My First Grail Watch: Stepan Sarpaneva
Welcome back to an original watches-dealer feature, "My First Grail Watch." In this series, we ask prominent people in the watch industry about the first timepiece that they lusted after. Today, we are diving into the subject with Stepan Sarpaneva, and he lets us know about the accident that set him on the path to watchmaking.watches-dealer (ABTW): While I am sure many of our readers already know the answer, we need to ask - who are you, and what is your relationship to the watch industry?Stepan Sarpaneva: I am Stepan Sarpaneva, a watchmaker, designer, and owner of the Sarpaneva watch brand.ABTW: How did you get into watchmaking?Stepan Sarpaneva: Quite by accident. I was supposed to follow my father's path and become a goldsmith. I went through and did the two-day tests for both the goldsmith and the watchmaknig schools. I got directly in to the watchmaking school (in 1989), but I did not get accepted to the goldsmith school.I thought that I would then attend the watchmaking school for

Hands-On: The Panerai Radiomir 1940 3 Days PAM 662 And Luminor 1950 PAM 663
Panerai doesn’t leave me indifferent. But I feel different about Panerai every time I have one on. One moment I get why the Paneristi are so devoted to the brand and why the subtle differences between each model make them so exciting. The next I wonder if the manufacture isn't running out of ideas. But the new PAM 662 and PAM 663 clearly show they haven’t. 1 OF 8 The reason in this case is their lovely tobacco-brown dials, and the history behind them. It’s a color Panerai would’ve hated seeing when they began making watches with Rolex in the 1930s. Their brass dials were black and meant to stay that way.To their dismay, the Florentine house would soon find out their patented radium-based powder (Radiomir), which so successfully lumed the hands and indexes of their diving instruments, would later turn them brown.That’s exactly what happened to one of its most famous watches, reference 6154. Nicknamed the “Egiziano Piccolo,” it

Incoming Chronomat GMT in Blue
It was a long time coming to get this. 2 years ago I picked this out, waited and waited. Finally I saw it in a dealer and then knew I had to have it. SO I ordered it 8 weeks ago. It arrived today! Sorry for the crappy lume shot I was free handing it.CA022897.jpgCA022907.jpgCA022911.jpgCA022917.jpgCA022927.jpg

Will a 5712/1R ever be a model?
So one of my favorite dial layouts of the Nautilus line is the 5712 and from looking back at how PP releases watches it seems like this model would be a candidate for a full bracelet in rose gold at some point. I'm rather new to following PP (3 years or so) but just by looking back it seems like they do eventually introduce models like this. The only thing that makes me wonder if they are staying away from producing it is how long this dial layout has been being made. What do you all think?BestsAlex

Patek 5164 Aquanaut on Leather
Hello,Ended up putting the 5164 Aquanaut on a 21mm strap I had. It's not made to fit the factory deployment but already working on that and have two custom straps ordered to get the look with the factory deployment.Until then enjoy the pic, you don't seem many with leather. I really like it as it shows off a lot more of the great shape of the case! Sent from my STV100-2 using Tapatalk