Exquisite Swiss platinum open faced lever dress watch Circa 1949

Platinum dress watch by Patek Philippe
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An exquisite, thin Swiss platinum open faced lever dress watch, circa 1949. Bridge movement, lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance. Silvered solid gold dial with applied diamond indexes, outer minute dots pearled by hand, hand-engraved, enamelled subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and fine white gold feuille hands made by Stern Frères. Plain case. Dial signed, case numbered, cuvette and movement signed and numbered. Comes with the original presentation box and an Extract from the Archives.
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Diameter: 43 mm
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Weight: 51 g
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Signed: Patek, Philippe & Co Genève
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Reference 600. About 85 models of this reference appeared on the market in the last 30 years. That this reference model is a great classic from Patek Philippe is confirmed by its long production, on special demand, from 1933 to 1969. The present piece is for sure the best one of that reference that ever showed up in the market and one of the few with its original presentation box.
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This exquisite dress watch is complicated, not for its highly finished movement but for the rare handcraft of its dial. Stone-setting of dials became popular in the 1920ies. Stern in those days used a special technique from a patent of its workshop specialist Mr Stumpo. The white gold settings are driven into specially prepared openings of the dial and fixed by handcraft to the back. The technique allows a more harmonious and lower appearance to the dial surface. 
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On May 1st, 1839 the Polish businessman and aristocrat Antoine Norbert Count de Patek and the Polish watchmaker Franciszek Czapek founded a company in Geneva named Patek, Czapek & Cie. Czapek lived in Switzerland since 1832 and changed his name to François Czapek when he became nationalized. The company ran well but each went their own way in 1844 and set up their own company: Czapek & Cie which continued till 1869 and Patek & Cie. 1844 Patek met the French watchmaker Jean-Adrien Philippe at the Paris World’s Fair. Philippe had already enriched the watch’s history with one of its most revolutionary inventions: the crown winding. Since then watches needed no longer to be wound with an additional key, but both the winding and the time adjustment of the hands could now be performed much easier by the crown. On May 15^th, 1845 Jean-Adrien Philippe and Vincent Gostkowski entered the company. In the same year, a patent for a watch with a winding stem and hand adjustment mechanism is applied. They produce the first watch with a minute repeater. On January 1^st, 1851 the company’s name was changed to Patek, Philippe & Cie. In 1881, a patent for a precision adjustment is applied by Philippe. On February 1^st, 1901 Patek, Philippe & Cie was converted into a stock corporation and renamed Ancienne Manufacture d’Horlogerie Patek, Philippe & Cie S.A. A patent for a double chronograph is applied in 1902. The company continues through significant inventions, which are highly regarded. In 1932, Patek Philippe was taken over by Charles and Jean Stern, after which the company name changed to Patek Philippe S.A. Thierry Stern (fourth generation) took office in 2009 as president. The company has 70 patents and produces the entire clockwork in-house. Their luxurious timepieces are of high quality and therefore often raise record amounts at auctions. A pocket watch produced in 1933 was sold at auction for 11 million euros in 1999. A world record at that time. On November 11^th, 2014, it was auctioned again and this time it was sold for 19 million euros. On the occasion of the 150^th-anniversary celebration in 1989, the legendary Calibre 89 is presented, which took nine years to develop. With 33 complications and 1728 components, this watch is regarded as a pocket watch of superlatives. Both dials together it has 24 hands and 12 dials, in addition, a minute repeater with a large and small carillion, an alarm function, a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar, a split-seconds chronograph movement and over 20 other complications. The most complicated pocket watch movement at all. Patek Philippe, together with Audemars Piguet (1875), Vacheron Constantin (1755) and A. Lange und Söhne (1845) is considered to be ‘the big four’ in the watchmaking world. Today it is one of the few still independent watch companies. The company is also the only Geneva manufacturer, whose entire production of mechanical watch movements is awarded with the Geneva Seal (Poinçon de Genève).