Officine Panerai

Hi All,

I was wondering why did Panerai fit the 249 with a swan's neck fine adjustor?

Is it more commonly done with watches that have the second's hands?

Does the 232 also have the same swan's neck fitted?

What's the reason behind it?

Thanks!!!

Yep , swan neck in all the 249...And if I'm not wrong, the 232 shares the same movement, so, swan nake for it too!

No particular reason for that, my friend.

Best.

Nicolas

Who wants a swan nake?

 

So it is not really a functional upgrade of the movement then?

What are you views on fitting swan's neck to watches which have no second's function?

I really like the look of the fine adjustor but find it somehow "cosmetic" since the watch does not really sport a second's function.

Any comment?

Thanks again!!!

The regulator on a watch is a device that can change the rate that the watch will run. It is normally found above the balance wheel, often on top of the balance cock. By moving the regulator toward the "fast" , the watch will run quicker and will either gain time or stop losing. The opposite is true if you move it toward the "slow". Now, the "Swan-neck regulator" on this Panerai has a J-shaped spring on top of the balance cock and a screw to move the regulator back and forth.

As for the use of a Swan-neck regulator on a watch without a second hand: It has the same use as on a watch with a second hand, improving the fine adjustment of your PAM. The accuracy of a watch has nothing to to with the fact if a watch has a second hand or not. A watch without a second hand can be dead on untill 0,1 second a day and a watch with a second hand can be off 10 minutes a day. The actual accuracy can be measured by the timepiece beat interval. This can be done by a microphone to transform the mechanical beat to an electrical signal. The signal is then sent through a circuit that makes it into a uniform output that represents the beat of the timepiece. This output is then submitted into a computer and is interpreted by software to show the data on the computer.

Hi Exupery,

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the swan's neck function!

I know that it matters not whether if the watch has a second's function or not, the point of the regulator is to make the watch more accurate when finely-tuned.

It's just that when I see the PAM 21 (which indeed is a Grail to me), it somehow intrigues me why did Panerai not have a swan's neck installed back then (maybe for historical reasons)?

Since the swan's neck was used widely way before 1930's, it surprises me even more that the original 3646 and 6512 also did not have the movements fitted with it.  I dont know, maybe it's me but wouldn't  you think by keeping  more precise time is crucial to the frogmen who have to go on bombing  missions with these timepieces?

Just curious, thats all...

0808, actually I could only guess the reason might be that the original movements didn't have it either, if I remember correctly the Angelus movements did not. I don't know about the other like Rolex etc.

in 2002 (E series) Panerai introduced an upgraded movement for the historic line of manual winds. It was still based on the ETA 6497, but had redesigned bridges, a swan-neck regulator and increased power reserve (56h instead of 41h). In 2005 (H series) there was another redesign of the bridge decoration to the much nicer CTG of today. The 249 and the 232 saw the current movement used in all the historic line (with the exception of the introduction level PAM zero and 5 that have the old pre-E movement behind the solid caseback and also the new PAM 26 SE introduced this year).

In the 1930'-50's where the Rolex base caliber (618) was used  in Panerai, the swan neck would have been too expensive for these military watches. There were very nice variations of the Rolex movement used in fine pocket watches that had regulators.

 

 

Hope it helps,

Asi

Hi Asi

When you write about a re-design of bridge decoration in 2005, you mean Geneva stripes instead of the "Panerai" pattern?

Dje

CTG was a typo, I meant CDG.

Asi

nt

btw, what is CDG?

Thanks again...=)

or Geneva bars/stripes.

"A decoration of undulating lines, like waves, frequently used to embellish superior quality movements." (from the HH glossary)

 

Asi

 

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I heard you offer that service now?

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So from your experience with vintage Panerais. there has been "none" (be in prototype or production) vintage 3656/ 6152 that were ever fitted with the swan neck regulator?  Or, has there?

Thanks for your help!!!

or ever seen. All the vintage references used one of 2 movements: Rolex cal. 618 or Angelus cal. 240. The Rolex movement had 3 variations (15 jewel, 17 jewel and 17 jewel Incabloc) none of which had a swan-neck. Same goes for the Angelus.

Hope it helps

 

Asi

 

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Hi Asi,

Is it the Rolex- Cortebert 618 in the picture?

When I compared it closely to other pictures in the forum, it seems that the gap between the bridges is rather wide in the one in the picture then the other 618 that I have seen in pictures.

Help please?

and I belive it is a 618 but really modified. The 616 is the other 16" sized Rolex movement but it has not the regulator for the balance wheel. There is another Cal. in 16" , the 622 - but I have no picture of it.

Asi

Hi Asi,

Thank you for your wonderful insight on these vintage movements!!!

thanks for your guys discuss here! ;0)