Among the timepieces considered vintage, the Panerai Mare Nostrum chronograph occupies a special place – it is the most mysterious piece of horology in the world of vintage watches. This watch is huge in size and has a diameter of 52 mm, and it is a bi-compax chronograph. The history of this watch is not quite clear. According to the official story, Panerai manufactured this watch for deck officers of the Italian Navy in 1943. The legend says that only prototypes could be created because of the war. For many years the existence of this watch was supported by only one photograph plate taken in the 1950s in three-quarter view.
However, all the evidence proves another story. If to analyze the design of this watch's case, it will be noticeable that there are some differences in design from other watches produced by Panerai. The first compasses designed in 1940 and in 1944 are different by design from Mare Nostrum. In contrast to them, this watch case is almost the same with Panerai depth gauges manufactured since 1955. The lugs in both cases have the same shape and the area between them is the same. The design of this watch belongs definitely to the 1950s.
The next event happened in 2005: the prototype of this watch was presented during a Christie's auction in Geneva. This prototype was authenticated by experts and was acquired by Angelo Bonati, CEO of Richemont Panerai, for 132,000 Swiss Francs. Now this watch is kept in Panerai Museum.
The mystery lies in the fact that the design of this case back is almost the same with the 1993 replica. In spite of the fact that designers who made a replica had no information about the design of the case back, because they used only that three-quarter photograph of the watch. It is impossible to reproduce such a complicated structure just by coincidence. This is what we can say about this mysterious watch.
