As the successor to the celebrated reference 3448, reference 3450 was only in production for around five years. The main difference between these two classic references is that the reference 3450 has a leap-year indication on the dial. Towards the end of production in 1985, a very few examples (no more than two dozen) were fitted with a sapphire crystal back and given the reference 3450-100.

The reference 3450-100 offered here is one of these exceedingly rare specimens fitted with a sapphire crystal snap on back as opposed to the plain solid back found in the standard reference 3450. In fact, only six examples reference 3450-100 originally fitted with such a glazed back have appeared in public to date.

Offered here for sale after almost 20 years in one of the world’s great collections, the present watch is a wonderfully preserved example of this almost impossible to find reference 3450-100 which was discontinued over 35 years ago. This very scarce crystal back specimen dating from the end of production is both a trophy and very wearable classic Patek wristwatch.

Lightly worn and with very subtle signs of polishing only, it reveals the full potential in size and beauty this reference can offer, combining substantial lugs with sharp and clean lines and the still legible hallmarks on the case. The inner body of the case is punch-numbered ‘567’ for the last three digits of the case number and the underside of both the bezel and back are scratch numbered in Roman numerals ‘VI VII’, the last two digits of the case number.

The model differs from its predecessor by the inclusion of a leap year indication, the eccentric small window at 4 o'clock. The first series was made with a simple red disk and Arabic numerals, the second series, such as the present watch, with Roman I, II, III and IV leap year indication.

A total of 244 examples of reference 3450 were made, the majority in yellow gold cases, less than a handful in white gold are known to date. Production of both references 3448 and 3450 was discontinued in 1985 with the launch of the Ref. 3940.