What we have for you here is some classic vintage Patek Philippe goodness. This is a great example of the legendary reference 1463 chronograph, Patek's first waterproof chronograph and the immediate predecessor to today's ref. 5070. While a few examples were made in stainless steel, the majority are yellow gold like this watch and feature a number of typical mid-century Patek traits. If you're looking for a watch that embodies what vintage Patek Philippe is all about, look no further.
Patek first launched the 1463 in the early 1940s and the watch was produced continuously until the late 1960s. You might be thinking at this point, "Wait a minute, wasn't the 5070 only released in 1998?" And if so, you'd be absolutely right. The 1463 was the waterproof reimagining of the earlier ref. 130, but from the late 60s through 1998, Patek did not offer a basic manually-wound, waterproof chronograph. It's tough to imagine, but absolutely true.
As you would expect from a watch made for such a long time, the 1463 has a number of different dial configurations, including a handful of colors and numeral/baton combinations. The example here has Teutonic XII and VI numerals with the intermedia hours marked by batons patek phillipe replica. This is one of the cleaner dials and one we're big fans of here at HODINKEE HQ. The hours, minutes, and running seconds hands are all gold to match the case, while the chronograph seconds hand and 30-minute totalizer hand are both blued steel, adding a little contrast and visual differentiation for the complication.
It might seem unusual to call the watch a "sports watch," but it was Patek's sport chronograph, with its tachy scale and waterproof case ?there are some rare 1463s out there with pulsometer scales, such as this historic example. At 35mm in diameter and 14mm thick, the 1463 was pretty robust for the time, especially in terms of thickness. This is because of the domed crystal and the large screw-down caseback with an additional internal dust protector for the movement. Now does calling this a sports watch make a little more sense? The winding crown is large and easy to use, while the pump pushers have the engraved ends that you'll find on many of Patek's chronographs from this era.
And, just a reminder, the extremely rare Patek Philippe ref. 1563 split-seconds chronograph takes this same structure but adds a split-seconds mechanism to the movement. You can see our hands-on look at an elusive 1563 here.
Under the two casebacks you'll find a Patek Philippe cal. 13-130 movement, which is based on a Valjoux 23. The Valjoux 23 is considered one of the best manually wound chronograph movements of all time and a real classic, and Patek's 13-130 is beautifully finished, as you would expect. Patek used the 13-130 from around 1938 (first in the ref.130) until the late 1960s, when the 1463 was phased out of production. It wouldn't be until the 1980s that Patek would move over to using Lemania movements instead.
This Patek Philippe ref. 1463 is available at Madison Fine Time in New York City ?check out our video look at Madison Fine Time and you can contact the shop directly here.
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