Patek Philippe's 'Turtles' collection from 1954-1956 features unique cases and dials, offering a detailed overview based on previous analyses. | Patek Philippe

The “Turtles” collection

The “Turtles” collection is a series of Patek Philippe watches produced from 1954 to 1956 (?), which all feature:

A case made by François Markowski (Geneva master case-maker, key number 8).

A dial made by Stern Frères.

A 10-200 manual-winding caliber movement with 18 jewels.

My presentation and photographic overview of this collection owes a great deal to the previous presentations of this collection made by Marcus Siems (on goldammer.me) and Eric Tortella (on monacolegendauctions.com).

However, by clearly distinguishing 9 cases rather than proceeding by reference numbers (which are subject to debate), I have tried to correct the following points:

not omitting case no. 9

clearly differentiating case no. 5 from cases no. 4 and no. 6

highlighting the confusion surrounding the referencing of certain models.

Let's have a look at each of them one by one.

A/ CASE NO. 1 - REF. 2546

Round case with what I would personally call “ear” lugs. Marcus Siems calls them “twisted”.

Watch by Patek Philippe, 2546, Calatrava

credit: Hodinkee courtesy of Roni Madhvani (1-2) & Phillips

B/ CASE NO. 2 - REF. 2547

Round case with straight “wing” lugs. Marcus Siems calls them “spaceship”.

The photos below are borrowed from richterlaw's post here on WPS in 2013.

credit: richterlaw

This case, ref. 2547, is supposedly also photographed in Martin Huber and Alan Banbery's book, Patek Philippe Genève Wristwatches , on page 154 of the second edition (1998), but the photo shows a completely different model and is clearly an error.

If any of you have the first edition from 1986, the photo, if correct, could look like this:

C/ CASE NO. 3 - REF. 2548

Round case with “overhanging” faceted lugs.

The dial variations concern the hour markers.

credit: Roni Madhvani (1-3), Antiquorum (4-5) & Christie's (6)

D/ CASE NO. 4 - REF. 2549

Round case with stepped bezel featuring four rounded grooves and “devil's horns” lugs.

Dial variations concern color, numerals and pattern.

Black dials

Silver dials

credit: Hodinkee (1-2) and Revolution (3) courtesy of Roni Madhvani (also photo 4 & 6-8), Heritage Auction (5) & Christie’s (9)

E/ CASE NO. 5

Round case with stepped bezel featuring only three rounded grooves and “devil's horns” lugs.

The only photo I know of this model is on page 153 of the book by Martin Huber & Alan Banbery, Patek Philippe Genève Wristwatches , second edition (1988).

It is referenced as no. 2549/2, but not everyone seems to agree...

Personal photos of my copy

F/ CASE NO. 6

Round case with stepped bezel featuring only two flat grooves and “devil's horns” lugs.

The only photo I know of this model is on page 153 of the book by Martin Huber & Alan Banbery, Patek Philippe Genève Wristwatches , second edition (1988).

It is referenced as no. 2549/1 (see photo of page 153 above), but this ref. number seems to correspond to the following case (see the caseback and extract from the archives of case no. 7 below)...

Personal photo of my copy

G/ CASE NO. 7 - REF. 2549/1

Round case with stepped bezel featuring four rounded grooves and overhanging horn-shaped curled lugs. Marcus Siems calls them “taurus”.

Dial variations concern numerals and texture.

credit: Future Grail (1-10), @phxwatchnut (11-12) & Bonhams (13)

H/ CASE NO. 8

Round case with stepped bezel featuring four rounded grooves and overhanging “cornucopia” lugs. Marcus Siems calls them “c-shape”.

This model is generally referenced as no. 2550, but the same number is also used for the following case no. 9...

Dial variations concern numerals and texture.

credit: Roni Madhvani (1-3) & Antiquorum

I/ CASE NO. 9

This lug-less round case with integrated bracelet and stepped bezel featuring four rounded grooves is the one which has been forgotten or left aside by Marcus Siems and Eric Tortella!

Antiquorum references it as no. 2549-1, but FutureGrail has evidence that it is no. 2550 (see photo of the caseback below)...

The first example is pink gold with a salmon dial; the second example is yellow gold with a gold dial.

Pink gold

Yellow gold

Side by side with a case no. 7 (ref. 2549/1)

credit: @2tonevintageofficial (1 & 9), @markkauzlarich (2), FutureGrail (3-5) & Hodinkee courtesy of FutureGrail (7-8)

In conclusion, here are the summary tables previously proposed by Marcus Siems and Eric Tortella, which both:

Omit case no. 9.

Do not clearly distinguish case 5 (only three grooves on the bezel) from case 4 (four grooves) and case 6 (two flat grooves).

Marcus Siems

Eric Tortella

credit: Marcus Siems on Goldammer & Eric Tortella on invaluable.com

And here again is the alternative summary table that I propose and which I hope is a little more precise as far as collecting and differentiating all the cases is concerned...