A Tale of Two Patek 3970s, $80k Jaegers, & Büsser's Corvette | The Watchlist
And apply now to be the President of Panerai America.
It’s hot out there. This weather calls for careful consideration of your watch-strap combo. Here’s my rotation the past few weeks as temperatures have regularly hovered around 100 degrees:
From right:
1990s TAG Heuer Carrera CS3111 on an old generic oyster-style bracelet
Tudor Black Bay 58 on Tropic from Joseph Bonnie
Hodinkee x Merci LMM-01 LE on Nomos two-piece textile
I love these Nomos fabric straps, but they’re also a bit expensive at 100 bucks. Let me know in the comments if you have any alternatives. After all, if the look worked for that million-dollar Patek, I think it’ll work for most of my watches.
In today’s newsletter: A fortuitous discovery about a recently sold Patek 3970, a pair of rare Jaegers (including one that inspired Cartier), Max Büsser’s Stingray is up for grabs, and yes—you can apply to be the next President of Panerai.
Gold Rush: On the Patek Philippe 3970 ‘Doré’
Earlier this week, I got coffee with a collector visiting Chicago. On his wrist: A Lange 1 “Darth.” In his bag, a Sotheby’s Important Watches auction catalog from 1989 (here’s another on eBay). It’s fun to flip through old catalogs and dream about buying a Paul Newman Daytona for (estimate) $1,800-2,000 while all those fools were buying Rolex Bubblebacks for 3x that.
Since I wrote that Collector’s Guide on the Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar 3970, I’ve been keen to keep track of them, even if prices, especially for early ones, have gotten certifiably insane. That 1989 sale had one Second Series 3970, dating to just one year earlier.
Funny enough, this is the same case number that just sold at Phillips New York, but with a different doré dial (sold for $419k). To be clear, Phillips didn’t hold it out as anything but a dial swap—the watch still has its original Certificate, which clearly states argente (silver).1 Phillips did add that “it’s highly likely the current doré dial was fitted by a Patek Philippe retailer at the request of the original owner at the time of purchase.” Maybe not accurate if it appeared at auction in ‘89 with a silver dial?
About 10 of these doré 3970s known, and only a few are confirmed as original. A simple dial change roughly doubles the value of the watch, and that premium has exploded in the last few years (this was a $100k watch not that long ago).
No doubt, the dial is beautiful and completely changes the vibe. I even said it was my “grail 3970” in that Collector’s Guide. But I wouldn’t be surprised if more start to pop up over the next few years, given these prices. When the market decides something has value, it has a way of bringing out more of that something.
Is there a bigger lesson?
Start hoarding all the old auction catalogs you can, I guess.
A mix of things that have just sold or are currently for sale.
A history-changing Jaeger ‘Asymetrique’
Coming out of a tiny auction house in France, this asymmetric Jaeger originally had an estimate of just €800-1,000. Somehow it was noticed, and sold this week for €68,000 all-in. It looks good for 100—original strap, a case with sharp hallmarks, and a great dial.
A New York buyer won it, rumor is they’re a big Cartier collector.
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