The 1920 Patek Philippe Pocket Watch

Patek Philippe is a brand that needs no introduction for the vast majority of watch enthusiasts, especially for those who love vintage watches. Summed up well by Phillips in their Hong Kong Auction in 2019 - “Since its founding in 1839, this famous Geneva-based firm has been surprising its clientele with superbly crafted timepieces fitted with watchmaking's most prestigious complications. Traditional and conservative designs are found across Patek Philippe's watches made throughout their history — the utmost in understated elegance”. This description not only describes the incredible wrist watches they are able to produce, but also their historic pocket watches.

While we have not gone in depth into pocket watches at Life on the Wrist as much as we have for vintage wrist watches, we have discussed their place in the watch world and in collecting. In our latest episode of the Life on the Wrist podcast, we covered where pocket watches are likely to go during the coming years. We looked back at an article we did about whether pocket watches would make a comeback and reminisced about a very important Elgin pocket watch. Clearly pocket watches have an important role to play in the life on a collector, which is why this Patek Philippe pocket watch comes into play.

The pocket watch is an 18k yellow gold cased, 47mm in diameter time-only pocket watch. On the surface, the watch is fairly simple. It has hours, minutes, and seconds on the dial and is about 10mm thick. But looking a bit closer, you will instantly fall in love. The watch has a beautifully clean white dial that has a slight hue of patina to it. For hour markers, Patek Philippe applied the most beautiful Arabic numerals in gold with beautiful dots around the outside of the dial. It has a sub-second indicator at 6 o’clock that is slightly sunken into the dial. Even cooler is that leaf hands, which is something many collectors absolutely adore on Patek Philippe watches like the famous references 96, 565, 570, and 5196P.

If you open the hinged case-back, you see a stunning movement that is finished to the highest degree. The movement is a 20 jewel, stem wind, lever-set movement with wolf's tooth winding gears and bi-metallic balance with swan's neck regulator. The finishing is obviously to the highest degree and an absolute pleasure to look at. The case-back has also developed a slight hue of oxidation, which gives the watch an overall attractive look.

All the details discussed, if in a wrist watch, would garner so many attracted collectors. Especially considering the overall condition of case, dial and movement. And pocket watches of similar caliber are getting this needed attention. Being 47mm, the watch very easily slipped into a pocket and is so much fun to use. While we have discussed that functionally, pocket watches are difficult in today’s era, there is something novel about having the opportunity to tell the time with a pocket watch such as this one.

So what really is the fuss with this watch? It is a pocket watch, so not as wearable as a wrist watch. The watch demonstrates the truly exceptional quality Patek Philippe brought to every one of their time pieces. Through researching the watch, we found this pocket watch that, according to the case and movement number, was produced just one watch after the one we have today. And so, the story of the watches Patek Philippe produced becomes that bit more complete. For many, that is what makes watch collecting special. And pocket watches can tell a big part of the story too.

Enjoy!