Baselworld 2008
was a rich show for Patek Philippe. We certainly had enough new offerings to
please all Patek Philippe lovers. The simple watch amateurs got the marvellous
5124 Gondolo as a subject of admiration, the white gold version being a very
appealing homage to the 5101 tourbillon. The serious collectors have to choose
(if necessary) between the blue 5070P, the yellow 5970J or the pink dialed
5450P! Did we talk about the highly complicated pieces aficionados? Not yet! Oh
sorry! Here it is!
The new Patek
Philippe 5207 is the new tourbillon minute repeater watch with instantaneous
perpetual calendar in apertures. A truly Grande Complication that can catch the
heart of the most experienced Patek Philippe collectors.
The life of the
watch begun as a wish from Mr Philippe Stern, president of Patek Philippe. This
watch is said to have taken five years to develop and is aimed at being an
enrichment of the range of Grande Complication watches. It will be serially
produced although you can easily imagine that the production will be quite
limited as the level of complication of this watch is very high.
At the origin
Mr Stern apparently wanted a perpetual calendar with apertures. This way of
indicating the data of the calendar (day, date and month) is rarely used, even
by Philippe Philippe. We know of course the annual calendar references 5135 and
5396, and the annual calendar chronograph reference 5960. There were also a
few perpetual calendar pocket watch examples by Patek Philippe in the past, but
I don't think it was ever made in a wrist watch mixed with a tourbillon
and a minute repeater.
The technical
team says that the need for an instantaneous change of the calendar indications
rapidly seemed necessary to realize the wish of Mr Stern.
On our side we
should remember the gathering of PuristS all around the year at the end of last
February to attend the leap year jump. The attendants had a nice evening, many
nice surprises and a few deceptions as some calendars apparently didn't
behave the way they were expected to!
This new Patek
Philippe 5207 is in fact amazing when the time of date change comes. Let me say
that it is intended for owners who won't sleep early!
This
instantaneous calendar in fact needs 2/100 seconds to jump from the 28th
of February to the 1st of March.
The images you
see are an extraction of a slowed movie so that I could picture them.
Obviously at
real speed you can't see the change!
Midnight has
never been so fast on a perpetual scale!
Readability is
the first advantage of the indication in apertures. The second plus is
discretion. You can hardly imagine it is a perpetual calendar until you notice
the leap year indicator at 4:30. A night and day indicator is placed at 7:30.
I've not
taken the time to yet say that I truly love that watch. I've always been
fascinated by perpetual calendars. I'm a keen user of date watches,
specially my Reverso Date. I must also write that beyond fascination I generally
end up finding those watches actually very hard to read. Finally as efficient
as a repeater that you can' t hear, as a chronograph when you have
nothing to time, as a tourbillon in a vault!
This Patek
Philippe 5207 is just so readable, so pratical!
I love the way
it hides an incredible engine behind an understated and still appealing face.
Can I add to
those who share my thoughts that Patek Philippe will sell the watch with two
backs, like they generally do with high complication watches. A transparent
back and a plain back of platinum. I'd love to have the chance someday in
my current life to experience the pleasure of wearing such a watch and even
more with a plain back so that I could just hear the ticking of the tourbillon
mechanism, the chiming of the hammers, the silence of perpetuity!
I'm
pretty sure I'd have more pleasure imaging the mechanical marvel I wear
on my wrist, I own for my life, that merely looking at it! Beauty is in the eye
but pleasure is in the brain!
I mentioned the
annual calendar with a similar aperture principle. It is precised that this
perpetual calendar shares nothing with the annual counterpart out of its basic
visual principle.
You may notice
above that the indicators could not be larger as they occupy the full size of
the calibre. The day and month discs are made in sapphire and the date disc is
in German silver.
The view to the
back side of the calibre through the sapphire back shows a superb panorama
already well known by the (happy) owners of the references 3939 and 5016!
I'm not
going to explain how a minute repeater works or what the interest of a
tourbillon regulator is, at least here in this article. Still I suppose you may
be interested to know how this jumping mechanism for the perpetual calendar
works and in what extent it is uncommon!
The starting
difference between an indication through hands and through rotating discs seen
through apertures is a question of energy. Rotating discs are much heavier and
consequently need much more energy to move than the lighter hands. Once
you've chosen the much more energy consuming but so more readable (and
pleasing to me at least) discs, you have to find this energy somewhere.
