Patek Philippe

PROPERTY OF A HIGHLY IMPORTANT COLLECTOR

Patek Philippe

Nautilus “Albino”, Reference 3700

A stainless steel bracelet watch with date and white prototype dial, Made in 1980

Dial: white prototype

Calibre: cal. 28-255 SC automatic, 40 jewels

Movement number: 1’307’730

Case: stainless steel

Case number: 540’936

Closure: stainless steel Patek Philippe bracelet and folding clasp

Size: 40 mm diameter, bracelet circumference approximately 185 mm

Signed: case, dial and movement

Accessories: Patek Philippe Extract from the Archives confirming the production of the present watch in 1980 and its subsequent sale on April 8th, 1981 and Comprehensive passport study by Eric Tortella dated 2020

To watch collectors, rarity and historical importance are golden criteria. Indeed, owners and purveyors of important collections all seek to possess what others do not, such as special orders or unique pieces. They also strive to own watches of importance, for example the first watches in a series which may have certain nuances on the dial. However, a perfect intersection between rarity and historical intrigue are prototype wristwatches with features that are never found on standard production examples, the more obvious the better.

“In vintage or collectible watches, furthermore in the Patek Philippe field, the word “prototype” is always very sensitive”, Eric Tortella states in his study of the present watch, included in this sale. “It must be used with a lot of care and only when the provenance is undoubtful clear. So it is for the use of the word “test.” We are talking here about a real prototype dial made by Stern Frères after Patek Philippe special demand in the early 1980s.”

As seen in past cases, different dial options are often ordered from manufacturers and shown to clients and distributors to test the market, but never produced in series or offered for sale. Some of these dials ended up with employees, either unmounted or cased in presentation watches, as can be surmised is the case with this lot, presented with Extract from the Archives confirming the white dial as authentic, but not born with the case. Curiously, this is not the first white test dial found on a Nautilus, as a different 3700 “Albino” has already appeared at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2015. Minor differences exist between the dials, with both dials signed Stern Frères on the back, but only the present one also signed Stern Creations. It is not known how many exist, but the present lot is only the second to ever appear at auction.

A deeper dive into the details reveals all the hallmarks of a Patek Philippe dial never meant to be sold. Most conspicuously, the back of the dial is engraved “TEST” in block lettering. The dial printing, though undoubtedly genuine due to the exactness of the cliché used for the Patek Philippe signature, is slightly misaligned on the minutes track. This, taken along with some other minor irregularities, leads Tortella to conclude that this dial was created in the 1980s for Patek Philippe, and never intended to be distributed to end users.

Patek Philippe prototypes are incredibly hard to come by, and when they do, the degree to which they vary from production designs differs. Sometimes, only the designs of certain dial text or scales are changed. However, when a change is as stark as the dial colour going from dark grey-blue to white, it serves to further elevate its status as a true “test”. In the case of the present ‘Albino’, this test is made more significant by one simple fact: it was, eventually, successful. Its successor reference, the 5711, included a production configuration featuring white base dial with black text. The lineage is clear.

The present reference 3700 ‘Albino’ stands, not only as an exceedingly rare and coveted prototype example of one of the most historically significant model lines of Patek Philippe, but is also one of the even fewer prototypes which eventually led to mass market adoption.