According to the Archives of Patek Philippe, this inking chronograph was made in 1877 and sold on 24 May 1879. It was bought by the present owner, a private collector, at Christie's in Geneva in 2004 and has been in his collection ever since.

The dial of this inking chronograph is calibrated for 60 seconds, the large central hand contains the ink bowl with discharging pointer, a subsidiary dial for the 60 minutes recorder counting from right to left. The ink discharged by depressing the right button in the band, chronograph activated/stopped/reset by depressing the left button in the band,

The inking chronograph was invented in 1821 by Nicolas-Mathieu Rieussec, watchmaker to King Louis Philippe of France. It operates by means of a hand composed of two parts: the lower part is fitted with an ink bowl and the upper part with a thin needle which, when activated, compresses the lower part to release a trace of ink on the dial to give a visual read-out of the elapsed time.