In this watch
the energy comes from a 425mm long mainspring that winds and unwinds inside a
9.18mm barrel. It is efficient enough to power the watch for 48 hours, giving
enough power to make the date jump with this energy consuming device. In fact
the worst day is the 28th of February, when the date has to jump to
the 1st of March. Still even on that day the date can jump even if
the watch only has 2 and a half hours left of power reserve.
Then once
you've given enough energy to the perpetual calendar train, the risk is
to have either too much or not enough energy for the jump, depending on the
number of days the calendar has to jump. On a normal day the calendar jumps
only one day. But at the end of some months it can jump two days (end of April
for instance when there is no 31) or even four days (end of February on a non
leap year). So if you don't send enough energy the date may not change
totally to the expected date. On the contrary if you send too much energy you
may end up beginning the new month directly on the second. What is somewhat
easy to master with hands when the difference in energy required in small, is
much more difficult with this system of aperture calendar, specially when
instantaneous, with a higher level of energy required.
Patek Philippe
has applied for two patents for this new calendar mechanism. The first patent
pending innovation (European patent application n°EP 1734419 A1) concerns the
instantaneous activation of the calendar indications with a large yoke (marked
#3 on the drawing below). It is controlled by a four-toothed rack (#1)
connected to a month lever (#2) that samples the annual program cam. This cam
is connected to further switching cams via articulated arms, and controls the
concurrent, instantaneous switching date, day, month and leap-year disks.
This yoke is
made of 15 individual parts and is articulated to take into account the annual
programming that relies on a month cam (#6) with a variable February cam (#4)
that changes its profile every four years. That means also that this month cam
(#6) makes a turn per year and not in four years like it is generally the case
with perpetual calendar mechanisms.
The second
patent application is also linked to the perpetual calendar mechanism (Swiss
patent application n° 01080/07).
This second
innovation is aimed at avoiding any excess of energy during the date jump. As
written before the risk of getting a watch jump from the former month directly
to the second or third of the month would be real if there was no adaptation of
the force applied to the force required. That is what this second innovation
makes.
The principle
is in fact simple. Instead of having a single spring to power the date jump (at
the end of the month), there are two springs (#5.1 and #5.2 in the drawing
below) of same potential energy. They don't act in the same direction.
Depending of the length of the finishing month, one or the two will act in the
jump. If the finishing month is a "long" month (30 or 31 days),
requiring less energy to jump to the next, only one spring acts (#5.1) as the
other spring doesn't push on the yoke due to the position of the yoke in
this situation.
When the
finishing month is a short month (28 or 29 months) the two springs operate one
after the other. This gives a more balanced torque on the yoke and around
double energy at the end of short finishing months compared to end of longer
finishing months.
So that they
don't interfere moon phases move at 2AM, with a precision of one day in
122 years.
I wish all of
you the opportunity to ever see this fantastic calendar mechanism in action.
This watch is definitely on my dream list, perhaps even on top now, even if not
yet on my wish list. Who knows, perhaps someday!
This Patek
Philippe 5207 may seem to be a large watch and it is certainly. But at 41mm it
is still quite wearable and many may regret that it is not even larger.
I'm personnaly quite happy of this size. It is 16.25mm thick. The calibre
alone is 9.33mm thick, with its 2.75mm calendar plate and discs included.
The watch will
be initially "available" only in platinum (and only at the Patek
Philippe Salon in Geneva).
You will notice that it is not yet presented in the 2008 Patek Philippe
catalog.
This watch
still comes second to the Sky Moon Tourbillon in the Patek Philippe wrist watch
range, but it is first in my own range!
Should I add
that like all Patek Philippe tourbillon watches this 5207 is COSC tested and
has the exclusive certificate issued jointly by the C.O.S.C. and the Geneva
Seal?
I could also
add that Mr Philippe Stern himself will check each of these marvels before
allowing them to reach the happy few, like it is the case for any tourbillon or
minute repeater made by Patek Philippe.
Are you looking
for any good reason not to fall in love? Honestly if you like it don't
look! This watch is a modern watch, exclusive, bright, discreet and fascinating!
Patek Philippe
has brought a new star on the market. Honestly it reminds me of a time when all
sports car makers were launching supercars. Let me say this 5207 is a
superwatch!
I hoped you
liked it ! A great thank you to the Patek Philippe team, for their great
explanations on this watch, and even more for having made it!
Greetings from Arcachon !
Dje