Timeline  /  The first serial perpetual calendar
1941

The first serial perpetual calendar

Patek Philippe’s reference 1526 of 1941 was the first perpetual calendar wristwatch made in series, one you could buy rather than commission.

Patek Philippe reference 1526 perpetual calendar wristwatch
A Patek Philippe reference 1526 of the mid-1940s, the reference itself.Photograph: EMore98 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
The need
Until then a perpetual calendar wristwatch had to be specially ordered.
Made by
Patek Philippe, with a movement based on a Victorin Piguet calibre.
What was new
A perpetual calendar in a catalogue model: day and month in two windows below twelve, date and moon phase in a dial at six, the layout Patek Philippe still uses.
Worth knowing
About 210 were made up to the early 1950s, nearly all in yellow gold.

Historian’s noteSome timelines give 1942, which usually refers to a particular watch rather than the launch.

SourcesSotheby’s · Phillips

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