One of the unreleased photos from our 2nd shooting in 2009, showing two Luminor Trittico sets. Similar photos have been used for the first and last inside pages of our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” in darkness and daylight conditions. 

Two Luminor compasses, two Luminor depth gauges (15 and 16 meters), a 6152/1 “Luminor Panerai” watch with Rolex Type 4 movement (cal. 618 Cortebert, 17 Rubis, Incabloc shock protection) and a 6152/1 “Luminor Panerai” watch with Angelus 240 SF movement (signed june 1961, 15 Rubis, Incabloc shock protection).

Two rare combat knifes used by italian and german units in the 2nd world war, placed on an original newspaper dated november 1944.

The photo shows a group of german “Kampfschwimmer” units winding their Panerai watches. This type of knife is visible on the right unit’s belt, fixed by a carabiner.

You can read more about combat swimmer’s equipment in our first book “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History”, chapter III.

A fellow collector has provided detailled information of his ref. 6152/1 with Angelus movement for our database.

The Angelus movement is signed JUIN 61, which is matching our files perfectly. It comes with a very rare dial version: as most of the known 6152/1 Angelus watches have a “Luminor Panerai” dial, the dial of this watch is engraved “Marina Militare”.

The massive Rolex caseback bears matriculation numbers of the italian navy. Together with this caseback, there is also a 2nd display caseback, signed “Officine Panerai Brevettato”.

To keep the owners privacy, we don’t publish the complete case number, which we keep confidential in our database. You can read more about this type of vintage Panerai watches in our 2nd book “Vintage Panerai – The References” (chapter VI.III).

Some details of vintage Panerai watches have received a nickname or title by collectors. Sometimes a description of a Panerai watch can hold confusing elements (nicknames), which sounds even funny.

A good example are the different shape of hands used in 6152/1 watches: they are named “single pencil” or “double pencil” hands. In the illustration you can find two different shapes of both kind of hands. Differences are visible in small details (width, lenght, shape of heads).

The “single pencil” shape of hands can be found often in watches with Angelus movements (illustration 1st row – short and long version). There exist various versions of these hands made of brass. The “double pencil” shape is typical for 6152/1 watches with Rolex movements. Some appear with very “sharp” heads (2nd row, right) if compared with the regular head shape (illustration 2nd row, left).

It was early 2007 when I was contacted by my friend Fabio Castellani from Italy. He was looking to find a new home for the 6152/1 watch, which he got years ago from Mario Arillo, high decorated veteran of the Xa MAS and commander of the submarine “Ambra”. It was one of these moments in life, which rarely happen and which will remain as something very special and unforgettable. The agreement was found in a few e-mails and soon later I became the third owner of this incredible watch.

Soon later, still thrilled everytime I was looking at it, the idea of writing a book about this watch was born. It came not just with it’s original box – it came with a long history. I remembered the story of it’s first owner Mario Arillo, which I read many times in books before. It was the perfect match to some vintage Panerai watches owned by my friend Ralf, who also had the idea in mind about writing down the rich history that came along with his watches. The book project “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History” was born – let’s do it!

In june 2007 I came across a black-and-white copy of a photo showing Mario Arillo, receiving the gold medal for bravery – the “Medaglia d’Oro al Valore Militare” (M.O.V.M.) by Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III, june 10 1943. Fabio Castellani gave me this photo with the note that the original is in property of Arillo’s family… “now that would be a photo to have in the book!” was my initial thought. I emailed Fabio, telling him about my book idea and that I would need the original photo to publish it in good quality – a black-white copy would not be enough to use… Soon later he provided the address of the family. I wrote a little letter, introducing myself, my book project and that I am the owner of their father’s Panerai watch. Honestly, I expected nothing but received more than I could hope. How would you react if a strange person would tell you such a story? To my surprise and excitement, a few weeks later a padded envelope arrived in my mailbox. From Italy – from Arillo’s family! After opening carefully – still get goose skin when thinking back to this moment – I found the original photo from 1943. I was speechless!

Happy like a kid on christmas eve, I put the photo into my scanner and digitalized it to use in my growing book project. Jackpot! A few days later I returned the original photo as promised, well protected and extra safety, together with some sweets and a letter which expressed my happiness and thanks that the Arillo family trusted me – a yet unknown person from Germany – in sending me a family treasure, which this photo surely was…

I went ahead in writing the book and soon later I got again an envelope from Arillo’s family…? I was one more time surprised. The original photo came to me again, but now with a hand written dedication on the backside - from Arillo’s daughter: “to my friend Volker, in memory of my father Mario Arillo M.O.V.M.”. I was speechless again!

After the book was finished in october 2007, it was my pleasure to send her a copy of the book which holds the photo of her father. We continued to exchange letters and in summer 2008 during the VIII Club Panerai Meeting we met in person for the first time. Very exciting moments to remember, which are beyond collecting watches for me. When I got the watch more than one year before, I never thought that one day I would have the chance to meet the children and grand children of Mario Arillo.

The typical description for a collectors’ watch “comes with box and papers” has a very special meaning for me. The photo on the left shows the 6152/1 watch in it’s original cardboard box from Panerai, a letter from Rolex dating these watches to the year 1955 and the original photo of the first owner Mario Arillo.

Read more about this watch in chapter I.V of the book “Vintage Panerai – Watches with History”.  

[Volker Wiegmann]

Hot from the press in square format, 8 pages, trilingual, is ready to be shipped out to interested readers soon.

By collecting facts and details of today existing watches, we have continued to increase the entries in our database with more than 250 (1.1.2010) watches so far.

Beside case numbers and dial versions, we add further details, which allow us to create graphics of the files, which is helpful for our research and a great addition next to informations in the usual way as text and numbers.