93rd Auction

2016/5/14

Lot 225

Patek Philippe Genève / Koch Frankfurt, Movement No. 766994, Case No. 2612893, Ref. 3415, Cal. 12-600AT, 35 mm, circa 1960
A gentleman's rare and very fine automatic Geneva wristwatch "Calatrava" - sold on June 24th, 1960 - with Patek Philippe extract from the archives
Case: 18k gold, screw back with dedication engraving, "PP" crown. Dial: silvered, champagne-coloured, signature "Koch". Movm.: 18k gold rotorwind movement, Geneva quality hallmark, Gyromax balance.
Patek Philippe produced watches with reference 3415 only from about 1958 to 1960 and soon replaced the reference with reference 3429.
This watch is in a very good original condition and still has the original Patek Philippe crown with the letters "PP" embossed on the side. The endlinks are gently curved downward and emphasise the flat bezel with its stepped inside edge. The silvered dial has not been restored in any way and has nicely aged to a champagne colour. The black enamel letters and the small second indexes are still raised.
Reference 3415 uses the earliest self-winding Patek Philippe calibre (12-600AT), which was introduced in 1953 and also used for the first automatic wristwatch reference 2526. It took Patek Philippe a surprisingly long time to launch their first self-winding movement but – as was to be expected – when it finally came out, it proved to be a remarkable movement that had an extremely fine finish with Geneva stripes and a large, heavy 18k yellow gold rotor with engine-turned pattern. The striking design was created with great foresight at a time, when it was not yet fashionable to use the glazed backs that showed the beautiful movements inside.
Robert Koch, jeweller to the court, was sometimes called "the German Cartier who custom-made diadems for royal houses"
In 1879 Robert Koch opened a jewellery store with his brother Louis as a partner. The business soon gained an international reputation and a branch in Baden-Baden was opened. Amongst the clients were a number of royal houses such as the House of Hohenzollern and around the turn of the century the brothers Koch were awarded the title of jewellers to the court. The store continued with its exquisite and high value product range after the deaths of the Koch brothers and remained in business until 1986.
Source: http://www.stadtgeschichte-ffm.de/abteilungen/abteilung_3/03701inhalt.html, as of 10/05/2014.

estimated
10.50015.000 €
Price realized
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