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The Patek Philippe 2499 in pink gold – now a $ 2.75 million watch.Yesterday in Geneva, Christie’s watch department held its spring sale.  It made over $ 32 million dollars, with four inidividual lots bringing in over $ 2 million each.  The Breguet Resonance pocket watch that we showed you previously went for an amazing $ 4.68m, while the enamel Patek world timer that we showed you here went for over $ 2.9.  But, one watch we didn’t show you, a Patek Philippe 2499 in pink gold is the focus of this post, because it seems so simple, and yet it sold for over $ 2.7million.  So, what made this 2499 so special when compared to, say, your average, run of the mill 2499 like this, also in yesterday’s sale, that made only $ 314,000?  The devil is in the details, my friends.
From:HODINKEE

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Patek Philippe not only surprised us by introducing white dial versions of the Nautilus collection, they also made us gaze at this other white dialed watch. The Patek Philippe Grand Complication 5402P, a split seconds and perpetual calendar in platinum.

The 5402P is the successor of the 5004P, a rattrapante chronograph  with perpetual calendar in a 36.7mm case, also available in other case materials than platinum. Not only the dimensions of the watch case and the dial lay-out changed, Patek also did some innovations regarding the rattrapante mechanism. A number of technical measurements (a.o. a new isolator system and a new split-seconds lever) improved the reliability of the split seconds chronograph mechanism. A detailed description of these technical improvements can be found here, documented by Patek Philippe. Patek Philippe filed patent for their new split-seconds lever.

The diameter of the 5402P increased to 40mm, which makes it a more up-to-date wearable watch then its predecessor, although we have a hunch that the actual buyers of these watches would also settle for smaller diameters. With Patek, it is not about size or getting noticed, it is all about the watch itself. To be honest, 40mm is still below average compared to other complicated timepieces.

This Patek 5402P has a wonderful in-house developed and produced hand wound movement inside, caliber CHR 29-535 PS Q. The sapphire case back of this platinum timepiece clearly demonstrates the high level finish and craftsmanship. The bridge of the balance wheel shows the Patek Philippe seal. The movement has a diameter of 32mm and consists of 496 parts.

Although beautiful, the 5402P has a busy looking dial, having to indicate (besides hh:mm:ss) the day, date, month, leap year, day/night and of course the moon phases. The silvery opaline dial with white gold applied hour markers is a stunner though. We wonder whether someone is actually going to wear such a beautiful and expensive watch (having a price tag of 260.000 CHF, including VAT), or merely keeps it as an investment and bombs it to a safe-queen.

Above in the Patek Philippe booth during BaselWorld 2012, the Patek 5204P next to last year’s introduced Grand Complication, the ref. 5270.

The official page on the Patek Philippe Grand Complication Ref.5204P can be found here.

From:FratelloWatches RSS

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Blancpain premiered its world-exclusive Traditional Chinese Calendar wristwatch at Baselworld 2012, marking an astonishing feat in the haute horlogerie industry. Blancpains’ Traditional Chinese Calendar mechanical wristwatch honors an age-old cultural calendar still in use by many Chinese lunisolar traditionalists to date.

The scientific technology Blancpain implemented to manufacture this watch involved fundamentals well over a thousand years old and richly ingrained in Chinese cultural tradition. The Traditional Chinese Calendar watch uses a lunisolar calendar, which is a solar calendar with the lunar cycle (29.53059 days) as its base unit, with 12 lunar months totaling 354 days shy of 11 days for a year, which was resolved by adding a leap month for a 13 month year. This is in contrast to that of the Gregorian solar calendar which uses a solar day base unit, having long days in summer and short days in winter, which averages about 365.2425 days a year.

Aesthetics of this dynamic timepiece includes its appealing dial which displays minutes, hours and the Gregorian calendar synergized with the Chinese calendar indicators: dual-hour indicator, day, month with indication of leap months, 12 animal zodiac signs and the five elements as well as the 10 celestial stems. The 12 zodiac animals combined with the five elements and the 10 celestial stems that represent the terrestrial branches follows the 60-year cycle essential to Chinese culture. Another key element of this timepiece is the moon phases, given its correlation to the lunar cycle and traditional Chinese months.

It has a counter at 12 o’clock indicating dual-hour numerals and symbols for a full 24 hour cycle; displayed at 3 o’clock are the elements and the celestial stems representative of a 10-year cycle; the month of the Chinese calendar (12-month cycle), its 30-day cycle – date and the leap month indicator is at 9 o’clock, with moon phases window at 6 o’clock.

The Traditional Chinese Calendar timepiece is powered by a new self-winding Calibre 3638 movement with a 7-day power reserve, consisting of 434 parts and 39 jewels. It has a 45 mm diameter platinum case and sapphire case-back with a beautifully engraved dragon to celebrate year 2012. The crown is a Madagascar ruby cabochon with five integrated under lug correctors for indicator adjustments and it showcases signature features of the Villeret collection.

The white gold version of the watch is available in a 20-piece limited edition; however, an unlimited rose gold version is also available.

