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| Watches |
Patek Mystique
James D. Malcolmson
05/03/2004
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Collectors’ Vanguard
Although the fad for collecting prewar wristwatches
seems as if it has been around forever, in fact it is relatively recent. “Up
until 20 years ago, only pocket watches were considered collectible,” says Gregg
Esses, a dealer in high-grade vintage watches. “But as people discovered they
could combine collecting with something they could wear, the demand for
quality vintage watches, especially Patek Philippes, took off.”
HISTORY OF AN ICON
• 1812: Antoine Norbert de Patek de Prawdzic is born in
Poland.
• 1815: Jean Adrien Philippe is born in
France.
• 1845: Patek founds
Patek & Cie. with Philippe.
• 1851: The company changes its name to Patek
Philippe.
• 1860: Patek Philippe’s stem-winding system is
patented in France.
• 1868: Patek Philippe produces
the first Swiss wristwatch on record.
• 1925:
Patek Philippe makes the first perpetual calendar
wristwatch. |
Because they
are considered fashionable, pieces from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s have a special
appeal. “Design is paramount to a wristwatch collector,” says Osvaldo Patrizzi,
founder and chairman of Antiquorum, the most significant auctioneer of vintage
watches. “In wristwatches, the period from the end of the war to the 1960s is
generally regarded as having superior designs, even when compared with the
present.” Prewar wristwatches are very small by today’s standards (as much as 10
millimeters smaller in diameter than an average watch today), and naturally,
because of their age, less suited for day-to-day use. Given these conditions,
complicated Patek Philippe wristwatches, like a perpetual calendar/minute
repeater, became the most desirable vintage timepieces in this new collectible
category.
The United States has traditionally been the most important market
for fine Swiss watches, but the love affair with Patek Philippes actually began
in Europe. “It was the Italians who first started acquiring vintage Patek
Philippes in a serious way back in the early ’80s,” recalls Esses. “They would
come to watch shows and pay cash for anything that caught their eye.”
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