A Panerai timepiece was sold for an all-time record price of CHF425,000 at Sotheby’s “Important Watches” auction held last week, up from an estimate of CHF180,000/360,000. Given that Panerai watches weren’t produced for sale to the public until 1993, vintage Panerai watches often attract considerable attention from connoisseurs and collectors, especially those made to military order between the first Radiomir prototype in 1936 for Royal Italian Navy commandos, and the 1950s.

The watch in question was acquired by a Panerai enthusiast and is a Luminor in stainless steel, reference 6152/1, that can be dated circa 1955. Said watch has a classic levered bridge device protecting the winding crown, a feature which persists until today, along with a hand-winding movement and screw-down caseback. Unique to the watch is its rotating bezel. Transparent and made of polycarbonate, it has a single luminescent marker and eleven other black dot markers, undoubtedly serving to either measure elapsed time or to act as a countdown timer. The bezel is also removable, a previously unseen feature which suggests that the watch is a prototype that never made it to the production stage.

The watch was put up for sale by the descendants of the late Admiral Gino Birindelli, to whom the watch belonged.