Fine Swiss yellow gold and enamel pocket watch Circa 1923

Gold and enamel pocket watch
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A fine Swiss yellow gold and enamel open faced pocket watch, made in 1923, retailed by S.H. Kirby & Son, New Haven, manual winding nickel lever movement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, silvered dial, art deco Arabic numerals, gold Breguet hands, subsidiary seconds, outer pearled minute track, 18k yellow gold case, hinged back with black and blue champlevé enamel bezels, case, dial and movement signed by maker, movement signed by retailer.
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Diameter: 44 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe & Cie Geneva Switzerland
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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.
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The company has 70 patents and produces the entire clockwork in-house.
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Patek Philippe (1839), together with Audemars Piguet (1875), Vacheron Constantin (1755) and A. Lange und Sohne (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 11 November 2014 it was auctioned again and this time it was sold for 19 million euros.