Swiss 18 carat gold and enamel watch with seven complications Circa 1922

Astronomical watch with extract from the archives
–
An 1mportant gold and enamel pocket watch with seven complications and extract from the archives, made by Patek, Philippe & Cie in Genève, Switzerland, circa 1922. The numbered open faced case of this watch was crafted from 18 carat gold and enamel, features a back with a blue guilloché enamel inlay, representing the moon and stars to symbolise that this is an astronomical pocket watch. The numbered white enamel dial features black Arabic hour numerals and dials at 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock for respectively the months, dates and seconds, days and moon phase and age and blued steel hands. The glazed movement, features a highly complicated Patek, Philippe lever escapement with seven complications: a perpetual calendar, moon phase and moon age and minute repeater, Geneva striping decoration, a fine adjusting device, 31 jewels, adjustments in eight positions and winding wheels with wolf’s toothing.
The dial and movement have matching numbers and the dial, case and movement are signed.
–
Diameter: 53,5 mm
–
Weight: 133 g
–
Signed: Patek Philippe & C^O, Genève
–
The watch presented here is in its original box and comes with a current Patek, Philippe extract from the archives.
–
This is an extremely rare Patek, Philippe watch with an extremely unusual gold and enamel case, possibly unique. The watch was in the USA for decades. Another plain gold case was made there by Tiffany. The reason was probably a mismatched gift dedication that was in the original case. Fortunately, the original case was not destroyed. In 2005, the previous owner requested another extract from the archives for the variant in the original case.
After the change of ownership, the movement is now only in its original case. The engraving on the edge of the inner lid has been polished out. A third, now current extract from the archives was requested for the watch in 2023, which confirms the originality and the special enamel case. Such case decorations were usually requested by customers and were commissioned by Patek, Philippe from local engravers and enamellers and were not carried out in house. Nonetheless, they are mentioned in the extract from the archives.