In 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression, the brothers Jean and Charles Stern, dial makers and suppliers to the house, took control of Patek Philippe. The same year saw the release of reference 96: the first model by the manufacture to bear a reference number – a round case of ± 31 mm, a pared-back dial, small seconds at 6 o’clock, designed according to the Bauhaus principle that form follows function. It founded the Calatrava lineage, named after the cross that the manufacture had registered as its emblem on 27 April 1887. From 1934, reference 96D – “D” for décor – dressed its bezel in a “Clous de Paris” pattern, those small pyramids cut in diamond points that catch the light without ever being flashy. The Calatrava with a Clous de Paris bezel was born, and it would become one of Patek Philippe’s aesthetic signatures.
In 1965, Patek Philippe presented reference 3520, which it then announced as the thinnest water-resistant watch in the world: a two-piece case closed by a screw-down caseback, 32 mm in diameter and barely 5.5 mm thick. In 1972, the 3520D offered the version with a decorated bezel – Clous de Paris, white dial with Roman numerals, straight lugs – and it is this design, almost unchanged, that the 3919 of 1985 would take to 33.5 mm and make famous for more than twenty years, before the 5119 of 2006 and today’s 6119. The 3520D, for its part, remained in the catalogue for a quarter of a century, discreet and constant. It exists in yellow gold, rose gold and white gold, the latter being considerably less common.
Beneath the dial beats caliber 177, an extra-thin 9-ligne manually wound movement – 20.8 mm in diameter and 1.77 mm thick – derived from the celebrated Frédéric Piguet 21 ébauche of 1925, which Patek Philippe adopted and brought up to its own standards: 18 jewels, 21,600 vibrations per hour, a Gyromax balance with adjustable weights, “heat, cold, isochronism, 5 positions” adjustment engraved on the bridges, and the Geneva Seal, a guarantee of finishing as much as of precision.
The example we have the pleasure of offering is a 3520D in 18-carat white gold, whose serial numbers – 1’369’xxx for the movement, 2’818’xxx for the case – date its production to around 1986. The case comes from Ateliers Réunis, the Geneva case maker in which Patek Philippe took a stake in the mid-1970s and whose former workshop on rue des Vieux-Grenadiers now houses the Patek Philippe Museum: their master’s mark, the Geneva Key No. 28, is struck inside the caseback, alongside the Helvetia head, the “18K 750” fineness mark, the case number and the reference “3520 D”. The case has retained its proportions and the crispness of its finishes – Clous de Paris bezel with well-defined pyramids, six-notch screw-down caseback with circular satin finish, straight lugs – and the hallmarks on the left flank are clearly present. The crown is stamped with the Calatrava cross.
The white dial is perfectly understated: twelve black-painted Roman numerals, the “PATEK PHILIPPE GENÈVE” signature and the “SWISS” marking at 6 o’clock, nothing else – not even a seconds hand. The slender blued steel baton hands stand out crisply against it. Caliber 177 has been completely serviced by one of our experienced watchmakers and runs within the strictest tolerances. We present this watch on a black crocodile leather Patek Philippe strap, fastened by its rare and sought-after original 18-carat white gold pin buckle signed “AW” – André Wenger, the Geneva case maker that supplied Patek Philippe with most of its buckles for decades – and accompany it with a rectangular chocolate leather Patek Philippe pouch as well as our Steel Warranty Card.
32 mm across and 5.5 mm thick, a white dial with Roman numerals beneath a Clous de Paris bezel: the 3520D is, in our view, the Calatrava reduced to its essentials, the one from which the 3919 and today’s Clous de Paris models descend directly. In white gold, it becomes even more discreet, slips under a shirt cuff and is equally suited to both men’s and women’s wrists. A watch to wear every day as well as on the most elegant occasions, and to keep for a long time.
