The annual calendar and the chronograph are two very useful complications, but putting them together creates a big challenge: chronographs usually have at least two subdials to record the elapsed hours and minutes, and the annual calendar requires separate displays for the day, date and month. With a case measuring only 40.5mm in diameter, however, Patek Philippe Watches List had to find an original solution to accommodate these five different elements on the dial. Luckily the brand has prior form in its Nautilus collection, where the chronograph function has already been shown on a single subdial, with elapsed hours around the centre and minutes on the periphery. It chose to use the same idea (albeit with the scales inversed) on the Ref. 5960/1A model that was first presented in stainless steel in 2014, with the annual calendar indications shown around the upper half of the dial. The result is a harmonious balance in which the two different functions are clearly separated in the upper and lower halves of the dial.

Ref. 5960/01G, white-gold case / right side of the case © Patek Philippe

Returning to the dial side just for a more serious departure, the Patek Philippe Watch Box 5170P is an interesting beast. The watch market as it’s suffers no lack of platinum-clad, diamond-brazen watches — but something is telling me no one at the hippie-hoppie music industry will be seen rocking the 5170P in almost any of the videos anytime soon. No, the 5170P is similar to a rich grandpa with diamond cufflinks: bizarre, but face-to-face you’ll probably need to keep your opinion to yourself.The Patek Philippe 5170P is intriguing because I can imagine it to be way over the top for a few, and rather stale in the view of others. It is, since it requires that stealth-wealth single lug-diamond and complete platinum nonsense to a different level by proudly showing some of those lion’s teeth around the front. I mean, with no diamonds and in humble increased gold, this is a ~$75k watch, so why not allow it to live a little?Last thing worth thinking about is how there can be a certain charm to brightly implemented watches from big brands which still show off a little — and also the 5170P is close to being a good case at that. However, once we talk of brilliance in implementation, reflective crystals really shouldn’t be a part of this conversation. Legibility shouldn’t be sacrificed for any reason, and that is exactly why the baguette markers work so well: they function to design while also being exorbitantly unnecessary and luxurious. The same can’t be said about the ruined crystal. I understand it supposedly works in the boutique, but it’s an inexplicable and complete fail everywhere else. It is like rocking this watch with an ideal tux — then walking everywhere with a blot on your lapel.

For 2017, Making A Patek Philippe Watch has added a second model in stainless steel to the collection. Reference 5960/1A-010 inverses the dial colours of its predecessor, offering an ebony black opaline dial with contrasting white gold hour markers and surrounds for the day, date and month apertures (note also the subtle red number 1 seen at the start of every month). Reference 5960/01G introduces a white-gold case to this complication for the first time, matched with a blue dial, still with the gold markers, and a vintage-style brown calfskin strap with contrasting stitching. The stainless-steel model retails for 45,000 Swiss francs, with the premium for the precious metal of white gold taking the price up to 58,000 Swiss francs.

Ref. 5960/1A-010, stainless steel case / left side of the case © Patek PHilippe

The Reference 5960 is powered by the self-winding calibre CH-28-520 IRM QA 24H, which offers a fly-back chronograph function and the annual calendar with day-night indicator. The mainspring is rewound by a 21-carat red-gold oscillating weight and ensures a power reserve of up to 55 hours. The movement is equipped with Patek Philippe’s patented Gyromax® balance wheel and Spiromax® balance spring and is certified with the Patek Philippe Watches Rose Gold Seal, which, as part of its strict standards, requires the movement to be accurate to between -3 and +2 seconds per day – one of the most stringent criteria in the entire industry.

“You need to have the ability to produce very fine, ultra-thin moves. That’s something Patek Philippe Watch Expensive has. The Caliber 240 is indeed tiny, so perfect; it’s slim but not fragile. Additionally, it’s an automated movement, and that’s something important. It used to be more on the quartz side for women, but now, after all these years, that’s changing. Quartz today is diminishing. It represents only 12% of our production. Today, more girls are willing to wear an automatic.” The Caliber 240 is put to work again at the next particular New York variant for ladies from the Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 7200/50. It is also being made in two limited editions of 75 watches each (white or blue dial). The blue dial version has a blue-gray alligator strap, and the white dial has a peacock blue alligator strap. Again, the crystal on the case back is engraved with the particular edition reference. These special editions are part of a growing lineup of impressive ladies’ timepieces recently introduced by Patek, such as not only complications but higher jewelry watches that rival the artistry of Cartier. Part of this has to do with the fact that Thierry Stern’s spouse, Sandrine Stern, is at the helm of the organization’s design department. “My goal is to be 60% men, 40 percent ladies, and now we’re more 70%/30%, so we must increase a little bit,” he states. “However, it’s not easy to find the appropriate pieces, because for guys, it is a whole lot about the technical aspect, and for girls it is about design. I think Sandrine, as a woman, is a good judge. I am able to design a ladies’ view, but as a man, I will never wear it. When she designs a girls’ watch, she layouts something that she could wear. And she’s good taste.”

Today, though? Dressed in all of the things it’d set on as it advanced through its own dead-end avenue of evolution, it looks as absurd and ridiculous, as it is awe-inspiring and intriguing. I am glad I had the memorable chance of seeing it live and I will forever look forward to seeing another in the real world; although deep down I know that won’t ever happen.If you arrived here to the specs and those fawning superlatives, I won’t leave you without them. The Patek Philippe Watches Nottingham Calatrava 5180/1R is one magnificently implemented dress watch — especially in the sense that it could dress the most naked of emperors. Patek Philippe calls for the 2.53mm thick 240 grade “famous” and “ultra-thin” — we are more confident about the latter, but not so much about the former. I mean, even in the nerdiest of watch get-togethers, I find it hard to envision people lining up en masse and yelling upon first sight: “Wow, that’s the grade 240! “The hand-engraving is topnotch quality, based on what you would expect from an 87,000 CHF watch. A great deal of thickness meet consistent intricacy: it is the type of handmade where it creates things uniquely beautiful, and not where it is an excuse for sub-par execution. Patek say it requires about 130 hours of work to perform the engraving work — that is more than 3 months of work and although strictly speaking it is not watchmaking, the engraving represents a concrete and very real added value.
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