Patek Philippe Gondolo Ref. 5124

A watchmaker's name in Rio

The Gondolo name begins with Emilio Joani Gondolo, an Italian watchmaker who had trained in Paris in the workshop of the chronometer maker Joseph-Thaddeus Winnerl and who opened a watch and jewelry agency on Rua da Candelaria in Rio de Janeiro on May 15, 1855. He wanted Patek Philippe badly. When he advertised himself in 1869 as the Geneva firm's sole agent in Brazil, Patek Philippe answered in Rio's leading newspaper that it had never sent him a single watch.

His younger brother Carlo, a watch repairer who boasted of having serviced more than 134,000 watches, succeeded where Emilio had not. In a small newspaper notice on December 22, 1874, he announced that watches from Patek Philippe had arrived by steamship from Bordeaux. On July 1, 1891, Carlo made his son-in-law, Paul Henrique Labouriau, a full partner, and the firm became Gondolo & Labouriau.

Accounts of the relationship's dates differ. Patek Philippe says its partnership with the retailer began in 1872 with pocket watches; other accounts date the first sale to 1872 and the end to 1927, or describe the firm's peak as running from 1891 to 1935. One account credits the Brazilian retailer with more than 22,000 Patek Philippe watches sold, second in importance only to Tiffany & Co. in New York; another says it probably accounted for at least a third of Patek Philippe's annual turnover at its height.

The Patek Philippe clubs

Gondolo & Labouriau sold watches in a way no one else did. On December 10, 1901, the first 'Club Patek Philippe' opened with 180 members, each paying a small weekly installment toward a gold pocket watch valued at 740 francs. Every week a draw picked one member who took the watch home without paying another installment. The first winner, on December 17, 1901, had paid just 10 francs.

The club watches were special-order pieces. Carlo Gondolo asked Patek Philippe for movements with a 9K gold wheel train, a straight-line lever escapement and a Breguet balance spring, in 56 mm cases engraved 'Chronometro Gondolo,' made expressly for the Rio retailer. Between December 1901 and June 1915 the firm ran 118 clubs of 74 weeks each; later versions tied the draw to the state lottery and enrolled a thousand members at a time, until the last club in January 1931.

The name sank so deep into Brazilian life that, by two accounts, 'Patek' became a common word for 'watch.' Patek Philippe also made Chronometro Gondolo wristwatches in tonneau and rectangular cases from the 1910s; examples dated 1913 to 1922 are on view at the Patek Philippe Museum in Geneva. Carlo Gondolo died on April 30, 1919, at 93.

A shaped movement for a shaped case

Patek Philippe revived the Gondolo name in 1993 for its family of rectangular, tonneau and cushion-shaped watches. In 2007 the tonneau Chronometro Gondolo ref. 5098 introduced a new hand-wound movement built to the shape of the case, caliber 25-21 REC, the company's first new shaped movement since the famous caliber 9-90 of 1934.

The maker described the small-seconds version, caliber 25-21 REC PS ('REC' for rectangular, 'PS' for petite seconde), as following the formal design of the Chronometro Gondolo movements of the early 20th century, down to an S-shaped minute-wheel bridge and slender bridges for the escape wheel and fourth wheel. It runs at 4 Hz with a power reserve of up to 44 hours and uses the company's Gyromax balance.

The ref. 5124 debuted in 2008 with that caliber visible through a sapphire case back. Its elongated, stepped and arched case took its cue from the maker's 10-day tourbillon ref. 5101, and the concave case back lets it hug the wrist. It was made in yellow gold and white gold, with opaline, salmon and sunburst blue dials.

How to tell the versions apart

The 5124J-001 is yellow gold, usually with an opaline (silvered) dial and applied baton markers. The 5124G-001 is white gold with a warm salmon, or 'vintage rose,' dial, black oxidized Breguet numerals and leaf-shaped feuille hands; one dealer dates it from 2008 to 2014. The 5124G-011, which the same dealer says was introduced at Baselworld in 2015 and made through 2019, swapped to a blue sunburst dial with angular white gold baton markers, dauphine hands, doubled markers at 12 o'clock and a graduated small-seconds track.

Case measurements are quoted slightly differently from source to source, from 33 x 42 mm to 33.4 x 43 mm; the most detailed accounts give 33.4 x 43 mm. Early movements carried the Geneva Seal: a 2009 example sold with its 'Manual, Geneva seal' noted. In 2009 Patek Philippe replaced the Geneva Seal with its own Patek Philippe Seal across its watches.

