The Patek Philippe reference 2526 was the brand’s first self-winding wristwatch, introduced at the Basel Fair in 1953 and made until 1960. It is a round gold dress watch of about 35 to 36 mm with a screw-down case back, offered in yellow, pink and white gold and in platinum. Inside is the automatic calibre 12-600 AT, launched in 1953 with movement numbers starting at 760’000; it has 30 jewels and a solid gold rotor, often finely engraved. Most examples have a gyromax balance, though the first 150 or so movements used a bimetallic compensation balance. The dial is usually white enamel with applied gold indexes and a small seconds subdial, and black dials are very rare. Early cases were made in three parts, with a two-part case introduced between 1953 and 1954.

Specialists divide the reference into four series, distinguished mainly by the shape of the case back and by the construction of the dial and indexes. Nine types of gold bracelet, made by Gay Frères and Ponti Gennari, were offered for it. Production figures are uncertain: one auction catalogue estimates about 580 watches, while Sotheby’s cites literature mentioning around 3,000 movements, with surviving cases counted at about 320 in yellow gold, 95 in pink gold, 21 in white gold and 23 in platinum. The very first example, movement 760’000, was made in 1952 and sold in June 1953.

Collectors prize the 2526 for its enamel dial and its place as the first automatic from Patek Philippe; Sotheby’s notes that the first example even has a green counter-enamel on the dial back, a prototype feature, where all other known 2526 dials have red. Values vary widely with metal, series and condition: a circa 1955 gold example sold for 15,000 euros at Uhren-Muser in 2020, a 1954 yellow gold first-series piece made 53,340 dollars at Phillips New York, and Sotheby’s offered the first 2526 ever made, on its gold bracelet, with an estimate of HK$3 to 6 million. The reference 2526 is no longer produced; Patek Philippe continues automatic dress watches in its current Calatrava collection.