Swiss gold five-minute repeating lever pocket watch Circa 1900

Gold hunting cased watch with perpetual calendar
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A very fine and extremely rare, small Swiss, five-minute repeating 18K gold keyless pocket watch, circa 1900. With perpetual calendar without month indication by Tiffany & Co., Geneva. A polished bassine, glazed gold-rimmed cuvette. White enamel dial with unusual Arabic numerals over the minute track, subsidiary dials in red for the date, days of the week and seconds. Blued steel spade hands.

A rhodium-plated movement, Geneva striping decoration, 29 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, swan-neck micrometre regulator, repeating on gongs activated by a slide on the band. Dial and movement signed.
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Diameter: 42 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe Geneva
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The present watch, due to its small size, has a very unusual dial in which the numerals are placed over the minute track to allow space for the subsidiary dials. The perpetual calendar is of a very unusual and rare type, the dial only showing the days of the week and the date with no month indication. In effect, this means that the calendar must be set by a watchmaker and then kept going so that the calendar stays in sequence. Tiffany, Genève The New York firm, founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany opened a branch in Geneva in 1872 on the site of the actual hotel Cornavin. The aim was to have watch movements made entirely under one roof but the Geneva workers were not accustomed to working in this way and the branch, which specialized in complicated and very high-quality horological pieces ceased operations in 1879. Patek Philippe soon took over the management and the operations of the Tiffany factory in Geneva. Patek Philippe continued then to supply Tiffany with watches (usually marked on the dial “Tiffany & Co.”)