Patek Philippe. A highly unusual, early and historically interesting 18K gold half hunter case perpetual calendar keyless lever watch with unusual month indication

SIGNED PATEK PHILIPPE & CO., GENÈVE, RETAILED BY A.H. RODANET, PARIS, NO. 20'953, MANUFACTURED IN 1862

细节

Patek Philippe. A highly unusual, early and historically interesting 18K gold half hunter case perpetual calendar keyless lever watch with unusual month indication
Signed Patek Philippe & Co., Genève, retailed by A.H. Rodanet, Paris, no. 20'953, manufactured in 1862
Cal. 18''' gilt-finished lever movement, 25 jewels, bimetallic compensation balance, wolf's tooth winding, gold cuvette, the white enamel dial with Roman numerals, three subsidiary dials indicating phases of the moon combined with lunar calendar, day combined with constant seconds, date, window for the month to the lower half, in plain circular case with inlaid blue enamel Roman numerals and five minute divisions to the glazed aperture in the front, case numbered, cuvette signed by maker and retailer and numbered, movement numbered underneath the dial
50 mm. diam.

拍品专文

Accompanied by Patek Philippe Extract from the Archives confirming production of the present watch with hunter case in 1862 and its subsequent sale on 10 March 1874.

This watch is amongst the earliest perpetual calendar watches made by Patek Philippe: already in use before, the firm's perpetual calendar mechanism was patented in 1889. It is furthermore the only example known to date which such an uncommon dial layout. Whereas the month is normally shown in a separate subsidiary dial, the present watch features a small window to the lower part of the dial, visible through the aperture when the front cover is closed. Furthermore an unusually small indication of the days is incorporated within the constant seconds.

Only another early watch with a similar dial layout but with the addition of a retrograde date to the upper half is known to exist to date. This example, movement no. 25'308, is now on permanent exhibition at the prestigious Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva.

Interestingly, since the production of these two early watches in the 1860s, only two other watches by Patek Philippe have been fitted with a comparable dial layout: reference 871, the double dial secular "true" perpetual calendar watches, one made for Seth G. Atwood and offered in this auction, lot 222.