The 5520P-001 Alarm Travel Time by Patek Philippe is unusual in its looks. It combines the classic pilot’s watch layout, with chunky numerals and hands providing good visibility by means of facets of luminescent paint, with the grand complications of a second time zone and a chiming alarm. The four large crowns – or rather,…
The Patek Philippe 5270R Perpetual Calendar Chronograph combines two classic watch complications into a single timepiece that privileges clarity on the dial. Most Patek Philippe watches reflect the idea of a practical timepiece, but this is something of an exception because the date subdial interrupts two of the three chapter rings, the seconds scale, and…
The Patek Philippe 5372 split-seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar, presented in 2017, follows on from the 2015 Patek Philippe 5370, a split-seconds chronograph with two conventional chronograph pushers. Like that model, the 5372 has a circular platinum case. The dial is completely different, with simple Arabic numerals applied onto a gold dial with blue sunburst…
Patek Philippe’s World Time for women is a variation of a watch that is already part of the catalogue. The new version has a white gold case 36 mm in diameter, a bezel set with 62 diamonds, and a blue-grey hand-guilloché dial, confirming the ongoing success of the blue-dial trend. The alligator strap is in…
The Patek Philippe Aquanaut Travel Time Ref. 5650G Advanced Research shows three significant departures, and introduces some important questions. Excellent water resistance The watch is a new version of the Aquanaut Travel Time, with white gold case having a 12 atm, 120-metre water resistance rating, width including crown 45.24 mm, thickness 11 mm, a sapphire…
This watch was already part of the Patek Philippe range, but this year it has been introduced in a rose gold case, accompanying the existing versions in yellow and white gold. It is a hand-wound chronograph whose design is perfectly matched to its function. This makes it different to many chronograph watches in which the…
This is the production version of the Grandmaster Chime 5175 that Patek Philippe presented for its 175th anniversary in 2014. That piece was a limited edition of seven pieces, six sold to collectors, and one that will one day be on show at the Patek Philippe Museum. The version presented this year is not a…
This watch by Patek Philippe has all the timeless simplicity of the Calatrava case, coupled with a modern minimalism that makes it contemporary. It has a mechanical movement, manually-wound. The lugs are designed so that they extend visually across the bezel, which adds complexity to the diamond-setting. The diamonds are differently-sized as they reach the…
In their communications for the Patek Philippe Annual Calendar reference 5396, the company say that it was Philippe Stern, owner and president of Patek Philippe, who in 1992 asked his engineers to develop a watch bridging the gap between the so-called “complete calendar” (also known as “full calendar” or “quantième complet”) which indicates day of…
Patek Philippe’s World Time watch 5230 has been around for almost 80 years, and this year the brand is presenting a new version that replaces all previous models. It incorporates some changes in the cities used to designate the various time zones, such as Moscow that has moved from UTC+4 to UTC+3. At the same…
With the World Time Chronograph ref. 5930, Patek Philippe presents a watch with two complications that are not usually found in the same watch: chronograph and world time. As is usual for Patek Philippe, the watch is like an iceberg: the easy-to-use simplicity of the interior hides a ferociously complex mechanism within. Most so-called GMT…
Company profile: What is it about Patek Philippe that sets it above and apart from other brands? Auction results alone show that watches by Patek Philippe have an extraordinary power to retain and increase their value. Perhaps the answer lies in one word: family. Their current advertising campaign has the slogan “You never actually own…
At its first Hong Kong watch auction on 1 December 2015, Phillips sold watches by Patek Philippe, Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, Cartier and others. The extraordinary value attained in particular by Patek Philippe as collectors’ items was shown by the fact that all top five lots were timepieces by this brand, and the top…
With just 55,000 watches made per year, of which 45,000 mechanical and 10,000 quartz watches for women, the Patek Philippe universe is relatively small and exclusive. The brand’s reputation is demonstrated above all by its exceptional results in auction rooms: considering the ten watches attaining highest prices at auction, nine are Patek Philippe. The entry-level…
One of the things that I admire about Patek Philippe is what they don’t do. They don’t make metiers d’art watches with paintings on the dial. They don’t make weird and strange complications. They don’t make watches with monkeys (or buffalo or dragons) on the dial. In short, they are never running after the market.…
A watch with seven patents This split second chronograph, reference 5370 by Patek Philippe, is part of the brand’s tradition, because their first chronograph wristwatch presented in 1923 was a split-second model, and this complication (also known as double chronograph or rattrapante chronograph) has always been part of its range in various models. However it…
Undoubtedly one of the highlights of Baselworld 2015 and one that has everyone talking, because the Patek Philippe Calatrava Pilot Travel Time, reference 5524, is the first Patek Philippe pilot’s watch for quite a time, and because it naturally resembles pieces by other brands with a strong tradition in the pilot’s watch sector. “It looks…
Patek Philippe’s collection of watches made to celebrate their 175th anniversary this year includes a very complicated watch, which includes some world firsts. It is the the Patek Philippe Grandmaster Chime, reference 5175R-001, in rose gold, Patek Philippe’s most complicated wristwatch with 1,366 components, and one of the most complex in the world, in a…
1. Top in auction results. How many of the ten watches attaining highest prices at auction are Patek Philippe? Nine! The top is the Henry Graves complication, which sold for $11 million in December 1999 at Sotheby’s. It is a pocket watch with 24 complications, commissioned by U.S. banker and watch collector Henry Graves: it…