A very interesting 3646 / Type D watch will be auctioned at Auktionen Dr. H. Crott on their 85th auction on may 12th, 2012. Further details of the auction and this LOT will be published at their website soon.

The watch is matching in all details with our database. The caseback bears a rare engraving (“Marine Kampf-Schwimmer 1945″) with the initials “BD” of the german frogmen.

Similar watches can be found in chapter I.IV of our book “Vintage Panerai – The References”. We hope it will find a good new home!

Features of the watch:
Reference: 3646 / Type D
Dial: “Kampfschwimmer”  (sandwich, engraved)
Case number: 260437
Movement: Rolex Cal. 618 / Type 1

[Photo courtesy of Auktionen Dr. H. Crott / S. Pflaesterer]

Four men, four watches, fourhundredandfourteen pages of history – so far… The translation process from our german core text into italian and english language has been started and will be embedded into the layout of the first volume “history1″ in february.

After months of construction, the chapters’ pages will be filled up with complete content in all three languages very soon… Meanwhile there are more than 200 historic photos which need some kind of a “cure” to appear nice…

Further details will be published soon. Thanks for being patient.
[Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

The text of the four chapters are ready for translation. By completing the last watch description of our new book we crossed the 400 page mark.

Further details will be published soon. Thanks for being patient.
[Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

Returned home from my visit at the SIHH in Geneve yesterday. It was great to see that Panerai continue to use their DNA in the new collection.

My personal highlight was “the return of the 8 mm crown” (PAM 399) on a Luminor case, which was only produced with the legendary crown protecting device in modern Panerai watches since 1993. This type of crowns have been used on vintage Panerai watches of the references 6152, 6154 and 6152/1 (Rolex 8 mm Brevet crown). You can find more info in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” in chapter VI.III on page 325.

Features of the watch:
Reference: PAM399
Case: 47mm AISI 316L polished steel
Movement: Hand-wound mechanical,exclusive Panerai OP XXVII calibre, base Minerva 16-17
Functions: hours, minutes, small seconds
Water resistance: 30 metres
Crystal: Plexiglas 3.0 mm
Back: See-through sapphire crystal

You can find a detailled overview of the 2012 models at www.paneristi.com, also at www.panerai.com

As a vintage Panerai enthusiast, it was a big pleasure for me to see the famous “74″ Ref. 6152/1 watch with Angelus movement and single pencil hands on display at the Panerai booth! Panerai showed a couple of special and rare watches, also the PAM203 with vintage Angelus movement (a special edition model of the year 2005).

Interesting interview at Luxury Inside, asias leading online luxury magazine.

A late version of a 16 meter depth gauge made by Panerai. The diameter of the case is 70 mm with a height of 45 mm. The lower part of the case is made of black plastic, the upper part is made of black rubber.

A few weeks ago I visited a german “Kampfschwimmer” veteran for an interview.

Mr. Kiefer, born 1925, welcomed me in good health, clear mind and answered some of the remaining questions to finish “his” chapter in our next book. Luckily he found some photos from that period of his life, which will be a great addition. On the photo above he is holding a framed portrait of himself when he was 18 years old – taken just a few days before he joined the german navy.

His story and Ref. 3646 / Type D watch - “The Kiefer Radiomir” were already featured in our first book back in 2007, also in our book “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History” and will be in our next history book again.

During the last 15 months of research and editorial work, this was definately one of my personal highlights. First hand informations, directly from the unit, is something that happens not often in these days – more than 67 years ago… [Volker Wiegmann]

Short update on our book “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History”: Actually we are about to complete the editorial work on the new, 2nd edition with extended content. Next steps will be the translations into italian and english languages and new photos of all the vintage watches inside. The 2nd edition of “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History” will have the same size than our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” (26 cm) and more than 360 pages (1st edition from 2007 was 21 cm at 228 pages). After we realized that the content of all historic chapters would cross the 700 pages (wouldn’t be a comfy read anymore), we decided to publish two volumes of our history related book, starting in 2012 with the first four chapters in the first volume to be called “history1″.

Related to watches only, our book “Vintage Panerai – The References” will remain as the right choice, which is still available and in stock.
Further details will be published soon. Thanks for being patient.

Best wishes for the new year!
[Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]

Seasons greetings from Germany!
[Ralf Ehlers & Volker Wiegmann]