Patek Philippe has come to its first Watches & Wonders with 12 novelties that range from time-only to the highest echelons of their complications, including a brand new combination of complications within the maison’s fold. Here, we focus on four of the prominent talking pieces from the fair.

5326G-001 – Annual Calendar Travel Time

Executed in an all-new 41mm Calatrava case in white gold, guilloched with a hobnail pattern on the entire circumference of the caseband, this is the 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time. As this is the first time the maison has combined these two complications into a single watch, the movement therefore was freshly developed for the watch — the self-winding 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H caliber.

The dial aesthetic on the timepiece is also quite an unexpected mix of vintage and contemporary from the likes of Patek Philippe: rendered in textured charcoal gray and black gradient rim with gold applied numerals that have beige luminescent coating. Hands are all syringe-shaped with beige luminescent coating on the local hour hand, while the home time hour hand is skeletonized.

From there on, it all gets very technical. Because Patek Philippe did not simply smash two modules into a single case. It had to be done in a way that the complete complication would logically make sense for itself. For instance, they had to consider how the calendar indication would interact with the Travel Time function when wearer changes time zones. In the new caliber 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H movement, the Annual Calendar is controlled by the Travel Time function and it is the local-time hour wheel that drives the calendar.

Further improvements were also implemented on the annual calendar mechanism in order for it to be appropriately governed by the local-time hour wheel. In a conventional annual calendar, the display advance around midnight lasts about 90 minutes, so a date misalignment could occur if the time zone is adjusted within that time frame. To ensure that the watch is showing the correct date longer, Patek Philippe’s engineers shortened the display advance of the Annual Calendar discs by approximately 18 minutes. Using a cam system with partial toothing connected to the hour wheel, the 24-hour wheel executes its rotation in four phases instead of continuously: 180° rotation in three hours (toward midnight), nine hours of standstill, 180° rotation in three hours (toward noon), nine hours of standstill. While this allows for better coordination of the calendar switching phase with local time, it must be taken into consideration that a 180° rotation in three hours also means higher energy consumption.

With all this in mind, the Travel Time function itself had to be adjusted and improved up. One way this has been achieved is by doing away pushers in favor of the adjustment mechanism, using the winding-stem setting mechanism that has three positions, first seen in the 2021 with the Aquanaut Luce Travel Time (Ref. 5269/200R-001). The wearer now only needs to pull the crown to the middle position and then turn it clockwise or counterclockwise to adjust the local-time hour hand in one-hour increments in either direction without affecting the precise rate of the movement. Of course, the crown can also be used to bring the home and local time hands together to form a discreet solitary hand, by pulling the crown to its last stop, which has a stop-seconds mechanism and allows the time to be set with one-second accuracy. Patek Philippe states that will all of the work done, it’s required the maison to establish eight new patents.

Tech Specs

Patek Philippe 5326G-001 Annual Calendar Travel Time
Movement: Self-winding caliber 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H; power reserve: min. 38 hours – max. 48 hours
Functions: Annual Calendar with day, date and month in apertures; two time zones: local and home time indication; local and home day/night indication in apertures; moon phases; small seconds
Case: 41mm in white gold (11.07mm thick); caseband guilloched with hobnail pattern; water-resistant to 30m
Dial: Textured charcoal gray, black gradient rim, gold applied numerals with beige luminescent coating; local time hand: white gold syringe-shaped with luminescent coating; home time hand: white gold pierced syringed-shaped, beige lacquered
Strap: Watch delivered with two calfskin straps — beige with nubuck finish and black embossed with fabric pattern and contrasting beige stitching; fold-over clasp

5226G-001 – Calatrava

Taking from the aesthetics of the 5326G-001, the 5226G-001 is a 40mm white gold case with as well the new Calatrava case design that has its caseband guilloched with a hobnail pattern. The dial, too, is the textured charcoal gray with black gradient rim and gold applied numerals with beige luminescent coating. The hands here are rendered in white gold and syringed-shaped with luminescent coating. The discreet “railway track” graduated scale for the seconds is a really nice detail.

The movement within the watch is the self-winding 26-330 S C with power reserve within the range of 35 hours to a maximum of 45 hours

Tech Specs

Patek Philippe 5226G-001 – Calatrava
Movement: Self-winding caliber 26-330 S C; power reserve: min. 35 hours – max. 45 hours
Functions: Hours, minutes, running seconds, date
Case: 40mm in white gold (8.53mm thick); caseband guilloched with hobnail pattern; water-resistant to 30m
Dial: Textured charcoal gray, black-gradient rim, gold applied numerals with beige luminescent coating; white gold syringed-shaped hands with luminescent coating
Strap: Watch delivered with two calfskin straps — beige with nubuck finish and black embossed with fabric pattern and contrasting beige stitching; prong buckle

5320G-011 – Perpetual Calendar

Think back to 2017 and the launch of the reference 5320 in white gold with its three-tier lugs at Baselworld that year, and just how taken the world was with that gorgeous timepiece and its cream dial. The 5320G-001 has now disappeared from Patek.com, meaning that the 5320G-011 is its present successor.

Laid out in the likes of Patek Philippe’s classic perpetual calendars such as the superb 3448, but with a central running seconds hand, which makes it more like the 1591, 2497 and etc, the 5320G-011 is an exemplary demonstration of the maison’s sense of legibility and aesthetics.

What sets the 5320G-011 from the discontinued 5320G-001 is that rose-gilt opaline dial with its charcoal gray gold applied numerals with luminescent coating along with the charcoal gray white gold syringe-shaped hands with luminescent coating.

Tech Specs

Patek Philippe 5320G-011 – Perpetual Calendar
Movement: Self-winding caliber 324 S Q; power reserve: min. 35 hours – max. 45 hours
Functions: Hours, minutes, running seconds, perpetual calendar with day, month, leap year and day/night indication in apertures; date by hand; moon phases
Case: 40mm in white gold (11.13mm thick); interchangeable solid and sapphire crystal case backs; water-resistant to 30m
Dial: Rose-gilt opaline with charcoal gray gold applied numerals with luminescent coating; charcoal gray white gold syringe-shaped hands with luminescent coating
Strap: Alligator leather with square scales, hand-stitched, shiny chocolate brown; fold-over clasp

5172G-010 – Chronograph

Patek Philippe first unveiled the CH 29-535 PS caliber back in 2009. It is the maison’s the first classically built chronograph movement entirely developed and produced in-house. The movement has since been used in various chronograph models, including most recently, in the 5172G-001, in white gold case with the three-tier lugs round guilloched pushers (ala 1463) and sapphire crystal “box” glass, paired with a blue dial. The maison has now added to the reference with the 5172G-010, which offers the CH 29-535 PS with a rose-gilt opaline dial.

The rose-gilt opaline is paired with charcoal gray gold applied numerals with luminescent coating and charcoal gray white gold syringe-shaped hands with luminescent coating and a tachymeter scale along the dial perimeter.

Tech Specs

Patek Philippe 5172G-010 – Chronograph
Movement: Manual-winding caliber CH 29-535 PS; power reserve with the chronograph disengaged: min. 65 hours
Functions: Hours, minutes, small running seconds; chronograph with central chronograph hand and instantaneous 30-minute counter
Case: 41mm in white gold (11.45mm thick); guilloched pushers; water-resistant to 30m
Dial: Rose-gilt opaline; charcoal gray gold applied numerals with luminescent coating; charcoal gray white gold syringe-shaped hands with luminescent coating; tachymeter scale
Strap: Alligator leather with square scales, hand-stitched, shiny chocolate brown; fold-over clasp