Visual Description
The Ref. 887968 is the medium Panthère in 18k yellow gold, 27 to 28 mm wide, on a brick-link gold bracelet that closes with a double folding clasp. The dial is white, silver, cream or champagne, with Roman numerals, a date and a center seconds hand, read by blued steel hands under a sapphire crystal.
Catalogs measure the case at 27 to 28 mm wide; Gardiner Houlgate gives 29.5 mm for one example.
Reference Significance
The 887968 is the medium Panthère in 18k yellow gold. It is about the size of the stainless steel Ref. 1310 and the steel and gold Ref. 183949 and Ref. 1100, and larger than the 22 × 30 mm small gold Panthère such as the Ref. 8669.
Gold medium Panthères of about the same size also appear under other numbers, such as 887971, which Fellows catalogs with the date at three, and case numbers beginning 8839. No source found explains how they relate to the 887968, so read the number on the watch itself.
Historical Context
Dated examples run from 1989 into the 1990s: Bachmann & Scher sold one with its original papers of 1989 and another made around 1993, and Christie's dates a third to the 1990s. One catalog gives the 2000s for another example, a date no other source supports.
What to Look For
Read the case back for 887968 and a serial. The gold bracelet should have all its links and a double folding clasp that closes firmly. Check that the date works and the center seconds runs, that the Roman numerals are clean and the hands blued, and that the quartz movement runs. Measure the case, and keep any papers, which help place a particular watch within the run.
