PATEK PHILIPPE, GOLD SPLIT SECONDS CHRONOGRAPH FOR TIFFANY & CO.

The present watch not only stands out by virtue of its complication, being a split seconds chronograph, but is also more unusual in not featuring a minute repeating function but the addition of the less common 30-minute register.

Patek Philippe made relatively few split seconds watches, perhaps less than 200 examples in all. Most were intended for the American market, which was the first to regularly demand this complication. The split seconds chronograph was mainly used for timing industrial applications such as railways, or sporting events such as horse racing.

Patek Philippe’s split second chronograph watches often bear the name of an American retailer which were often the most prestigious jewellery companies of the period, including Tiffany & Co., Bayley Banks & Biddle, Spaulding and Shreve, Crump & Low.

Two similar watches, movement nos. 137’830 (also sold to Tiffany & Co.) and 137’883, are in the collection of the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. See: Patek Philippe Watches Vol. 1, Patek Philippe Museum, pp. 327 & 328.