Signature Aviation Spring 2025

“My willingness and determination to survive must be bigger than the fear”

ourselves, the way we make decisions and basically surround ourselves with the best people that possibly can help you to survive, is key.” This mindset means embracing risks. “I’d rather live one day as a lion than a lifetime as a sheep. If you think of acli ff , you think about how far from the cli ff face you’re going to walk. Some will walk 10 or 15 ft from thecli ff , but I’m going to walk on the cli ff face, and if I make a mistake, I fall. The only di ff erence between life away from the cli ff or on the cli ff is the view. I like to see the full view; I don’t want to see the same thing every day of my life, and if that means I see more in a shorter time, that’s the way I choose to live.” From early in his career, Horn has partnered with Panerai, a Richemont Group brand renowned for its high-performance watches. On each expedition, he relies on a single watch designed to meet his extreme needs. He recalls knowing he was going to walk and ski the North Pole in almost complete darkness, so the brand worked to create a luminous watch. It also worked with him to develop materials that rendered the watches antimagnetic and corrosion-resistant. “They made watches for me that would not freeze. They developed oils that wouldn’t freeze, watches that would become navigational instruments on my journeys. I only take one watch with me, and it needs to be able to do what I need. You need partners like

that, those dedicated to innovation and precision, to be able to carry you through.” As part of this partnership, Panerai released the Submersible GMT Titanio Mike Horn Experience Edition watch, PAM01670, which comes with the chance to join Horn on an expedition to Bhutan. Other versions are for sale without the experience, but for explorers, the 30-piece limited edition 47mm titanium watch with Carbotech bezel and patented polarized date display unlocks adventurous new doors. According to Horn, living outside more than he has lived inside over the past 30 years has also given him keen insight into the environment and transformed him into an environmental advocate. “In fi veyears, I spent just 32 days at home. I’ve seen the world change rapidly in 32 years of exploration,” he notes. One of the most shocking changes he’s witnessed involves seeing polar bears dying. “A polar bear can swim around 90 miles but can only walk 20 miles a day, so is more adapted to the ocean it lives in; it fi nds its food in the ocean and not on land. And when you see that you have a drowned polar bear that’s forced to swim, you’ve got to start asking yourself the hard questions. Today in the polar waters there are waves forming, because ice keeps the water calm. If the ice disappears and the wind blows over the water, that’s when you start creating waves. These waves are now

eroding the coastlines of northern Alaska, Canada and Siberia. So now we put the polar bear in water, swimming through waves, and the ice is more than a hundred miles out from land. And imagine he’s hungry, he’s got to swim to ice he can’t get to; all of a sudden he decides to make a U-turn. He’s weak; he gets caught up in the waves; he drowns.” This and many other environmental experiences have inspired Horn to work harder to raise awareness. He has established initiatives like the Horn Foundation and has sailed the world carrying the sustainability message. In fact, while Horn dreams of participating in the Paris to Dakar Rally, he refuses to contribute to pollution. “I decided to develop a car that doesn’t pollute at all. This led me to hydrogen as an ener g y source and for the past two-and-a-half years, I worked with a startup on hydrogen fuel cells to change mobility and to lead us away from fossil fuels. So not only do I explore, but I fi nd that as I get older, I am more purposefully going into an industry where I can make a big change for everybody.” According to Horn: “There’s always got to be something that makes you want to wake up in the morning. That passion that I have for life and that zest I have, that ener g y wakes me up.”

panerai.com, mikehorn.com