Why the early Patek Philippe 3970s are so important

Welcome back to Collectability. What if I told you that the three watches within this box tell the most important story in modern patek plate collecting? At first glance, they look almost identical. Three yellow gold perpetual calendar chronographs, all 36 millimeters, all powered by the same caliber 2770Q. But look closer, because these three watches were first sold in 1987, 1988, and 1989, and together, they captured the birth and extraordinary evolution of one of the most important Patek Philippe references of the last 40 years, the reference 3970. And one of these has a bit of a surprise, and we'll get to that later. But first, we have to go back in time to understand their lineage. For Patek Philippe, the perpetual calendar chronograph isn't simply another complication. It's arguably the complication that defines the company. In 1941, the company introduced the reference 1518, the world's first serial produced perpetual calendar chronograph. Just 281 examples were made. 10 years later came the reference 2499. It remained in production for approximately 35 years, and just 349 examples were produced. These watches became the foundation of vintage Patek Philippe collecting. And then in 1985, production of the 2499 ended, and imagine being at Patek Philippe at the time. How do you replace one of the greatest watch references you've ever made? The answer was delivered the next year, and that is reference 3970. We're going to look at three watches today. The first one I'd like to show you was manufactured in 1986, the very first year of production of the 3970. The movement number is 875006. Think about that. We are looking at one of the earliest movements in the entire 3970 lineage. The extract from the archive confirms this yellow gold reference 3970 was made in 86 and sold for the first time January 14th of 1987. And this is where reference 3970 scholarship gets exciting. Collectors now divide the 3970 into four series, but Patek Philippe didn't wake up one morning and say, today we're going to make a second series. These classifications came later. What actually happened was an evolution. Components changed as Patek and its suppliers produced new batches and used existing inventory. But this watch right here is at the beginning, and only about a hundred first series 3970s are believed to have been produced, and they were made exclusively in yellow gold. There's been recent debate about how many 3970 first series full snapbacks were actually made and sold relative to how many 3971 first series sapphire snapback were made. And some say a hundred of each, but I've come to the conclusion that less than 100 of both altogether were made. Only Patek knows the exact numbers, but it's a safe guesstimate in my opinion that less than a hundred snapbacks were ever made, and that is the sapphire back and the solid back version. Side note, the 3971 sapphire backs will soon be recognized, in my opinion, as the ultimate holy grail of 3970s, but we'll see what time says about that. Let's look at the dial of this 3970 first series, and this is one of my favorite details of these watches. The main surface has this beautiful satin finish, while the recessed sub dials have a slightly different finish due to the zappan, or the varnish that was used. These have each unique characters and the way that they age, and that's what's so much fun with these early 3970s. It's subtle, but frankly, simply amazing. The hands that you'll see on these watches are fui, or leaf-shaped, and the calendar disc used that characteristic early font. There's an elegance here that feels much closer to vintage Patek Philippe watches than would come later in the third and fourth series. And then there's perhaps the most obvious way to identify a first series. That is the snap back. So the case back is a snap back. There's no screw threads, there's no water resistance, and that's important because the 3970 wasn't fully a modern watch when it was born in today's eyes. It was born with one foot firmly planted in the world of the 2499, and that snap back is that DNA in the purest form. As of last year, Collectability's research has identified less than 25 first series, 3970s and 3971s combined, have surfaced. That's less than a quarter than it believed to have been made. That's a very, very small number. So scholarship has changed the market, but the rarity was always there. Collectors have simply learned to recognize it, and that's what we're seeing with these incredible price accelerations in recent days. Now I'd like to move forward from 1987 to 1988. This is where things get even more interesting. Here I have in front of me is a fresh to market, original owner, never before seen specimen of a second series 3970. Look at the patina on that case. I mean, that watch has not seen the light of day for decades. This watch was originally made in 1988, and notably the archive describes it differently than the first series 3970. So this is a 3970. This is a 3970E. Both are J, because they're yellow gold, but that E makes a big difference because the E tells a big story. That E stands for etanche, or water resistance. TechFlip replaced the snap back that we see on the first series with the screw back that you see here on the second series. Now don't go take your 1988 perpetual calendar chrono swimming because it's waterproof, but to a degree, this is not the type of watch that you want to go swimming with. But important to note that this period represented a very important jump forward in the modernization of the reference 3970, and this is the transition that defines the second series. The second series originally appeared around 1987 and continued until approximately 1990, and it overlapped a bit with the first series and eventually the third series. And current scholarship estimates that approximately 650 second series watches were made, with roughly 150 to 200 of those being 3970 ones. Still extraordinary numbers. Let's forget case backs for the moment and focus on the two dials between the first and the second series. This is where collecting 3970s becomes wonderfully nerdy. Our 1986 first series here has the more pronounced two-tone character with the dial, and the archive for the 1988 watch I have here describes the dial as opally and silvered, while the previous first series, the archive describes the dial as silvered dial, satin finish. So the second series is generally more uniform opally and silvered appearance, and you could really see that transition between first and second series right here in front of us. So we still have the beautiful three hands, we still have the squared baton markers, and we also see some changes in the calendar typography. So the 3970 is evolving right here in front of us. Now we're going to advance another year to 1989, and this was a big year for TechBleed. It was their 150th anniversary. In New York, it was all centered around Tiffany & Company, which brings us to our third and final watch today. So let's take a look. This piece was made in 1989, sold in 1989, and it is movement 875382. The archive identifies this watch as a yellow gold reference 3971E with an opally and silver dial. And there's just two big reveals here. Number one is look under the moon phase, Tiffany & Company. When I first saw this watch, my eyes just popped out. A 3971 with a Tiffany dial is about as grail as it gets. And then, looking at the case back and seeing the sapphire back, this is remarkable. Because the 3971 only