers of slightly questionable quality are drifting up on the breeze from the courtyard of Bastion St-Jaume. We are at the start of the 2018 Panerai Classic Yacht Challenge (Eilean, the brand’s beloved yacht is, of course, in attendance) and I am sitting on the upper level of the fort, chatting with Panerai’s new ambassador, world champion freediver Guillaume Néry.

Néry doesn’t talk about diving like someone who’s been doing it for two decades. He speaks with the breathless enthusiasm of one whose love for the sport is clearly at its zenith, even though it’s been