Patek Philippe Announces The Ref. 1938P-001 Minute Repeater Alarm “Philippe Stern”

The watch is a tribute to Patek Philippe’s honorary president, on the occasion of his 85th birthday: Philippe Stern was president of the family owned and operated company from 1993 to 2009, and is widely credited with having transformed Patek Philippe into, not only one of the most important and influential luxury watch brands, but also one of the world’s most recognized and influential luxury brands, period. His son, Thierry Stern, commissioned the 1938P-001 in honor of his father’s inestimably great influence on the company and on the watch world, and the timepiece is a showcase for Philippe Stern’s favorite category of complications: chiming complications.

Although Patek Philippe is rightly famous for its comprehensive mastery of the entire range of complications, from perpetual calendars, to rattrapante chronographs, to minute repeaters, and even astronomical complications, it’s perhaps most strongly identified with repeaters. Philippe Stern and Thierry Stern famously listen to, and approve every repeater Patek Philippe makes.

In 2012, Patek Philippe produced an exhibition of all the repeaters in its then-current catalogue, and the book published to accompany the exhibition is a treasure – an indispensable complete history of minute repeater production at Patek. In the book, Philippe Stern comments on his reasons for continuing to find the repeater so much more interesting and challenging to produce than, say, the tourbillon, remarking:

“Today, everyone is building tourbillons. For me, that doesn’t make sense any longer. Producing them has become routine. Conversely, it is extremely difficult to achieve exceptionally high rate accuracies with tourbillons, which after all is the key issue. Many brands offer tourbillons without mentioning precision because the rate of such watches is often poorer than of those with a normal escapement. In minute repeaters, however, which becoming more and more popular, even laypeople can instantly hear whether their sound is clear, reverberant, and harmonious.”

The 1938P-001 (the reference number is of course, the year of Philippe Stern’s birth) is a self-winding, 41mm x 14.2mm wristwatch. The grand feu enamel dial (on an 18k gold base) carries an enamel miniature portrait of Philippe Stern in white and grey enamel, on a black enamel background. The time to which the alarm is set, is shown by a gold alarm hand and the alarm indications on the dial are marked off in quarter hour increments.

The movement is based on the self-winding caliber R 27. The repeating works and the alarm works both chime on two sets of gongs, and there are four patents associated with the resulting caliber R AL 27 PS. Of these patents, the most important is for the function of the repeater slide. In traditional minute repeaters, the slide on the left side of the case is operated in order to first wind the spring barrel powering the chiming works, and then release the repeater train so that the the time can be struck (a minute repeater, as the name implies, will strike the hours, quarter hours, and then the nearest minute). In the 1938P, the slide will operate normally in repeater mode, but in alarm mode, operating the slide arms the repeater train, which will then delay chiming until the time for which the alarm is set is reached.

In order to prolong the chiming of the alarm, the watch has been set up so that the chimes ring two minutes before the time set. For instance, if the alarm is set for 3:00, if the watch chimed at 3:00 on the dot there would be only three chimes struck, on the gong tuned to the lower note. However, the watch will actually chime 2:58 – two hour strikes, three double quarter strikes, and 13 minute strikes, as the time will be 13 minutes past the nearest quarter hour.

The user can switch back and forth between alarm and repeater mode with the small button set into the crown. A bell-shaped window shows the current mode – black, for repeater mode (the bell basically disappears from the dial) and white for alarm mode. Switching is controlled by a chronograph-like lever and column wheel system and the addition of the repeater and alarm works, as well as things like the blocking lever for delaying the chime, all add 227 additional components.

The watch seems to have been intended to be Patek’s donation to this year’s Only Watch auction, which has been postponed until 2024 as Only Watch responds to calls for greater transparency in its financials.

The alarm complication in this form, was first introduced by Patek Philippe in the Grandmaster Chime, which was introduced in 2014 for Patek’s 125th Anniversary. The Grandmaster Chime (ref. 5175) was and remains, I believe, the most complicated wristwatch Patek has ever made (the company’s complicated pocket watches, including the the Star Caliber 2000 and Caliber 89, outstrip any Patek wristwatch in terms of the total number of complications but of course such pocket watches are enormous).

This is an ingenious complication although few will be able to enjoy it, as only 30 of the reference will be made; Patek has also said that this movement will only be used for these thirty watches and will never be used again.  Of course Patek has made other alarm watches, including the 5520P Pilot, but the 1938P is the first wristwatch it’s ever made (other than the Grandmaster Chime) which combines a selectable alarm and repeater in one watch. Happy Birthday, Philippe Stern!

The Minute Repeater Alarm Ref. 1938P-001: case, platinum, 41mm x 14.2mm, 49.4mm lug to lug; non-water resistant case, with officer-style hinged caseback. Dial in 18k gold and grand feu enamel, with portrait of Philippe Stern. Movement, Patek Philippe caliber R AL 27 PS, self-winding with micro-rotor; minute repeater and 12 hour alarm striking the time and programmed alarm time on two minute repeater gongs. Gyromax balance with Spiromax balance spring in Silinvar (Patek Philippe’s proprietary silicon balance spring). 3 position crown: manual winding, setting of the alarm time in 15 minute increments, and setting the time, with pusher to select alarm or repeater mode. Price, CHF 890,000. Find out more at Patek.com.