Quick Take: Patek Ref. 565 Mythbuster —

What about those numbers between the lugs?

by @aircooltime

Image courtesy of Phillips auctions

The Patek ref. 565 with its Taubert designed screwback case continues to capture serious vintage Patek collector attention. Made in steel, yellow and rose gold, it features a modernist design that has a timeless appeal and wears well on most wrists at 35mm in diameter. The steel examples in particular seem to be quite popular, despite the fact they had the highest production numbers, with rose being the rarest and yellow gold next rarest in numbers produced.

Some of these early examples feature a four digit serial number stamped between the six o’clock lugs. I’ve heard conjecture that this should be a concern and a sign that perhaps the case is a swapped Doxa case, as these cases also featured serial number stampings and had a very similar design to the ref. 565 cases Taubert made for Patek in the era.  

In this quick take I share several known examples that question this theory as being an absolute truth. Now, that’s not to say that a less than honest seller may pair a rare Patek dial and movement into a Doxa case and attempt to represent it as original, or that there are even some out in the market that have been put together, however there are clear signs that Patek cases appear to have originally featured these serial stampings on some early examples. For evidence, we can look at an example from 1939 that was auctioned by Phillips in the Nov. 2022 Geneva sale and achieved a result of CHF176,400.

Image courtesy of Phillips auctions

This piece is noted to have a rare black dial with Freccero co-printed on the lower portion and the unique Acuatic print at the very bottom. It is one of two black dial Freccero + Acuatic 565 known, with the other later short signature example being discovered at a small auction earlier in 2025. I previously wrote about both examples separately at www.aircooltime.com. As noted in the Phillips lot, the extract is pictured that shows the serial number of the case that matches the last four digits seen between the lugs.

Image courtesy of Phillips auctions

I suppose a contrarian could point out the lack of publicly posted proof that the stamping didn’t get later placed between the lugs on a Doxa case to make a match with the extract — and that would be a potential theory, yet one that would require some excellent case work to pull off correctly. Knowing a bit about the origin of this particular piece, I am confident it is correct and original to the case made for Patek.  

Another early and rare ref. 565 example I personally had in my hands this past January in Miami also had a four digit stamping between the lower lugs. It was fitted with the rare 12-120 SCi indirect seconds movement. According to data presented by Tortella & Sons, the numbers of known steel 565 references with the 12-120 SCi movement are in the range of approximately twenty with this featured example included. The sweep seconds hand on these examples has the tell-tale indirect seconds shudder as it moves across the dial expanse.  

The dial on this example also features an applied, printed Swiss at the bottom. Examining the movement, a PXP stamping on the balance cock (shown in later image) is noted. This was the predecessor import marking on Patek examples to the HOX stamp. Together these features are signs denoting this example was made for the US market. 

This example also has a four digit stamping between the lower lugs. The digits match the last four of the serial number on the extract, similar to the Phillips example.

Some additional evidence of this correctness is seen on the inside caseback stamping, which confirms the stamping between the lugs to match the last four serial numbers of the caseback.

In John Goldberger's “Steel Patek” publication there are an additional three ref. 565 examples shown with four digit numbers between the lower lugs; one each from 1939, 1940 and 1943.  Two of the three feature the 12-120SCi movement. All are shown with matching serial numbers on the inner caseback in the publication. I’m not aware of any examples seen past the date of 1943 with these serial stampings.

Images from John Goldberger’s Steel Patek publication used with express permission from the author.

So there we have records of several early and rare ref. 565 examples that seem to confirm the correctness of matched stampings between the lower lugs and the inner caseback. Perhaps this was a practice Taubert did for Patek in the early run of the ref. 565 in the late ‘30’s and was not continued beyond the early ‘40’s.

While we’re at it discussing examples with sweep seconds, let’s take a quick moment to recognize the cool caliber 12-120 SCi movement. This movement is fascinating to watch in action and features a Victorin Piguet module positioned on top of the base Jean Pfister-designed 12-120 caliber movement for Patek. The attached module adds height and necessitates the thicker 565 case type seen on these examples, which I’ve covered at www.aircooltime.com in a previous article that explains ref. 565 case types.

Image of Victorin Émile Piguet courtesy of Coronet

The sweep seconds hand shudder results from the Piguet module with its extra bridge and gearing that relocates the seconds function from the original design at a subsidiary position and creates the operation of a central sweep hand. The indirect drive causes the slight shudder in movement, which was later resolved with the direct seconds 27 SC caliber design and used on a very few 565 and 2508 among other Patek references.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this quick take  myth buster on an iconic Patek reference which is much respected in the collector community. What do you believe? Are these early examples with serial stampings fact or fiction?

Thanks to Matt Bain, www.matthewbaininc.com for the hands-on experience and picture permissions, as a couple of the ref. 565 examples referenced in this article have once passed through his hands.

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