Hallo friends of Military Timepieces especially Panerai,
I owned some original Panerais from WWII. (see my strong wrists).



Their cases were produced by Rolex, the movement by Cortebert, supplied to Italian and German Navy by Panerai, supplier of navy instruments.


The Officine Panerai was dead and not producing watches up to the 80s or 90s, then they started new and lost again. Then a South African owned luxury supplier bought the brand and put a **** of a lot of money into brand marketing.

And thus the prices for the old ones went up astronomically. And the new ones? Are they 'hommages', no because of the trademark rights, yes because they have nothing to do with the original Rolex/Cortebert/Panerai except their design and the brand ownership.

Here are two originals and see the prices going up!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ROLEX-PANERAI-KAMPFSCHWIMMER-UHR-VO...QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8926...TRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

Here are a lot of very good 'hommages' i.e. fakes! They are good watches, but not Panerai!

http://s22.photobucket.com/albums/b327/river325/Vintage%20Panerai%20MM/

I think its necessary to make clear the different movements and their derivates for Rolex and Panerai big divers watches.
Here I show some 16 ''' (34mm) movements related to Rolex, Panerai and fakes:



- top: 2 Rolex cal. 618 made by Cortebert exclusively for Rolex in the 30s and 40s.
- 2.row: 2 Cortebert 616 only bridges and finish are different
- 3.row: left Molnia 616 licensed by Cortebert but heavily faked with engravings, and right Unitas 6498 (made in Asia??) for Panerai fakes!!
- bottom: 2 Panerai movements, luxury derivates of the Unitas cal. 6498. The right one has changed bridges and swan neck adjustment.

==> You see 60 years of a handwound 16''' movement for small pocket watches or big wrist watches. The first time I realize, that these Unitas/Eta movements must be from the same Cortebert base. Look at the wheel axes and screws, they all are at the same placce. Finish and shape has changed but the base design is still obvious.

In the 70s the company Cortebert was taken over by Omega, and Omega is today part of the Swatch Group, as it is Eta and Unitas. So obviously Unitas did rework the Cortebert 616/618 into the Unitas 6498 and its derivates.

In the end of the 80s I have been in the little town Cortebert in the Swiss Jura and all the big factory buildings were empty, gone to Omega in Biel.

. Gruesse/Regards/Salute K o n r a d K n i r i m
. konrad.knirim@t-online.de
. http://www.knirim.de

Hello Konrad,

Nice wrists!

Thank you for the valuable service you have provided for high-end military timepiece collectors/investors. Having it all layed out in a presentation is greatly appriciated.

Best regards,

Greg

Thank you, Konrad, for sharing your knowledge of these interesting examples of military watches. The more people see of what real ones look like compared to fake ones, the better off we all are.