Christie’s has a Ref. 3646 / Type E “California Dial” in their next auction (LOT 219) in Geneva, november 11th. Great to see another surfaced watch matching the criteria of our database work.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type E
Dial: “California Dial”
Case number: 261078
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 mod.

Typical features of Ref. 3646 / Type E watches are the removed / not existing Rolex stamp in the inner caseback and the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 mod. movement. You can compare the different inner caseback engravings in Ref. 3646 watches here. Also the “California Dial” is corresponding with the flat bezel of the watch – a typical combination of dial version and bezel. A Panerai dial with its sandwich construction would need a higher bezel due to its height. You can read more about 3646 / Type E watches in our book “Vintage Panerai – The References”.

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]

The german watch portal www.watchtime.net featured the Vintage Panerai Ref. 6152/1 – “The Arillo Luminor”– with an overview about the details of the watch and the history behind its first owner, italian commander of the submarine “Ambra”, Mario Arillo (M.O.V.M.).

“The Arillo Luminor” is fully described in our book “History1″ in Chapter IV on 165 pages with 106 photos and 7 technical illustrations. Thanks to www.watchtime.net for putting a spotlight onto Panerai’s DNA. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

Christie’s has a Ref. 6152/1 “Marina Militare” in their next auction (LOT 290) in Geneva, november 11th. With ist case number 124516 it is one of the low case numbers in our records of todays existing 89 watches of this reference, reaching from 124495 to 124986.

The watch comes with 8 mm Rolex crown / without crown protecting device and typical “double pencil” shaped hands with “dull pins”. Inside the watch is working a Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 3 movement (15 Rubis + Incabloc shock protection). The inner caseback of the watch bears the typical Rolex marking of the refence 6152/1, on the outside of the caseback is the letter “D” engraved / stamped in the center.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 6152/1
Dial: “Marina Militare”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 124516
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 3

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]

Christie’s has a Ref. 3646 / Type D “Kampfschwimmer” in their next auction (LOT 337) in Geneva, november 11th. The watch was auctioned in 2011 at Christie’s and was introduced back then in our blog with an excerpt of our database.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer”  (sandwich, anonymous)
Case number: 260628
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]

In October 2013 I joined the paneristi.com Singapore GTG 2013. Fantastic days in Asia, meeting many old and new passionated Panerai collectors.

The four parts of my personal report can be found in the public forum at www.paneristi.com: part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4.

Yeu Huan from Singapore captured the moment when I surprised Hammer on the arriving thursday: The Biff Is Back. Jimmy captured that priceless moment as well. Enjoy reading! [Volker Wiegmann]

Close look onto the sandwich dial of a Vintage Panerai. The “Open Six” carries the DNA of the brand from the 1930s until today.

The milled numbers and markers of the sandwich dial construction aged different in many ways – some changed their colors in different intensity and got cracks in the luminous “Radiomir” substance during the past decades. The self-iluminating substance was patented by Guido Panerai in 1915, which enabled the use of instruments and watches made by Panerai even in complete darkness.

Different to the “Luminor” substance used in later produced watches and instruments, “Radiomir” does not react instantly under the impact of light anymore. To see how a “Luminor Panerai” dial glows under impact of intensive light, click here. Once the human eye has been in todal darkness for a couple of hours, the remaining glow of the “Radiomir” substance becomes visible. That said, the still existing radioactivity of the substance in the dial can be measured with a Geiger counter easily.

Great find! An interesting historic document has been provided to us as an additional proof of the authentic story in our new book “History2”. During the research for Chapter V on Jochen Burnus’ frogmen mission against the pontoon bridges across river Elbe in April 1945, we were able to localize a photo showing him, standing in the river Elbe after he was captured by american troops. Not enough that we were lucky to find a matching and impressive photo (published on page 490) as an addition to the informations the veteran gave us in an interview, a copy of a newspaper from may 1945 surfaced. The photo of Jochen Burnus (visibly beaten after he was interrogated before) was made to be published in american newsreel but until today it was not known in which specific newspaper this photo was ever published…

With the support of one of our image sources / local archives of the WW2 battle area, a copy of the newspaper has been forwarded to us. And in fact: the photo which is published in our book on page 490 was published in the Official Weekly Newspaper of the 83rd “Thunderbolt” Infantry Division. The story was published on may 12th, 1945 in no. 3 issue of the “83rd Thunderbolt” on page 2 with the headline “…Swimming Saboteur”. Very intersting to read the caption below the photo: “This man from Mars, guarded by T/5 Serafino Ferrante of the 234th Engineers, is one of the six suicide swimmers who attempted to blow up the Truman Bridge.” The caption underlines how extraordinary and untypical the appearance of a captured “Kampfschwimmer” in his diving suit was in the eye of the enemy.

Further information on the pontoon bridge across the river Elbe can be found on the same page of the newspaper. It gives us today an insight view how important these pontoon bridges have been back then:
“83rd Engineers set new record – Members of Co. A., 308th Combat Engineers believe they established a record of some sort in their recent ferrying operations on the Elbe river. After putting the 329th Infantry across the river in an assault crossing, three platoons constructed two infantry support rafts and a treadmay raft. These were in operation within an hour after the first wave through the dense smoke screen prepared by Division Arty and hit the eastern shore of the Elbe. In the 16 hours that followed, over 1.000 vehicles of all types were ferried across the swift current of the Elbe to the bridgehead, even before the first bridge was completed. After that, the ferries were used to relieve congestion resulting from the one-way traffic on the bridge and were reserved for potential emergencies. The intensive stream crossing exercises conducted on the Mass river in Holland paid rich dividends in this historic river crossing operation.”

A few days ago we forwarded a printed copy of the newspaper from 1945 to veteran Jochen Burnus, who was very surprised to see himself inside. Next to a copy of our book “History2”, which he received from Ralf Ehlers in june, the newspaper of the “83rd Thunderbolt” became another piece of memory and his personal history – alomst 70 years after the photo was taken at the river Elbe…

We are glad to announce that also our book “History2″ has been recorded in the Library of the Federal Archives of Germany. Visitors of the library in Koblenz can see and read our book (with the signature B I 318 -2-) there.

Aside further international archives (The National Archives of the United Kingdom, The Imperial War Museum in London, The Ufficio Storico della Marina Militare), the Federal Archives have been a helpful source for us during the research, in Chapter V, Chapter VI, Chapter VII and Chapter VIII. [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

View on the inner caseback of a Ref. 6154 “Egiziano Piccolo” – the unique and beautiful decorated Montres Rolex S.A. Symbol, different to the other references made for Panerai in the 1950s (6152, 6152/1).

You can find an overview on the differences in the inner caseback of the three references 6152, 6154 and 6152/1 here.

Our new book “History2″ is featured in the new “timegeeks” magazine on page 6, introducing new watch book releases (http://timegeeks.dk). Kristian Haagen, a passionated watch enthusiast and journalist, has provided us his latest magazine’s edition as pdf-file: September 2013.

Kristian “Bezelator” Haagen  is known in the watch world as a long-term member of the paneristi.com forum since september 2000. He  received the 2003 and 2004 “asshat award” and his unforgettable “corkscrew treatment” will remain as one of the most attended performances ever made by a paneristi.com member.

Thanks for giving our new book “History2” a spotlight in your Magazine, Kristian! [Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]