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Watches and Wonders 2023: A Patek Philippe Calatrava Dual-Time with 24-Hour Display

The Calatrava Reference 5224R-001, the headliner among the seventeen new watches unveiled by Patek Philippe during Watches and Wonders 2023, scores high for legibility, ease of use and originality.

New Ref. 5224R is a Calatrava model equipped with the Travel Time dual time zone function and a 24-hour display.

Arriving amid a strong set of debuts, including a highly jeweled Grandmaster Chime and the first annual calendar within the Aquanaut Luce collection (to be covered in upcoming posts), this newest adaptation of Patek Philippe’s Travel Time dual-time display is paired with an original display of local time and home time via two center hands turning on a 24-hour circle.

 

Patek Philippe has used similar 24-hour displays, but most have been seen on watches from the distant past. In the early twentieth century Patek Philippe made a series of Chronometro Gondolo watches for the Brazilian retailer Gondolo & Labouriau.

 

But for the new watch, Patek Philippe flipped the original design. Instead of placing the noontime indication at the more traditional 6 o’clock position, Patek Philippe opts to update (and, to many, simplify) the display by placing noon at the top of the dial where, it seems, more wearers look when checking the time.

 

In another nod to simplicity and aesthetics, Patek Philippe has also replaced the traditional in-case correction pushers for local time with a new patented correction system that allows the user to pull out the crown.

 

When pulled out to the intermediate position, the local time can be adjusted backwards and forwards in one-hour increments. 

To accomplish these new features, Patek Philippe built new caliber 31-260 PS FUS 24H. The movement is an update to Patek Philippe’s 31-260 ultra-thin self-winding base caliber from 2011, which here includes a 24-hour mechanism and a Travel Time mechanism.

 

In 2021, Patek Philippe further enhanced the initial caliber (then placed into the In-Line Perpetual Calendar Reference 5236P-001) with a new operating frequency of 4 Hz, a twenty per cent increase in barrel-spring torque, a mini-rotor in platinum and a reduction wheel that uncouples the self-winding mechanism when the watch is being manually wound.

The watch’s 42mm rose-gold case nicely complements a sharp-looking blue dial that Patek Philippe has set with contemporary, high-relief rose gold numerals, hour markers and five-minute cabochons.

 

The watch is also notable for its generous use of luminous material within the rose-gold, syringe-type hands, the hour markers and the numerals.   

Price: $57,366. 

More New in 2023

As noted above, Patek Philippe for 2023 adds an annual calendar to the Aquanaut Luce to create Annual Calendar Reference 5261R-001 ($61,506), the first annual calendar in the Aquanaut collection.

 Aquanaut Luce Annual Calendar Reference 5261R-001.

Finished with a very nice blue-gray dial and attached to a matching strap, the 39.9mm rose gold watch enriches Patek Philippe’s range of complicated ladies’ watches.

Also for 2023, Patek Philippe adds a blue-gray sunburst dial and a navy-blue grained calfskin strap to its distinctive Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Chronograph Reference 5924G-001 ($75,699) and adds a khaki green lacquered dial to the Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Chronograph Reference 5924G-010 ($79,699).

Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Chronograph Reference 5924G-001.
Calatrava Pilot Travel Time Chronograph, Reference 5924G-010.

Patek Philippe also updates its Calatrava references 6007G-001, 6007G-010 and 6007G-011 with a new modern dial style featuring black dials and three types of finish with an embossed carbon pattern.

Calatrava reference 6007G-001, one of three colorful updates to the series.

Each also receives new color accents in on their respective dials and straps: yellow (6007G-001), red (6007G-010) or sky blue (6007G-011). Each is priced at $37,850.

Patek Philippe also expanded its range of watches for women with the new Calatrava self-winding Reference 4997/200R-001, a rose gold, diamond-set watch ($38,441) now sporting a rich purple wave dial pattern created by fifty layers of translucent lacquer.

 

Pictures don’t do this dial justice as the lacquer finish here is extraordinary.

We’ll discuss additional Patek Philippe 2023 debuts in upcoming posts. 

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Featured News

Watches and Wonders 2023: The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante  

One year after debuting the world premiere Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier this year follows up with another premiere jumping hand watch, the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante.

The new Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante.

The new watch echoes last year’s GMT by performing a classic timing function with a new, simpler operation. Where that earlier model allowed for a hand-based display of GMT time, the new watch allows the user to check elapsed minutes on-demand via a second minute hand hidden directly under the primary minute hand.

Instead of turning a calibrated bezel (as on a dive watch), the user simply presses a pusher to move the second, gold hour hand to the desired time.

With the Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, it’s the movement’s control of the second minute hand that performs the elapsed time display, not the user’s bezel-read calculation. The elapsed time is indicated when the primary minute hand reaches – and covers – the gold minute hand.

This display can be used for any fine calibration of the minutes over a specific period of time, or for any occasion or event requiring measurement of the minutes count, such as for cooking times or game times.

