sevomd said:
I got my Cali dial from Joshua. It is nice, but I am gonna use it as my guinea pig and try to vintagize the dial and brush the SS case. I just got some tools from Ofrei to help me. What I really want is the Kampshwimmer from WM, with the extra thick hands.
Eddy
The Kampfschwimmer hands that are accurate are the black single ladder pocket watch hands that come on the reps as well as the new 1936 GEN. Extra thick hands are a WM fantasy, [not that there is anything wrong with fantasy ... ]
A Kampfschwimmer by definition is a Rolex-made Panerai made in 1945 due to Italy surrendering and turning to the Allied side, thus no longer supplying their former German Axis partner with watches. So, British owned, Swiss [neutral] Rolex stepped in with a controversial move and filled the watch orders. Hence the funky California dials, all rolex cases and movements ... The parts weren't so much the issue as the political massinations of the patriotic and moral implications of the transaction.
A lot of the story is masked over who approved what and how, etc. My own theory is that the odd California Dial was a visual 'comment' injected by someone at Rolex; whether it was Wilsdorf himself - the watches usability was perhaps corrupted or monkey-wrenched ... there is no good explaination for using such a dial for a military watch, other than it's probably one of the worst choices one could make. The official version, was there were no other stock available.
Panerai's roots in general seems based on a formula of using, "found" stock. Certainly in the 1930s and 40s Pocket watch movements were probably accessible and cheap NOS inventory. While the re-written histories claim durability and unique design, certainly a lot can be explained by using what was available and cheap at the time. Not to imply cheapest, maybe the requirement was precise movement, yet sourcing PW movements allowed one surplus inventory, ie. good stuff at surplus rates ...
With early waterproof technology as well, it was easier to indentify and produce a watch larger with sucessful results. Most early dive watches in the experimental years tended toward gigantism.
