Patek Philippe

grandesonnerie
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NWA: Patek Triple complication open-face watch in 18kt yellow gold

I truly believe this is the most important Patek in my collection: A mid-century masterpiece of Patek: bringing Victorin Piguet, stern freres and antoine gerlach in a single watch: the ref 850. This one of two known and the only one in private hands (the other residing in the Patek museum and has remained unsold) the base movement a  Victorin Piguet ebauche with a minute repeating split-seconds chronograph of 18 lignes was manufactured in 1911 and remained tucked away in the vaults of Patek till 1963 when it was finished and then a perpetual calendar module was added and cased up. It was subsequently sold in 1967 to someone who I can imagine was a discerning collector of great taste. This particularly example is basically NOS: no spotting on the dial, perfect movement and strong case (with all hallmarks intact). The hard chempleve enamel printing on the dial still pops and one can tell in the light the dial has never been cleaned or restored in the past. The case is reminiscent of  similar Pateks of the era: the famed 3448, 3450 and other pocket watches they produced during that time: ref. 862, 850, 767/3 , 844 etc. What is perticularly interesting of all the complicated pocket watches of this era is that all the markings and subdials etc. are hard enamel except the "patek philippe geneve" signature. This signature is lacquer. Maybe they made these dials years prior and wanted to have the flexibility of changing the style of signature?