Blancpains’ painstaking efforts of its symbolic Traditional Chinese Calendar timepiece certainly warrants acknowledgement for such an outstanding horological achievement. Blancpain has set an impressive milestone leaving other watch manufacturers running towards an enviable far reaching task.

From:Luxury Watches That Impress Review Blog

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Patek Philippe is no stranger to perpetual calendar watches.  Examples from the brand are consistently sought after by collectors around the world – hell, Patek has been makign them since 1925 when they are credited with introducing the first QP wristwatch in history. Cushion shaped watches have also been popular at Patek Philippe since the Art Deco movement hit Europe. This year at Basel, Patek combined the two for the latest ultra-thin, self-winding cushion-cased perpetual calendar, ref. 5940J. Read on for first impressions and live images.

From:HODINKEE

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Chopard first introduced the L.U.C Lunar One in 2005, bringing a perpetual calendar moon phase into the brand’s range-toping collection bearing the initials of the company’s founder, Louis-Ulysse Chopard. For Baselworld 2012, the watch receives a decidedly contemporary update, and leads the way for a new aesthetic to the rest of the L.U.C collection. A welcome change, if only skin-deep.

The new dial features a cleaner arrangement of the complications while retaining healthy portion of the watches original charm, including the big date display at 12 o’clock. The most prominent element is the new orbital moon phase display, which rotates around the small seconds axis. The module powering the complication keeps it accurate to within one day every 122 years. The design of the display makes it the focal point of this dial and really makes it one of the more interesting applications of a moon phase we’ve seen this side of Stepan Sarpaneva.

The new Lunar One has grown slightly in the new model, to a reasonable 43mm x 11.47mm. Inside is the same base caliber seen in the older models, the L.U.C 96QP with updated modules for annual calendar and moon phase. Check out some of our live pics from Basel below.

From:HODINKEE

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Corum’s familiar 12 sided Admiral’s Cup gets a formal addition this year with the Legend 42 Annual Calendar. As with all Admiral’s Cup watches from Corum, the bezel is adorned with the 12 nautical pennants from the International Maritime Signals Code, paying tribute to the ocean race for which it is named. These details, along with the 12 sided bezel (dodecagon?) are toned down for this watch however, resulting in a softer approach to this usually aggressive watch.

The star of the show here is the symmetrical integration of the annual calendar complication via caliber CO503. The month is read from a sundial at 6 o’clock, and the date ring runs around the chapter ring at the perimeter, tracked by a discreet open worked black hand. Being an annual calendar, the watch adjusts for 30 and 31 day months, requiring only one intervention per year, at the end of February. Only the odd days of the month are marked, as well as every other month, so getting a quick read may take some getting used to.

The Annual Calendar is offered in either steel or rose gold cases, both 42mm in diameter. Each dial  is textured, the steel model receiving a vertical guilloché motif, the rose gold a barleycorn pattern.  Applied hour markers run along the dial and where you would normally expect find a 12, there is instead a 60. Still unclear as to what the intent is with that one.

The Legend 42 Annual Calendar is a limited annual production run of 25 in red gold and 150 in steel. No word yet on pricing, but these will be available this year. Live pic after the jump.

From:HODINKEE

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In 2004, an emerging Peter Speake-Marin built upon his Piccadilly line with a model called the Serpent Calendar, so named due to the serpentine shaped hand used to read the date. For Baselworld 2012, Peter has revisited this particular watch, giving a full update, from dial and case to the movement itself.

The new dial design moves the date indication to the inner dial, thus shortening the distinctive date hand for which it is named. The roman numerals remain within the white-lacquered dial emblazoned with the mark of the ‘topping tool’ motif at 6 o’clock. The case is offered in the same 38mm and 42mm options, although it has gone on a diet, losing nearly 2mm off its thickness, measuring in at 12mm.

Inside is the new Eros 1 caliber, and is pure Speake-Marin with the bright blue ‘mystery’ rotor taking center stage. The movement features a 5 day power reserve and is names after a famous landmark statue in Piccadilly Circus, London, where Peter spent many of his formative years.

Stay tuned for live pictures and impressions from the show.

From:HODINKEE

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After all the hype, you are looking at what is (probably) the first live photos of the actual Rolex Sky-Dweller.  What it is is this: A Rolex in the Day-Date vein, but with a second timezone via an inner rotating disc and an annual calendar.  A Rolex annual calendar? Yup!

The annual calendar display the month with an inconspicuous aperture above the associated hour (12 hours – 12 months, get it?) and the date is displayed in the typical way under the trademark Rolex cyclops window.

More info to follow!

From:HODINKEE

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One of the most talked about watches from IWC for 2012 is the long-named Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month watch. Trust me, it is easy to mess that name up when trying to remember it. Especially because it also has a chronograph and does not include that part of the watch in the title. This sexy looking 18k red gold watch is an expensive and luxurious pilot watch from the brand that many wanted to be offered in steel and thus more affordable. Maybe next year… but this is still one nice looking Big Pilot style timepiece.

