Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

New York, Apr 20, 2016

LOT 59

PATEK PHILIPPE INDEPENDENT CENTER SECONDS YELLOW GOLD Patek, Philippe & Cie., Genève, case No. 27226. Made circa 1904. Very fine and very rare, 18K yellow gold two-train keyless pocket watch with independent dead center seconds.

USD 12,000 - 18,000

HKD 93,000 - 140,000 / CHF 12,000 - 18,000

Sold: USD 12,500

Four-body, "bassine", polished, second hand activating pushbutton at 10 in the band, case back with engraved monogram. Hinged gold cuvette. White enamel with radial Roman numerals, outer minute track. Blued steel spade hands. Cal. 19```, gilt brass, 27 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, index regulator, a flirt mounted on the last pinion of the independent dead seconds train engaging escape wheel pinion allowing one-second jumps, Adrien Philippe`s patented winding system.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

Dial and case signed. DIAM. 53 mm. In 1776, in Geneva, MOISE POUZAIT invented the independent dead seconds mechanism in which the movement has two trains, one conventional, and the second with a sweep-seconds hand which can be stopped without stopping the main train. ADRIEN PHILIPPE's independent dead seconds mechanism differs radically from the conventional one based on Pouzait's design. Philippe moved the entire "independent" train over the center bridge, allowing more room for the going train and the balance, which is larger, resulting in better timekeeping. There are fewer than two dozen recorded independent dead seconds watches by PATEK PHILIPPE, including the very first ones made by Patek and Czapek. This watch incorporates Adrien Philippe's two patents concerning tandem winding: the first, for a "free", or "slipping", mainspring, patented on June 16, 1863 in France, and the second, for winding two mainsprings with one crown, Swiss patent No. 1017 of May 23, 1889. A similar watch was sold by Antiquorum, Geneva, April 24, 2004, lot 81. A virtually identical movement (No 174021) is illustrated in Patek Philippe, Genève, by Martin Huber and Alan Banbery, p.195.