Patek Philippe Pink "Dorè" Dial Reference 3940J Full Set

The references 3940 is arguably the most elegant Patek Philippe watches made over the last 40 years. The watch is powered by the self-winding calibre 240Q with microrotor, which when released was the thinnest automatic perpetual calendar movement available.

This Patek Philippe reference 3940 in yellow gold is a rare and uncommon model from the early period of the amazing reference 3940 featuring the beautiful "dorè" dial. Starting in the early 1990s, Patek Philippe made the 3940 models with both exhibition and solid case backs except for the platinum model, which only had a solid case back for the entirety of its run.

There is no question that the special 3940s and 3970s are some of the most in-demand models these days. The holy grail 3940s are the first 25 3940s made for Beyer with the beautiful doré dials. Of those, the first 15 have German dials and number 16-25 have English dials. In 2022, number 19 sold for over $386,000 USD at auction. I heard of another example selling for over $450,000 around that time. Just last month, number 12 with a German dial sold at auction in France for over $300,000 USD, although the auction house requires you to pay to see the results and we could not figure out how to pay them to get the exact number. Number 1 was presented to the Beyer family and is seen in the late Rene Beyer’s Talking Watches episode. Number 2 was originally owned by the legendary super collector Dr. Eugene Gschwind (1921-1991) of Basel, Switzerland and is now owned by the Stern family who owns Patek Philippe. The watch is on display at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva on the fifth floor in a glass case on the wall near the library. Eric quoted Dr. Gschwind in his talk to the Horological Society of New York in 2019: “One must know how to purchase exceptional objects today, at tomorrow’s prices.” Unfortunately, Dr. Gschwind’s old watch is quite overpolished (like so many watches in the Patek Philippe Museum), although it will presumably never be resold so it doesn’t matter anyways!

This example was sold in November 1988 according to the Certificate of Origin. The 18k yellow gold case is 36mm. It has been lightly polished.

This early example with the early dial featuring the more vintage PATEK PHILIPPE font is probably rarer than those 25 examples with Beyer dials. For some collectors, having the cleaner dial without a retail signature is preferred. These early doré dials are truly sensational and a bit more metallic than later doré dials we have sold, although we would not turn down any of them!

The watch comes with box and Certificate of Origin, pin pusher and booklet. An Extract from the Archives has been ordered.

PRICE: INQUIRE (SBUXYT4999)