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Lot Essay
US$300,000-500,000
With Patek Philippe undated Certificate of Origin, instruction manual, product literature, leather wallet, fitted presentation box and outer packaging. Furthermore delivered with Patek Philippe Extract from the Archives confirming production of the present watch with white enamel dial and applied Breguet numerals in white gold in 1993 and its subsequent sale on 25 February 1994.
The present lot is in excellent condition.
The minute repeater was believed to have been invented in the mid-1680s by an Englishman called Daniel Quare. Before the days of electricity, it allowed the wearer to tell the time in the dark. In this age of technology, minute repeaters still involve an exacting level of craftsmanship, it is often said that the maker of a minute repeater requires the ear of a musician and the hand of a surgeon.
One of the most elegant and subtle of the Patek Philippe grand complication timepieces, Reference 3939 unites the sonorous charms of a two-gong minute repeater with the gravity-defying precision of a tourbillon escapement. In keeping with its eternal style, Reference 3939 ignores the contemporary trend for larger dials, measuring 33 mm. in diameter, an achievement for such a technically sophisticated timepiece. This is also one of the very few Patek Philippe references to feature an enamel dial blessed with Breguet-style numerals.
And last but not least as any of its minute repeating peers, the present watch had to pass a final test before being handed over to its future owner. Since Patek Philippe launched the production of these cherished timepieces in 1989, not a single one left the workshop before Philippe Stern, the company's president until 2009, now honorable president, deemed its chiming of the hour worthy of the firm's high standards. In the tranquillity of his office, he listened to the sounds of each watch to assure the inimitable richness of timbre that, as the Calatrava cross, is one of the trademarks of Patek Philippe's minute repeating wristwatches.
With Patek Philippe undated Certificate of Origin, instruction manual, product literature, leather wallet, fitted presentation box and outer packaging. Furthermore delivered with Patek Philippe Extract from the Archives confirming production of the present watch with white enamel dial and applied Breguet numerals in white gold in 1993 and its subsequent sale on 25 February 1994.
The present lot is in excellent condition.
The minute repeater was believed to have been invented in the mid-1680s by an Englishman called Daniel Quare. Before the days of electricity, it allowed the wearer to tell the time in the dark. In this age of technology, minute repeaters still involve an exacting level of craftsmanship, it is often said that the maker of a minute repeater requires the ear of a musician and the hand of a surgeon.
One of the most elegant and subtle of the Patek Philippe grand complication timepieces, Reference 3939 unites the sonorous charms of a two-gong minute repeater with the gravity-defying precision of a tourbillon escapement. In keeping with its eternal style, Reference 3939 ignores the contemporary trend for larger dials, measuring 33 mm. in diameter, an achievement for such a technically sophisticated timepiece. This is also one of the very few Patek Philippe references to feature an enamel dial blessed with Breguet-style numerals.
And last but not least as any of its minute repeating peers, the present watch had to pass a final test before being handed over to its future owner. Since Patek Philippe launched the production of these cherished timepieces in 1989, not a single one left the workshop before Philippe Stern, the company's president until 2009, now honorable president, deemed its chiming of the hour worthy of the firm's high standards. In the tranquillity of his office, he listened to the sounds of each watch to assure the inimitable richness of timbre that, as the Calatrava cross, is one of the trademarks of Patek Philippe's minute repeating wristwatches.