Patek Philippe staged its largest ever foreign exhibition in London this week at the Saatchi Gallery.
It was impressive. Allow us to share some impressions.
Called the ‘Watch Art Exhibition’ it was even 30% larger than the Munich exhibition Patek held over two years ago (you can see the Munich exhibition here).
Whoever was in Patek’s Geneva main ‘Salon’ and store will have to admit- it was as if you were walking through the Geneva salon- it was very impressive. It was also wonderful that Patek brought over many important museum pieces- some of which we will cover here (only a small amount though and the absolute highlights).
Patek is dedicated to preserving all areas of watchmaking like that of enameling, making table clocks and pocket watches. According to Patek officials, Patek only sold an estimated 3 pocket watches in London last year but Patek is still dedicated to preserving the know-how and skill that goes into Pocket watches.
It is much the same with table clocks. Patek brought some watchmakers but also experts in the art of Enamel, engraving to showcase its know-how and expertise. The exhibition clearly reflected Patek’s status today: It is the undisputed king and master of complicated watches of the highest standard.
Even though Patek today produces around 45′-50′ooo watches a year- it still feels like a small and intimate family run organization. Imran (one of the Patek moderators of PuristSPro) kindly organized a breakfast and private tour which was carried out by Patek of the United Kingdom (Rhone Products).
We are showing our top 5-7 favorite pieces out of the over 400 lots that were brought to London.
Visitors were greeted with this sign that looked exactly like a sign seen in Geneva. But we were in London.
Below with the personal notebook of Adrien Philippe, one of the founders of Patek Philippe from 1863 about keyless winding systems.
Here is a fact I did not know before: Mr. Adrien Philippe invented the winding crown and keyless winding system. This allowed watches to be wound and set to the correct time with a single crown. This pretty much paved the way for wristwatches to grow and become more important than pocket watches with time. So Adrien Philippe was with this keyless winding system the driving force behind the start of the wristwatch. Below the first winding crown.
In 1924 the first minute repeating wristwatch was introduced by Patek. It was small at only 27mm width. I assume this is a steel version.
The next window was perhaps my favorite window of all: The Worldtime Enamel window in all three forms: Table clock, pocket-watch and wristwatch. According to an Enamel specialist it takes her 5 days to make one worldtime Enamel dial. One watch. Five days. Just the dial. No wonder on the modern worldtime – there is far more demand than supply. It is an art that is becoming increasingly hard to do. The pocketwatch (far right – Ref 605 HU) was originally delivered to Theodore Beyer of Zurich in 1945. The wristwatch (middle) is ref2523 HU – a beautiful two crown worldtime from Patek with enamel world dial (for a similar watch that recently sold at auction please see here).
Can it get any better? Well maybe. The next window carried some of the rarest complications ever made. First off- a beautiful and extremely rare split seconds chronograph, that on first instance looks similar to a 2499 first or second series but is reference 2571. The watch was very large (39.9mm) for its time (1955) and not many of this reference are known. I am quite confident if this watch, the 2571 ever came up at auction it would make the price of a 2499 even in pink gold first series look like a bargain (a pink gold first series 2499 fetched $2.7m recently).
Staying with the ‘crème de la crème’ of Patek Haute Horlogerie- we have a fine first series 2499 up next. This is one of the most beautiful watches. Extremely masculine with the square pushers. (Thank you PS for the picture). The size at 37.5mm is quite a bit larger than the 1518 before it.
The next watch is perhaps even more more impressive not in size (an extremely large 46mm) but also in rarity (piece unique). It served as inspiration for the legendary 5070 that Patek introduced in 1998.
Complicated pocket watches from the 1920s were also on display at Pateks grand exhibition in London. Like this magnificent perpetual calendar split second chronograph with minute repeating function.
Last but not least an example of Enamel work that Patek still does. This Big Ben edition was done specially for the London 2015 exhibition.
We would like to thank PuristSPro for organizing this tour and Patek Philippe for their generous hospitality.
