100 Years of Wristwatches

Geneva, Hotel Des Bergues, Nov 19, 2000

LOT 380

Patek Philippe & Cie, Genève, Ref. 5004, circa 1997Very fine and important, water-resistant to 2.5 atm, astronomic, platinum gentleman's wristwatch with split-secondschronograph, registers, perpetual calendar and moon phases, 60 hours autonomy, with leather strap andplatinum Patek Philippe deployant clasp.

CHF 110,000 - 130,000

USD 63,000 - 75,000

Sold: CHF 152,000

C. three body, solid, polished, case band with 4 setting holes, coaxial push button in the crown for the split-seconds,concave bezel, fluted lugs, domed sapphire crystal. D. black with applied white gold Arabic numerals,outer Arabic seconds ring, auxiliary dials for the 30-minute register and leap year at 3, days of the month at 6,and seconds and the 24 hours at 9, apertures for the days of the week, the months and moon phases. 'Feuille'white gold hands. M. Cal. CHR 27-70Q, stamped with the Geneva Quality Hall Mark, 28 jewels, 'fausses côtes'decoration, lever escapement, Gyromax balance, free sprung self-compensating Breguet balance-spring.Dial and movement signed.Diam. 34 mm.


LOADING IMAGES
Click to full view
Image
Grading System
Grade:
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 2

Very good
Dial: 2 - 6 - 01

Notes

Ref. 5004Production of this reference number started in 1995. This highly complicated manually wound wristwatch combines asplit-second chronograph with the functions of the perpetual calendar and moon phase. It is made up of a total of 404parts.What is a split-seconds chronograph?A split-seconds chronograph or 'rattrapante' is a type of chronograph watch with two coaxial superimposed center-secondshands that are controlled by two push-buttons. One push-button controls the split-seconds hand to stop or jointhe chronograph hand. The other push-buttons control both the hands and all of the functions of the chronograph. Thetwo hands, the chronograph hand and the split-seconds hand, are used for timing several events that start simultaneouslybut are of different durations. To operate the split-seconds chronograph, both hands are started and remainsuperimposed. Then at the end of the first duration, the split-seconds hand can be stopped while the chronograph handcontinues to move. The duration of the first event can be read. After recording, the split-seconds hand can be released toinstantly move and join the chronograph hand, synchronizing with it and thus ready for another recording. At the end ofeach event the hands can be stopped and then returned to zero.The split-seconds chronograph, in its present form, was first introduced in 1880. Split-seconds chronographwristwatches came on the market circa 1922 by Patek Philippe (the first known wristwatch of this kind was PatekPhilippe No. 124824, case no. 235326, which was sold by Antiquorum as lot 448 on November 14, 1999 for US $1,918,387, which is the highest price ever realized for a wristwatch at auction). This wristwatch appeared five yearsprior to the official release of the split-seconds chronograph, making Patek Philippe the first manufacture to create thismodel. As they require a complicated and technical mechanism, these watches are desirable, very collectible andextremely difficult to make which accounts for their rarity.