Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Vintage. No box/paper. 26 rounds to a full wind. This is a rare Audemars Piguet wristwatch in 18KYG made in the 1940s with an indirect centre seconds (higher value than small seconds) that has a matching serial no for the movement & case back cover which is very important.

From the engravings on the back cover, this watch was given to a "P.F. Mc Shane with admiration & affection from S.R.E.M. Co by Hammond associates on Dec 19, 1947". It is the year when the first Volkwagen Beetle arrived in US, the year CIA was founded and Cold War started, the year when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and the rest of the world were also struggling to recover from the devastating WWII. So, 67years ago and just a few days before Christmas, our McShane received this expensive solid 18K gold watch by the house of Audemars Piguet which must have been an honour as most would buy a local American watch instead but an imported Swiss watch was chosen for him.

Vintage Audemars Piguet watches are very rare in this part of the world & this watch came from USA. It is a rather good size for it's time & is not small due to the thin bezel so the dial measures a rather pleasing 29mm with the case at 33mm. The dial is nicely aged with little discoloration around the pink gold indexes while the Roman numerals are a welcome sight for any vintage watch collectors.

The 20jewels movement is of highest quality (most were 17-18 for sweep seconds) and adjusted to an astonishing 8 positions while most settled with just 3-6. The edges of the bridges are also chamfered & polished, a criteria for Geneva seal while the plates are finished with Geneva stripes, There's some brassing on the edges due to age but still very respectable.

The sweep centre seconds feature is a pleasing thing to have & this movement is an in-direct centre seconds. This would've been a direct competition for the Patek Philippe's Ref.570 of the same era but that is worth well over US$15k today easily so this represents a fantastic bargain & rarer as well. We don't know the production nos but there can't be many of this out there.

This watch has just received a complete restoration by our service centre where the watch is taken apart. The case is washed & carefully polished to remove any scratches (some old marks remain) & there are no bad dents when we acquired it. The movement is disassembled, cleaned & oiled then reassembled with a final regulation test done. This watch will serve you well for many more years to come.