Fine and extremely rare Patek Philippe 18K gold montre å tact antique pocket watch with certificate circa 1865. The cover with a moving hand and the band with hour markers enabling time to be determined by touch. Fine white enamel dial. Dust cover with the name of the Berlin retailer and a hole to mesh with the outer hand. Fine gilt lever movement with wolf tooth winding.
We know of only three of these watches including this example. One is in the Patek Philippe museum. Nikolaj Nikolaevich zu Sayn-Wittgenstein (1862-1934) was a descendant of the German Sayn-Wittgenstein dynasty and a member of the Imperial Russian Court. The inside of the cover of this watch is engraved 'Count N.N. Wittgenstein' in Cyrillic. In the former Soviet Union it was illegal to use titles, and there are signs of attempts to remove it. Christian Tiede was a very well known German retailer and watchmaker and he supplied German aristocratic families and public institutions with watches and clocks.
