Patek Philippe. A very fine and rare stainless steel wristwatch with indirect sweep centre seconds, Breguet numerals, luminous accents and luminous hands

Many of the watches offered for sale in this catal… Read more

PATEK PHILIPPESteel Ref. 565 with Breguet Numerals, Luminous Dots and Hands

Patek Philippe. A very fine and rare stainless steel wristwatch with indirect sweep centre seconds, Breguet numerals, luminous accents and luminous hands

Signed Patek Philippe, Genève, ref. 565, movement no. 861'918, case no. 652'390, manufactured in 1949

Details

Patek Philippe. A very fine and rare stainless steel wristwatch with indirect sweep centre seconds, Breguet numerals, luminous accents and luminous hands
Signed Patek Philippe, Genève, ref. 565, movement no. 861'918, case no. 652'390, manufactured in 1949
Movement: cal. 12'''SC, manual, 20 jewels, metal dust cap, signed
Dial: luminous dots and hands, signed
Case: screw back, 34 mm. diam., signed
With: Patek Philippe Extract from the Archives confirming production of the present watch in 1949 with Breguet hour markers in white gold and luminous dots and its subsequent sale on 29th September 1950

Special Notice

Many of the watches offered for sale in this catalogue are pictured with straps made of endangered or protected animal materials such as alligator or crocodile. These endangered species straps are shown for display purposes only and are not for sale. Christie’s will remove and retain the strap prior to shipment from the sale site. At some sale sites, Christie’s may, at its discretion, make the displayed endangered species strap available to the buyer of the lot free of charge if collected in person from the sale site within 1 year of the date of the sale. Please check with the department for details on a particular lot.

Lot Essay

This watch is an exceedingly rare example of a reference 565 in stainless steel, featuring a silvered dial with the much sought after Breguet numerals and luminous dots, all confirmed by the Extract from the Archives. Research has revealed that only nine other examples with this particular configuration have been offered in public to date.

It is fitted with the celebrated calibre 12'''SC with indirect centre seconds. The ébauche was the result of Victorin Piguet's and Patek Philippe's collaboration, where the centre seconds mechanism was ingeniously added to the existing 12'''120 "subsidiary seconds" movement.

The appeal of this rare ref. 565 is furthermore enhanced by its very good, original overall condition

Reference 565
Reference 565, the first large water-resistant watch featuring a two-piece case with screw back and dust cover, was available with either subsidiary or sweep centre seconds. The first series was launched in 1938 with calibre 12'''120, the second with calibre 12’’’400, such as the present watch, in 1950. The centre seconds version featuring a calibre 12 SCi movement started in 1939, replaced by the new calibre 27 SC as of 1949.

The timelessly modern design of reference 565 served as inspiration for the creation of the 2006 stainless steel inaugural reference 5565.

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