Fine Swiss gold minute repeating pocket watch Circa 1893

Gold minute repeating watch
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A fine Swiss gold open faced minute repeating watch, made in 1893, retailed by Bailey Banks & Biddle, nickel lever movement designated Special, precision regulator, highly jeweled, two hammers repeating on two gongs • white enamel dial with radial Arabic numerals, outer minute track with red numerals, subsidiary seconds, hand lacking, 18k gold case, slide to activate the minute repeater, gold cuvette, monogram to the case back, dial signed by retailer, case signed by maker, movement and cuvette signed by maker and retailer
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Diameter: 46 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe & Bailey Banks & Biddle
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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.