Panerai 6152/1 MMOPF
One of a kind
One of a kind
This is a long overdue project, it started more than 6 months back but only now I was able to finalize it.
A few hiccups occurred, dial production took time and then I encountered one of those days when you should better not work on watches but insisted, resulting in extensive damage to the case almost to the point of no return.
Luckily one nice HF member came out of the blue to help me and somehow repaired the case (thanks Sigi!). I decided to keep it and use it, despite the noticeably damaged lug which could not be repaired completely, in order to remind me that in this hobby you always have to know when to STOP :lol:
Back to the watch itself, this build is based on a very rare reference. As a matter of fact, according to the references book from Ehlers and Wiegmann, only one watch with this particular dial has been discovered until now, and it's still in possession of the Panerai family. The most interesting feature is the black unpainted MARINA MILITARE engraving visible only under certain light conditions or in close-ups.
As the project started I contacted Steph_Dexter about producing this dial since he did an awesome job with my other "special" 6152/1 (the LP dot dial) and he is able to custom engrave plates on request. I must say his work has been great this time too.
Of course there are differences with the gen reference pic, the indices are a little darker and engravings a bit fatter. But I'm fine with these minutiae, these builds are meant to take inspiration from gens and pay them homage, not merely replicate them.
Athaya's tall tube hands have been aged and lumed by me, as usual I added a faux CP. I must say their shape is not correct as per reference pic, I could have sourced correctly shaped hands from other sources but tbh I like Adrian's hands so much that I can't help but use them every time I can. They are just better machined, the brass sheet they're made of is thicker and makes them look and "feel" better and more credible than other makers ones.
Case is Jackson's fiddy case, heavily reshaped and aged to maximum detail I could achieve.
The gen watches have been used and abused for tens of years, yet they look so shiny and almost new until you close-up. The aging must be important yet subtle, not immediately visible on the wrist.
The full mods include drilling the lugholes, drilling the tube hole to accept NW brass tube, installing a NW T25 aged plexi, modding NW movement holder to achieve correct stem alignment, fine tuning the height of the crown tube for correct crown operation.
A note on the crown, I took good note of civic4982's advice about checking Athaya crown and tube instead of NW's. I did order a couple and got them the other day when this watch was already built and finished, pics taken.
I can say crown is better shaped indeed, the difference is not immediately visible but, as with many other details, impossible to miss once you realize it. Athaya will be my choice of crown for the next builds.
Since one of the damaged areas on this case were the CG holes, I had to swing through all the available CG's I had in my drawer before finding one that could fit the repaired holes distance.
Luckily enough, it was an Athaya crownguard from another project which had been completely modded. Chamfers added on top and bottom, edges rounded and polished, lever tightened, brushing refinished. I also added a chamfer on the bottom side of the CG so I can wear it upside down when I wish
Caseback is from Nightwatch, polished and aged to match the case.
Finally, the strap is one of many I acquired from L'Invitta Legione. Incidentally it looks pretty close to the one on the background reference pics. I swear this was not done on purpose!
This straped is named after "Licio Visintini", one of the members of the Xma MAS. Great quality, very comfortable, awesome looking strap. I quickly became a fan of these guys and as of now I have almost all of their line of historical straps
The knife edge buckle looks good but feels a little light. I don't know how top quality ones like those from Elias weigh though so I am not able to judge this.
Few more pics to complete the overview:
Hope you enjoyed the reading and pics, see you soon with new projects!
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