Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, Jun 28, 2020

LOT 394

PATEK PHILIPPE DIGITAL CALENDAR

CHF 80,000 - 140,000

HKD 640,000 - 1,120,000 / USD 80,000 - 140,000

Sold: CHF 118,750

Very fine and very rare dress-watch, digital perpetual calendar à guichets (with apertures), eccentric hours and minutes; 18K yellow gold 18K yellow gold, open-face, keyless-winding, round-shaped, dress-watch, with decentred-hour and -minute, subsidiary seconds at 6 and five horological complications: • Instantaneous perpetual calendar à guichets (with apertures) • Date of the month (aperture at 10 o’clock) • Day of the week (aperture at 6 o’clock; indications given in English) • Month of the year (aperture at 2 o’clock; indications given in English) • Phases of the moon (aperture at 12 o’clock) Case-back polished. Two-tone pink gold colour dial, eccentric hours and minutes circle in the lower part, with yellow gold applied suspended Roman numerals (III-IX-XII) and radial indexes; yellow gold “Feuille” (leaf-shaped) hands.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3-33

Good

Restored
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-6-8-01

Good

Slightly oxidized

Slightly scratched

HANDS Original

Brand Patek Philippe

Year Circa 1937

Movement No. 198281

Case No. 418009 (probably by Eggly & Cie, Geneva)

Caliber 17’’’ movement, ebauche by Victorin Piguet & Co. (Valléede Joux), with decentred centre-wheel, rhodium plated,straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensatedbalance and blued steel hairspring with terminal curve, indexregulator, adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 5 positions

Dimensions 45 mm.

Signature Dial and movement

Accessories APWC handcrafted box, two extra cases, magnifying glass, extra spare parts and a USB key

Notes

Patek Philippe, dress-watches with digital perpetual calendar à guichets (with apertures) and eccentric hours and minutes It seems that Patek Philippe has produced in the late-1930’s and early-1940’s only seven (perhaps eight) watches with this type of horological complications, on a 17’’’ movement with decentred centre-wheel, ebauche by Victorin Piguet & Co. (Vallée de Joux). Only four of them are known, of which three are today kept in the Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva: • Movement No. 198 197, case No. 414 775, yellow gold. Antiquorum, Milan, auction, November 30, 1992, lot 168, sold for the amount of LIT 104 044 000.- (LIT 95 000 000.- hammer + buyer’s premium) // ~ CHF 110 280.- Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva, Inv. P-899. • Movement No. 198 198, case No. 414 776, yellow gold, replaced by the case No. 416 389, platinum, then the case No. 504 805, stainless steel. • Movement No. 198 278, case No. 414 776, yellow gold. Antiquorum, Geneva, auction, April 12-13, 2003, lot 128, sold for the amount of CHF 185 000.- (CHF 165 000.- hammer + buyer’s premium). Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva, Inv. P-1313. • Movement No. 198 279, case No. 416 389, platinum. Published at the time in the Journal Suisse d’Horlogerie (black & white picture). • Movement No. 198 280, case No. 417 897, yellow gold. • Movement No. 198 281, case No. 418 009, yellow gold (gold punchmark on the case, the caseback is numbered only and was probably restored at some point) Antiquorum, Geneva, auction, April 9, 1989, The Art of Patek Philippe, lot 275, unsold (Estimate: CHF 60 000.- / 80 000.-). Christie’s, Geneva, auction, November 15, 2004, lot 159, sold for the amount of CHF 86 040.- (CHF 69 000.- hammer + buyer’s premium). The Davide Parmigiani Collection, p. 75, No. 168. Antiquorum, Geneva, auction, October 13-14, 2007, lot 524, unsold (Estimate: CHF 100 000.- / 150 000.-). Antiquorum, Geneva, auction, March 15-16, 2008, lot 739, sold for the amount of CHF 155 400.- (CHF 130 000.- hammer + buyer’s premium). Antiquorum, Geneva, auction, November 15-16, 2008, lot 325, unsold (Estimate: CHF 100 000.- / 150 000.-). • Movement No. 198 282, case No. 418 269, yellow gold. Sotheby’s, New York, auction, February 11, 1993, lot 405, sold for the amount of US$ … ….- (US$ … ….- hammer + buyer’s premium) // ~ CHF … ….- ??? Christie’s, Geneva, auction, May 15, 2006, lot 50, sold for the amount of CHF 120 000.- (CHF 100 000.- hammer + buyer’s premium). Christie’s, Geneva, auction, November 16, 2009, lot 80, sold for the amount of CHF 93 000.- (CHF 75 000.- hammer + buyer’s premium). Patek Philippe Museum, Genève, Inv. P-1663. • Movement No. 198 283, case No. 668 287, yellow gold (exact dial configuration undefined). These watches are the much rarer precursor of the so-called “American” digital perpetual calendar that was adopted by Patek Philippe in the late 1940’s. The “American” calendar shows the calendar in a single linear aperture.