amanico
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Review-Patek: PP5070 - an in-depth review
- INTRODUCTION -
When you're considering building a collection of fine Chronographs the 5070 is certainly a piece which comes or will come to your mind, along with some past or recent models such as the Lange Datograph, the Vacherons (Les Historiques / Malte / Patrimony), and the more recent Jaeger-Lecoultre Duomètre à Chronographe.
All these references belong, in my opinion, to the top class family of Chronographs, and each of them has its own personality, with its flaws and its qualities which will be revealed by an in depth comparison (competition?).
Since 1998, and the release of the yellow gold version with its black dial, till 2008 and the birth of the platinum, which replaced the White Gold and the Rose Gold models born in 2003, Patek Philippe offered us their vision of THE manual chronograph, through the 5070, or better said, the Patek Chronograph History goes on, as the Past is rich of some beautiful models.
The Beasts:
The Beauties (I would be happy to know who to credit for these 2 pictures)
And what to say about this pure marvel, aesthetically closer to the 5070, but including a rattrapante, I mean, the Reference 2512? (Sorry, here again, don't remember who to credit for this photo) :
Now that Patek Philippe discontinued this reference, and has just released its successor, the 5170, it is time to pay it an homage, and to have an in depth view on it.
So, we'll examine the watch in itself (I) and we'll compare it to its natural competitors (II) before closing this topic with some personal thoughts as for a conclusion.
I will focus here on the white gold version, and will reserve my thoughts on the other versions at the end of this post.
Since its release in 1998, the 5070 was " felt " as a big watch, with its 42 mm diameter case.
It is funny to think about it, nowadays, as the " Horological Landscape " changed so much!
Despite the fact that it is one of the biggest Chrono among this prestigious category, the first word which comes to my mind is " Coherence ", when you have a look at the case, dial, case back and movement.
Let's detail each of these parts.
A/ The movement.
If I start with the movement, for once, it is because I think that it is one of the most important challenge on this watch, a challenge PP brilliantly won.
You know it all, the movement is built on a " Nouvelle Lemania " ebauche, reworked " in depth " by Patek.
The finish is conform to the Manufacture Reputation for a watch of this segment, with some pleasant handmade anglages, Cotes De Genève, and, as often with a Chronograph of this category, a kind of sculptural overall outcome, as shown on the picture above.
The " show " is also chromatic, with an interesting blend of darkened, shiny silver and golden parts.
Here, a view on the stylized central bridge:
And here, another intriguing detail, the polished " hat ", on the top of the column wheel ( at the bottom / right part of the photo ) :
Why this " hat " on the column wheel?
Is it an aesthetical purpose, or does it have some horological virtues?
While looking for some information on that matter, Jerome wrote on an article about the new PP Chronograph movement ( which also shares this particularity I never saw on elsewhere, AFAIK ) that it was for aesthetical purpose.
Here, no split seconds, nor Flyback, as this movement offers a simple chronographic function.
Do we need more?
If yes, there are some excellent alternatives, among PP watches, as the 5959, or the new Ratrappante, the 5950 A. If not, this 5070 is good enough!
This is a low beat caliber ( 18 000 vibrations per hour ) with a good power reserve ( 60 hours ), and superbly accurate, as I monitored it during one month, and it only gained 2 seconds per day...
This is not only a matter of finish, as PP reworked this Caliber.
Here is a quote from the official press files:
" The teeth of the going-train wheels have been re-profiled for smoother transmission of energy in the movement and constant mechanical precision, with new ratios from the centre wheel to the barrel contributing to the reliability and accuracy of the movement.
The movement retains the large Gyromax balance wheel with a high moment of inertia that guarantees its timing stability."
What you don't necessarily have in mind are the dimensions of the Cal CH 27 - 70: 27,5 mm big, for 5,57 mm high.
With such a diameter, we could think that the movement would be " sunk " into the 42 mm diameter case , and that is why I mentioned the " Patek Challenge ".
Remember that the new PP Chronograph movement, the Cal CH 29-535 PS is bigger with a diameter of almost 30 mm housed in a 39 mm case, which represents a difference of only 9 mm, instead of ...14, 5 mm for the 5070 case and movement!
PP won the challenge, as we'll see now.
B/ The Case Back:
Patek managed to integrate the small movement into the 5070 big case perfectly.
The trick?
Patek opted for a bevelled (bisauté, in French, as I'm not totally sure of the translation) multi level screw in case back, larger at the base, narrower at the top.
So, the visual impression is that the movement doesn't look so small, fills the case back in a coherent way, rather than being " sunk ".
That's pretty well done, as the real size of the movement is only noticeable if you compare it to other Chronos, which we'll see later.
C/ The dial:
Another consequence of this rather small movement can be seen on the layout of the dial, and especially on the location of the 2 counters, which are very centred, one of the major characteristic of the 5070.
Due to the size of the movement, it seems that it was impossible to not " centre " the 2 counters.
But is this problematic?
In my opinion, this specificity is part of the charm, on this watch.
Here, Patek used another trick to decrease the visual impact of the centred counters, with a tachymetric scale, just after the seconds indexes.
This way, the dial is perfectly filled and well balanced.
The only thing is that the counters " eat " the applied " 2 ", " 4 ", " 8 ", " 10 " applied numbers, which I find to be, personally, the only flaw of this superb dial ( note that the " 6 and the " 12 " are a bit smaller than the other numbers ) :
... To be compared to the latest 5170:
The applied numbers are not eaten, but the pulsometric scale is, and the smaller counters are not centred anymore...
Anyway, the 5070 in white gold is the only one to have darkened applied numbers, certainly to enhance the legibility on a white gold case matching with a silver dial.
