Ralf captured the wonderfully aged brown “Radiomir Panerai” dial of this Ref. 6154 “Egiziano Piccolo” (small Egiziano). Faded Colors and cracked luminous markers and numbers are giving this watch a very Special appearance and unique look. In its flat 47 mm stainless steel case, it is today one of the rarest Vintage Panerai watches. The reference 6154 was produced for the Egyptian Navy in 1954 in very small numbers – until today only a few watches surfaced into the Vintage Panerai world.

Compared with the references 6152 and 6152/1, the 6154 is even more elegant and almost “streamlined” which gives it a special nickname in the Vintage Panerai world: “the Maserati amongst Ferraris”.

Ralf captured his stunning Ref. 6154 “Egiziano Piccolo” in a bright afternoon sun last summer. Today I stumbled over another photo of those which he sent me for use in our blog – the view from the side shows the unique  flat 47 mm case  and the wonderful dial.

Without a doubt this reference is one of the greatest watches produced by Panerai. It was produced for the Egyptian Navy in 1954. The brown aged “Radiomir Panerai” dial and the 8 mm Rolex crown gives it an striking appearance.

You can find a photo of the inner caseback with the special Rolex decoration here.

A very rare Vintage Panerai watch will be up for auction at Christie’s on december, 14th in New York, Rockefeller Plaza: LOT 268, a very rare Ref. 6154 “Small Egiziano” aka “Egiziano Piccolo”. The watch is part of Sale 2610 Important Watches. 

Since our book “The Reference” was published in 2009, only a few more pieces of this famous reference surfaced and were added into our database, which makes it one of the rarest Vintage Panerai models today. It appears as one of the Ref. 6154 watches which have been supplied with a Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2 movement, aside the other half of the today existing watches of this reference is supplied with Cal. 618 / Type 1 / Type 1 mod. movements.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 6154
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 997603
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2

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

[Photos with kindly permission of Christie’s · courtesy of E. Catenazzi / www.christies.com]

The references produced in the 1950’s and 1960’s show clearly differences in caseback markings. Beside the different shapes of center cases and lugs between 6152, 6154 and 6152/1, different Rolex markings are visible when caseback removed.

The illustration shows the following caseback versions:
Ref. 6152 Rolex (with case number)
Ref. 6154 Montres Rolex S.A. (with case number)
Ref. 6152/1 Montres Rolex S.A. (without case number)

You can read and see more about the different versions of Ref. 615X watches in our book “The References”.

The Panerai Ref. 6154 “Egiziano Piccolo” in good company: compasses, depth gauges and it’s “big brother” GPF 2/56 “Egiziano Grosso” in the background.

Even with an impressive case size of 47 millimeters, the Ref. 6154 watch looks pretty small compared to the instruments around, which have a case size of 70 x 90 mm.

A set of vintage Panerai instruments – the so called “Trittico”

Left: depth gauge (30 meters)
“Radiomir Panerai” dial, coated 70 mm case.
Center: watch (Ref. 6154)
“Egiziano Piccolo” with “Radiomir Panerai” dial, 47 mm case.
Rigth: compass
Dial divided into 22.5° sections, coated 70 mm case.