The reference 3970 was the first Patek Philippe perpetual calendar chronograph to indicate leap years, and the first to add a 24-hour indicator.

The reference was produced in yellow gold, pink gold, white gold and platinum across a total of four series with production spanning over 19 years. The present 3970 in 18K yellow gold also features the solid screw-back case, feuille hands, and baton indexes indicative of the second series.

While the 3970 in and of itself is a highly desirable timepiece, the real draw of this example lies in the most visible component – the dial. Fitted with a doré dial, sometimes referred to as opaline-gilt, only a very small number of 3970s and 3971s are known to be fitted with this specific color dial. The texture is a silky, matte golden color, with a subtle sheen to the subdials, a trait that appears also on the normal silvered second series dials. Our research shows 9 examples across the references 3970 and 3971 have appeared at auction with doré dial, of which the present lot is the 4th 3970 example to appear and is fresh-to-the-auction market. Accompanied by its original Certificate of Origin describing an “argenté”, or silvered, dial, it’s highly likely the current doré dial was fitted by a Patek Philippe retailer at the request of the original owner at the time of purchase.

With perfectly crisp hallmarks visible on the solid screw-down caseback fitted to the watch, the case is in excellent overall condition. The popularity of these extremely rare 3970s having grown in the past few years, the fact remains that very few were made and even fewer have appeared in public. Thus, the current example presents an exciting opportunity to obtain one of the rarest iterations of an absolute classic. Adoréable!