Getty Image / Dimitrios Kambouris
It never ceases to amaze us when people find out they are sitting on gold mines during Antiques Roadshow appraisals. One such moment just happened during the recent LSU Rural Life Museum episode where a gentleman came in with his father’s beat up vintage Panerai ref. 3646 watch.
The man estimated it was worth a few thousand dollars when in reality, it’s worth the better part of $60,000 even in the horrible condition it was appraised in on Antiques Roadshow. If the watch was in slightly better condition, it could easily be worth $100,000 which could theoretically happen with some TLC.
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Why The Panerai ref. 3646 Is Worth A Fortune
This watch passed hands to this gentleman through his father who got it off an Italian prisoner who as imprisoned in the United States during World War II but that’s just a tiny sliver of the historical significance of the watch.
The Panerai ref. 3646 Radiomir Dial was made in partnership with Rolex. Obviously, both of these companies are still in operation today. Panerai was originally an Italian based company that was founded in Florence back in 1860 but their headquarters are presently in Geneva, Switzerland.
The name ‘Radiomir’ refers to the radium on the watch’s dial. Radium is, of course, radioactive and poisonous but Panerai sorted out how to use radium on the dials of its watches to glow in the dark without passing the radiation on to the wearer. Panerai secured the ‘Radiomir’ patent back on March 23, 1916, about two decades before a prototype Ref. 2533 was made of a Rolex-Geneva modified by Panerai for the Italian Royal Navy.
This design was a diver’s watch, or frogman’s watch, during WWII and that’s primarily where Rolex came in because they made the best waterproof casing of the time. According to the man appraising this watch, somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 of these watches were made specifically for members of the Italian military.
The watch dates back to somewhere between 1940 to 1945 (WWII era). And though this one is flawed with a yellowed crystal and dial in need of repair, it is still estimated to be worth between $50,000 and $60,000. All that for a watch that’s 80 years old!