All historic photos have been optimized for print production. Next step is the color proof to finish some last details. We try to keep the natural “patina” on the photos of which a few are more than 70 years old. Paper photos have been aged very differently, sepia colors fading from yellow to light orange or green. Nearly all digital photos and maps wich we found at foreign or national archives are available only in grayscale but most of the photos from private sources have been scanned in color to preserve their age. So beside the vintage watches in this book, many photos show patina too…!

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

After many months of editorial work, our network of native speakers has started to read the translations for a cross check. The desktop has become overloaded with drafts, samples, corrections and and and… excitement grows!

In the meantime all the photos are getting optimized for print production. Quite some work, speaking of more than 250 photos (most of them historic photos with heaps of “patina”) and 30 illustrations to be prepared to appear as best as possible in the book. 

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

Our new book “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History” / “history1″ will have 420 pages in total. The number of pages has been increased by a few last additions which we did not want to leave out. The translation process is running well and we have received the first chapter in italian and english language which has been layouted aside the german text - our new book will be “trilingual” (same like we published the other two books before), which means german, italian and english in one and the same book.

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

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]

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]