To use the function, the wearer can move the rose gold hand in either five-minute increments (via the pusher at 8’o’clock) or one-minute increments (via the pusher positioned at 10 o’clock). Once the two hands meet and superimpose, the period of time to be measured will have elapsed.

At any time, the wearer can return the gold hand to its position hidden underneath the rhodium-plated primary minute hand by pressing the crown-integrated pusher, in a similar way to the split-seconds function. 

As on last year’s Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante, this new hand-based time counting function is only visible when activated.

The movement that makes these functions possible, new caliber PF 052, is powered by an elegant rose-gold micro-rotor and is fully visible from the back of the 40mm steel case.  

The functionality here is of course paired with the watchmaker’s high-end workmanship and finishing. These include a hand-cut Grain d’Orge guilloché dial in a sand grey color and 18-karat gold hands and markers. As on all Tonda PF models, the knurled bezel is platinum.

The new Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante is a welcome, ingenious addition to Parmigiani Fleurier’s new series of hand-based complication displays.

Price: $30,600. 

Also new in 2023

In addition to the headliner Tonda PF Minute Rattrapante, Parmigiani Fleurier debuts a platinum-cased Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon with a stunning Milano blue dial ($163,700), a premiere all-platinum Tonda PF Microrotor model with time and date only ($92,800), and a trio of perpetual models displaying time using the Islamic, Chinese and Gregorian calendars.

The new Tonda PF Flying Tourbillon.
The new all-platinum Tonda PF Microrotor.

The watchmaker also adds a rose-gold edition of last year’s premiere PF GMT Rattrapante, complete with a rich Grain d’Orge guilloché dial in Milano blue,($65,500) plus a rose-gold edition of its always impressive Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph ($169,100).

A new rose-gold edition of last year’s premiere Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante.
The Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Split-Seconds Chronograph, now in rose gold.

We’ll have more about the debuts in future posts. 

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The Watches

MB&F Launches Salmon-Hued LM Perpetual 

MB&F revisits its Legacy Machine Perpetual this week with a new model featuring a salmon-colored dial plate. The combination of a steel case and salmon hue is a first for MB&F, which will release the new model in limited production, not as a limited edition.

The MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual with its new salmon-colored plate.

MB&F’s latest Legacy Machine Perpetual, which won the Best Calendar Watch prize at the GPHG (Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève) in 2016, offers the same groundbreaking, manual-wind LM Perpetual movement conceived by MB&F Friend Stephen McDonnell for the 2015 original.

That groundbreaking design means the Legacy Machine Perpetual will operate with no skipped dates or jammed gears. Owners often inadvertently create problems within their perpetual calendars by attempting to reset them while the gears are mid-function, resulting in some damage to the highly complex date mechanism.

McDonnell’s design is proactive in a sense because when the user attempts to adjust the calendar, the movement’s pushers automatically deactivate so they don’t cause any damage to other components.

At the heart of the difference is how the Legacy Machine Perpetual determines dates. Traditional perpetual calendars use a 31-day month as the default, changing, for example, from February 28 to March 1 quickly to arrive at the 1st. Interrupting the movement during this critical changeover can damage it. 

With this perpetual calendar movement, Busser and friends essentially replaced that traditional system with a mechanical processor that instead utilizes that default 28-day month and adds extra days only as required.

Three years go MB&F added a sporty version of the perpetual calendar when it launched the Legacy Machine Perpetual EVO, a zirconium-cased update to the original model.

This new model, with its premiere 44mm by 17.5mm steel case/salmon dial plate-color combination, is a handsome – and welcome – addition to the full collection of a true ground-breaking original.

Price: $180,000. 

 

Since its 2015 debut, the MB&F Legacy Machine Perpetual has been offered:

– in platinum 950 with blue face (limited to 25 pieces);

– in 18k red gold with grey face (limited to 25 pieces);

– in 18k white gold with purple face (limited to 25 pieces);

– in 18k white gold with dark grey face;

– in grade 5 titanium with green face (limited to 50 pieces);

– in 18k yellow gold with blue face (limited to 25 pieces);

– in palladium 950 with aquamarine face (limited to 25 pieces);

– in stainless steel with salmon face.

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The Watches

Piaget Launches Polo Perpetual 

Piaget launches the Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-thin, the watchmaker’s first perpetual calendar placed within its 42mm Polo case.

The new Piaget Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-thin.

While we’ve seen chronographs and skeletonized models within the watchmaker’s Polo collection, and watches with tourbillons and minute repeaters within the larger Polo Emperador cases, the new watch marks a first for the modern Polo case, and a premiere for what we’re hoping will be a series of perpetual calendar offerings within the pure Polo collection.

Powered by the new 1255P caliber, the thin watch (8.65mm) is the latest in an impressive collection of Piaget watches powered by variations within the 1200P caliber family, a series that itself stems from the famed micro-rotor caliber 12P, which in 1960 was the thinnest automatic caliber on the market.

In its new guise as a perpetual calendar, the caliber advances the day, date, and year (until the year 2100), months, moon phases and leap-year cycle.

