Vintage Panerai ref. 3646
Rivet dial
Rivet dial
Here's another project I recently completed. This time I focused on a 3646 with the elusive rivet dial.
Rivet dials are supposed to be prototype dials Panerai developed before the characteristic three-piece dial used for most of the 3646 the produced for the Regia Marina was completed.
The genuine dials were made of a plexiglass layer on which the indices and numbers were engraved from the back. The plexi layer was then fixed to a brass plate using two rivets which gave its name to this kind of dial.
In the homage world there has been an outstanding effort from a well known HF member to produce a batch of these dials exactly like the gen ones were. The result was incredible but, sadly they are long gone and impossible to source.
A wtb ad though resulted in a member contacting me and offering me this dial I used here, which might not be as good as the ones Radiomires produced, yet still very nice and well worth a good build
Parts used for this build include:
- Nightwatch cali case set, heavily shaped and aged. Wire lugs and crown tube soldered. Cortebert movement ring modified to fit the molnija movement.
- A nice Molly 3602 with engraved bridges from Dellone
- Display caseback from River. I had to use a thick rubber gasket to have it screwed in tightly but it was important to be able to show such nice movement imho.
- Solid caseback from Nightwatch
- Sternkreuz N plexiglass
- NW/River tall tube hands
- Athaya dial (at least my research and observations make me think so)
A special note about the strap, as usual. Although true to the gen 3646's, I never liked that much having to stitch a strap to a watch. It reduces my options should I decide to change straps, and I'm a sucker for straps
With this in mind I contacted Alfio from Bakeka and asked him if he ever made an hidden rivet strap, the reply was "No, but I can try. Let me search for rivets and I'll get back to you". Deal done, once he sourced the rivets I asked him to make a couple of special straps with my choice of leathers and here's the result. Awesome looking straps with hidden rivets which I can swap as many times as I wish. Thank you so much Alfio, dealing with you is always a pleasure and I can't recommend you enough
And more pics
Hope you enjoyed the reading, see you soon with more stuff
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