Patek Philippe 570

Patek Philippe 570

Patek Philippe 570 Introduction
It can’t get any more classic than the Patek Philippe 570. The 570 was manufactured from 1938 to 1972 in yellow, white, and rose gold, as well as platinum, steel, and two-tone combinations. The reference came in a variety of designs, featuring baton indices, numerals in both Roman and Arabic, applied Breguet style numerals, and two and three-tone dials. The flat-bezel case was a significant increase in size versus the first Calatrava introduced, the 31mm Patek Philippe Reference 96, first manufactured in 1932. The 570 used manual calibers 12-120 SC (center seconds), 12-120 PS (subsidiary seconds), 12-400, and the 27 SC. The 12-120 PS was the most common movement used, a 12 ligne in-house movement. This research focuses specifically on my personal favorite, the stainless steel Patek Philippe 570. Not covered in this research is the Patek Philippe 565, also introduced in 1938 and featuring a 35.5mm case, but with a screw-down caseback.
Patek Philippe 570 Case Number Project

Below is an aggregation all of the Patek Philippe 570 I have found in steel. If you see any duplicates, errors, have serial numbers to include, or know of other steel Patek 570s to add, please let me know.

The production range I have seen for steel Patek Philippe 570 included in this research is 1938 – 1961.

The range above is limited due to few of these pieces available, and with many lacking caseback images, or text, and some without serial number provided.

The watches represented on each row in the table below are not intended to be unique, as I am including all transactions/owners to track any changes to the piece over time. I do my best to use visual cues to pair the same watch posted. When the case number can’t be established, I give the timepiece a unique ID (generally based on any part of the number that is known, plus a related date posted).

Unfortunately, some images may not appear in the table below as the table refers to the corresponding source page. If the image is removed or if the table is not able to process the site, a broken (or no) image will appear.

Caveats:
Description of pieces are generally based upon public images/video. For some detail, I do not have images and/or have to rely on text descriptions from the individual posting the timepiece. Some elements are often difficult to determine from pictures, including color of hands, for example if the register hands are black or blue. If I have a 50-50 guess, I leave the detail as “unknown.”

As with the rest of this Website, the following table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

The above table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Patek Philippe 570 Dial

Most all known Patek Philippe steel 570 pieces are unique in design combination of dial, hands and marks.

The following highlights the most prominent elements of dials seen.

Regarding dial color, we see groupings as follows.
Colors
– Silvered
– Two or three-tone silvered
– Some dials appear white in color, though given the frequency of silvered dials, this may simply be due to the photograph (in the case number project I have noted dials as “white” when appears as so, if no other indication of color is provided)
– There are some unusual colors seen, including a pink/copper-ish three-tone dial, which likely began its life silvered, and a caramel colored dial, which I would guess is another aged silver dial. The black dial seen is a replacement.

Numerals, marks and seconds register
– A large number of dials feature a Breguet style numerals, nearly all applied Arabic, with one example of black enameled numerals. When Breguet numerals are used, they appear at each hour, generally with the exception of at 6. Two examples do have a cropped-6.
– Approximately the same number of dials have Arabic numbers not in Breguet style. There are two general styles of these dials:
— Numerals shown at 3, 6, 9 and 12, unless the watch has subsidiary seconds, in which case none is shown at 6. These dials have baton marks (short or long applied, or enameled) for the other hours.
— Numerals at 2, 4, 8, 10 and 12. These dials all have plots of the other hour marks.
– Only a couple of dials have Roman numerals, at 3, 6 (if indirect seconds), 9 and 12. The two pieces are completely different in design (marks, outer track, center v subsidiary).
– Last, there are few dials with no numerals, and simple single pointed baton index marks at each hour (with a pair at 12 o’clock), cropped at 6 due to the subsidiary register.

Patek Philippe Steel 570 Dials

Outer minute track
Outer tracks come in a few different varieties:
[images to come]
– plots
– minute marks, thicker on the 5s, both with and without numerals
– railroad tracks, no numerals, lines connecting the rings at each minute, thicker on the 5s
– railroad tracks, numerals on the 5s with short thick marks within the track, lines connecting the rings at each minute, with short marks at 1/5.
– railroad tracks with lines connecting at the 5s, and dots at each minute within the track; numerals are at the outside of the outer ring on the 15s

Subsidiary seconds
I have seen a handful of indirect center seconds pieces, with the vast majority utilizing a subsidiary seconds register.

