Rare find by a friend of us: new old stock spare strap for Panerai instruments like compasses or depth gauges, used by the italian navy as replacement. Typical for this kind of straps are the huge brass buckles, of which plain and numbered versions exist.

“Seven in one strike” – a collection of different Officine Panerai depth gauges, gray coated 70×90 mm cases.

7 meters (Radiomir)
15 meters (Luminor)
30 meters (Radiomir)
35 meters (Radiomir)
40 meters (Luminor)
50 meters (Radiomir)
60 meters (Radiomir)

[photo by Ralf Ehlers]

Tried to catch some details of a depth gauge’s meter hand today. The “Luminor” elements (markers and numbers on the dial, tip of the hand) still glow in a strong green color when under influence of direct light – quite impressive for a tool of this age and very different to the instruments with “Radiomir” elements.

The shown depth gauge is calibrated to 16 meters. There exist many other versions for various dephts, depending on their use (attack or defense).

More informations about this Panerai instrument can be found in chapter III of our 1st book “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History”.

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.

One of the unreleased photos from our 2nd shooting in 2009, showing two Luminor Trittico sets. Similar photos have been used for the first and last inside pages of our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” in darkness and daylight conditions. 

Two Luminor compasses, two Luminor depth gauges (15 and 16 meters), a 6152/1 “Luminor Panerai” watch with Rolex Type 4 movement (cal. 618 Cortebert, 17 Rubis, Incabloc shock protection) and a 6152/1 “Luminor Panerai” watch with Angelus 240 SF movement (signed june 1961, 15 Rubis, Incabloc shock protection).

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.

Set of Panerai instruments: A rare 50 meter depth gauge with a brown aged Radiomir dial (case: 70×90 mm, height: 43 mm), Panerai underwater torch (lenght: 163 mm, rubber body: caliber 31 mm back / 61 mm lens, signed “Officine Panerai Brevettato”) and Luminor compass (case: 70×90 mm, height: 34 mm).

Photo credits to Assaf Burstein from Israel