It’s usually my cat or the vibration of my Jawbone activity tracker that gets me up in the morning, but in the case of Thierry Stern, president of Patek Philippe, it’s innovation. In the brand’s latest campaign to promote its more technical side, Mr Stern explains that innovation can “open the door to new ways of thinking.”

Given the company’s prestigious history, as well as the ever-present notion that one is only ever a temporary custodian of its timepieces, it’s vitally important that research and innovation at the company’s headquarters in Plan-les-Ouates is ploughed into technology that will bring lasting benefits. “Technical advances are introduced to improve the long-term functional integrity of our watches,” stresses Mr Stern. It is because the company is family-owned and independent that Mr Stern can ensure that these innovations are never marketing gimmicks, which is where the title of this campaign comes from.

The short video of the campaign ends with one of the company’s most significant innovations of recent times: the Spiromax® balance spring. First introduced at Baselworld in 2006 in the Patek Philippe Watch Repair New York Advanced Research Ref. 5350, the Spiromax® balance spring is made of Silinvar™, a material that was developed jointly with other partners in the Swiss watch industry. Patek Philippe’s research and development department combined this new material with the use of a patented “Patek Philippe” terminal curve, which has a thicker cross-section at its outer edge that ensures concentric breathing of the spring. Furthermore, because the terminal curve is along the same plane as the expansion and contraction of the spring relative to its centre, it also allows the spring to be made three times thinner than springs with Philips or Breguet overcoils, allowing its use in ultra-thin movements.

The column wheel is concealed under a highly polished cap as seen on the picture directly above. It is an eccentric cap which permits the fine-tuning of the aforementioned clutch — since you can see, there is a rather beautifully curved arm that connects the two meshing wheels together with the pillar wheel itself. When the chronograph’s start pusher is engaged, the pillar wheel under the cap rotates, thus falling this arm between the column wheel’s beams, therefore moving the second of those two driving wheels marginally so that it begins to mesh with the wheel in the middle. The distance traveled by this arm needs painstaking fine-tuning, something this cap would be to assist with — although I would still prefer to find a well-working chronograph having an exposed pillar wheel. I feel that’s enough column wheel discussion for the day.The beauty of a hand-wound chronograph is you get to have of the eye-candy. There is not a fiddly rotor constantly in the way. Power book of this CH 29-535 PS is at least 65 hours, permitting the Gyromax balance and Breguet-style hairspring to perform their 4Hz ballet for well more than two days. Sixty-five hours is enough to make the 5170P last from Friday evening till Monday morning — a feat every luxury watch wider than 36mm should provide.All the functionality apart, the 29-535 is indeed beautiful, I would go so far as to say it’s a must have in every collector’s career. Not necessarily a life keeper, but a standard for each modern high-end chronograph. None ought to be a replica of this, don’t get me wrong, but any modifications done to this design and these proportions must be supported by solid reasons — enhanced functionality, higher performance, etc.. Few motions fuss with proportions, let alone proportions against case size, but things are just right. Even the huge balance wheel seen at Patek chronographs of old certainly add a more customary flair, but if you want modern frequency and balance wheel design, you need to take a smaller balance as a sensible compromise.

Spiromax® balance spring © Patek Philippe

The Spiromax® balance spring is used in conjunction with another Patek Philippe Watch 15 Atm invention: the Gyromax® balance wheel. This wheel design replaces the screws protruding around the circumference of variable inertial balance wheels (which can be screwed in or out to adjust the moment of inertia of the balance wheel) with adjustable collets placed on the upper surface of the wheel that have a cut-out section which means that their weight can be displaced by turning the collet to adjust the moment of inertia of the balance. The advantage of this design is that the diameter of the balance wheel itself can be made bigger, allowing for a greater moment of inertia. The design also generates less air resistance. The fact that Swiss patents were granted to Patek Philippe for the Gyromax balance on May 15, 1949 and December 31, 1951, and that the balance was first used in watches in 1952, is the perfect illustration of what Thierry Stern means by “no gimmicks, thank you”.

Aquanaut Travel Time Ref. 5650 « Patek Philippe Advanced Research © Patek Philippe

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