Retailed by Goldsmiths & Silversmiths, Crested

This watch had two birthplaces. The movement was made in Geneva by Patek Philippe around 1914, finished to the standard that made the name; the case that received it was made in London, by the Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company of 112 Regent Street, who sold the finished watch across their counter. Geneva precision in London gold was how the best English customers bought their Pateks, and this piece still carries both halves of that partnership in its metal.

Its first owner then made it his: the back is engraved with the full arms of his family, helmets, shield and quarterings complete, with an entwined cypher on the outer case. Arms of this kind were not decoration; they were identity, cut for a family entitled to bear them, and they give the watch a first chapter most plain examples lost long ago.

The silvered dial is laid out in the restrained Geneva dress style of the era: painted black Breguet numerals, the slanted, flourished figures the great houses used on their formal watches, blued steel Breguet hands with the open ring near the tip, and a printed railway minute track. The surface has aged to a warm, gently mottled tone, the soft marks of a century of ownership rather than any damage or restoration. It is unsigned, which is correct for a Patek supplied through a retailer, who often left the dial plain rather than add a name.

At 46.9mm it is a full-size gentleman's open-face watch, in 18ct white gold, supplied on its chain. The keyless lever movement winds smoothly, sets cleanly and runs as it should, with the hand-finishing visible under the dust cover doing quiet justice to the signature on the plate.

The marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the London casing, the coat of arms and the archive route are set out in Provenance.