Vintage Panerai 6152/1
LUMINOR PANERAI MARINA MILITARE
LUMINOR PANERAI MARINA MILITARE
Here is my latest build, a 6152/1 with a dial which I call the "classic of classics", it's the iconic 4 liner LUMINOR PANERAI MARINA MILITARE dial with seconds at 9 which identifies the moment when Panerai stopped equipping their watches with Rolex calibers and switched to Angelus.
The Angelus choice was lead by its characteristics of solidity and its huge 8 days power reserve. This last feature had obvious advantages for a military use and also allowed for the use of a seconds hand for better time accuracy.
About at the same time, we're talking about the end of the 50's/beginning of 60's, Panerai stopped using radium based luminous compounds to lume their dials and developed a less dangerous material called Luminor (some members disagree, but my sources state the Luminor compound was based on tritium).
These new dials featured thinner and smaller numbers ad indices in order to make room for the seconds subdial at 9. It is interesting to note that the white engravings at the center of the dial (be it LP, MM, LPMM or MMLP) became smaller and thinner too.
Case-wise, the ref. 6152/1 is the result of decades of researching started back in 1938 with the 3646 cases made by Rolex, passed through some experimentation with the welded lugs prototype which in turn evolved to 6152 and 6154 cases first, then 6152/1 no CG.
Finally, the need for a better water resistance led to the development of the crown protecting device (crownguard). This can be defined the one feature that differentiates a Panerai from any other watch available before and after. The device consisted of a half moon bridge surrounding the crown, at the center of the bridge a lever was designed to push the crown tightly towards the case when closed thus creating the desired water resistance.
Well, enough babbling about the old times, here's some detail about this build
The base is one of the "barebones" Jackson cases Nightwatch started to offer recently. It's essentially a standard unfinished Jackson MM68 case set which comes with lugs and crown tube holes already drilled.
Even more interestingly it features the correct "BREVET +", "6152/1" and serial number engravings between the lugs.
This case needed to be shaped, aged and refinished just like any other Jackson case so lots of elbow grease went into it
I added to this case the missing parts such as movement holder, pressure-fit lugbars, T25 plexiglass, spring-loaded crown and brass tube and, of course, the crown guard.
Allow me to write a few words about this CG, it is the latest CG Nightwatch has to offer and is imho by far his best, scary close to the gen CG's we can see on the gens. Compared to his older offering, the new CG features an overall improved shape, larger lever pin, newly designed lever and lever tip, a little wider inner cutout and awesomely crisp "BREV. ITAL" engravings and punched number on the back. Small details, I know, but that's what this all is about
CG needed some attention anyway, as in softening and polishing the upper and bottom edge of the inner cutout, brushing a little the bottom corner of CG and softening and polishing the upper CG edge. CG top brushed surface has been smoothened a little and inner lever has been reshaped for a proper tight fit.
If I am allowed to give an input for improvement, I'd make it a little thicker since in gen pics it's usual to see the CG overlap the case a little on the back.
To complete this build Bigwaved sent me an incredibly awesome dial painted and lumed by him. This is dial is so perfect, lume color, thin numbers, thin engravings, matte finish... Thanks Dave, none of this could be possible without your help
Obviously Athaya tall tube curved hands were a must for this build, I won't go into the details of the aging process I followed for these but trust me, it took a while
Finally, as keeping the budget under control is imperative for me, the movement choice fell to the cheap and reliable asian 6497 instead of a very expensive Angelus cal. 240. I prefer a closed caseback anyway as it sits flatter on the wrist so the only compromise I had to accept visually is its slightly wrong subdial spacing.
The icing on the cake is a beautiful "74" strap from L'Invitta Legione, I really do love their straps!
Few more pics:
Hope you enjoyed the reading and pics, new projects coming soon!
Last edited:
