Expert advice needed on PP Chronograph
Hello everyone,
I'm being offered by a private collectioner this PP Ref 130 Cal 13 Chronograph:
The extract from the archive reports the following information:
- Movement n° 860499
-.Calibre 13 chronograph register, manual winding
- Case n° 616127
- Style Reference 130,18K yellow gold
- Type of dial. Silvered, raised hour markers in yellow gold. Tachometer scale
- Date of manifacture. 1937
- Date of sale. February 22nd, 1938.
As shown, the watch was commissioned by Hausmann & Co., a prominent retailer in Roma. In order to make a sensible offer to the seller, I would need an expert advice on two points. First, the dial seems fairly unusual to me. I've done a bit of research on internet, but I've never seen such arrangement, where the hour markers are inside the inner sector. Because the market value of this basic chronograph model seems to depend mostly on the dial type, has anyone seen this arrangement before? Is it possible that the dial was a special request by the customer? Second, does the presence of the retailer's name on the dial add or subtract from the value of the watch?
Thanks,
Paolo Viviani
Suppose you know it was on sale in an auction house
Hope this helps,
Dirk
Dedestexhes
Dear Dirk,
Thanks for your message. The seller has indeed told me that the watch had been up for sale early this year, but blamed the failure to find a buyer on the unrealistic estimate (Euro 60.000) suggested by the auction house. In fact, by looking at the link you have kindly provided, it turns out that the estimate was probably correct. The high-resolution image clearly shows the poor condition of the engraved lines near the two subsidiary dials, which I had assumed to be the result of normal wear for an antique watch. However, has you have pointed out, the dial was repainted by the manifacturer and is now graded as excellent. Isn't that puzzling?
My best,
Paolo
Ciao Paolo, ...
I am not an expert for vintage watches and couldn´t find "your" watch in my database, but at least another Ref. 130 with Hausmann on the dial:
(Don´t know whom to credit for the picture. Sorry!)
Saw you already got some info from Dirk and maybe others will join.
Oliver
Some thoughts
A couple of suggestions/ideas for you:
1. There are about 36 examples of ref. 130 illustrated in Vol. II of Patrizzi's Collecting Patek Phillipe book. These should provide some further intuition and several of the illustrations show a further inner dial around which the numerals/markers are placed at a smaller radius than is typical, like in the example you show. This does not mean that your example is authentic but rather that this feature in itself was not generically unique. This book is generally available if not for sale then in the back drawer of many secondary watch shops. Ref. 130 had one of the most diverse set of dials of any reference.
2. The movement number matches the 1936-40 period. This can be verified in Patek Philippe by Huber and Banberry or similar.
3. It costs relatively little to send a watch like this to Patek Philippe in Geneva to have them evaluate it for costs to repair. In my experience it takes a few weeks only and costs area £/Eur 100. The manufacture generally will tell you at that point whether there is a fake part on the watch because they will generally not repair it; for example the dial. If you do this through a PP boutique or dealer you can generally have a two way conversation - i.e. "Could you confirm that the manufacture did in fact replace the dial?". The latter point seems to be the crucial one for this watch. While one can argue whether a replaced dial affects the authenticity of the watch, it would be nice to know that it is an authentic PP. You might be able to work a deal whereby your purchase is contingent on receipt of that information.
Good luck and welcome aboard.
