Swiss ‘World Time’ dress watch with a long gold chain Circa 1964

World Time dress watch by Patek Philippe
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A very fine and very rare 18 Carat yellow gold keyless ‘World Time’ dress watch with a long 18 Carat yellow gold chain. Accompanied by a Patek Philippe fitted box and the ‘Extract from the Archives’. Made by Patek Philippe, Genève in 1964, sold on September 3^rd, 1964. Three body, solid, ‘variée’ and polished case with brushed back and milled revolving bezel.
Silver dial with applied yellow gold baton hour indexes, outer Arabic dark and light revolving chapter ring for day and night hours and the world time chapter ring, bearing the name of 41 locations around the world and revolving with the bezel according to the Louis Cottier world time patent and yellow gold halberd & dauphine hands. Heures Universelles and Rhodium-plated movement with Geneva striping decoration, 18 jewels, straight-line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and five positions and blued steel Breguet balance spring with swan-neck micrometre regulator. Dial, case and movement signed.
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Diameter: 44.5 mm
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Signed: Patek Philippe, Genève
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The Patek Philippe ‘WORLD TIME’ system was invented circa 1935 by Louis Cottier (1894-1966), a famous independent watchmaker in Geneva. This system was used by Patek Philippe and also by other major names in the Swiss watch industry, such as Agassiz, Rolex and Vacheron Constantin. The ‘halberd’ hour hand of the present watch is the type usually only found on the Ref. 605 with a cloisonné dial. Ref. 605 HU was produced between the 1940’s and 1960’s and is a series of dress watches bearing the names of approximately 30 to 41 cities in the world on the revolving bezel. Some examples have a matte silvered dial or black dial; others have a cloisonné enamel dial. They were made as follows:

– in pink gold, with silvered guilloché dial
– in pink gold, with a translucent enamel dial
– in pink gold, with a cloisonné enamel dial representing various continents
– in yellow gold, with silvered guilloché dial in yellow gold, with translucent enamel dial
– in yellow gold, with a cloisonné enamel dial representing various continents.
One example is known to date in white gold, with a cloisonné enamel dial representing various continents.