existed for a very short period of time, Patek Philippe introduced the 3971 alongside the 3970 and continued its production well into the second series. The first series had the snap sapphire back, and the second series, like we have here, had the screw back sapphire back. And eventually, Patek Philippe simplified everything. By the third series, the 3970 was supplied with both backs, the sapphire back and the solid back. So there was no longer any reason to separate the references when you get to the third and fourth series, and that made the 3971 disappear. That makes the 3971 a fascinating evolutionary branch of Patek Philippe history. Of the approximately 650 second series watches, there were as few as 150 3971s in the second series. And that makes this a rarity. Now let's talk Tiffany on top of that. The relationship between Patek Philippe and Tiffany is one of the longest and most important retailer relationships in watchmaking. Tiffany began selling Patek Philippe watches in the 19th century, and it goes all the way back to 1851. And a retailer-signed Patek Philippe watch occupies a very special place in the world of Patek Philippe because having a Tiffany-signed watch is particularly unusual. In the modern era, it was the only retailer stamp Patek Philippe allowed in regular production, and this stamping was done in New York. When I first saw this particular watch, my eyes just popped because I was really pleasantly surprised this particular logo font that we typically see from a year or two earlier in the world of 3970s. This font, in my opinion, is the most charismatic of the Tiffany fonts used during that era, distinctly 1980s. In speaking with the actual watchmaker that stamped these Tiffany's in-house while I was working at Patek USA, I saw how the stamping was done, and I saw how they pulled the various dyes from the box and stamped these particular watches. There was various sizes, there was various fonts, and it was just simply magical seeing that done. So a Tiffany 3971, this is something I've never seen before and I'll probably never see again. I'm going to show something that just blew my mind in researching this watch. When I look at the archive, it says the timepiece was sold without a strap. This is very important because when I look at the archive of the second series, I see that it was born with a leather strap. Now this is wonderfully exciting because these both came from the same family. They're both fresh to market. They both have the straps they were born on. So this actually tells us some interesting things. First, we know from the family that this particular second series that I'm pointing at now was bought in Europe. So it makes sense that the archive says that it was born in the leather strap. Now when we look at the 3971 here, it says the timepiece was sold without a strap. This makes sense because it was exported to the U.S. because of CITES could not send straps across borders. So Patek Philippe sold this without a strap. So I'd like to share the concept. It's very possible that a lot of the archives that say the timepiece was sold without a strap indicates that they were U.S. market watches. I know there are exceptions, but this is a very useful hint as we research watches and we dig deeper into what the archives mean to the watches in front of us. Another cool point. You'll see on this second series that was sold in Europe, it has the European buckle. And I love to see with this particular 3971 sold by Tiffany, it has the Henry Stern style pointed buckle. And that is very important for you to know as collectors, the difference between those buckles. And you could read the whole story in my book, Patek Philippe in America. It is so much fun to learn about the first and second series 3970s by looking at the case backs and also at the straps and the buckles. So what do we see here in front of me? We have a first series and you can see the snap back. So exactly what we want to see. We have a second series and this has a screw back. Also exactly what we want to see. And the surprise here is the 3971 second series. And we see the screw back, but it's also a sapphire back, which is why it's a 3971. Now the straps also tell a big part of the story. Looking at the 3971, we see a strap with the PP markings, which was unique for straps sold by Patek Philippe USA. And we also have the pointed tang buckle, which was unique for watches sold by Patek Philippe USA. Next we have the 3972nd series, which we know is sold in Europe. And this has, not only is it signed Austria, it has the flat buckle, which is typical of European market watches. And this is so much fun in its entirety to help tell the story of early 3970s. Just a couple of personal notes on this reference 3971. When I first saw the sapphire back combined with the Tiffany & Company with that particular stamp, knowing it's fresh to market, no one's seen this watch in over 30 years, my heart just melted. This is what collectability is all about. And I'm so pleased to share this with you today. And just received the archives from Geneva for all three of these watches, and at time of filming, these three pieces are available for sale. So contact us if you're interested in acquiring one, two, or three very important early 3970s. I think the 3970 now is undergoing such an interesting transformation in perception. We're living through a recalibration of what these watches are worth to collectors. For years, people thought of the 3970 as a modern Patek Philippe. The 1518 was vintage, the 2499 was vintage, and a 3970 was a 3970. But that now has changed. The reference is turning 40 years old this year. It's grown up. Collectors are studying these watches in the same way. The previous generation studied 1518s and it's so exciting to be able to capture and see these three pieces from the late 80s today. If you want to understand why collectors are so obsessed with early 3970s, these three watches in front of me explain it better than any person could. The first is all about origin, movement number 006. The second is all about evolution, a specimen of the second series. The third is about rarity layered upon rarity, the sapphire back and the Tiffany signature. Perhaps the real lesson of the 3970 is right in front of us. We're learning to see the differences. We're learning to look closer. We're learning to understand the difference between an important watch and an extraordinary watch. It could sometimes be hidden in a case back. It could be hidden in a font. It could be hidden in a signature. All of these watches really take us right back to where the origin story of the 3970 begins. All that said, I want to thank you for listening. It was so much fun sharing these three extraordinary watches with you today. Thank you so much for your time today. Before we go, a quick word about something that I think is very valuable for collectors. We spend a lot of time talking about finding and enjoying great watches, but frankly, protecting them is just as important. That's why we're very pleased to Centerpiece Insurance provided by Chubb. It's insurance designed with collectors in mind, offering zero deductibles, flexible appraisal requirements, automatic coverage for new purchases, and most importantly, market value protection. If you have a collection or even one watch that's really important to you, it's worth making sure it's properly protected. You can learn more and get a quote through the Centerpiece link below. And with that, I want to say thank you and enjoy the hunt.