Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces

Geneva, May 15, 2016

LOT 426

PATEK PHILIPPE REF. 725, "AMERICAN" DIGITAL PERPETUAL CALENDAR YELLOW GOLD Patek Philippe, Genève, movement No. 931968, case No. 332417. Ref. 725/4. Made in 1979, sold on October 9th, 1979. Extremely fine and very rare, 18K yellow gold, keyless dress watch with linear digital perpetual calendar and moon phases. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives and a Patek Philippe service invoice in the amount of CHF 2'160.

CHF 50,000 - 70,000

HKD 400,000 - 570,000 / USD 52,000 - 73,000

Sold: CHF 93,750

Three-body, "moderne" with concave bezel, polished and brushed, correctors on the flat band, inverted U-shaped bow. Brushed silver, applied yellow gold faceted baton indexes, outer minute divisions, aperture for the digital display of days of the week, months and date, aperture at 6 for phases of the moon concentric with subsidiary seconds. Yellow gold dauphine hands. Cal. 17``` 170, rhodium-plated, fausses cotes decoration, 18 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, movement stamped twice with Geneva hallmark, cut bimetallic compensation balance adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and five positions, self-compensating blued steel Breguet balance spring, swan-neck micrometric regulator.


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Grading System
Grade:
Case: 2-8

Very good

Slightly scratched
Movement: 2*

Very good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 2-73-01

Very good

ENAMEL AND VARIOUS TYPES OF DECORATION Chipped under bezel,not visible when closed

HANDS Original

Notes

Dial, case and movement signed. DIAM. 46 mm. REFERENCE 725 and the nearly identical reference 725/2 were in production from 1940 until around 1964. To date, less than 20 examples of this model are known to have survived. The reference 725 is the scarcer of the two references, the difference is that the calendar aperture on this model has rounded ends instead of square ends. The reference 725/4 was made in very few examples towards the end of the production that seemed to have stopped around 1984. Characterised by a square calendar window as well as longer indexes and arabic 12. This example has never been offered at auction and was just completely overhauled at PATEK GENEVA in May 2014. THE AMERICAN PERPETUAL CALENDAR The linear digital calendar or so-called AMERICAN CALENDAR is a calendar in which the date is displayed in a single linear aperture allowing for a clearly legible dial which could be read at a glance. This type of display was invented in the early ART DECO period and is most often found in watches destined for the Anglo-American market. This kind of calendar became popular once again after the second World War.