Important Modern & Vintage Timepieces
Hong - Kong, Oct 09, 2010
LOT 429
Patek Philippe, REF . 3971, 1ST generation. Patek Philippe, Genève, movement No. 875201, case No. 2824196, Ref. 3971. Made in 1988, sold on August 4th, 1988. Very fine and very rare, 18K yellow gold wristwatch with round button chronograph, registers, perpetual calendar, moon phases and an 18K yellow gold Patek Philippe deployant clasp. Accompanied by a fitted wooden box, the Extract from the Archives and a setting pin, and a copy of the Patek Philippe service paper dated August 2009.
HKD 600,000 - 900,000
USD 80,000 - 115,000 / EUR 60,000 - 90,000
Sold: HKD 884,000
C. Three-body, solid, polished, concave bezel, fluted lugs, snap-on transparent case back, sapphire crystals. D. Matte silver with applied yellow gold baton indexes, outer 1/5th seconds track with 5-minute/seconds Arabic markers, subsidiary dials for the seconds, the 24-hour and 30-minute registers, the leap year and days of the month, apertures for the days of the week, the months and the moon phases. Yellow gold feuille hands. M. Cal. 27-70 Q, stamped with the Seal of Geneva quality mark, rhodium-plated, fausses cotes decoration, 24 jewels, straight line lever escapement, Gyromax balance adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 8 positions, shock absorber, selfcompensating free-sprung Breguet balance spring. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 36 mm. Thickness 12.2 mm.
| Grading System | |
|---|---|
Grade: |
|
Case: 2-40 |
Very good Slightly repolished |
Movement: 1 |
As new |
Dial: 1-01 |
As new HANDS Original |
Notes
Ref. 3970 and 3971 When Patek Philippe first launched this new series of watches in 1986, Ref. 3970 was the model featuring a three-body case (snap-on bezel and case-back) bearing a snap-on solid metallic back, while very few models were delivered with a snap-on transparent sapphirecrystal case back under the ref 3971.( the present lot).
In 1987, the firm introduced a new generation of this model, that became water-resistant, with a two-body case. The case-back was screw-down, under the reference 3970E (E for ?étanche? ) with a solid metallic back, and under the ref. 3971E, second generation, with the transparent screw-down back.
In 1990, the ref. 3971E disappears, The ref. 3970E was delivered with two case backs: a screw-down transparent one and an additional solid one. In consequence, very few examples of the present watch bearing the ref. 3971, first generation, with a non water-resistant case were made. We can consider that this very sought-after model was the precursor of the standardization of a transparent fitted back on the ref. 3970. This is the second time that a ref. 3971, 1st generation, has passed through these rooms.
A similar watch is illustrated in ?Patek Philippe Wristwatches? by Martin Huber and Alan Banbery, 1998, p. 305.