sham1
8999
My best watch ever!
Oct 16, 2023,15:07 PM
I am actually very much sober while making this sweeping statement. This is despite having owned a Roger Smith Series 1, a Gronefeld Remontoire and a Daniel Roth tourbillon. So what makes me place the Patek Philippe 3878J above all else in such illustrious company?!
Firstly, I need to bore you with its background. The 3878J was produced between 1981 and 1998 in very few numbers. In 2018, I walked into the Patek Salon in London only to catch sight of this watch on display. I soon found out that the watch had been commissioned by a very important customer who had decided to cancel the order after the watch was made, I am not a client of the Patek Salon in London but had been sourcing my Pateks from an authorised dealer in Windsor. Fortunately, I had become friends with the Managing Director of Patek UK who l had met at events over the years. Although not common policy, he managed to persuade the Salon to move the watch to my AD. You must be wondering why I had requested for this. Well, my AD has offered me a special service like no other and has on two occasions secured a watch for me and allowed me an indefinite amount of time to pay off the watch with zero interest. Their ethos was to make sure that the watch goes to a good home above all else.
So from 2018 to 2023 the watch sat in my AD's safe while I have been slowly paying off the amount owed to my AD. I finally settled the amount just before my 60th birthday two months ago, which had always been the objective. Today I have flown to Hong Kong to collect the watch (you can tell I am not as well healed as most Patek collectors as even a tax saving helps in a purchase!) and I am so pleased that it is finally on my wrist. Five long years but it was worth the wait!
So why do I feel it is my best watch ever?! Well as you can see it suits my wrist well. I cannot fathom how a 31mm watch can suit my wrist this well. Yes I have a small wrist but usually it would take a 37mm watch to look good on my wrist. The hand engraving that has gone into this watch is quite astounding. The current Patek skeleton watches have a transparent outer frame but this watch's dial has been totally skeletonised. in addition even the side of the case has been hand engraved. Although the watch is in gold it is relatively light and is very wearable. Rarely has so much hand engraving gone into something so small which tom me is quite a feat. One might argue that the watch is not very legible and I cannot deny that there are more legible watches but for me the legibility is good enough even though I must confess that when one looks at this watch, one is hardly looking at the time!
Tonight I celebrated my new watch with an old friend who also happens to be a Patek moderator. He has championed rare handicrafts like our dear Fabrizio so I knew he would be keen to have a closer look at this rarity. Thank you all for reading!
31mm seldom looked this good!
The skeleton is dwarfed by the lovely 5131R
My first time in Hong Kong in 42 years!