C.1982 Rare Audemars Piguet 31mm Ref.4289CA “Philosopher” ultra-slim manual winding in 18K Yellow & White Gold

Description

Pre-owned. Comes with orig. green leather box/pouch & factory issued Archive certificate.

“Birth of the Philosopher’s watch, with a single hand and a rotating bezel. Thanks to these complementary features, the wearer can see at a glance what time it is in two different time zones. This highly original concept is a permanent invitation to reflect on the relativity of time”

However, what we have here is a little bit of a mystery and ambiguous because our watch has two hands instead of the usual single hour hand but this makes it very easy to tell time vs the regular Philosopher. It was acquired by us back twenty years ago and we have never seen another. There is no further information available, we cannot find another example even online as of publishing time and in 2020, this watch was returned to Audemars Piguet service center for an inspection where an archive certificate was obtained from the Swiss factory.

The watch itself can be rotated within the white gold cage when you apply pressure with your index finger and thumb to the center piece then rotate it but the dot acts as the reference for twelve so time can be read off the watch.

This is a highly collectible and a novelty watch for the watch connoisseur and after all, it has an ultra-slim movement measuring a mere 1.64mm thin (slimmer than Patek’s Cal.177) which is an important development in the history of AP’s annals.

This watch will suit a collector with sophisticated taste and one who doesn’t bath in the glamour of names because there is none here. Truly philosophical~

Some information on the history of AP ultra-slim movement here.

Here is a more recent attempt by AP on the single had watch.