Patek Philippe Jumbo 3800/1j heirloom(?)

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  • With the serif fonts on the date wheel + black background colors opposed to the white background date disk IS a rare combo, but not unseen.
  • heavily polished but that is not the topic of this post
  • size should be 37.5mm as pointed out, but it can be difficult to measure because of the "ears": some dimention may add up to being 42mm..
  • seconds hands do seem to extend beyond the minute track dots on confirmed genuine examples.
  • SWISS only dial suggests service dial? but I'm not sure on this one.
 
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Does look a little rough on the finishing, but not sure about the early 80s models. Take it to Patek, they can give you all the information in short order since that's what they do. Once you have the info, then decisions can be made on what to do from there.
 
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Thank you all for your time and comments.

Given that it’s an heirloom and my friend is excited to get it serviced and start wearing it, is there any certain well-known Patek-centric independent watchmaker in the USA that the collector community leans on? Or should he run it through Patek service center?
 
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Hello all, just to close the loop--my friend just texted me that he took his watch to a Patek AD, which confirmed it is a "3800 1J/010", and ordered him a new link. He's very excited to start wearing his heirloom piece! Thanks again for all who contributed.
Edited:
 
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Hello all, just to close the loop--my friend just texted me that he took his watch to a Patek AD, which confirmed it is a "3800 1J/010", and ordered him a new link. He's very excited to start wearing his heirloom piece! Thanks again for all who contributed.
Glad it turned out to be a happy story.
 
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Hello all, just to close the loop--my friend just texted me that he took his watch to a Patek AD, which confirmed it is a "3800 1J/010", and ordered him a new link. He's very excited to start wearing his heirloom piece! Thanks again for all who contributed.

Wow!
So is it going into a service then? If so, it would be great to see pictures of it when it comes back. I'd expect PP to do some nice case restoration. Unless he wants to keep it like this.
 
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I was waiting to hear the resolution to this one. What a great story and family heirloom. Hope he enjoys the watch! 😎
 
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Huh! I'm pleasantly surprised! Those original pictures looked like a fake to me (though admittedly my knowledge of Pateks is basically zero), so I thought it was going to come back inauthentic.
 
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Wow!
So is it going into a service then? If so, it would be great to see pictures of it when it comes back. I'd expect PP to do some nice case restoration. Unless he wants to keep it like this.
I asked him, and he said they told him it doesn't need one at the moment. They just ordered him a link ($850?) and said it would take several weeks for it to come in.
 
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I asked him, and he said they told him it doesn't need one at the moment. They just ordered him a link ($850?) and said it would take several weeks for it to come in.
Oh wow, must have been decades since the last service, no?
 
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Oh wow, must have been decades since the last service, no?
I’m not sure. He said his dad isn’t a watch guy, but maybe he had it serviced in the recent past. Looks to me to have been polished in the past, so somebody must’ve done some work on it at some time.
 
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I doubt the Patek boutique tested the timekeeping or water resistance, they saw the seconds hand moving and declared all is well. I'd be wary, one pic shows the pin holding the case and strap protruding, that's a friction pin so if it's coming out it is loose, expected on a gold, 40 year old watch. Personally I'd have PP do a full service on the watch, refinishing included. It wouldn't be cheap but that is an expensive piece of kit. It should be brought back to its full glory.
 
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I doubt the Patek boutique tested the timekeeping or water resistance, they saw the seconds hand moving and declared all is well. I'd be wary, one pic shows the pin holding the case and strap protruding, that's a friction pin so if it's coming out it is loose, expected on a gold, 40 year old watch. Personally I'd have PP do a full service on the watch, refinishing included. It wouldn't be cheap but that is an expensive piece of kit.
Pretty weird boutique if they didn't even test timekeeping/amplitude. I'd have assumed thst they saw good amplitude on the timegrapher and called it good. Water resistance, I agree, they probably didn't check..