Released in 1932 and named after the cross that the Calatrava Knights paraded around Spain and Portugal during the 12th and 13th centuries, the Patek Philippe Calatrava was released as a simple timepiece with broad appeal that would help secure Patek Philippe's finances following Jean and Charles Henri Stern's investment in the brand in the same year. Designed with a strict Bauhaus-inspired aesthetic in mind, the Calatrava used, and continues to use, simplicity as its means of establishing intrigue around the craftsmanship required to construct such a stunning timepiece. Without a complicated movement or a busy design, collectors gravitate towards the Calatrava's clean aesthetic and practicality, and the ref. 3435R we have here embodies that same design language perfectly. Launched in 1935 and offered until 19556, it is a tremendously rare timepiece. Powered by a handful of different manual-wind movements depending on the production period, the ref. 448 that we have here is a 28mm Calatrava with the collection’s famously unapologetically stoic design with thin straight lugs, a thin bezel, and an uncluttered silver dial made, which includes beautiful applied Breguet numerals.

Effortlessly timeless and wonderfully chic and classical, the ref. 448 combines a resolutely mid-century construction with a timeless display to create a beautiful design perfectly of its time.