Piaget launches the Polo Perpetual Calendar Ultra-Thin with an eye-catching dark emerald-green patterned dial with and three displays for the date, month (along with leap-year indication) and weekday at 9, 12 and 3 o’clock, along with the moonphase indication at 6 o’clock.

The dial’s horizontal line pattern continues a Polo dial tradition that also finds varying finishes within the four subdials. Note that the lines on the dial also appear as links on the steel bracelet.

New here is a Piaget interchangeable SingleTouch system for the bracelet that allows the wearer to easily change it and attach the included rubber strap.

Price: $58,500.

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The Watches

Patek Philippe Launches New Chronographs and White Gold Nautilus

Patek Philippe launched three variations to its hot Nautilus (including a white gold successor to its retired Ref. 5711) and extended its collection of complicated chronographs as part of an eight-piece debut this week.

The new Ref. 5811/1G-001 Nautilus features a case and bracelet in white gold as well as a blue sunburst dial with a black gradation. Price is $69,785.

While the new Nautilus debuts garnered much of the initial attention, it’s the new set of chronographs that attract collectors of Patek Philippe’s legendary (and less commodified) complications. (Read all about the trio of new Nautilus models, including the 41mm successor to the Ref. 5711 , on the Patek Philippe site.)

The chronographs

And among those chronograph debuts, look no further than the new Ref. 5373P-001, a split-seconds mono-pusher chronograph with perpetual calendar, for some true novelty. The watch differs from its predecessor (Ref. 5372) with newly inverted displays, pushers and crown.

New Patek Philippe Ref. 5373P-001, a split-seconds mono-pusher chronograph with perpetual calendar, differs from its predecessor (Ref. 5372) with inverted displays, pushers and crown.

Made for specifically “for the right-hand wrists of left-handers,” according to the watchmaker, the new 38.3mm platinum-cased watch is a premiere design for the company.

Patek Philippe notes however that a 1927 one-of-a-kind watch inspired the design of the new model. Like the earlier watch, the new watch features its integrated chronograph monopusher at the 9 o’clock position with the split-seconds pusher set, unusually, at 8 o’clock.

The sporty red, black  and grey dial on the Ref. 5373P-001 is cleverly finished with a black gradation at its edge, framing snailed ebony-black subsidiary dials.

The watch’s beautifully finished caliber CHR 27-525 PS Q, still the thinnest split-seconds chronograph movement with perpetual calendar ever produced by the manufacture, can be admired through the sapphire-crystal display back, which is interchangeable with the solid-platinum back delivered with the watch. Among the many caseback highlights is a view of the movement’s two column wheels with their two polished caps.

Finally, like all of Patek Philippe’s platinum watches, the new Ref. 5373P-001 features a brilliant cut diamond on its case. But here Patek Philippe flips the diamond’s location, placing it at the 12 o’clock position rather than at the 6 o’clock position. Price Upon Request. 

The new Patek Philippe Ref. 5204G-001 split-seconds chronograph with perpetual calendar.

Split Seconds, right side

Also with a split-seconds chronograph with perpetual calendar, the new Ref. 5204G-001, with its standard, right-side crown and two pushers,  features a 40mm white gold case and an olive-green sunburst dial. The watch complements a version released last year with a slate-grey dial and a rose-gold case. Price Upon Request. 

The new Patek Philippe Ref. 5935A-001 self-winding World Time flyback chronograph stands out with its sporty vintage looks.

World Timer

In a premiere steel case, the Patek Philippe’s new Ref. 5935A-001 World Time flyback chronograph (with automatic caliber CH 28-520 HU) is bound to please collectors in search of steel Patek Philippe watches as well as those who covet its world timers.

A stunning rose-gold dial appears vintage while the ‘carbon’ motif’ dial interior is decidedly contemporary. That dial center is a reference to the 2020 limited edition inaugural model Patek Philippe’s newest manufacturing facility in Geneva. Patek Philippe includes two calfskin straps (grained taupe and beige with a velvet-like nubuck finish), each secured with stainless steel fold-over clasps. Price: $63,871.

 

The Ref. 7968:300R-001 Aquanaut Luce “Rainbow” chronograph in rose gold.

Luce Chronograph

Patek Philippe adds an automatic chronograph to its contemporary Aquanaut Luce collection for the first time, and then decorates the watch (Ref. 7968-300R-001) with a rainbow of sapphires and diamonds. Cased in 39.9mm rose gold, the watch’s white mother-of-pearl dial is engraved with an Aquanaut pattern as baguette multi-colored sapphires mark the hours alongside gold applied numerals. Price: $212,900. 

The new Ref. 5990-1A-011 Nautilus Travel Time chronograph is one of Patek Philippe’s rare steel watches.

Travel Time

Patek Philippe has debuted a steel-cased Travel Time model with an eye-catching blue dial with a radiant sunburst finish and a subtle black gradation. The new Ref. 5990/1A-011 Travel Time is powered by automatic caliber CH 28-520 C FUS, which combines a flyback chronograph, a Travel Time function (two time zones with two separate hour hands; the skeletonized hand shows home time) and an analog date synchronized with local time. Price: $68,603.

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