Reference 600

By around 1950 the reference 600 had reached its most refined form: an open-face watch in solid gold whose every element, from the proportions of the case to the balance of the dial, was resolved for both function and elegance, with nothing left to chance. This is one of those, made at the height of the reference's long production and finished throughout to Patek Philippe's full standard.

The case is solid 18ct gold, 41.55mm, the compact dress size of the reference, with a slim polished bezel and an unbroken back. The back was never engraved. Reference 600s were frequently given as gifts and monogrammed, so an untouched, uncut back on an example that has come through seventy years is genuinely uncommon, and it keeps the lines of the case exactly as they left Geneva. The gold carries only the even, light patina of careful handling and has not been polished.

The dial is the heart of it. Silvered and satin-finished, it carries applied gold faceted lance markers, doubled at twelve, slim faceted gold lance hands, a dot minute track, and a subsidiary seconds dial sunk at six with its centre engine-turned in fine circles, the signature set out in fine, restrained printing: Patek Philippe, Genève, beneath twelve. The hands are original to the watch. The dial itself is clean and untouched, without hairlines or restoration of any kind, which on a watch of this age is the rarest and most telling quality of all: it is the difference between a reference 600 that is merely correct and one that is right.

Behind the dial the restraint gives way entirely. The caliber 17-140 is a full Patek movement of eighteen jewels, adjusted to five positions and struck with the Geneva seal, finished to a level that owes nothing to the simplicity of the watch's face. It is signed Patek Philippe & Co, Genève across the bridge and individually numbered, and it runs, winds and sets precisely as it should.

That restraint is the whole intention. A watch like this asks to be judged on the things Patek Philippe is judged on: the quality of the gold, the finishing of the movement, and the honesty of an original dial. It answers on all three, signed three times over and original throughout, in the condition that sets one reference 600 apart from another.

The marks, the movement and the condition are set out in the drawers below.