Description
The timepiece on offer is not only a precise Patek Philippe movement, but above all a surviving witness to the history of the “Paris of the North.” Watches with a double signature – of the manufactory and the Warsaw dealer – are rare, as most of the company’s output and archives were irretrievably lost in the conflagration of the Warsaw Uprising. Owning a copy with the legible logo of F. Woroniecki is a privilege to commune with an object that remembers the days of the capital’s greatest splendor on Krakowskie Przedmieście.
Ferdynand Woroniecki is an iconic figure for the history of Warsaw luxury, and his signature on the watch dial is today considered the Holy Grail for varsavian collectors. Founded in 1866, the company, whose showroom was located in the prestigious interiors of the Potocki Palace on Ossolińskiego Street, played a role in pre-war Poland analogous to Tiffany & Co. in New York. It was here, in the immediate vicinity of the Hotel Europejski, that the elite of the Second Republic were supplied, and Woroniecki, as a watchmaker of repute, took care of the maintenance of the clocks at the Royal Castle.
The watch has the original box (Patek Philippe case) First sale circa 1890.
The Patek Philippe brand was founded in Geneva by Polish émigré Antoni Norbert Patek and Warsaw watchmaker Franciszek Czapek. After a few years, Adrien Philippe joined the company and revolutionized the watchmaking industry with the invention of the watch with a tension mechanism that allowed it to be wound without a key.
