CASE NUMBER: 216, MOVEMENT NUMBER: 963’876

Wristwatches fitted with cloisonné enamel dials take a most prominent position in terms of beauty, craftsmanship, and rarity. Produced mostly in the 1940s and 50s, Patek Philippe made an exceedingly small number of "time only" wristwatches where highly detailed and incredibly artistic cloisonné enamel dials were fitted. Only an extremely small number of watches were upgraded with these wonderful dials, depicting popular motifs such as a jungle, a lighthouse and sail boats, flowers, portraits, and maps.

The production of these dials were extremely costly as they had to be individually made by a skilled craftsman and not on a production line. The artist created an outline of the desired motif by arranging thin gold wires on a dial. These partitions, called "cloisonné" in French, were filled with small quantities of enamel powder in the desired color. The dial was then fired in an oven at around 1000 degrees Celsius, causing the powder to melt. Finally, the dial was hand-polished until a perfectly flat surface was obtained. This dial sits within an 18k rose gold case bearing number 216 on its inside case back, as well as inside case back, confirmed by its Extract from the Archives.

The movement, according to Extract from the Archive, was sold without a case. The dial and movement were originally delivered to France, to be housed in a French-manufactured case. The caseback does bear the Eagle French hallmark. After World War II, this was quite common practice as an economic post war effort. It was prohibited to import foreign jewelry to France, so many Swiss makers had their cases made in France, often after their own Swiss model. Given these constraints, Patek Philippe worked closely with French firms such as Guillermin, providing dials and movements under the agreement that Patek Philippe standards would be upheld.