Patek Philippe
Reference 5088P-001 Calatrava ‘Rare Handcrafts’ | A platinum automatic wristwatch with hand-engraved champlevé black enamel dial, Single Sealed, Circa 2013
Lot Closed
March 31, 04:15 PM GMT
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
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Read more.Lot Details
Description
Dial: black grand feu champlevé enamel and hand-engraved volutes and arabesques
Caliber: cal. 240 automatic, 27 jewels
Movement number: 5’641’186
Case: platinum, screw down sapphire crystal display back
Case number: 4’588’932
Closure: platinum Patek Philippe buckle
Size: 38 mm diameter
Signed: case, dial, and movement
Box: no
Papers: yes
Accessories: Patek Philippe factory packaging, Certificate of Origin dated 8 June 2013, leather bi-fold, operating instructions book, booklets, and sealed hangtag
As the pinnacle of haute horology, Patek Philippe is dedicated to preserving the ancient techniques and savoir faire of specialists that have been used to decorate timepieces for centuries. The Rare Handcrafts collection was born from the brand ethos to safeguard these ancestral skills for the future by ensuring these fine crafts are practiced and showcased before they reach the brink of extinction.
The emblematic Calatrava is reimagined by the creative geniuses at Patek Philippe and combined with Rare Handcrafts to feature a special dial. The Rare Handcrafts technique demonstrated is the champlevé technique, the consistent and frequent use of which was first seen in early Celtic art and jewelry from the 3rd and 2nd century BC. A beautiful example of champlevé enamel circa 1156-58 is the Stavelot Triptych that can be found in the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City.
To craft the dial on the present example, the 18k gold dial plate is first carved to form the cavities for the Grand Feu black enamel. The enamel is then applied by hand in the carved recesses and fired in a furnace at over 800°C to melt and adhere to the metal base. The process is repeated over and over until the enamel fills the recesses to the level of the metal left in relief. The exposed gold left in relief are then hand-engraved with arabesques and volutes decor.
Housed under the dial crafted with the same technique of centuries past beats the ultra-thin self-winding caliber 240. Introduced in the midst of the Quartz crisis in 1977 to power the Ellipse collection, it was the thinnest self-winding caliber with an innovative design. Instead of having the rotor be an additional layer above the movement, the rotor is instead housed in the movement itself, positioned off-center in a sunken recess. To compensate for the smaller size of this design, the rotor was crafted in 22k gold with the high karat gold being heavier and more sensitive to the wearer’s movements.
The caliber 240 has stood the test of time and continues to power Patek Philippe’s lineup of watches fifty years after its introduction.