Platinum, with a Factory Diamond Dial

When Patek Philippe wanted to make the most luxurious pocket watch in its catalogue, this is what it specified: a case in solid platinum, and a dial set with diamonds at the factory. This is that watch, made around 1937, at the very end of the great pocket watch era and at the very top of it.

The case is platinum through and through, 43.95mm, in a late Art Deco form with a geometric octagonal bow and a fluted crown, the cool grey of the metal setting the register for everything else. The dial is original and silvered, with eleven diamond hour markers: eight square-cut stones in claw settings and three baguettes at twelve, three and nine, an engine-turned sub-seconds ring at six, a dot minute track, and slim white leaf hands over the whole. Nothing about it was added later; the layout is deliberate and factory-fitted, jewellery executed with a watchmaker's restraint.

Behind the dial is caliber 17-140 at the house's fullest specification, finished and adjusted the way Patek reserved for its best; the movement is itemised in the drawer below, and it winds smoothly, sets cleanly and runs well. The English-language markings point to a watch built for an English-speaking export market.

Condition carries the piece into its own class. The platinum is crisp with sharp marks, the dial near-perfect with every diamond present and secure, the crystal clean. Platinum resists the polishing that softens gold cases, and this one shows the benefit: edges as they were cut. It is supplied as seen, without box or papers.

The marks, the movement and the condition are set out piece by piece in the drawers below; the dating and archive route are set out in The Archive.