Patek Philippe 3940R Perpetual Calendar (3940R-011) Patek Philippe Watch Review

Hi, this is Tim of the 1916 Company. Welcome and thanks for logging on. If you love this watch, email us. Tim Masso at the1916company.com for purchase pricing and availability questions regarding this watch. Today, we're discussing a Patek Philippe 3940R 011 Perpetual Calendar. So the 3940 was made from about 1985 to 2007 and probably around 7,000 to 8,000 were made. This is a late example from the 2000. So we'll talk about some of those features that make it a late example, but the watch is nicely sized, approximately 36 millimeters in diameter. It's also slim at only 9.1 millimeters thick and it's short across the wrist, 43.2 millimeters from lug to lug with an 18 millimeter spacing in between the lugs. The Sigma dialed beauty fits nicely on my wrist. As you can see, the time piece is relatively thin. It'll slide under a cuff and I'm pulling the strap very tight and the strap is brand new. So it's not broken in. Rest assured, this will fit on a wrist as small as 13 and a half centimeters circumference. It is a fantastic unisex option. And if you travel in the circles who believe that the smaller the watch, the more expensive it is, this does roughly fit that rubric. The time piece is grand without being oversized. The clasp, not every example of the 3940 has a clasp. This was more common on later variants. So you see right here, it is not the latest version because it doesn't have the radial spring. It's a friction fit clasp that shuts with a nice solid snap and has the Calatrava cross, which is the logo of the manufacturer on the outside. And that further suggests that it is one of the later examples. The strap, as you can see here, is a Patek Philippe factory strap, recent manufacture, which means it has the company's latest pull tab spring bars for quick removal of the strap without a tool. It's a medium brown with a large scale alligator leather cut. You can see it's a gloss finish with a monotone brown stitch, a sheer cut edge that's lacquered for refinement. You can see Patek Philippe factory strap in outstanding unused condition. The case is in good shape, though we haven't over polished it. There are some marks on it. You can see, for example, on the top of the lug, that's not just a fingerprint there. So this has some marks of wear, but it's always better with an old precious metal watch to leave minor marks in place and preserve the factory metal. I have seen lug reconstruction in the modern era on certain types of watches, but as far as I know, Patek Philippe is not yet practicing that in-house. So we like to leave the metal in place. You can see the recess or countersink of the crown on the flank, which is an elegant styling feature of these. We've got a bezel, which as you can see, is actually slightly concave and the case itself is ramped in profile. So the dress cuff will slide up and over it. Push your adjusters around the case. That is how you correct the calendar. You can see we have a combination of a boxed and cambered Sapphire over a dial that is characteristic of the third series. So what appears like it might be tarnish is actually the remnants of the shaded nighttime half of the 24 hour dial. So you've got two semicircles, one of which is the daytime and then the one at the bottom from 18 through six moving clockwise. That is the nighttime. So that's not dirt on the dial. That's just a faded nighttime half of the time disc. We've got a Sigma dial. This was likely one of the last Patek Philippe watches to use the Sigma dial, also known as the Aprior marks. They were created in the early seventies when a Swiss precious metals trade organization wanted watchmakers to use the Sigma like symbol on dials that included at a bare minimum hands and indices out of gold. There was also or Massif, which would be like Sigma with an M where the whole dial was made out of gold, but this is a Sigma dial and understandably one of the very last as by the two thousands, almost everyone had phased that out. But it is also one of the points that distinguishes this as a third series watch, because if you were looking at something like a second series, that little script Swiss with Sigma would be somewhat dropped below the dimple track of the minutes. So it wouldn't be in line with these little minute dimples. So we do have gold hands and indices. They won't tarnish and oxidize with time. It is a perpetual calendar, which means that you don't need to make corrections for a regular months and leap years. It's got a moon phase that only requires one correction every 122 years. This is assuming you keep the watch running. So you've got the date, the date, the month, the leap year, and then you've got this 24 hour dial. And the reason for that, let me just show you, I'll adjust the watch. You need to know when it's nighttime. In general, just do not touch the perpetual calendar pusher adjusters. You see how the date just jumped, but that little stub hand indicates what part of clock we're looking at. So you know, is this 2 a.m. or is it 2 p.m.? Well, you know that we're in the nighttime half of this 24 hour disc. So this right here is 2 a.m. So you don't want to use these little calendar correctors if it's that time of day. You want to make sure you advance safely until morning. And then that little stub hand is now in the daytime, you're safe to set it. The dial is not a simple opaline matte. You can see that it has a very directional silver brushed grain, almost like stainless steel from top to bottom. Turning it all over, you can see caliber 240. Notice it's a snap case back. In theory, 30 meter water resistance. In reality, not something you want to test, but it should be secure against splashes by rain, or if you're washing your hand. The 240 micro rotor is a little miracle of packaging. It is very thin at 2.53 millimeters thick. And I'm talking about the base caliber, not with the module. But it originated in 1977. And in general, you'll see it on flagship models rather than simple mass production examples. So on mass production watch, you're going to see a 2.15 manual wind. You're going to see something like a 3.15 or 3.24 center rotor, or 26, 3.30. When you see a micro rotor, you know, you're looking at something a little bit special. Micro rotor has advantages. One, with the rotor and the winding system in the same plane as the other bridges, makes for a thinner watch. Also, because they're not covering the way a center rotor would, they're not covering up the works with a winding bridge and a center rotor. You can see everything the way you can with a manual wind movement, but it also gives you the convenience of automatic winding. It's a three Hertz speed rate, pivots on 27 joules. It's got a 48 hour power reserve, 22 carat rotor. One of the signs that this is a later example, you can see that the bearings in the rotor, those are actually ceramic. And then we've got a free sprung gyromax style balance, which is a Patek Philippe mechanical engineering tradition dating back to the early 1950s. Makes for more precise adjustment and then better shock resistance. You can see, of course, these were all said and done by 2007. Patek wouldn't adopt the Patek Philippe seal till about summer of 2009. So this has the Geneva hallmark. Finishing is good. Although in a sign of where Patek was back in the 2000s, they didn't expect people to look at these things under microscopes. So while the bevels are hand finished, they're not so excruciatingly hand polished that you can't see a little bit of the milling marks. And we've got engine turning on the base plate, stripes on the rotor, as well as the bridges. And you can see that even the jewel sinks have a little beveling inside with black polished screw heads. And you can see the locating pegs that help to locate the balance cock on the base plate. Those locating pegs, those three right there, they've been polished on their top too. And again, a 45 to 48 hour power reserve because this one is a perpetual calendar. A great watch, a really cool piece, and a very nice example of a modern Patek that wears with a classical size. Reach out to team also at the1916company.com for purchase and pricing details.