Some 5124s were signed on the dial by retailers. A 5124J with an opaline dial bearing the Tiffany & Co. signature, sold new at the retailer's Waikiki store in August 2017, shows the yellow gold model was still being delivered that year.

A short run and a quiet market

One specialist calls the 5124's run short-lived; another describes it as quickly discontinued. The maker's current Gondolo pages feature ladies' and high-jewelry models, and the 5124 is not among them.

At auction the white gold version has sold for between about $12,000 and $16,000 in the results found: $11,875 for a salmon-dial 5124G in an online sale in July 2018 and $16,380 for a 5124G-001 from 2010, with its certificate, in December 2022. A factory-sealed, never-worn 5124G-001 from 2008 brought HK$254,000 in Hong Kong. The retailer-signed yellow gold 5124J reached $37,800 in an online sale based in Dubai in March 2022.

The lasting appeal is the combination the 5124 offered: a movement shaped for its case, drawn from the Chronometro Gondolo calibers of a century earlier, in a rectangular watch that sits close to the wrist. One specialist argues it deserves to be on more collectors' radar.

The numbers

Reference

5124J-001 (yellow gold), 5124G-001 (white gold, salmon dial), 5124G-011 (white gold, blue dial)

Caliber

25-21 REC PS, hand-wound rectangular movement with small seconds; 4 Hz (28,800 vph), up to 44 hours of reserve, Gyromax balance

Case size

About 33.4 x 43 mm (sources vary from 33 x 42 mm to 33.4 x 43 mm)

Case material

18K yellow gold or 18K white gold; sapphire case back

Production years

2008 to the late 2010s; 5124G-011 made through 2019 by one dealer's account

Production numbers

Not disclosed

Timeline

1. May 15, 1855

   Emilio Joani Gondolo opens his watch and jewelry agency in Rio de Janeiro.

2. Nov 15, 1869

   Patek Philippe publicly denies that Emilio Gondolo is its agent in Brazil.

3. 1872

   Patek Philippe dates the start of its partnership with the Gondolo firm to this year.

4. Dec 22, 1874

   Carlo Gondolo announces the arrival of watches ordered from Patek Philippe.

5. Jul 1, 1891

   Carlo Gondolo takes his son-in-law Paul Henrique Labouriau into partnership; the firm becomes Gondolo & Labouriau.

6. Dec 10, 1901

   The first 'Club Patek Philippe' opens with 180 members.

7. Jun 1915

   By this month the firm has run 118 Chronometro Gondolo clubs since 1901.

8. Apr 30, 1919

   Carlo Gondolo dies at 93.

9. Jan 1931

   The last Patek Philippe club runs.

10. 1934

    Patek Philippe introduces the shaped caliber 9-90.

11. 1993

    Patek Philippe revives the Gondolo name for its shaped watches.

12. 2007

    The Chronometro Gondolo ref. 5098 introduces the shaped caliber 25-21 REC.

13. 2008

    The ref. 5124 debuts with caliber 25-21 REC PS.

14. 2009

    The Patek Philippe Seal replaces the Geneva Seal.

15. 2015

    The blue-dial 5124G-011 is introduced, according to one dealer.

16. Jul 12, 2018

    A salmon-dial 5124G sells for $11,875 in an online sale.

17. 2019

    Production of the 5124G-011 ends, according to one dealer.

18. Mar 29, 2022

    A Tiffany-signed 5124J sells for $37,800 in an online sale based in Dubai.

19. Dec 8, 2022

    A 5124G-001 from 2010 sells for $16,380 at auction.

The world in 2008

• Feb 17, 2008

  Kosovo declares independence from Serbia.

• Jul 10, 2008

  Apple launches the App Store with 500 apps.

• Aug 2008

  The Summer Olympics are held in Beijing.

• Sep 10, 2008

  The first proton beam circulates in the Large Hadron Collider, near Geneva.

• Sep 15, 2008

  Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy as the financial crisis deepens.

• Nov 4, 2008

  Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Patek Philippe Gondolo Ref. 5124 is number 69 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (39 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The Gondolo firm sold Patek Philippe pocket watches through weekly lottery clubs, where one member a week won the watch outright.
• The first club winner, drawn on December 17, 1901, took home a gold Patek Philippe pocket watch valued at 740 francs after paying just 10 francs.
• Emilio Gondolo installed a time ball on the corner of his shop so passersby could set their watches at noon.
• Patek Philippe once took out a newspaper notice in Rio to deny that Emilio Gondolo was its agent.
• Caliber 25-21 REC was Patek Philippe's first new shaped movement since the caliber 9-90 of 1934.
• A 5124G-001 sold in Hong Kong still sealed in its original factory packaging from 2008.