Patek Philippe

DISTINGUISHED BY ITS

Lugs that overlap the case and its blue-and-tan illustration of Eurasia (which you’d be forgiven for not immediately recognising as a pair of continents)

SIGNED BY

Louis Cottier, a watchmaker and watercolour painter. He adapted the universal time system to the wrist in the early 1930s. The method was first devised by Sandford Fleming, a railway engineer who got the idea after missing a train in Ireland

ACCORDING TO THE AUCTION LISTING IT’S

“Truly horological endgame.”

MADE IN

A manufacture in Geneva on the banks of the Rhône

EXPIRATION DATE

There isn’t one, though you’ll need to take it to be serviced every three to five years

ENJOY UNTIL

You bequeath it to an offspring

LEARN MORE ABOUT IT AT THE

Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva (left), which has its own version of the watch

NOBODY’S PERFECT

There are a few scratches on the back of the 18-carat yellow-gold case

ALSO KNOWN AS

Silk Road or Eurasia for the colourful depiction of Europe and Asia on its face