Artcurial will auction a rare GPF 2/56 “Egiziano Grosso” with “Radiomir Panerai” dial during their “Panerai only” auction in cooperation with Officine Panerai. The auction with the title “Celebration of a watchmaking legend” will take progress in Paris on december, 8th.

This particular “Egiziano Grosso” bears the matriculation number 007 on the inside of the caseback, which is screwed onto the body by six screws. The “engine” of this watch with a case size of 60 mm and rotating bezel, the famous Angelus Cal. SF 240 eight-days-movement, is equipped with the Incastar shock protection. The Angelus movement can be clearly identified on the face of the huge watch by its small second function with a subdial at 9 o’clock. Hour and minute hand are shaped in the “single pencil” style, which is also typical for Vintage Panerai watches with Angelus movement.

The sandwich dial bears the “8 GIORNI BREVETTATO” symbol on the right side at 3 o’clock. This engraved symbol is an unique feature in the range of Vintage Panerai watches, and can be found only in this particular reference, which was produced by Officine Panerai for the Egyptian Navy.

Features of the watch:
Reference: GPF 2/56
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai” (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 007
Movement: Angelus Cal. 240 SF (8 days)

About Artcurial – Founded in 2002, Artcurial confirmed its position as the leading French auction house in 2013 with 123 sales organized across 20 specialist departments. With a strong international bias, Artcurial maintains its presence abroad with offices in Milan and Brussels, and travelling exhibitions in the United States and Asia.

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.artcurial.com]

Spot on “Red Radiomir”! Only a few watches have been aged in the way that the black color of the dial faded to grey and the luminous “Radiomir” of the four numbers 3, 6, 9 and 12, as well as the eight 5-minutes-markers turned into a deep and intensive red color. More info on this amazing 3646 / Type C watch has been published earlier  and back in 2010.

A similar watch with dark red aged “Radiomir Panerai” dial is featured in our book “History1” in chapter I.

Additional photos reached us “just in time” before the auction at Christie’s in New York is about to start (December 17th). They have a Ref. 3646 / Type C “Radiomir Panerai” in their  Important Watches auction (LOT343). We have published information on this watch also earlier here.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 1010091

The provided photos from Christie’s give us a good impression about the details of the watch: the structure of the sandwich dial, the patina on hands, markers and on the blued steel hands, “grown” in the past years, as well as the stunning decorations of the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement with its typical features.

The intensive shine of the rubis in the light of the surrounding express a colorful appearance of the Rolex movement inside this Vintage Panerai Ref. 3646 / Type C watch.

Of course the rare engraving on the caseback is another feature worth to point out: the matriculation number of the italian Decima Flottiglia MAS – short “Xa FLOTMAS No. 048″. On the inner caseback, the typical engravings of our 3646 / Type C database criteria can be found. An overview of the different caseback markings in Ref. 3646 watches can be found here: Type A-C and Type D-G.

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 New York has a Ref. 3646 / Type C “Radiomir Panerai” in their Important Watches auction (LOT 343) on december 17th, 2013. The watch is recorded in our database since 2006.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 1010091

Inside the watch works the typical Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement. The inner caseback engravings, in combination with the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement, are matching our database criteria.

The outer caseback of the watch is engraved with a matriculation number of the italian Decima Flottiglia MAS – short “Xa FLOTMAS No. 048”. A similar 3646 / Type C watch (“Xa FLOTMAS No. 040”) has been published here.

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]

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.

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”.

We have added another unknown watch into our database – yet another piece of the puzzle surfaced. The “Radiomir Panerai” watch with the case number 1010119 will be up for auction in june, bearing typical features of watches of the Reference 3646 / Type C.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type C
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 1010119
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

This Vintage Panerai Ref. 3646 / Type C watch appears to be one with a “dark red” Panerai dial, which changed the color of the luminous “Radiomir” over decades during its aging process. It comes with an original leather strap and buckle, which is very hard to find in these days.

Further info and photos of the watch can be found on the auctioneer’s website (Auctionata, Berlin/Germany).

Close look at a “Radiomir Panerai” dial of a Vintage Panerai Ref. 6152 watch. The surface of the sandwich dial with the milled letters is showing pure Panerai DNA above the double pencil hands.

This dial version, using the famous “Radiomir” luminous material, can be found across all Vintage Panerai References: 3646, 6152, 6154, 6152/1 and GPF 2/56 and also in the prototype of the “Mare Nostrum” chronograph. The self-iluminating substance “Radiomir” was patented by Guido Panerai already in 1915, which enabled the use of instruments even in complete darkness.

During the last visit at auctioneer Dr. Crott in Mannheim, another very rare Vintage Panerai watch was available for a detailed expertise: A yet unknown Ref. 6152 with “Radiomir Panerai” dial and Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2 movement.

The watch surfaced in Italy and will be auctioned in may during the 87th auction on saturday 11th. The watch comes with original strap and GPF-buckle (without engraving).

Always a special moment when such a rare watch can be seen with own eyes. The extraordinary design elements of the 47 mm case with the “crown pit” and the “edged cushion” are outstanding, just mentioning two of the 6152 features which makes it different to watches of the references 6154 and 6152/1.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 6152
Dial: “Radiomir Panerai” (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 958697
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2

Most interesting about this watch is the fact, that it is building a second number group together with watch number 958713, which surfaced in 2010.

Aside the Reference 6154, which was produced for the Egyptian Navy, the Reference 6152 can be called as the rarest Vintage Panerai model. Only ten watches are known until today, which are divided into two number groups: 956632 to 956643 and 958697 to 958713.

Hopefully in the future some gaps inside these two small number groups can be closed with other surfacing watches of this reference…!

The combination of 6152 case and 6152/1 caseback isnt an individual issue – until today only two 6152 watches are known with “matching” 6152 casebacks. The 6152/1 caseback which comes with this watch, bears the engraving S.M.Z M.M. 170.

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]

Another visit at auctioneer Dr. Crott brought us another new database entry for the Reference 3646 / Type B. The yet unknown watch with the case number 1009992 will be up for auction in may, bearing the typical features of watches of the number group 1009925 – 1010024, representing the Reference 3646 / Type B.

Until today we have recorded only 13 existing specimen of this type of 3646 watches in our database, which is one of the smaller groups inbetween known watches of Type A to Type G.

The small Oyster stamp on the inner caseback is one feature aside the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement with 17 Jewels and no Incabloc shock protection. Typical for this type of movement is the “ROLEX 17 RUBIS” engraving on the center bridge. As usual on movement used in watches of the Reference 3646, the balance cock bears the S-F / A-R regulation device.

The watch comes with the high version of the bezel, neccessary on watches with sandwich dials from Panerai. The bezel carries a domed Plexiglas, which is today in very good condition. The “neck” of the cushion shaped stainless steel case is still existing, on which an onion shaped “Brevet +” crown (Type 11) is screwed on.

The case has not been polished and appears with a nice patina on case, bezel and caseback. Also the watch comes with an old leather strap with a big “belt style” buckle, which we have seen on some other Ref. 3646 watches before.

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]