Patek Philippe Genève, Movement No. 875078, Case No. 2824140, Ref. 3971, Cal. CH 27-70 Q, 36 mm, circa 1987

A gentleman's very fine and extremely rare Geneva wristwatch with chronograph, perpetual calendar, leap year indicator and moon phase - with Patek Philippe extract from the archives
Case: 18k gold, glazed push back, 18k Patek Philippe gold buckle. Dial : silvered, applied gold indexes, auxiliary seconds, 30 min. and 12h counter, moon phase, indicators for day, date, month and leap year, gold leaf hands. Movm.: bridge movement, rhodium-plated, "fausses côtes" decoration, 11 adj., 24 jewels, very finely ground and bevelled chronograph steel parts, ratchet wheel, Geneva quality hallmark, Gyromax balance, shock protection for balance.

Ref. 3971
The ref. 3970/3971 (1986-2005) was introduced on the occasion of Patek Philippe's 150th anniversary and was intended to replace the successful model ref. 2499. When Patek Philippe first launched this new series of watches in 1986, Ref. 3970 was the model bearing a metallic back, while Ref. 3971 was equipped with a sapphire back. Very soon, the reference number of this model was standardized to Ref. 3970. In consequence, very few examples of the present watch bear Ref. 3971.