Phillips will feature a Ref. 3646 / Type D in their Geneva Watch Auction: SEVEN, which will be held on Sunday, 13 May 2018 (session two). By its inner and outer details it is representing a typical “Kampfschwimmer” watch with anonymous sandwich dial, onion shaped “Brevet +” crown (Type 11) and Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement. Read more about lot 213 here at Phillips.

The watch has been one of our first database entries back in 2003. Because of the limited available information back then, it was an incomplete record in our database (no photos of the movement were available, the movement was described by text only). The watch was auctioned at Christies as lot 9 of the “Ravenborg Collection of Rolex Watches” (London, 30 September 1997).

In late 2017 – a good fourteen years later since we added the watch into our database – we received several photos of the watch to finally complete our database entry of this Ref. 3646 / Type D. It is noteworthy that in the printed auction catalogue from 1997 the watch can be seen having a Rolex crown “printed” on the dial below 12 o’clock as well as a big Rolex crown instead the now present onion shaped “Brevet +” crown fitted on the cushion shaped case.

Update 7 May, 2018: Phillips informed us that the consignor of the watch found the original dial and big Rolex crown (like the watch was known by the 1997 catalogue) which will accompany the current lot.

Watches of the Reference 3646 / Type D are featured in our book “The References” 1930’s-1940’s in chapter II.IV (page 398-531).

We hope that this Ref. 3646 / Type D will find a good new home and remains surfaced in the Vintage Panerai collectors world. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

[Photos with kindly permission / courtesy of www.phillips.com]