First Post - Need Some Guidance on a Family Mystery

[destruya]

So I finally have new news.

First, here are some photos of both watches taken at HSWA (Google Drive ZIP file): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Sr...ew?usp=sharing

Thankfully, both of them worked perfectly after being wound and didn't need servicing. I spoke with Richard Gallo, and conferenced in my mother who 1) owns both watches, and 2) can't travel anymore. Richard let me know that it's a very good thing that both watches *didn't* require servicing as COVID encouraged quite a lot of PP's "vintage" service staff to retire, leaving a skeleton crew of sorts in Switzerland to handle the pre-1970s watches.

I also purchased a new OEM band and buckle for the circular watch (shown in the .zip archive above) as the lizard Spiedel band that was on it 1) wasn't original, and 2) had separated over time. No band was purchased for the rectangular "mystery" watch as my mother still considers that *her* watch and I will not alter it until she, uh, no longer has a use for it.

Richard wasn't able to positively identify the rectangular watch (he said the non-standard band was "throwing him off") but confirmed it "was definitely one of theirs," also remarking that he'd fortunately only had to give someone the bad news of a watch being fake *once*. He said that the watch was definitely uncommon, but not necessarily *rare*. I guess we'll figure it out definitively when I send the information I collected off to PP, but after what I spent for the OEM band and buckle for the circular watch, I'm planning on holding off on that for a month or two.

Also, I was just messaged by someone who *claims* to be a watch dealer in NYC on Reddit who says he thinks the rectangular watch is a "pre-reference Patek" from the 1920s, "before they had serialized model numbers."

Lastly, how closely should I protect the serial numbers? He says, after having posted a ZIP file with them above.... Is it information I shouldn't publicly post?