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Rectangular Patek Survey & 9-90 info

Cormac's Survey of Rectangular Patek Philippe Watches

Between the 1930s and 1950s, Patek Philippe produced a significant number and variety of rectangular wristwatches. Round watches became the fashion since the 1950s, and the production of rectangulars became more rare. In fact, Patek Philippe ceased production of rectangular movements alltogether in the 1960s. Even the famous (and expensive) Pagodas, in celebration of Patek's history and accomplishments, have round movements. Perhaps as a result, rectangular watches are rarely discussed here, yet are extremely interesting to collectors, or at least to me. For me, a rectangular watch with a rectangular movement is more honest, more beautiful. Unfortunately, it's also more exceptional.

In this article, I present for you a survey of the variety of rectangular Patek Philippe watches, from the 1930s-1950s, organized by characteristics of the case and lugs. Finally, I present details on the production of the beautiful Patek Philippe Calibre 9'''-90.

I hope you enjoy it.

I have devised eight categories of rectangular Pateks, but individual watches may easily have characteristics from two or more categories. In fact, this is usually highly correlated to their value. So I categorize a watch by placing it in the most complicated category it rates. For example, a watch with both a Curved Case and Stepped Sides rates a Curved, or even Fancy Case.
They are, in order of generalized value:

Relative Value Table


Category		Relative Value
Straight Sides		Regular Value
Claw Lugs		Regular Value
Hooded Lugs		10%-20% premium
Stepped Sides		10%-20% premium
Fancy Lugs		15%-100% premium
Curved like wrist		80%-500% premium
Curved Sides		80%-1000% premium
Fancy Cases		100%-5000% premium

Of course there are lots of variables, such as quality of the dial and the nature of its numerals or finish, and the workmanship of the case, like carvings, heft and the use of multiple metals. Also, if a watch has earned a popular name, such as Top Hat, Banana, Eiffel Tower, Reverso, or Hour Glass, the value goes through the roof!

Let's look at some examples.

Straight Sides
Ref. 425 Cal. 9-90
Ref. 460 Cal. 9-90

Claw Lugs
Ref. 2443 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1948
Ref. 2476 Cal. 9-90 Ca.1950

Hooded Lugs
Ref. 1532 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1942
Ref. 1450 Cal. 9-90 "The Tophat" Ca. 1940

Stepped Sides
Ref. 490 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1936

Cal. 9-90 1934

Curved
Ref. 492 Cal. 9-90 Ca.1937
Cal. 8-85 1937

Fancy Lugs
Ref. 2518 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1954
Ref. 2471 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1950

Curved Sides
Ref 1593 Cal. 9-90 "The Hourglass" Ca. 1944
Ref 2442 Cal 9-90 "The Banana" Ca. 1948

Fancy Cases
Ref. 2520 Cal 9-90 Ca. 1952
Ref 2441 Cal 9-90 "The Eiffel Tower" Ca. 1948

Straight Sides	Ref. 425 Cal. 9-90	Ref. 460 Cal. 9-90
Claw Lugs	Ref. 2443 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1948	Ref. 2476 Cal. 9-90 Ca.1950
Hooded Lugs	Ref. 1532 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1942	Ref. 1450 Cal. 9-90 "The Tophat" Ca. 1940
Stepped Sides	Ref. 490 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1936	Cal. 9-90 1934
Curved	Ref. 492 Cal. 9-90 Ca.1937	Cal. 8-85 1937
Fancy Lugs	Ref. 2518 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1954	Ref. 2471 Cal. 9-90 Ca. 1950
Curved Sides	Ref 1593 Cal. 9-90 "The Hourglass" Ca. 1944	Ref 2442 Cal 9-90 "The Banana" Ca. 1948
Fancy Cases	Ref. 2520 Cal 9-90 Ca. 1952	Ref 2441 Cal 9-90 "The Eiffel Tower" Ca. 1948

The Calibre 9'''-90

The majority of rectangular Patek Philippe watches, and almost all from 1934 forward with sub seconds, contain the 9-90 Calibre movement. (Rectangular and square watches without seconds, from 1935-1953 likely contain a round Calibre 8'''-85, and if they're big and have seconds from 1940-1965, possibly a round 10'''- 105, 110 or 200)

The 9-90 movement is 18mm x 25.6mm, and 3.65mm tall. It contains a lever escapement, and uses 18 jewels. Depending on the then state-of-the-art, the balance wheel can be bimetallic, monomettalic or the patented Gyromax (after 1950), using either a flat or later Breguet overcoil hairspring. It beats at 19,800 vibrations per hour.

Production of the 9-90 calibre began in 1934 with movement serial number 830,000, and ended in 1967 with number 977,889. There were two production runs:
Nos 830,000 to 839,999 (1934-1950)
Nos 970,000 to 977,889 (1947-1967)

Therefore the maximum number of watches containing 9-90 movements is 17,888 over 33 years. However, there are probably far fewer than this as Patek reserves ranges of numbers, without necessarily using all of them.

Cal 9'''-90
Ca. 1959