Patek 570 Subsidiary

Subsidiary designs include:
– multiple rings featuring a railroad-style design for the two “inner” rings, numerals on the 10s
– simplified closed register with two outer rings, featuring thick marks extending to both rings on the 15s, slightly less thick marks on the 5s extending about 2/3 of the way to the outer ring, and shorter minute marks (one piece has only 5-minute marks, which extend between rings)
– open register

Dials with Breguet numerals are generally the only dials that have registers with numerals, though we see a single example without Breguet numerals.

There can be slight differences in design within one type, such as slightly differing length of 5-second marks.

Signature and retailer
We see two manufacture signatures centered horizontally on the top half of the dial:
‘PATEK, PHILIPPE & Co.’ and ‘PATEK PHILIPPE’
Regardless of which is shown, we see GENÈVE below.
One curious dial has a short underline below GENEVE. Though curiously it lacks the È mark in GENÈVE, and it is unclear if there is a comma between PATEK and PHILIPPE. I do not believe pieces were ever signed PATEK PHILIPPE & Co., but would rather show without the comma due to a reprinted dial, or excessive cleaning.

I have seen three retailer signatures on the Patek Philippe 570 in stainless steel:
HAUSMANN & Co
EBERHARD – MILAN
ASTRUA – TORINO

Patek 570 Retailer Stamps

Patek Philippe 570 Hands

Patek Philippe main hands come in a variety of different designs, and through there do not appear to be hard and fast rules based upon dial design, or movement/case numbers, there are some observations that hold generally true:

Subsidiary seconds pieces with Breguet style numerals correspond most often to leaf (feuille) hand styles, though we see spade and dauphine hands examples.

Patek Philippe 570 Breguet Numerals (L-R nr. 922936, 922875, 828712)
Images: @goldberger, Phillips, Sotheby’s

Center seconds, with either Arabic or Roman numerals, utilize pencil hands, as generally do railway-track dial designs.

Patek Philippe 570 Center Seconds (L-R nr. 861893, 864493)
Images: Phillips, Patek Philippe Museum

Arabic numeral dials that are not Breguet style and with subsidiary seconds are paired with leaf or pencil hands.

Patek Philippe 570 Arabic Numerals not Breguet (L-R nr. 966667, unknown)
Images: Christies, @johnbehalf

Dials with no numerals and only baton indicies are paired with dauphine hands.

Patek Phillipe 570 Baton Indicies (nr. 728029)
Image: Phillips

Patek Philippe 570 Movement

The Patek Philippe 570 came with one of four manual calibers (please excuse the “-” versus the use of “12’’’120”:
– 12-120 PS (PS: subsidiary seconds, “Petite seconde”)
– 12-120 SC (SC: center seconds)
– 12-400
– 27 SC

The most common movement found in the Patek Philippe steel 570 is the 12-120 PS.

Patek Philippe Cal. 12-200 (clockwise from top left, nr. 922875, 925053, 929848, 965109)
Images: Phillips, Henry’s, Phillips, Phillips

This caliber was developed under Patek Philippe’s Technical Director, Jean Pfister, and replaced the prior 12-ligne LeCoultre previously used in the Reference 96.

The next most common is the indirect center seconds, the 12-120 SC, produced in combination with Victorin Piguet and included an additional mechanism connected to the existing 12-120.

Patek Philippe 570 Cal. 12-120 SC (L nr. 861893, R nr. 861906)
Images: Phillips, Quinns

I have seen one example of a steel 570 with the 12-400 movement:

Patek Philippe Cal. 12-400 (nr. 728029)
Image: Phillips

The 12-400 was introduced in 1949.

Lastly, I have found one reference to a steel 570 with 27 SC movement, but no image is shown. This movement succeeded the 120-120 SC.
If you know of any examples with image, please contact me.

Patek Philippe 570 Price Trends

There are so few stainless steel Patek Philippe 570 sales at auction, it is challenging to see crisp any price trends, though the direction is clear. The chart below will is difficult to view due to the outlier sold in May 2021 at Phillips for an incredible 3.3m CHF.

You may use the filters in the table at bottom to view data for a subset of case numbers, and this will filter the price trends chart as well.

Please contact me if you know of any other pieces, have serial numbers to contribute, or corrections.

As with the rest of this Website, the following table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions

Again, selecting filters from the table below will in turn adjust the above chart.

The above chart and table, and data contained therein, is subject to Alpha Hands LLC Terms and Conditions