Patek Philippe

Sotheby’s is honoured to present the famous and historically important self-winding wristwatch, made in 1952 and sold to the renowned collector J.B. Champion. This wristwatch was the first self-winding wristwatch made by Patek Philippe and is arguably one of the most important vintage watches to appear on the market for many years.

The reference 2526 needs no introduction and is one of the greatest time-only models of all time. First introduced at the Basel Fair in 1953, the watch was Patek Philippe’s first self-winding watch and fitted with a luxurious enamel dial. The dial was chosen to be made of enamel as they wanted a medium that would not tarnish or age. The reference was in production until 1960 and can be divided into four different series. According to literature, 3,000 movements were made, however, after the last 40 years of auctions, only 320 pieces in yellow gold, 95 in pink gold, 21 in white gold and 23 in platinum have re-surfaced. The reference was fitted with the calibre 12-600 AT, which is one of the finest automatic calibres ever made. The movement itself was highly decorated and fitted with a finely engraved gold rotor. Today, it is standard for a watch company to engrave the movement that is seen by everybody through a sapphire crystal display back. However, 62 years ago, a watch fitted with a solid case back, the movement was only ever seen by a watchmaker. The movement therefore illustrates how proud Patek Philippe was of their new automatic calibre.

Today, due to scholarship and technology, one can identify specific aspects of the very first reference 2526 made, compared to the later generations. The majority of reference 2526 movements were fitted with a gyromax balance, however, we now know that the earliest or first 150 movements were fitted by a bi-metallic compensation balance. The case was made of 3 pieces, the case back, centre case and bezel. It is highly unusual to be able to remove a bezel from a reference 2526. The first and earliest movements also had no ball bearing mechanism. Between 1953 and 1954, we see the reference evolve into a 2-part case, the evolution of the winding trigger reinforcement, screw setting and winding weights.

The present wristwatch was the first 2526 ever made and represents Patek Philippe’s first self-winding wristwatch. It was saved for their most important collector of this period, J.B. Champion. In 1953, the reference was first introduced in the Basel Fair and it would appear that the Henri Stern Agency waited until after the Fair to gauge the level of popularity before presenting the watch to Mr. Champion as it was delivered in the summer of 1953, some months after the Basel Fair.

First seen on the market at Antiquorum in 1991, the watch re-appeared in 1998 where it was purchased by the current collector, who changed the bracelet to the current one fitted and has remained in his important collection for the past 26 years. The watch is accompanied by a letter dated 27^th June 1953 from Werner Sonn, the president of the Henri Stern Agency at the time. The letter confirms the provenance of the watch being delivered to Mr Champion and the important confirmation that it is indeed the firm’s very first self-winding wristwatch.

J.B. Champion was born in Dallas, Texas on 16^th August 1917 and died 27^th May 1975. His profession was criminal defence and he was a very successful lawyer. It is unknown how many watches Mr Champion owned but he bought his majority of watches from Linz Bros, a retailer in Texas and the Henri Stern Agency in New York. In the last 30 years, only 3 of his watches have surfaced on the market, all designated made especially for J. B. Champion, the present watch, the record breaking platinum observatory watch sold by Christie's, 12th November 2012, lot 88 for the staggering sum of 3.8 M CHF and a chronometer tested open face watch sold at Christies in Geneva in 2004.

Sotheby’s is thrilled to be given the opportunity and the trust to offer this highly historical and important time-only watches, but also an important milestone not only in Patek Philippe’s illustrious history and in the history of watchmaking.

The dial of the present watch is slightly domed and is an off-white enamel. The dial is intact and all original. The early dials, such as this one, bear the early style index markers as well, especially at 6 o'clock. The 6 o'clock marker is the same size as the other indexes, where in later generations, the 6 o'clock marker becomes much smaller. The markers are fitted through holes in the dial and around the index, the enamel is flared. The inscriptions on the dial are gilt with paint containing gold powder. The back of the dial is counter enamelled and fully covered, which is needed when heating the enamel dial as it stops the dial from cracking when it cools. The back of the present dial is counter enamelled with a green finish. All known 2526 dials are counter enamelled with a red finish, the green finish we have here is due to the early nature and prototype aspect of the dial. It was not made in a batch of other dials but made specifically for this early important watch. 

The movement, intended to be sold in the US, bears the correct 'HOX' mark on the balance bridge. In addition, all movement parts bear the proper marks and are stamped with the last 3 digits of the movement number, 000.