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]

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]

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”.

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!