Swiss gold chronograph with 60-minutes and 12-hour registers Circa 1925

Gold open faced lever
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A Swiss 18 carat yellow gold keyless chronograph pocket watch with 60 minutes and 12-hour registers, circa 1925. A polished case, hinged case back with engraved initial, co-axial button in the crown for start/stop chronograph function, locking bolt at 11 o`clock. Concealed hinge and a hinged gold cuvette. White enamel dial with painted radial Paris numerals, outer 1/5th seconds track with five-second Arabic numerals, 60-minute register at 12, 12-hour register at 6 and blued steel spade hands. Nickel silver movement, Geneva striping decoration, 24 jewels, counterpoised straight-line lever escapement, cut-bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring, swan-neck micrometre regulator, registers.
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Diameter: 46 mm
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Signed: Patek, Philippe & Cie  Geneva
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Accompanied by a fitted box and Extract from the Archives
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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 was applied. They produced 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 was 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 was 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), who took office in 2009 as president.
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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, to a minute repeater with a large and small carillion, an alarm function, a tourbillon, a perpetual calendar, a split-second chronograph movement and over 20 other complications. The most complicated pocket watch movement at all.
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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).