Swiss 18 carat white gold keyless dress watch Circa 1926

White gold open faced lever
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A fine Swiss 18K white gold keyless dress watch with white gold Breguet numerals, circa 1926. Accompanied by the Extract from the Archives. Sold on December 1st, 1927.
A polished case, snap-on case back. Brushed silver dial with applied white gold Breguet numerals, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds dial and white gold Breguet hands. A rhodium-plated movement, Geneva striping decoration, 18 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance with eight adjustments, blued steel flat balance spring, and an index regulator. Dial, case and movement signed.
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Diameter: 43 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe & Cie  Genève
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The case is slightly scratched.
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On May 1st, 1839 the Polish businessman and aristocrat Antoine Norbert Count de Patek and the Polish watchmaker Franciszek Czapek founded a company in Geneva named Patek, Czapek & Cie. Czapek lived in Switzerland since 1832 and changed his name to François Czapek when he became nationalized. The company ran well but each went their own way in 1844 and set up their own company: Czapek & Cie which continued till 1869 and Patek & Cie. 1844 Patek met the French watchmaker Jean-Adrien Philippe at the Paris World’s Fair. Philippe had already enriched the watch’s history with one of its most revolutionary inventions: the crown winding. Since then watches needed no longer to be wound with an additional key, but both the winding and the time adjustment of the hands could now be performed much easier by the crown. 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.