Swiss 18K gold hunting cased lever chronograph Circa 1881

Gold chronograph 
–
A Swiss 18 carat gold hunting cased keyless lever chronograph pocket watch made for the Spanish market by Patek Philippe in Geneva, circa 1881. Retailed by M. de Arregui in Madrid, Spain. The nickel finished lever movement with wolf’s tooth winding. / Gold cuvette. White enamel dial with Roman hour numerals, an outer minute track with fifth of a second divisions and Arabic five minute numerals, subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and blued hands. The plain case with a chronograph button in the band. Case, cuvette and movement signed, dial additionally signed by the retailer.
–
Diameter: 50 mm
–
Signed: Patek Philippe Y Cia Ginebra
–
In 1844, Patek met the French watchmaker Jean-Adrien Philippe, who demonstrated his new invention: the first watch without a wind-up key. Patek and Philippe decided to work together from 1845, and in 1851 their company Patek Philippe and Cie was founded. In 1901, the name was officially Ancienne Manufacture d’Horlogerie Patek Philippe and Cie, S.A.
–
The company has 70 patents and produces the entire clockwork in-house.
–
Patek Philippe (1839), 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. The very luxurious timepieces are of high quality and therefore often raise record amounts at auctions. A pocket watch produced in 1933 was sold for 11 million in 1999 at an auction of Sotheby’s. A world record at that time. On November 11th, 2014, it was auctioned again and this time it was sold for 19 million euros.