Patek Philippe Reigns Above 

Patek Philippe is known for its mastery of just about every conceivable aspect of fine watchmaking — from its long roster of iconic designs, to its creation of some of the most complicated timepieces ever made. There is no domain of haute horlogerie at which Patek has not excelled, nor has it ever, since it was established in 1839, given up anything in terms of quality. This year Patek Philippe released three new complicated watches which cover mechanisms for which the company has become a byword — the beautifully refined Calatrava 8-Day Ref. 5328G-001; the Perpetual Calendar Retrograde Date Ref. 6159G-001; and the distinguished Grand Complication, Ref. 5308G-001, which combines a minute repeater with a split seconds chronograph and perpetual calendar. 

The Calatrava 8-Day Ref. 5328G-001 is part of a family of long power reserve Patek Philippe wristwatches, which historically have represented a peak in the evolution of hand-wound long power reserve wristwatches, and which include the 10-Day Power Reserve Ref. 5100J Gondolo, and the magnificent Ref. 5101P-010 10-Day Tourbillon. With the Calatrava 8-Day, Patek Philippe has shifted gears slightly from a design standpoint, and placed a new hand-wound movement with an 8-day power reserve, in a contemporary-style Calatrava case, with a textured, blue gradient dial and a complex case, featuring the signature clous-de-Paris hobnail pattern which has been part of the history of the Calatrava collection for many years, with lugs supported by the caseback, in order to avoid interrupting the hobnail case-flank pattern.  

For movement enthusiasts, though, the star of the show is the caliber 31-505 8J PS IRM CI J. The 32mm x 5.05mm movement is quite compact for an 8-day movement, with the long running time courtesy of two mainspring barrels; there’s a power reserve (on the dial at 12:00) and a date and day indication in the small seconds sub-dial at 6:00. The movement architecture, however, is simply splendid — this is one of the very few really classically constructed hand-wound, full bridge movements being made today, with a gorgeous S-shaped center bridge for the center and third wheels. 

The Perpetual Calendar Retrograde Date Ref. 6159G-001 represents a combination of classical watchmaking with the contemporary touch of a smoked sapphire, semi-transparent dial. It may come as a surprise that Patek’s first retrograde perpetual calendar appeared in 1937, only five years after the Stern family had taken over stewardship of the company. This was the Ref. 96, with a movement supplied by Victorin Piguet; the retrograde perpetual calendar would return to Patek’s collection in 1993, with the Ref. 5050. A retrograde perpetual calendar is one in which the date hand sweeps across a sector on the dial and, at the correct date for the end of any given month (including the 29th of February in a Leap Year) jumps instantly back to the first, exactly at midnight. At the same time, the other calendar indications also switch, including the day, month, and, at the end of the year, the indication for the Leap Year. Perpetual calendars are quite miraculous mechanisms but their complexity is usually not visible, as perpetual calendar works are located under the dial. The Ref. 6159G-001 gives the owner a chance to appreciate the complexity of the mechanism and its action, but unlike typical open dial perpetuals, the smoked treatment of the sapphire means excellent legibility as well. 

And finally, there is the Grand Complication, Ref. 5308G-001. This watch is a reminder to us all that Patek’s production of highly complex watches featuring a number of different complications is an intrinsic part of its history, and includes, of course, the super-complications made for James Ward Packard, and Henry Graves Jr. This history also includes watches as varied as the pocket watch Caliber 89, the Star Caliber 2000, and more recently, the Grandmaster Chime, which in terms of its variety of presentations of chiming complications, exceeds any other chiming complication. Ref. 5308G-001 is a new variation created for the current collection, having been preceded by the Ref. 5308P-010, which had a salmon dial, and which was only available at the Watch Art Grand Exhibition, held in Tokyo in 2023.  

The Ref. 5308G-001 combines the three classic high complications, which together represent the most difficult and most demanding complications. First, this Grand Complication is a perpetual calendar. While the perpetual calendar is the oldest of the three, it also represents a mechanical solution to a problem of calendar reform which dates all the way back to the Gregorian reform of the Julian calendar. The Julian calendar did not account for the fact that it was based on a year with a slight error in its length; over time, this error accumulated until finally, in 1582, the Gregorian calendar reform introduced a calendar with an additional day at the end of February. The first perpetual calendar wristwatch ever made was created by Patek Philippe in 1925, and the complication has been associated with Patek ever since. 

The minute repeater, however, is arguably the complication most strongly associated with Patek. Its chiming complications represent decades of refinement in the production of this complication, which chimes the time “on demand,” ringing the hours, quarters, and minutes when a slide in the case is pressed. A top-quality repeater must offer good volume, good tone, properly adjusted pitch, and a tempo that is neither too rushed nor too leisurely. Each one of these aspects of a repeater must be adjusted by hand, and so the repeater — especially at Patek Philippe — remains a work of art, with each one having its own particular character. 

Finally, there is the split-seconds chronograph. Although less widely renowned than the perpetual calendar and repeater, the split-seconds in its classical form is extremely difficult to make, requiring the greatest care in assembly and adjustment. The split hand, for instance, pivots on a heart shaped cam which has a ruby roller bearing on its edge; when the split hand is released to “catch up” with the primary chronograph seconds hand, it is the pressure of this roller which causes the heart cam to rotate until the roller rests on its lowest point, which should coincide exactly with the position of the split hand matching the position of the main seconds hand. The hands, when they are overlapping, should do so with such precision that they appear to be a single hand, and Patek’s contributions to the evolution of the complication include a complex isolator mechanism, which ensures that the balance amplitude remains constant when the two hands are split.  

These three watches, taken together, would be the high points of any haute horlogerie watchmaker. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of them, however, is that for Patek Philippe, they are not isolated triumphs. Rather, they are part of a history of creation and innovation in complicated watchmaking unmatched in Switzerland, or anywhere else on Earth.