Fortunately I was able to follow Dr. Crott’s 86th auction in the “Skyloft” at the Sheraton hotel in Frankfurt. Both “Kampfschwimmer” watches, LOT 16 (Ref. 3646 / Type C) and LOT 17 (Ref. 3646 / Type D) have been successfully auctioned and found new owners.

The bidder (and new owner) of  the Ref. 3646 / Type C watch was present in the audience, the new owner of the Ref. 3646 / Type D watch was a telephone bidder from Asia. After the auction of both Vintage Panerai watches I was able to meet a german paneristi which I knew before only from his nickname in the public forum at paneristi.com. It’s always nice to put a face behind a nickname…!

It will be interesting to follow the traces of both watches in the future… congratulations to the new owners! [Volker Wiegmann]

November will be interesting to follow the auction at Frankfurt’s Hotel Sheraton (saturday, november 10th), where two Ref. 3646 watches will be up for sale. German auctioneer Dr. Crott will have their 86th auction with more than 500 lots, including a Ref. 3646 / Type C watch and a Ref. 3646 / Type D watch. 

We hope they find a good new home and that they remain surfaced in the Vintage Panerai collectors world. The Ref. 3646 / Type C watch and it’s history will be featured in one of the chapters of our new book “History2” (available in 2013).

Another Ref. 3646 / Type D watch will be on auction in november: A “Kampfschwimmer” – 260563 – will be auctioned at Sotheby’s during their Important Watches auction in Geneva, november 13th.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 260563
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

The watch is listed in our database since february 2010. It is one of more than 50 watches within the Ref. 3646 / Type D number group. You can read and see more about the different versions of Ref. 3646 watches in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References”. In specific, watches of the Ref. 3646 / Type D are introduced in chapter I.IV (page 84 to 121)

We hope that also this watch will find a good new home and remains surfaced in the Vintage Panerai collectors world.

[photo courtesy of Sotheby’s / G. Ader]

“Chronos”, one of the biggest german watch magazines, has published a nice report in the column “Sammlerträume” (“Collectors’ dreams”) of their november/december issue 6-2012. Get yourself now a copy at the newspaper stores across europe!

It features the Vintage Panerai Ref. 3646 / Type D  “Kampfschwimmer” watch that has been auctioned in may 2012. Read also our recently posted information about this watch – pre-auction – movement – dial – caseback – post-auction – its nice to see that this watch got some attention in the news now, and also that it found a good new home! [Volker Wiegmann]

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).

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”.

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…

Captured the blue color of the steel hands on Ref. 3646 watches. Always an amazing detail on these watches: the matte black sandwich dial, the aged luminous material in a color range from honey-like orange to a deep red.

These watches carry the DNA of Panerai in many details. Each of these rare watches aged individually. It is always interesting to see how different these watches passed nearly 70 years… and they are still keeping great time!

Features of the Ref. 3646 with “Kampfschwimmer” dial:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer” (sandwich, anonymous)
Case number: 260554
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

Features of the Ref. 3646 with “Radiomir Panerai” dial:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 1010244
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

You can find more information about Ref. 3646 watches in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” in chapter I, pages 31-159.

Recently I had the chance to take some photos of two Ref. 3646 watches. The differences between Type C and Type D cases are always nice to point out, but the steel hands are striking eyecatchers on both of them. The blue color of the temperature-treated hands is coming well in a different ankle towards the light source, not easy to capture.

The Ref. 3646 / Type C appears to be one of the “dark red” dials which changed the color of the luminous “Radiomir” over decades. The Ref. 3646 / Type D marks a typical “Kampfschwimmer” watch with anonymous dial.

The casebacks of these watches bear the roots of their origin – both are individually engraved on the outer caseback. The Ref. 3646 / Type D watch has the personalized initials of the first owner and the unit he belonged to, engraved by hand. The Ref. 3646 / Type C watch bears the machine engraved name of the famous italian unit, which carried out underwater missions in the mediterranean sea – the Decima Flottiglia MAS – including its matriculation number.

We’ve been informed by a fellow collector about an ebay auction of a Ref. 3646 / Type C watch (case number 1010222). The watch is in our database since march 2007.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 1010222
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

Be careful in buying such watches at places like ebay (“buy the seller, not the watch!”)!