Patek Philippe 3417 Amagnetic vs. JLC Geophysic

Between trains and planes, work and writing reviews, there is always some place for some fantastic encounters.

Encounters with some great people, such our dear Franco and his friends, Pablo and Simon, both musicians at the Paris Conservatory, encounters with some watches which are as rare as they are sublime.

Let's start with some fabulous appetizers ( which deserve more consideration than this too vulgar appeallation, but when you see what I have to show you, you will better understand how appropriate is this word )...

A Technicum school watch ( Technicum Cantonnale Bienne Nr 124 ) housing a Peseux 260, with a Leroy, belonging to Franco's friend, Pablo, housing the same movement:

A world's first: Peseux 520:



A view on this fabulous movement, which can be seen on the most prestigious Independant Productions...



Did you fasten your seat belt?

Ok, so now, let's see the 2 dream watches we rarely see.

One of them is well known, the JLC Geophysic... But you can't imagine how long I waited to be able to take a side by side picture with its prestigious contender from the same era: The Patek Ref 3417 so called " Amagnetic ".

Not only the same era, but more precisely, the same year, both being from ... 1958.

If I can say that I know the Geophysic quite well, the watch and its history, I can say the same about the Patek " Amagnetic " but we are lucky to have some real connoisseurs of this watch, who will certainly tell us more about it.

The purpose of this topic is to show you how similar and different these two watches are how strongly appealing they are.

The Geophysic and the 3417 share a lot of common points:

- The 35 mm case.

- Aesthetically speaking, the cases are very close, even in the shape of the lugs.

- Screwed case back ( if the 3417 has a flatter case back ,though ).

- Plexy on both watches.

- 3 hands: The essential of Chronometry.

- Chronometer and amagnetic, in both cases.

- Soft iron dust cover, in both cases.

- Two great movements. conceived to resist to magnetism, shock protected, with a Breguet Spiral.

The JLC Cal P 478 BWSBr:



The Patek Cal 27 AM 400:



The differences:

- The 3417 has a tad shorter lugs.

- No big second on the 3417.

- The movement in the 3417 ( Cal 27 AM 400 ) beats a bit faster than the Cal P 478 BWSBr ( 19 800 vibrations per hour for the Patek, 18 000 alternances for the JLC ) and is decorated, which is not totally the case on the Geophysic, but the Geophysic has a swan neck, not the Patek ).

Another view on the Cal 27 AM 400:



- The dials, although sharing the same spirit, are different: Dressier in the Patek, more toolwatch on the JLC with radium bigger and larger hands.



The doubts:

- While the Geophysic is resistent to 600 Gauss, I don't know what is the number for the Patek.

- How many PP 3417 were made? As for the Geophysic, there were several iterations of the 3417 or in the Patek amagnetic family, but it seems that more Patek were made, when between 1400 and 1500 Geophysic, all references included, were produced.

- Is the dial of the 3417 made, like on the Geophysic, of soft iron, to achieve its amagnetic purpose?

Anyway.... The dream fo a Geophysic owner is to find a 3417... Same dream for a 3417 owner, in my opinion, as these 2 watches are closely linked to each other...

Here, we have the Creme de la Creme of amagnetic Chronometers, in answer to other legends such as the Railmaster ( Omega ) and the Milgauss from Rolex, along with the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Milspec, this last one being from the same year ( 1958 ) than the Geophysic and the 3417, while the Omega and the Rolex came before.

What a nice thema to collect!

Best, and please, Franco, Marco, feel free to share your thoughts and knoweldge on the 3417!

Nicolas This message has been edited by amanico on 2012-04-08 05:34:56 This message has been edited by Dje on 2012-04-12 08:01:19