Patek Philippe Drops New Calatravas and Linear Perpetual Calendar
Patek Philippe 5236P reworks the perpetual calendar with new linear display.
Patek Philippe might have already dropped new Nautilus models at the beginning of Watches and Wonders but the Genevan brand has saved the best till last with two new drops.
First up is a new 39mm time-only model, Ref 6119, within the brand’s Calatrava collection with a completely new manually wound, high torque, twin-barrel movement, that offers 65 hours of power reserve with Patek president Thierry Stern describing the movement as a ‘tractor’ that would be capable of driving future complications.
Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe
The distinctive clous de Paris or hobnail pattern on the bezel is taken from the Ref 3919 first released in 1985 and the watch is offered in 18k white gold with a vertically brushed black dial and 18k rose gold with a silvery grained dial. Both models are priced £22,770 GBP ($31,297 USD).
Patek’s biggest technical development of the year though is its new Ref 5236P, the result of the brand looking for different, more legible ways to present the wealth of information provided by a perpetual calendar.
The new 41.3mm watch presents day, date and month in linear configuration described as ‘à l’américaine’ which was inspired by a Ref 725/4 Patek Philippe pocket watch from 1972 held in the brand’s Geneva museum.
The pocket watch presents the day, date and month using three separate wheels, but shrinking the arrangement just a few millimetres rendered the date unreadable. Instead Patek’s watchmaker’s embarked on the hugely complicated task of splitting the date into ‘tens’ and ‘units’ and presenting them using two wheels, hugely challenging when you consider everything a perpetual calendar is already designed to take into account.
But Patek’s ambition paid off, the dial is far more legible than traditional perpetual calendars even after displaying moonphase, small seconds, leap year and day/night indications.
The Ref 5236P is available now via Patek Philippe’s network of authorised dealers, priced £100,190 GBP ($137,745 USD).
In other watch news, Autodromo’s Group B rally-inspired collection takes on the Night Stage.
