The first split-seconds wristwatch

The need

A normal chronograph times one thing at a time. A split-seconds chronograph has a second hand that can be stopped to read an intermediate time, a lap or a second runner, while the main hand keeps running.

Made by

Patek Philippe. The movement was begun in about 1903, probably by the specialist Victorin Piguet, and was cased and sold as a wristwatch on 13 October 1923.

What was new

The split-seconds function on the wrist: two chronograph hands, one on top of the other, split apart by a pusher and rejoined by pressing it again.

Worth knowing

The mechanism itself was a century old in pocket watches; Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl built the first two-hand split-seconds in Paris in the 1830s. This watch sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2014 for 2,965,000 dollars.

Where it is now

The Patek Philippe Museum, Geneva, which bought it at that sale.

Historian’s noteThe claim, as the auction catalogue put it, is the earliest known split-seconds chronograph wristwatch, by any maker. No earlier one has come to light. It is not to be confused with A. Lange & Söhne’s Double Split of 2004, the first with a split minute counter as well.

SourcesSotheby’s · Patek Philippe