Auctions: Andy Warhol’s Patek Philippe 2526 (And Six Other Great Pateks) At Sotheby’s
I said earlier that the 3970 is the best complicated watch ever, and the only reason I used that qualifier is because the 2526 is the best time-only watch ever. It’s got Patek’s caliber 12-600 AT, its first automatic movement. Patek paired this with a warm, eggshell-hued enamel dial. Even today, we go crazy for modern enamel, and here’s Patek, doing it in the ’50s because it thought it was the way to make a dial that’d last forever. Somehow, the 2526’s enamel is warm and subtle, the perfect complement to the pink gold case, while also glowing like a tungsten light in a dimly lit room. The few lines of print seem to float above the dial. I could write about the 2526 for another 4,000 words, but it turns out we’ve already done that.