OVERVIEW

The infamous Quartz Crisis of the 1970s and 80s saw the upheaval of the Swiss watchmaking industry with consumers eschewing complicated mechanical watches for cooler, cheaper and more accurate battery timepieces made in Japan and the United States. Large swaths of famed and storied Swiss watch brands who didn’t bother to adapt went belly up, while some brands like Movado took a “If you can’t beat em, join em” attitude and went from producing some of the most beautifully finished watches ever to making some of the tackiest mall watches you can find. Patek Philippe however, decided to double down on mechanical watches and produce two of the most complicated and expensive models ever with the 3940 perpetual calendar and 3970 perpetual calendar chronograph.

Designing and building a perpetual calendar watch that can account for every day of the month including February as well as leap years is nothing short of marvelous. When the Patek 3940 was first released in 1985, it had a retail price of about $40k ($120k in today’s dollars) and it was apparent that the brand decided that they would try to survive by appealing to the wealthiest people in the world who still appreciated craftsmanship of the highest levels. And survive Patek did, they continued to produce larger numbers of the watch up until they ended the reference in 2007 making it one of Patek’s longest tenured models. Last retail price of the 3940 was around $62k ($104k in today’s dollars).

None of this would matter though had they not also made it a stunning and visually appealing watch. It is the most beautiful watch ever made that a person would want to wear everyday.

CONDITION NOTES

CASE: Fabulous original condition, with minimal wear & sharp hallmarks.

DIAL & HANDS: Untouched beautiful 4th series dial and the loveliest patina on the 24hr subdial. The bottom half of these subdials were intentionally applied with a different kind of varnish to denote nighttime but some age better than others. Hands are flawless.

MOVEMENT: Beautiful and running optimally.