Widely considered one of the most elegant watches the Geneva-based brand has ever made, if not one of the most elegant wristwatches of all time, the 3940 is a perpetual calendar featuring three sub-dials powered by a slimmer movement than Ref. 3450 (the model it replaced), thereby allowing for a more elegant, wearable case. Often seen in gold—most bewitchingly, with a golden dial—the 3940 also came in white, rose gold, and platinum.
The model debuted in 1985 when the Swiss watch industry was still reeling from the effects of the 1970s quartz crisis (when electronic watches from Japan shuttered hundreds of Swiss watch companies). The timing may have seemed inauspicious, but in hindsight, the debut of the 3940 presaged a new era for Patek Philippe, marked by serial production of complicated timepieces. Before its introduction, the brand produced its most complicated pieces in relatively small runs. The 3940, on the other hand, was produced in four series, concluding in 2007, with as many as 8,000 examples produced, according to the latest scholarship.
More than anything, however, the appeal of the 3940 is the combination of traditional and modern techniques Patek used to make it. That Philippe Stern, president of the company from 1993 to 2009 and father of Patek’s current president, Thierry Stern, chose the model as his daily timepiece speaks volumes.
From the article by Allen Farmelo, Paige Reddinger, Victoria Gomelsky, Oren Hartov, Blake Buettner
