amanico
[JLC Moderator]
340587
The return of a Myth: The Mare Nostrum
Announced a few years ago, eagerly awaited every year, it finally landed.
Why is it a Myth?
The Mare Nostrum, I mean the original one, was a Prototype conceived for the Italian Deck Officers in 1943, but as the Story says, it was never produced.
So, this watch is a kind of Loch Ness Monster, a phantasm, every Panerai fan never played with it, never saw it in the flesh, except at the Panerai Museum, and badly dreamt about it. ( Pic by Asi )
A 52 mm Beast, housing an Angelus 215 Chrono, with a large smooth bezel and 2 levels dial. ( Pic to be credited to Y.O )
A Myth doesn't have to be produced to be important, and Panerai understood it very well, as in 1993, they decided to pay hommage to 2 watches from the Past: The Luminor and the Mare Nostrum, while we could think that they would prefer the Radiomir to the Mare!
So, from 1993 to 1996, 3 Mare Nostrum were produced, or should I better say 1, which knew 2 evolutions.
It was a SS 42 mm Chrono, water resistant to 5 ATM ( 50 meters ).
The 5218-301/A ( 492 pieces ) housing an ETA 2801-2 with a Dubois Depraz Chrono module:
And the 2 Slytech versions: The 5218-302 ( the same than the 301/A, but with a different wording on the dial as " Slytech " is mentionned ), and the 304 ( same than 302, but with a smooth bezel, which makes it look closer to the 1943 prototype ).
The 302: ( Credit pic: Panerai )
The 304:
Then, Cartier Vendome bough Panerai in March 1997, and reworked the Mare Nostrum ( dial and bezel ) in 3 references: Pam 6 ( Blue dial ), Pam 7 ( White dial ), and Pam 8 Black dial ) for a total of 382 pieces.
The funny thing is that at the beginning, the Mares sold very badly, even if the price was fair ( 1500 Euros, approximatively ), and people began to show some interest when they began to be very difficult to find.
Is this the reason why Panerai waited so long before presenting the new Mare?
Anyway... The New Mare landed, and I'm very happy to have been able to see it in the flesh.
I couldn't resist to bring with me my Mare 5218-301/A, and Patrice did the same with his 304, so we were able to take an historical family shot, the Pre V and the new Réédition, side by side. ( Sorry for the quality of the pics, but we were in big hurry, and didn't have the necessary time to take better photos...A shame! )
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For the rest of Nicolas' post, please CLICK HERE
This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2010-02-07 10:12:10 This message has been edited by AnthonyTsai on 2010-02-15 19:18:27
