REF. 2526J, “FIRST SERIES”, MOVEMENT NO. 760’141, CASE NO. 678’259, MANUFACTURED IN 1953

The present reference 2526 features a first-series dial. First-series dials are characterized by the small dimples that are found at each hour marker. The construction consisted of attaching the hour markers to the dials by setting them with pins. Patek Philippe stopped this practice relatively early in production as many dials were broken in the process. From that point onwards, most 2526 enamel dials had the hour markers glued to the dial. Consequently, reference 2526 with the first-series dials are highly desirable and sought after by collectors.

Reference 2526
Introduced into the market in 1952, reference 2526 was Patek Philippe's first self-winding or automatic watch, starting with movement number 760'000. The model features the legendary calibre 12-600 AT which was granted Swiss patent no. 289758 in 1953 for "a self-winding mechanism for a wristwatch movement using the energy supplied by a rotary mass causing an eccentric part to transmit a swinging movement to an organ of the mechanism".

The majority of reference 2526 was cased in yellow gold, a small series in pink gold and an exceedingly limited number in white gold and platinum. Mainly fitted with enamel dials with applied gold baton numerals, the white gold and platinum examples were also available with silvered metal dials with diamond indexes.