Patek Philippe

This Patek Philippe has an extraordinary history.

It was presented by Adrien Philippe, the co-founder of Patek Philippe, to his darling daughter Louise.

This incredibly important provenance is confirmed by the family, which had been preciously keeping this treasure until today. The back of the watch is decorated with the finely engraved initials of its original owner. 

According to our research, the watch was made around 1875 as a pendant watch with keyless winding mechanism, an invention made by Adrien Philippe.

It was then later transformed into a wristwatch around 1920. Since the work was not recorded, an Extract from the Archives could not be delivered for the watch. However, this does not detract from the hugely important provenance of this timepiece.

This watch was given to Louise at a pivotal moment for her life, her family history and the history of Patek Philippe.

Indeed, 1875 was the year Louise married Joseph Antoine Benassy. Therefore, this watch was most probably the wedding present from Adrien to his daughter. Furthermore, Antoine Norbert de Patek passed away in 1877. He was then replaced as the commercial director of the company by Joseph Antoine Bénassy. Mr. Benassy was the husband of Louise and, as such, the son-in-law of Adrien Philippe. To make this affiliation even more obvious, Joseph Antoine Bénassy decided to add his wife’s maiden name to his last name, becoming Mr. Benassy-Philippe.

The period when the watch became a wristwatch and was fitted with the luminescent dial is also interesting for two reasons at least. From the Benassy-Philippe perspective, the grandson of Joseph Antoine Benassy, called Léon, was the last family member active as a watchmaker in the Patek Philippe company between 1919 and 1921. It is easy to speculate that he was involved in the transformation of the present lot.

The transformation gave the watch a strong contemporary, sport and even masculine look. The objective was clearly to improve it to the highest standards of the time.

Most probably in an effort to respect the history of the watch and its illustrious provenance, the high-quality work on the case was minimal, by the addition of the four straight lugs and a wristwatch winding crown. The rest of the case remained untouched, including the monogramed back and the signed cuvette. 

The dial is typical of that period with large luminescent Arabic numeral and squelette hands . It also has the distinctive "Victory" layout. The "V" dial has an underline under "Genève". If a lign is drawn from the P of Patek to the underline and another one from the underline to the Cie, it creates a V, hence the name. These dial were produced from the end of WW1 and for about 10 years. It creates a pleasant perspective for the eyes, which converge from the top of the dial and are redirected to the center.

The 15 jewels movement is matching the case number and has been preserved with its original high quality features, such as the wolf teeth winding wheels and the moustache escapement.

Interestingly, it was well accepted and not rare for a timepiece to know a second life that way. One of the most important and famous watches in the world lived the same destiny around the same time: the Patek Philippe 97’975, better known as the first perpetual calendar wristwatch. It was made as a wristwatch in 1925 before being sold to American watch collector Mr. Thomas Emery in 1927. However, its movement was initially realized in 1898 to be housed in a lady’s pendant watch, similarly to this present lot.

The present watch, offered by the co-founder of Patek Philippe for his daughter, most probably as a wedding present, who was also the wife of the successor of the other co-founder of the brand, later improved to meet the 20^th century requirements allowing this watch to be still worn in today’s standards and preserved within the original family, ensuring an undisputable provenance, make this lot a one-of-a-kind opportunity to acquire a piece of history of the most prestigious watch Manufacture in the world.

Jean Adrien Philippe (more commonly referred as Adrien Philippe) was born in 1815 in Bazoche-Gouet, France. At the age of 18, he left the family house to continue to develop his watchmaking skills that he learnt from his father. He first went to the Northern part of France before going to London and finally to Switzerland to find new ideas and developments for watches.

In 1842, he focused his attention on winding and setting systems through the pendant, as opposed to a key system. He studied the previous attempts made by other watchmakers and came up with a better solution.

He presented his discovery at the Exhibition of the Products of French Industry in 1844. Unfortunately, it was not a great commercial success. However, a certain Antoine Norbert de Patek bought one of his watches and travelled to Paris to meet with Adrien Philippe as he was looking for a new business partner. This led the company to be renamed from Patek & Cie à Genève to Patek Philippe & Cie in 1851.

Throughout his entire life, Adrien continued his research, wrote articles in the Journal de Genève, as well as a book about Keyless watches.

Sotheby’s is grateful to the descents of the original owner of this timepiece for their precious assistance and sharing family archives and documentation.