Close view on the movement of a Ref. 3646 / Type D. Used in Ref. 3646 watches from Type A to Type G, the Rolex Cal. 618 movement comes without Incabloc shock protection. Typical for the non-incabloc version is the serif font for the letters A-R (French) and F-S (English) engraved on the regulation device (later versions show “+/-” symbols – see also a comparing between Type 1 and Type 4 movements).

You can find more information about Rolex movements used in Vintage Panerai watches in our books “History1” and “History2”.

Close look at the “Luminor Panerai” dial of a Ref. 6152/1 watch. The surface of the sandwich dial with the milled and white painted letters is showing pure Panerai DNA above the double pencil hands.

This Vintage Panerai watch is featured in our book “History1″. You can read more about its first owner Mario Arillo in chapter IV, page 227-391.

Opened Ref. 6152/1 with solid caseback and dust lid – the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 4 movement bears the typical markings for this type of Vintage Panerai watches. You can see an overview of the three different inner caseback markings of the “615ers” here.

This Vintage Panerai watch is featured in our book “History1″. You can read more about its first owner Mario Arillo in chapter IV, page 227-391.

Seasons greetings from Germany!
[Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

Today’s issue of the newspaper FAZ (“Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”) featured our book “History1” and “History2” in the column “Technology and Motor” about ideas on books as gifts for christmas. The FAZ is a newspaper with a daily run of more than 330.000 copies, available across Germany.

Journalist Martin Häußermann wrote a suitable overview on our two History books, in which we put the focus of our research on the very rare Vintage Panerai watches with documented history. It was a pleasure for us to read the review of an independent journalist on the core statements of our editorial work. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

Close view on an onion shaped “Brevet +” crown (Type 11) of a Ref. 3646 Vintage Panerai. The crown has a diameter of 7 mm and can be screwed down onto the tube which is surrounded by the typical “neck”shaped side of the 47 mm cushion shaped case of the Reference 3646.

More information about the different crown types used on Ref. 3646 watches can be found in our new book “History2″, in which two watches are featured using the Type 11 crown (“Brevet +”) aside two watches of which one is using a Type 12 replacement crown (“Rolex Oyster”) and one is using the well known tubular shaped Type 13 crown (“Oyster Patent +”). All three type of Rolex crowns have the same thread, matching the tube.

Additional photos reached us “just in time” before the auction at Christie’s in New York is about to start (December 17th). They have a Ref. 3646 / Type C “Radiomir Panerai” in their  Important Watches auction (LOT343). We have published information on this watch also earlier here.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 1010091

The provided photos from Christie’s give us a good impression about the details of the watch: the structure of the sandwich dial, the patina on hands, markers and on the blued steel hands, “grown” in the past years, as well as the stunning decorations of the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement with its typical features.

The intensive shine of the rubis in the light of the surrounding express a colorful appearance of the Rolex movement inside this Vintage Panerai Ref. 3646 / Type C watch.

Of course the rare engraving on the caseback is another feature worth to point out: the matriculation number of the italian Decima Flottiglia MAS – short “Xa FLOTMAS No. 048″. On the inner caseback, the typical engravings of our 3646 / Type C database criteria can be found. An overview of the different caseback markings in Ref. 3646 watches can be found here: Type A-C and Type D-G.

We hope the watch will find a good new home and that it remain surfaced in the Vintage Panerai collectors world. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

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

Almost nine months after we introduced here in our blog the Ref. 3646 / Type D watch when it surfaced in former Yugoslavia by the family of the 2nd owner, the new owner who auctioned the watch in may 2013 at Dr. Crott, contacted us to give us an update about its actual conditions.

The conditions of the watch before the auction and Information provided by the previous owner have been published earlier and can be compared here. Especially the untypical replacement dial from a VDO cockpit clock caught our attention earlier this year.

The fact that the watch changed ownership in former Yugoslavia confirmed our knowledge about italian and german frogmen units which were captured at the end of the 2nd world war in northern Italy. Just as some of the Panerai watches changed ownership with west allied forces (where they keep surfacing rarely in these days as well, see our introduction of another 3646 / Type D watch here) it has happened in eastern Europe too. In chapter VI of our book “History2” (page 630) a surviving veteran confirmed by his very own story, where the route of his long march into captivity ended: in a POW camp in Yugoslavia.

It is great to see that the new owners’ trusted watchmaker has been able to bring back shine and functionality to the movement, which is now again working with a power reserve of around 36 hours. The new owner named his watch “The Red Star” to reflect its long term use by a Senior Officer in the Yugoslavian Army after the 2nd world war.

The result of the watchmaker’s restoration work shows that it is possible to inhail life in a nearly 70 year old watch which surely did not caught all neccessary services in the past decades. Also it is nice that the patina on the case still exist and the case appears not polished by demand of the new owner to keep the age of the watch visible. The restoration work included the replacing of the VDO dial with a flat dial reconstruction (with closed “6” and “9” digits) matching with the flat bezel, the cleaning of the hands and installing of a new seal and crown tube.

Thanks to the new owner for the update on his Ref. 3646 / Type D aka “The Red Star”
[Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

Additional photos reached us “just in time” before the auction at Bonhams Auction House in London is about to start (December 4th). They have a Ref. 3646 / Type D “Kampfschwimmer” in their Fine Watches & Wristwatches auction (LOT273). We published information on this watch earlier here.

Interesting to be able to see the inner caseback. The surface of the inner caseback is completely decorated. More Information about the different finishings on inner casebacks of 3646 watches can befound in our book “History1” (page 166-167) and in our book “History2” (page 546-547). The Rolex engravings, in combination with the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement (see photo below), are matching our database criteria for a Ref. 3646 / Type D.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer” (sandwich, anonymous)
Case number: 260505
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

We hope the watch will find a good new home and that it remain surfaced in the Vintage Panerai collectors world. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

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

Opened Ref. 6152/1 with solid caseback – bearing the typical markings for this type of Vintage Panerai watches.

You can see an overview of the three different inner caseback markings of the “615ers” here.