The Patek Philippe reference 1252 is one of the most unusual pieces I’ve seen from the manufacture. Designed by Gilbert Kervan and manufactured in the 1940s, ref 1252 features a chameleon wrapping around a bracelet, with its head perched just above the square dial.
There are two pieces that have been sold at auction, with the third known piece at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva (P-107; Patek Philippe Museum, Volume II, page 195).
18 Yellow Gold pieces
There are two pieces publicly known, with Patek Philippe only referencing that it is not a piece unique (Collectability, ‘A Horological Pilgrimage to The Patek Philippe Museum’).
Image: hifi-archiv.info
The Patek Philippe Museum example has Arabic numerals at 12 and 6, stick markers at 3 and 9, and triangle markers at hours otherwise.
Image: Luxuo
The first public sale of the second known example was at auction in France in approximately late 1980-early 1990s (please let me know if you have better details on this auction). This example, with movement 940899 and case 638777, returned to auction at Antiquorum in May 2023 (Lot 450), reaching an all-in price of $430,000 USD (387,500 CHF). Antiquorum notes the piece as having a Caliber 7”’ 70, 18 jeweled movement, with case and movement both signed, and diameter of 18mm. The dial differs from the example at the Patek Philippe Museum in that the markers are parallelograms. I am unable to tell the signature of the Museum piece, but the Antiquorum sale of this second example features ‘Patek Philippe Co.’ text, normally seen on pieces from the manufacture pre-1948 (though Antiquorum estimates the manufacture date as 1949, and no Extract from the Archives was included).
Image: Christie’s
Looking closely at the example, the text on the dial looks more crude than the Museum example, with posts for the numerals slightly visible above the ‘2’ at 12, and also above the 6. The extract from the Patek Philippe archives did not provide detail on the dial (which is not unusual).
18 Pink and Yellow Gold piece
Possibly a unique example, this 18k pink and yellow gold Reference 1252 includes an Extract from the Archives confirming production in 1940, with sale on June 7, 1946. This example is the earliest known, with movement 865’356 and case 621’691, was auctioned at Christie’s on December 9, 2024, and sold for $387,000. Opposed to the other auctioned example, above, the dial of this latest-to-surface 1252 features ‘Patek Philippe & Co.’ text which again, should be seen after 1948, though the Extract shows the production date of 1940. I have not seen the Extract to see if there was any comment on the dial, but one could conclude that the dial may have been replaced after the sale date. Christie’s notes the case was made by G. & E.Bonnard of La Fusterie, Geneva (Geneva Key 14) and is 20mm wide.
Image: Christie’s