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Descrizione dettagliata lotto
Last seen at Christie’s in 2009, it is an honour to once again have the opportunity to offer this formidable second series 2497J for the 40th Anniversary of Christie’s in Asia auction of extraordinary watches. A legendary collector's piece from Patek Philippe’s ‘golden age’, this superb rarity will delight the future owner with its strong and generous case proportions, well defined stepped lugs and clear hallmarks. The silvered dial, made by Stern Frères on a solid gold plate, has developed an attractive, off-white patina of age that is so appealing to collectors of important vintage Patek Philippe.
Second series reference 2497 are extremely rare. The two different series are easily distinguished by their varying dial layouts: the first featuring applied Arabic and dot numerals and feuille hands, the second, such as the present watch, with applied baton numerals and dauphine hands. Watches with second series dials represent a minority of the already scarce production run of reference 2497, today fewer than 10 second series examples are known publicly from around 56 reference 2497 presently known to the market in total. Scholars have further categorized the second series dials, recognising two distinct variants defined by the shape of the gold indexes. ‘Mark I’ having flat-ended indexes, ‘Mark II’ indexes with pointed tips. According to those criteria, the present dial can be classified as ‘Mark I’, of which only around 5 examples are known publicly.
Reference 2497 is without a doubt among the rarest, most attractive and important vintage complicated wristwatch models by Patek Philippe. It was in production from 1951 to 1964, being officially launched at the Basel Fair in 1953. Over these 14 years a meagre 115 pieces were made in total. It is powered by the 27SC Q movement, a perpetual calendar upgrade (Q stands for Quantième Perpétuel) of the best manually wound centre seconds movement of the time: 27 SC (SC for Second au Centre). In fact, it was the first Patek Philippe movement to feature a perpetual calendar and sweep centre seconds. A specific movement number range was reserved for these movements: from 888’000 to 888’178. This means a total of 179 movements, 115 of them used for reference 2497 and the rest for its waterproof sister model, reference 2438⁄1.
The case of reference 2497 is a virtual carbon copy of the case of reference 2499, without of course the chronograph pushers. As with reference 2499, the case design presents an evolution over time. The first 40 or 50 cases were made by Emile Vichet, later pieces were cased by Wenger.
Second series reference 2497 are extremely rare. The two different series are easily distinguished by their varying dial layouts: the first featuring applied Arabic and dot numerals and feuille hands, the second, such as the present watch, with applied baton numerals and dauphine hands. Watches with second series dials represent a minority of the already scarce production run of reference 2497, today fewer than 10 second series examples are known publicly from around 56 reference 2497 presently known to the market in total. Scholars have further categorized the second series dials, recognising two distinct variants defined by the shape of the gold indexes. ‘Mark I’ having flat-ended indexes, ‘Mark II’ indexes with pointed tips. According to those criteria, the present dial can be classified as ‘Mark I’, of which only around 5 examples are known publicly.
Reference 2497 is without a doubt among the rarest, most attractive and important vintage complicated wristwatch models by Patek Philippe. It was in production from 1951 to 1964, being officially launched at the Basel Fair in 1953. Over these 14 years a meagre 115 pieces were made in total. It is powered by the 27SC Q movement, a perpetual calendar upgrade (Q stands for Quantième Perpétuel) of the best manually wound centre seconds movement of the time: 27 SC (SC for Second au Centre). In fact, it was the first Patek Philippe movement to feature a perpetual calendar and sweep centre seconds. A specific movement number range was reserved for these movements: from 888’000 to 888’178. This means a total of 179 movements, 115 of them used for reference 2497 and the rest for its waterproof sister model, reference 2438⁄1.
The case of reference 2497 is a virtual carbon copy of the case of reference 2499, without of course the chronograph pushers. As with reference 2499, the case design presents an evolution over time. The first 40 or 50 cases were made by Emile Vichet, later pieces were cased by Wenger.