I too am a bit disapointed that no all-new chrono references were launched (nothing to stand in place of the non pt 5070), but I thought it was good of them to launch a Calatrava reference with styling cues of the much more expensive 5159. I was hoping they would do something like that to give the little guy more watch, and an aspirational appetite for bigger game.
I'm most struck by the volume of yellow and particular rose gold. The platinum and rose celestial for example - the 5101 in Rose. Rose sells extremely well in Asia, so it's likely Patek is catering to the market best able to ride out of the financial crisis, still with an appetite for watches.
The 5074p, the 5131g and the 5970p are the three I would like to acquire this year and my AD called me from Basel with good and bad news. The 5970p will be produced for 1 year only and I have been allocated an early production piece (Yesssss!!!!) .. Hoping to get delivery before I leave on summer vacation. The 5131g will be an ongoing production but I have zero chance of getting one this year as the entire region my AD operates in has not been allocated 1 piece. The 5074 will be on an ordered basis, as to be expected from a repeater.
I'm pleased I was able to get the 5101p last year because it is noticeably absent from the list this year. Also I'm struck by the sheer collective number of pieces, and the number of metals. My AD is fairly large in Patek and has reported he has been allocated many fewer pieces by Patek in 2009 than 2008 (through no fault of his own). With so many different models, and metals, and the economy the way it is, I'd expect deliveries across all models to slow to a trickle this year (low allocation of 5131g in our region for example).
This message has been edited by nothing but time on 2009-03-26 17:05:58