EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION
BY CAROL BESLER
AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT ONE OF THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT WATCH COLLECTIONS THE MIGHTY OAK
A t the age of 12, when most boys are peering into the windows of candy shops, Patrick Getreide was pressing his nose against the glass of watch boutiques. Such is the danger of attending boarding school in a city like Geneva. Getreide passed by a particular store every day on his way to school, and began to covet one of the watches, an Omega. “I looked in the window 50 times, and on the 51st time, I went in, and announced that I wanted to buy the watch,” says Getreide. “Of course, I didn’t have the money; I had five francs per week for pocket money. But the guy liked me — he was impressed that a 12-year-old kid wanted to buy a watch — and
he said ‘It’s fine.’ So I was giving him five francs every week. This went on for weeks, and one day I called my father and I said, If I pay by five francs a week, it’s two years or more before I can own it, so my father paid out.” Over the next four decades, Getreide went deep down the watch collector rabbit hole, and today, his 600-piece collection is one of the most valuable and historically important known to exist. It is called OAK because most of the pieces are One-of-A-Kind, or part of very limited series. The collection is his pride and joy, amassed over more than 30 years. As such, Getreide did something no major collector has ever done before — he decided to show the
world. Last summer, he embarked on a world tour, beginning with a week-long exhibition at the British Design Museum in London. It was the first private watch collection to exhibit in either a gallery or museum. With the help of his advisors, Getreide narrowed his treasures down to 168 representative samples in 11 categories, which collectively represent some of watchmaking’s most important milestones from the past 100 years. Here is a sampling of some of the important pieces.
1. The star of the show: a rare Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 known as the pink on pink . The 1518 was the original version of Patek’s first series-produced
2. Just as prized as the 1518 is its successor, the rare Patek Philippe Ref. 2499. Fewer than 400 pieces were produced alto-
perpetual calendar chro- nograph, which became its signature complica- tion. Patek made 281 examples of the 1518
gether. Getreide’s col- lection includes one from each of the four series made between 1951 and 1985. The Ref. 2499 J pictured
from 1941 to 1954. About 55 were made in pink gold, but the pink on pink is one- of-a-kind, with a pink dial to match the pink gold case and the original pink gold bracelet made by Gay Frères.
here, made circa 1960, a second-series, is one of the best such known examples and was made to Geneva Seal standards.
22 BROWN & CO. JEWELERS MAGAZINE
Powered by FlippingBook