To follow up the ceremonies on Emilio Bianchi’s 100th birthday, Piero Lapiana has provided some news from Italy:

Local news from Viareggio 
Official website of the Marina Militare.

We send our birthday greetings to Torre del Lago in Tuscany: Emilio Bianchi turns 100 years (!) on monday, october 22nd 2012. He is the last living member of the “fab six” SLC commandos, who took part at the mission “G.A. 3” in December 1941, soon to be 71 years ago… For being co-pilot of Luigi Durand de La Penne’s SLC221 against the “HMS Valiant” in the harbour of Alexandria / Egypt, Emilio Bianchi was awarded with the italian gold medal for gallantry at war (M.O.V.M.).

You can read about Emilio Bianchi in the book “Panerai Historia” by Giampiero Negretti (page 72-79). Also informations can be found in the book “I Mezzi d’Assalto della Xa Flottiglia MAS” by Marco Spertini / Erminio Bagnasco / Albertelli Editore (page 48-50). Emilio Bianchi is featured in the japanese “Panerai Style Book” by Begin, 2001.

[photo courtesy of Antonio Guccione / Officine Panerai, 1999]

Emilio Bianchi is also featured in the book “The Value of Time” on page 71 wearing a Luminor Marina at 4:25 p.m., being one of the “portraits of positiveness” aside other personalities choosen from arts, sport and professions.

In the past, Emilio took part on several meetings of the Club Panerai in Viareggio. The visit of the former training camp for SLC commandos during the 2nd world war, an old farm house at Bocca di Serchio, will remain unforgettable to Panerai enthusiasts who took part back in may 2005.

[photo: Emilio Bianchi with members of the Club Panerai meeting at Bocca di Serchio, 2005]

Piero Lapiana from Club Panerai in Viareggio informed us that the city of Sondalo, where Emilio was born, has announced a ceremony. Also the Commune di Viareggio, where Emilio resides, will have a ceremony on monday, 22nd.

A rare Ref. 6152/1 “Luminor Panerai” infront of the camera. Produced by Panerai for the italian state police divers (“Sommozzatori della Polizia di Stato”, founded in 1958). It bears a rare engraving on the backside of the case: “P.S. 02”.

Today other type of engravings on the casebacks of some few Vintage Panerai watches are known from the italian helmet divers (“S.M.Z.”) and combat swimmers of the Marina Militare (“M.M.”), aside italian police institutions as the Guardia di Finanza (“G.F.”) and Carabinieri (“C.C.”). Some examples for the italian fire brigades (“V.F.”) are known too.

It is interesting to see that Panerai has been a trustful supplier for different italian divers – military and also civil units.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 6152/1
Dial: “Luminor Panerai” (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 124816
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 4

In the upcoming 86th auction at Dr. Crott (november 10th, 2012) another Ref. 3646 watch will probably find a new owner. The other Vintage Panerai of the same auction, a Ref. 3646 / Type C watch has been introduced here already in june.

The watch is in our database since 2008. It bears the typical features of a Ref. 3646 / Type D: case number 260641, Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement and the anonymous “Kampfschwimmer” sandwich dial. Case, caseback and plexi are not polished and have a lot patina. The watch comes with the original onion shaped crown. Due to the strong corrosion of the steel hands (visible on the original minute hand), the hour hand must have been replaced with another type of hands (squelette), probably from a cockpit watch or desktop / alarm clock.

The new owner will have the choice to keep the watch as it is now or try to find a NOS steel hand, which is hard to find in these days – but not impossible… Interesting detail is also the old leather strap, which is sewn onto the wired loops: the buckle end is mounted at 6’o’clock – not as usually at 12’o’clock. Reason could be that the user / owner of this watch was a lefty.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 260641
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

A good and careful service is recommended to bring back the power into the watch. The movement shows dust and aged surfaces on bridges and wheels, which is typical for a watch that hasn’t been used for a long time. We know that this watch was on display in a german museum at the baltic sea (Rügen island).

Returned from a fantastic journey to the United Kingdom, where P-DAY#11 was celebrated in London. I’ve published a report in the public forum at www.paneristi.com.

Enjoy reading part 1 / part 2 and part 3.

The UK paneristi crew set up a fantastic weekend with great locations well organized. Congratulations! [Volker Wiegmann]

Recently we have added another yet unknown watch into our database.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 6152/1
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai” (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 12450X
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 4

You can read and see more about Ref. 6152/1 watches in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References”, chapter IV (page 203-255).

We got a sad note from an U.S. based paneristi that the following watches were stolen from his house:

PAM249 – serial OP6675BB1246772 number # 1698/1936
PAM360 – serial OP6812BB1413384 number # 62/300

We ask Panerai collectors to keep an eye open for these watches in case they show up somewhere for sale!  You can find further infos in the public forum @ paneristi.com

We lately got access to study further historic documents which were kept together with an interesting Ref. 3646 / Type C “Kampfschwimmer”.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer”  (sandwich, anonymous)
Case number: 1010351
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

The set – Panerai watch and documents from the first owner – including letters, photos, his Kriegsmarine pay book and rare decorations from WW2 and post-WW2-aera will hopefully find a good new home at Dr. Crott during their 86th auction on november 10th, 2012.

During the research on these documents we found further info on the missions which this german frogmen took part. These informations underlined locations and sites that were mentioned from other german veterans and are featured in our latest book “History1”, e.g. the quarters of the german combat swimmers in List on Sylt  (Training Commando 700 unit) which was known as “Weisskoppel”. All together, these documents and the Ref. 3646 / Type C watch will build one more interesting chapter in our future book “History2”.

Some time ago I had the chance for making this photo, in the middle the Ref. 3646 / Type C watch of our good friend. I had the chance for comparing the differences between Type C and Type D cases, bezels, casebacks – aside the different dial versions: engraved “Radiomir Panerai” and the “Kampfschwimmer” version. The younger companion on the right, the Ref. 6152/1 “Luminor Panerai” is making the line-up a big load of Panerai DNA at one spot. All three of them powered with the Rolex Cal. 618.

Captured the surface of the sandwich dial on a Ref. 3646 /  Type C Vintage Panerai watch.

The milled digits and indexes on the matte black aluminium dial with a diameter of 37 mm are two of the typical features that each Panerai watch bears – from the past until today. The reduced design of the dial – only 4 numbers and 8 indexes – represents the DNA of the Panerai brand on first sight. Even from a distance, a Panerai can be spotted easily because of its “clear” face…