Patek Philippe Gondolo 5101P

PATEK PHILIPPE. A RARE PLATINUM RECTANGULAR TOURBILLON WRISTWATCH WITH 10 DAY POWER RESERVE AND BREGUET NUMERALS REF. 5101P, MOVEMENT NO. 3'361'091, CASE NO. 4'244'270

PATEK PHILIPPE. A RARE PLATINUM RECTANGULAR TOURBILLON WRISTWATCH WITH 10 DAY POWER RESERVE AND BREGUET NUMERALS REF. 5101P, MOVEMENT NO. 3'361'091, CASE NO. 4'244'270 Movement: Manual Dial: Rose with Breguet numerals Case: 30 x 51 mm. (W x L) With: Platinum Patek Philippe buckle, key, presentation box and outer packaging Note: lease note that Christie’s has applied for an “Extract from the Archives” from Patek Philippe Archives but the Extract has not yet been issued and may not be available by the date of the auction. The lot is sold “as is” without any Extract and Christie’s does not guarantee Patek Philippe Archives will issue the Extract; the presentation box that accompanies this lot may not be the original “fitted box”. Please refer to paragraph A in the Conditions of Sale for further information. If you have any queries, please contact Watch Department at watcheshk@christies.com PATEK PHILIPPE. A RARE PLATINUM RECTANGULAR TOURBILLON WRISTWATCH WITH 10 DAY POWER RESERVE AND BREGUET NUMERALS REF. 5101P, MOVEMENT NO. 3'361'091, CASE NO. 4'244'270 Movement: Manual Dial: Rose with Breguet numerals Case: 30 x 51 mm. (W x L) With: Platinum Patek Philippe buckle, key, presentation box and outer packaging Note: lease note that Christie’s has applied for an “Extract from the Archives” from Patek Philippe Archives but the Extract has not yet been issued and may not be available by the date of the auction. The lot is sold “as is” without any Extract and Christie’s does not guarantee Patek Philippe Archives will issue the Extract; the presentation box that accompanies this lot may not be the original “fitted box”. Please refer to paragraph A in the Conditions of Sale for further information. If you have any queries, please contact Watch Department at watcheshk@christies.comIt takes much more than a cursory glance at Patek Philippe's debut showpiece for Basel 2003 to realize that reference 5101P is a highly complicated wristwatch. In fact it is the first timepiece that combines two complications which are very difficult to accommodate in the confined space of a rectangular movement: two tandem mainspring barrels with 240 hours of energy storage capacity and a tourbillon precision regulator composed of 72 individual parts. Characteristic of Patek Philippe, hardly any sign on the outside of the piece would reveal the complexity of its inner workings. Understated elegance has always been a hallmark of Patek Philippe but the tourbillon cage is in fact concealed for a very practical reason - the oil used to lubricate the mechanism is sensitive to ultraviolet rays and will decompose when exposed to daylight, thus losing its beneficial tribological properties. Extremely stringent standards are imposed on all Patek Philippe movements and even more so on tourbillon pieces.