Pretty nice weather conditions during the easter weekend in Germany… I just had to take out the “Arillo Luminor” Ref. 6152/1 and tried to catch nice lights and shadows on the dial…

Happy Easter!

A yet unknown Ref. 3646 / Type D “Kampfschwimmer” surfaced recently.

During a visit at the german navy divers in Eckernförde, Ralf was able to put another watch into our database. One more piece of the big puzzle is placed into its right place!

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer” (sandwich, anonymous)
Case number: 260518
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

The watch has the original strap fitted on, including the “bent down” crome coated brass buckle and bears a fantastic individual engraving on the solid caseback: “Marine-Kampfschwimmer 1945 – RD” (“RD” are the initials of the unit, which used the watch during his missions. The engravings are done in the same style (with the same tool) as other watches of this type have been “personalized”. The watch is matching our database perfectly, of which we published several identical watches in chapter I.IV of our book “The References”.

Its a big pleasure to see a “clean” Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 movement in this watch. It underlines our database theories as well. It bears the typical features of a Type 1 movement, beside the fact that no parts of this movement have been replaced or changed with others.

[photos by Ralf Ehlers]

The Ref. 3646 Panerai watch with the “HK” initials and “Einsatzgruppe Keller” caseback engraving is in our database since 2005.

The initial onion shaped winding crown has been replaced with a Rolex Oyster crown of a different type. Parts of the luminous material on the steel minute hand have been broken out by aging process. Both features are not illustrated in our graphics (left), but of course part of the database for identification use.

The watch comes with a completely documented history of its initial owner, a german “Kampfschwimmer” unit, which makes it a very interesting and collectible piece – a true “warbird”.

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer” (sandwich, anonymous)
Case number: 260630
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

Small – but interesting – differences can be found in the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2 movements used in vintage Ref. 6152 Panerai watches: the bridges received different engravings, being technically the same (15 Rubis, no incabloc shock protection). Note the different position of ROLEX and 15 RUBIS!

For a better understanding, the differences are colored:
Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2 = pink
Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2 mod. = yellow.

Such differences in engraving the bridges are similar to the Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1 and Type 1 mod. movements, which were used in Ref. 3646 Panerai watches. We have published these differences in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References”, in the chronological classification (page 12-29), and also illustrated in chapter I.VII (page 149).

Referring to our earlier posting about the different Rolex movements in vintage Panerai watches, the characteristic features of the Type 2 movement (used in Ref. 6152 watches) are:

15 Rubis, no Incabloc shock protection
(balance cock engraved with a “plus-minus scale”)
16 Lines, power reserve approx. 36 hours.
18.000 half-oscillations per hour.

As just recently another rare Ref. 6152 watch surfaced, we know that there exist different engravings on the bridges. In the graphic here you can see the first discovered version with “ROLEX” and “15 RUBIS” engraved on the center bridge (see chapter II, page 180 in our book “Vintage Panerai – The References”). The other today known engraving version is shown here (Beside the differences in the engravings, the characteristic features of both movements are the same).

You can read and see more about the different versions of Rolex Cal. 618 movements in Panerai watches in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References”.

In the mood for another DNA photo, I placed the 6152/1 onto the GPF 1/58.

Meanwhile, two new entries in our database arrived: Both Ref. 6152/1 watches with Rolex movement, yet undiscovered. Our database grows… more to discover in the future!

Latest addition in my vintage collection, arrived from Italy: a storage box for a “Luminor Panerai” dial – the dial version for watches with Rolex movements (without small second hand).

Our collector friend Hagen contacted us with his latest entry in his collection: A stunning Ref. 6152 watch!

Not that the Ref. 6152 is one of the rarest references Panerai ever produced – the case number of the watch is a real sensation: 958713! It opens another, yet undiscovered number group in our database. Until today we had a number group with 6 known watches between 956632 and 956643. We hope to find other Ref. 6152 watches in the future, which have a number close to Hagen’s 958713, so that we can estimate the 2nd number group’s size.

Interesting to see the movement: not a surprise to us, it comes with a Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 2 movement, similar to the other 6152 watches we have in our database: 15 Rubis without Incabloc shock protection. The area around the crown shows the “gap” which is typical for the 6152 case.

The unpolished case confirms the fact, that also the Ref. 6152 watches have the reference and case number between the lugs. Until april 2009 this was not discovered! I had the chance to take a very close look at the Ref. 6152 watch number 956636 in summer 2010 and to my surprise I found these markings which we did not see before… we knew this watch already for years but nobody noticed it, as the watch was polished, which took away the appearance of these markings.

The reference number “6152” is placed between the lugs at 12’o’clock and the case number “958713” is placed between the lugs at 6’o’clock, both stamped under the case’s slope. The “double pencil” hands with “sharp pins” hold the original luminous material above a “Radiomir Panerai” dial with a wonderful patina.

What a great find!

It’s simple. It’s clean. It’s perfect. The Panerai DNA is still striking after 60+ years…! The photo shows a Ref. 3646 / Type G watch with Oyster crown and the typical flat bezel (1944).

Read more about the “California Dial” watches – the DNA of Panerai – in both of our books.  [Volker Wiegmann]

Since January 1st, 2010 we have received more than 40 new entries in our database, spread over all references. Most of the new entries are in the reference 6152/1.

Very interesting for our research is a “group” of three Ref. 6152/1 watches in a row: 124805, 124806 and 124807.

The first two watches have both “Luminor Panerai” dials. Watch 124805 has a crown protecting device signed “10”, while its “brother watch” 124806 has the crown protecting device signed “9”. It will be interesting to compare these two watches with close lower numbers to see if they have crown protecting devices signed with matching numbers (between “1” and “8”) to them.

All three watches come with the –  typical for this reference – Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 4 movement (17 Rubis + Incabloc shock protection) which is one of the main features of Ref. 6152/1 watches with Rolex movements.

Both watches with “Luminor Panerai” dials have the “double pencil” hands, but they are not 100% identical: watch 124806 has the “sharp pin” versions, watch 124805 has the “dull pin” versions. Both watches, 124805 and 124806, have no matriculation number engraved on the caseback.

Watch 124807 comes with a “Marina Militare” dial and so it could be part of a different order, in case that the Italian Navy ordered watches with identical dial inscriptions from Panerai. This question can be answered in the future when we have found more watches which have close case numbers to these three here. 

Watch 124807 has the crown protecting device signed “7” and the “BREV. ITAL.” trademark inscriptions. The caseback of this watch bears a matriculation number: “M.M. 005”. It holds also the “double pencil” hands with “sharp pins”.

You can find more information about Ref. 6152/1 watches in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” in chapter IV, pages 202-255.