As Watches and Wonders returns in true form after the outbreak of the pandemic, the spotlight naturally falls on a group of “New Comers” brands, with the most notable newcomer this year being the timeless watchmaker Patek Philippe and its release of twelve new pieces. However, among the twelve new timepieces, the most eagerly discussed piece in the watch industry is not a significant challenge to the iconic series or a complicated watch, but rather a very unique looking Calatrava, model Ref. 5226G, and another piece from the same series, the dual time zone annual calendar Calatrava, model Ref. 5326G-001.
As a new work of Patek Philippe, and able to win at first sight with its appearance, let’s start with the introduction from the appearance. The two new works are also from the Calatrava series, with a different overall feel from traditional Patek Philippe watches, full of the beauty of vintage watches. Because both watches are equipped with a gradient dark charcoal color, decorated with coarse grain engraving, and feature “needle-shaped” hands and second scales with luminous coating, even including the calf leather strap, all in earth tones, showing a strong retro style, and also creating a quite rugged feeling.
In addition, the cases of the two watches are decorated with “Paris studs” on the sides, which is particularly special compared to the design of the bezel of the early Ref. 3919 and last year’s Ref. 6119. It is worth noting that since both new models are composed of a “three-layer” case structure, with the bezel connected to the mirror, the side parts of the case separately, and the lugs connected to the case back, the watchmaker must fully assemble the complete Paris studs before assembling the entire bezel with the other two components, making the production process quite complex. Furthermore, due to the different thicknesses of the cases, the Paris studs of the 5226 are 3 layers, while the original 5326 is 5 layers.
In terms of appearance layout, the commonly known “Big Three Hands” Ref. 5226G is made of 18K white gold case, with a diameter of 40mm and a thickness of only 8.53mm. In addition to the above dial colors, details can also be seen on the outer ring scale using a more detailed 1/4 second scale – that is, four small squares for each second. As for the movement, the 5226G is equipped with a 26-330 S C automatic winding movement, providing up to 45 hours of power reserve.
As for the other new work Ref. 5326, it is the first time that Patek Philippe has combined the functions of “dual time zone” and “calendar” in the same watch. Moreover, the craftsmanship of the watch is that the two functions will be simultaneously influenced by the “date” function. This means that since the calendar function only adjusts the date once in February, theoretically it only needs to be adjusted forward, but the dual time zone function will need to repeatedly adjust the date based on the local time adjustment, in addition to dealing with the issues of large and small months at the same time. Therefore, the watchmaker needs to simultaneously handle the date conversion of 5326, its conversion due to the dual time zone, while also maintaining the correct calculation of the calendar, making the difficulty quite high.
However, what is even more surprising is that the operation of the two time zones on 5326 has been greatly “simplified”.
Considering traditional dual-time watches such as Ref. 5524 and Ref. 5164, usually require adjusting the front and back through two buttons on the watch, but this time, after being redesigned by the watchmaker, the 5326 will concentrate this function in a single crown, with a “three-stage” crown setting and operation (already applied on Ref. 5269 last year), allowing the wearer to adjust the dual time clockwise or counterclockwise by pulling the crown to the middle position.
The challenge also brings the newly loaded 31-260 PS QA LU FUS 24H automatic winding movement with up to 8 patented technologies; composed of 409 parts, the new movement not only provides a “three-stage” operation, but also features a front/back moving mechanism for the calendar, a linear time zone spring, a rotatable fixed pallet bridge, inertia variable, a brake mechanism for the date display disc during the start of correction, and a flexible corrector, providing a certain degree of protection for the 5326, such as significantly reducing the night-to-day change process from 90 minutes to 18 minutes, a rotatable fixed pallet bridge for easier movement maintenance and repair, stable hand position, and prevention of time display misalignment. In short, it highlights the level of watchmaking craftsmanship of Patek Philippe.
In addition to the above Ref. 5226G and Ref. 5326G-001, this time Patek Philippe also brought other new works, including perpetual calendars, three world timepieces, the ultimate in “complicated watches,” and a minute repeater perpetual calendar set with sparkling diamonds. Watch fans, please stay tuned for ZTYLEZ MAN’s follow-up report.
資料及圖片來源：Courtesy of Patek Philippe