As I mentioned before here when debuting all of IWC’s new for 2012 pilot watches, the new collection is rather large. As a potential consumer I would be a bit overwhelmed given all the seemingly good choices. In this article I discussed the new IWC Top Gun watches hands-on. The Spitfire collection gets a lot of attention as IWC upgrades its look making it a more high-end piece. In this article I will discuss the 46mm wide Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month and the 43mm wide Spitfire Chronograph timepieces.

Neither of these watches contain new movements, but they do both contain IWC in-house made movements. Borrowed from an existing Da Vinci model from a few years ago, the Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month watch contains a super slick movement called the IWC caliber 89800 automatic. You can see the neat looking plane-style automatic rotor through the caseback. With 68 hours of power reserve, the movement has a 12 hour chronograph and perpetual calendar indicator. The month and date are shown digitally on large indicators (big date, big month). There is a leap year indicator placed inside of the lower subsidiary seconds dial. The upper subdial contains two hands and is used for measuring both the elapsed chronograph minutes and hours.

For me, the best part of the Spitfire watches are the beautiful applied hour indicators and hands. The indicators are applied and filled with very white lume for excellent clarity and legibility. Against the metallic dial it makes for a superb look that is hard to complain about. Even with all its functions, the large 46mm wide Spitfire Perpetual Calendar Digital Date-Month is clean looking and easy to read. You won’t be blamed for falling in love with this watch.

More reasonable for most people are the Spitfire Chronograph watches. These come in both steel and 18k red gold models and are 43mm wide. According to IWC that is one millimeter up from the previous size of the watch. While Big Pilot watches from the brand this year are coming in at 46mm and 48mm wide, it is nice to have a great looking 43mm wide model in the collection. Having said that, I did mention to IWC that it would be fantastic to have a 46 or 48mm wide version of the traditional Big Pilot watch with this metallic slate dial and applied hour indicators.

On the wrist, these watches aren’t small, but it is funny to go from one of the Big Pilot Top Gun pieces to a 43mm wide watch. I would easily wear one of these Spitfire Chronographs on a daily basis given their handsome looks. IWC opted for a bi-compax chronograph that measures 60 minutes. It does have that open date window I am not a huge fan of, but it doesn’t bother me as much here as it does in other watches. The movement is in-house made and is the existing caliber 89365 automatic with 68 hours of power reserve. Over the dials are sapphire crystals and the case is water resistant to 60 meters.

A glorious addition to the Spitfire Chronograph watch collection for 2012 is the new metal bracelet. Boy does it kick ass in terms of features and quality. It is a rather simple design on the outside, but does frame the look of the watch well. Solid in its construction, the deployment has a nicely made micro-adjust system and solid milled and decorated clasp. If you opt for the steel version of the IWC Spitfire Chronograph, I highly recommend you get the bracelet as well as the alligator strap. Why both? Well you don’t need them but here is my thinking: The IWC pilot watch look has always looked sweet with a black or brown alligator strap – and you don’t want to miss out on that look. At the same time, this bracelet is nice enough to want to wear at least half the time.

Fit and finish on the watches is high and you’ll more than likely appreciate the little details. With great “anytime wear” looks and in-house made movements, watches like this are going to help keep IWC near the top of the luxury watch heap for 2012. Look for the new IWC Spitfire and other new for 2012 pilot watches soon.

Related posts:

1. Patek Philippe 5270 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph Watch Hands-On …
2. IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Watches For 2012 Hands-On …
3. Glashutte Original Senator Perpetual Calendar Watch Hands-On …
4. Antoine Martin Perpetual Calendar Watch Hands-On …
5. Vacheron Constantin Overseas Chronograph Perpetual Calendar Boutique New York Watch …

From:aBlogtoRead.com

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You won’t find the owner of a perpetual calendar any happier than you will today, February 29th.  You see, one of the coolest things about a true perpetual calendar is that it automatically knows and adjusts for leap years.  Thing is, they don’t come around too often, so every February 29th, people that are lucky enough to own a perpetual calendar go a little nutty and start showing complete strangers their watches on the streets.

So, on this leap day, we though we’d show you a famous perpetual calendar that you should know about.  It is, of course, from Patek Philippe, and its reference is the 2497.  It is a traditional manually wound perpetual calendar and it was launched in 1951.  The 2497 was introduced alongside the 2438-1, which was the same watch with a waterproof case and though it was produced for over ten years, only 179 examples were made in total, of both references. 

The 2497 is traditionally divided into two series, differentiated by their dials.  Series one is as above on Ben’s wrist with alternating dots and arabic numerals and feuille hands, while series two is as seen here with all applied hash markers and dauphine hands.

Estimates on 2497s are anywhere from $ 220,000-$ 350,000 these days, with the last one selling publicly for $ 314,500 in December of 2011 in NYC.

So, next time leap day comes around and your annoying friend with the perpetual calendar shows you his watch, tell him “if it’s not a Patek 2497, i’m not interested”.

From:HODINKEE

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