In 1940, more than three decades before Audemars Piguet gave birth to the luxury sports watch segment with its 1972 Royal Oak, Patek Philippe seeded the idea for the category with the Ref. 1462, a waterproof column-wheel chronograph wristwatch featuring a second inner case that protected the movement against magnetism. Over the course of its 25-year production run, the reference was only made in about 750 examples—mostly in yellow gold, but with a small percentage in steel.
While collectors go wild for the scarcer steel version, the robust model came with a host of sought-after dial iterations, some rarer than others. Also of note: the two large round pushbuttons used to activate the stopwatch mechanism feature a fluted surface to help prevent slippage. Italian collectors nicknamed them Tasti Tondi (“round pushers"), a designation that helped earn the reference a cult following that continues to this day.
From the article by Allen Farmelo, Paige Reddinger, Victoria Gomelsky, Oren Hartov, Blake Buettner
