Important Swiss 18k gold complicated pocket watch Circa 1965

Gold repeating lever watch
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An important and rare Swiss 18 carat yellow gold open faced perpetual calendar minute repeating split seconds chronograph watch with moon phases and register, circa 1965. Nickel lever movement, 42 jewels, bimetallic balance with pink gold compensation screws, precision regulator, two hammers repeating on two gongs. Silvered dial, applied yellow gold baton indexes, yellow gold dauphine hands, four subsidiary dials for month, day, date combined with 30 minute register and constant seconds combined with moon phases, outer scale calibrated for 60 units with fifths of a second divisions. Case with stepped bezels, stepped bow, minute repeating slide to the band at 9 o’clock, split seconds pusher at 11 o’clock. Case, dial and movement signed. 
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Diameter: 53 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe Genève
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Accompanied by an Extract from the Archives confirming date of sale on November 6, 1965. Also with a 1981 letter from Patek Philippe with additional information. In the 1960s, Patek Philippe sold, in very limited quantities, a celebrated group of what would go on to be known as the ‘Modern’ pocket watches. From the vaults of the great maison, a number of complicated movements from the early 20th century were discovered and, in a stroke of genius, housed in cases radically different from those produced contemporary to the movements.

Instead, the cases featured bold lines, from their dauphine hands to their stepped bezels. The cases were designed by Antoine Gerlach, interestingly, the same casemaker as for the famed Ref. 3448. Indeed, the similarities between this series of pocket watches and the architectural vintage wristwatch are distinctly apparent. The sharp edges at every turn were then, and continue to be, a welcome shift from the more conservative ‘bassine’ form cases most typically associated with the pocket watch format. Today, collectors who typically seek vintage wristwatches by the firm take special note of this category: it is a pocket watch for the pocket watch collector, but in a novel twist, also perfectly befitting a wristwatch collector. 

From the ‘Modern’ pocket watch genre, there are so far about 20 references known, most understood to exist only in one or two examples. Ref. 767 is, interestingly, a reference that represents the transition into the ‘Modern’ category. Of the 7 known examples, each piece has a different case and dial, and they are distinguished by the suffix to the reference number (/1, /2, /3). Some resemble more classic earlier pocket watches, and some, like the present, carry the attributes of the ‘Modern’ pocket watches. The known examples from this reference are unified in their shared complications. According to our research, the present lot is the only Ref. 767/3 known to exist. 

Similar pieces are illustrated in Patek Philippe Museum: Patek Philippe Watches, Vol. I, pp. 435-6.