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– By Logan Baker
Inspired by the legendary, unique 1952 Patek Philippe Observatory Ref. 2458 owned by J.B. Champion, the special-edition Phillips × Massena LAB × Raúl Pagès 1952 Observatory Dial wristwatch features a proprietary hand-finished movement, is limited to 99 total examples in stainless steel, and was born out of our collective love and admiration for vintage watches.
Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo was excited to introduce our latest collaborative horological creation earlier this year: the 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition, a vintage-inspired wristwatch created in a joint effort between Phillips Watches leadership, William Massena of horological concept studio Massena LAB, and award-winning independent watchmaker Raúl Pagès.
We are pleased to share that we quietly kept a small batch to offer periodically through Phillips PERPETUAL, our boutique platform for direct sales. We're excited to offer another chance to buy the 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition to anyone who might have missed it the first time around.
The dial of the new watch is an homage to a one-of-a-kind Observatory-grade Patek Philippe Ref. 2458 wristwatch in platinum that was made in 1952 for Joe Ben “J.B.” Champion, Jr., a prominent American lawyer and collector. When this unique vintage wristwatch last sold publicly, during a 2014 auction, it set a record for the most expensive time-only wristwatch ever sold at auction.
Despite the historic influence found on the 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition, our collaboration is profoundly modern, building on the technical platform first established by Massena LAB and Raúl Pagès in 2022, with the successful release of their Magraph Limited Edition wristwatch.
The result is the all-new 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition, featuring a 38.5mm × 10mm case made of 316L stainless steel, and with the manual-wind, proprietary calibre M660 ticking inside. The calibre M660 is Massena LAB’s impressive first attempt at developing an exclusive movement; it features an impressive level of traditional hand-decoration, achieved by a network of Swiss craftsmen whose work is overseen by Pagès himself. Pagès also designed and conceived the overall architecture of the movement, but he does not personally handle the production or decoration of the movement like he would in one of his own watches. This is the calibre M660’s second-ever appearance in a publicly released wristwatch, following its debut inside the Magraph Limited Edition from 2022.
Our collective love for vintage watches, and the stories that often surround them, helped guide our team down the path of creating the 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition – however, importantly, it also didn’t restrict any part of our creative process. That’s the reason we opted for a two-tone grey dial with yellow gold accents found throughout the pearl-style minute track, the handset (hour, minute, small seconds), and the hour markers (Arabic numerals for six and 12 o’clock, batons used for the remaining). The cool-tone grey-and-gold color scheme lends a slightly more contemporary aesthetic compared to the traditional Observatory Dial layout/format, especially the aged cream dial with white gold accents found on J.B. Champion’s original watch from more than 70 years ago.
The 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition wristwatch was produced in an exclusive run of exactly 99 timepieces in stainless steel.
An Organic Collaboration
The 1952 Observatory Dial Limited project was born out of the personal friendship between three men and the passion they share for the world of fine watch collecting. Aurel Bacs, Senior Consultant for Phillips Watches; Alexandre Ghotbi, Phillips Deputy Chairman and Head of Watches, Europe and Middle East; and William Massena, founder of Massena LAB, have been close friends and colleagues for more than 25 years.
So after several years of collaborative watch releases for Massena LAB and Phillips, with other partners, it felt completely natural to come together to create a special watch that shares the Phillips and Massena names on the same dial. Massena was also able to bring on Pagès to oversee the assembly process and entire hand-decoration of the calibre M660, just as he did for the Magraph.
The project came together swiftly. Aurel, Alex, and William finalized the watch’s design over dinner one night in Downtown Manhattan. The trio’s longtime friendship and history of shared horological experiences made it extremely easy to communicate and work together on design and production. They each understood exactly what the other wanted to achieve through the collaboration.
Pagès, meanwhile, is fresh off winning the inauagural edition of the “Louis Vuitton Watch Prize for Independent Creatives,” which he was awarded in February 2024. In addition to celebrating his big win, Pagès continues to work on delivering his highly sought-after RP1 Régulateur à Détente to clients – after all, it is the watch that earned him the top prize. So it goes without saying, then, that Pagès has been extremely busy lately, and yet he still found the time to work with us on creating the 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition.
This watch wouldn’t be the same if we were missing any collaborators.
The Vintage Inspiration
The vintage watch that inspires our 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition is a one-of-a-kind, time-only Patek Philippe ref. 2458 cased in platinum with an Observatory-grade wristwatch movement inside (it received the "Bulletin de Marché" in 1948), and that an American lawyer named J.B. Champion acquired in 1952 on special order from Patek Philippe.
In addition to the nine o’clock sub-dial markings highlighting the watch’s success at the Geneva Observatory, the dial of Champion’s watch is also inscribed with a brief epitaph: “MADE ESPECIALLY FOR J.B. CHAMPION.”
Everything about Champion’s original Patek Philippe ref. 2458 was remarkable. It’s one of only two Patek Philippe wristwatches equipped with an Observatory-grade movements and is one of 30 such movements ever assembled. Other ref. 2458s were also produced over the years, but the Champion example is the only one known that’s cased in platinum.
The last time the Champion ref. 2548 came to auction was a decage ago, in 2014, when it sold for CHF 3,779,000, a price that represented a record at the time for the most expensive time-only wristwatch sold at auction, the equivalent of USD $4,470,150, in 2024.
The pictured Massena LAB × Phillips 1952 Observatory Dial Limited Edition is available for immediate purchase now through Phillips PERPETUAL for £7,750. You can also reach out to our Phillips PERPETUAL locations in Gstaad, Switzerland (PerpetualGstaad@phillips.com), and the Pedder Arcade, in Hong Kong (PerpetualHK@Phillips.com), to inquire about potential availability.
You can learn more about the above watch and see all the currently in-stock watches online at Phillips PERPETUAL.
Phillips PERPETUAL offers a boutique experience to clients for both the sale and purchase of fine and rare watches, in London’s Berkeley Square and the Gstaad Palace, in Switzerland.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade reporting on every aspect of the watch business. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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