Yet another piece of the Vintage Panerai puzzle surfaced

by on Jun.09, 2013, under General

We have added another unknown watch into our database – yet another piece of the puzzle surfaced. The “Kampfschwimmer” watch with the case number 260739 will be up for auction on june, 11th at auctioneer Bonhams in London (LOT 357).

Aside the flat brass dial and the corresponding flat bezel it is bearing typical features of watches of the Reference 3646 / Type D. The original plexiglas and the winding crown have been replaced. Typical feature of the brass dial is the closed 6 and 9 digit because the numbers and markers are embossed into the brass dial and not engraved into the dial (like the sandwich dials from Panerai are made).

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer” (painted brass, anonymous)
Case number: 260739
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

Auctioneer Bonhams features the following provenance under this LOT:  Provenance: This watch was given to the current vendor’s father by a German prisoner of war in Italy in 1944, while serving in the Royal Engineers bomb disposal unit.

It underlines our theory that in the future such watches will surface in allied countries which fought against german and italian forces in the 2nd world war. Ownership changed quite often and watches were sought after pieces for allied servicemen. From interviews we took with veterans, this has been confirmed several times (read also “History1”, Chapter III, page 207, which features a simliar Ref. 3646 / Type D watch with brass dial).

Special thanks to Mike Wood for providing additional info on this watch for our database. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

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