Panerai!

The design he got is the nicest IMHO. Most like the original(s) of the species.

He really does sound like a dealer/advertiser though. Seems it works. The reason I say that is most evident with this vid and bloody good it is too for just a guy, a watch, a camera and Venice. In fairness Venice is a beaut for a backdrop for just about anything . Still, his vids are really good.

He's got the major horn for Rolex, yet never mentions the fact that they were a redialled Rolex pocketwatch movement to the Italian dealer's case design*. Well the current Panerai company or dealers wouldn't mention that too loudly in an advert...



Interestingly, these were the only examples of Rolex supplying Axis powers in WW2. Unlike all the other Swiss brands who were only too happy to supply fascists in that conflict(until their cash ran out of course), Rolex because of Hans Wilsdorf's affection for England(he was of German descent but became a British citizen and married an English woman) didn't and supported the Allies from the very get go, which in the early days was a very brave move. I always admired his stance on this. Even then Panerai didn't have Rolex on the dial and the order was done almost "off the books". Many of the movements and cases had the Rolex markings removed and later on were assembled by Junghans of Germany. The owner of Panerai who had been a good customer of Rolex before the war and knew Wilsdorf personally was under serious pressure by the nazis in the later stages of the war to supply these watches and it seems Wilsdorf allowed the supply of movements and cases to help his friend get through those dark days.



*EDIT actually IIRC the whole watch had been a prewar Rolex design, but produced in tiny numbers. I recall a 30's Rolex catalogue that had an example. Panerai's innovation was the radium sandwich dial. He had already come up with a design for radium gunsights so was well acquainted with the material.

Since this thread started I've been trying and failing to find a very old thread from the interwebs that I turned into a PDF. The original thread was around 97/98. Can't even remember what forum/board it was on. But anyway a poster decided he wanted an "original" Pammy and to that end had found an original movement from the 1920's or 30's. Rolex were buying in their movements from two outfits(IIRC) at the time; Cortebert and Auegler(sp) and they'd stamp their Rolex brand on the bridges(or maybe the suppliers did?). Anyway this guy had found the right cortebert pocketwatch movement. You could source them handily enough until around 2000 and the occasional one would still pop up from time to time after with increasing prices. He then got in touch with this woman who was a full on gold and silversmith and IIRC a mate of his wife and she readied up a silver case and a bloody good job she did too. I can't recall where he got the dial and hands or who made them, but it was a faithful repro of the sandwich dial. Actually now I think about it it may have been the silversmith lass who made it. But again if memory serves he got the screwdown crown and tube from a 50's Tudor. He had left engravings in a few places, the movement didn't have rolex on it and was the wrong finish and the hallmark was current to the time in case sometime in the future someone might try to pull a fast one. So he got his very accurate replica and it looked really well. But feck it if I can't find the file. :mad::(

I seem to recall Panerai themselves found some NOS Cortebert/Rolex movements in the 90's and put them in a tiny run of special editions.

There was another guy on another forum who made a replica of the British version of the Panny which was essentially a 19th century British design for waterproof "explorer" pocketwatches, with a Longines movement, only swapping out what had been treated leather and lead seals for newfangled rubber and slapping on some wire lugs.



To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee; that's not a screwdown crown, this is a screwdown crown.

Made in silver and readied up very quickly for Britain's own torpedo riders and divers. They were very handmade, real 19th century British watchmaking going on. I'm surprised that Hans Wilsdorf didn't step in and fire a few of his big pocketwatch oysters at the British. Maybe they simply didn't ask him.

I do recall the chap's replica while using the correct Longines movement, was reduced in size, as the original made a Panny look like a ladies watch. 53 or 54 mm IIRC and 15mm thick.